ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/4DGAME/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, 4th Dimension Platform Games CD
4th Dimension Platform Games CD
Matthew Thompson
And still they keep coming! Yes, it's another 4th Dimension CD collection, this time it's a collection of platform games, of which there are 11 and they are :
Bloodlus
Cycloid
Fra
Gyrinus
Hamster
Joo
Morp
MrPe
SuperSnai
Twinworl
Wizard Apprentic
Installation
The procedure for installation is exactly the same as all the other 4th Dimension CD collections, except that Wizard Apprentice is not included in the installation program. This is because it is a huge game that needs a lot of disc space, so if you are short on hard disc space it may not fit. So you have the option to either install it onto the hard disc or you can run it directly from the CD-ROM.
Bloodlust
This game is a new one on me, I've never seen it before, I think it was one of the later 4th Dimension games that were released. There were quite a few of them which, unfortunately, weren't up to the standards that we'd expected from previous releases.
I'm not really sure what the objective of this game is exactly as there is no background story and the manual doesn't really hint at much either, so it's all a bit of mystery as to what you have to do in this game, the only thing mentioned is a list of artifacts you will need to collect in order to escape.
So from that I'm guessing you have to move around from screen to screen tracking down these items which will help you progress through the level until you find the exit.
So what the game like? The controls are straight forward just left, right and jump, but despite that I found it rather difficult to control the character as he moves around too fast and skates along platforms falling off far too easily and making precision jumps rather difficult. It maybe that it is running too fast on a StrongARM machine and a slow down program might make it better, but to be honest I found no incentive to even want to try.
You guide the character around the screens, avoid things that kill you, collect extra lives, and that is all I really saw of the game, that and I pressed a switch which did something somewhere I suppose, but I found the whole game uninspiring and really didn't have the urge to find out.
The graphics are alright and suit the game. The sounds consist of an uninspiring tune throughout the game and a few in game sounds effects. As you've probably guessed I didn't think much of this game - it's difficult to control, and I have no idea what to do. That may not have helped but considering what other games are available to play this isn't really worth bothering with. I'm certainly glad I didn't part any cash for this originally, I've played better public domain games, a compilation filler at best !
Cycloids
This is possibly the silliest game I've ever played, Originally released by Software 42 and was later acquired by Gamesware/Eclipse (remember them?) so although not a 4th Dimension release it really does deserve to be in this collection of RISC OS platform games.
The background to this game is that the world is under threat from a race of aliens who are in fact an army of balloons who are intent on taking over the world and turning everything evil! It shouldn't be too hard to get rid of a few inflatables, but then who's job is it to get rid of them? The Army? The SAS? No, a clown riding a unicycle! That's the main character of the game who you have to control to save the world from the invading balloons! I suppose clowns and balloons go together but when the world is at stake?
Cycloids was written by Tom Cooper, the man responsible for many quality RISC OS games, of which a few appear on this compilation. The object of the game is to guide your clown on a unicycle to the door at the far end of the level. Along the way you must dispose of as many of the invading balloons as you can whilst picking up a variety of collectable items.
There are two types of doors on the levels; the pink ones which are the level completion doors and the green ones (not the green door that Shakin' Stevens sung about) these doors transport you to later levels so if you want to see the whole game best to avoid these.
Playing the game is easy enough, you move the clown left and right and he can jump upwards and that is it. If you are armed with a weapon then you have a fire button to use. The controls are redefinable using a separate program.
The difficulty level starts at relatively easy and the difficulty level increases as you progress through the levels. I didn't find the game hard to play but some levels took a bit of practice to get through. It's easy to lose a life if you mistime a jump over an enemy or gap, but with a bit of practice there should be no problem.
When playing the game you need to keep a look out for flags. These are markers and when you collect one of them this is the place you will be returned to on the level should you lose a life, so watch out for them.
There are many weird and wonderful things to look out for in the game. Anything that moves is harmful to you and contact with it will lose you a life. These include snails, frogs, elephants and trains.
There are also lots of collectible items, most of which just increase your score, but some of them have special features - the marker flag being one. There are also extra lives, time increases and also shades which don't appear to do anything other than make you look cool - well you couldn't look any worse being a clown on unicycle already! There are also a selection of comedy noses to collect which give you extra powers !
The graphics of Cycloids suit the game really well, as they are cartoony, bright and colourful and look the part. The characters in the game are all well drawn and animated. I can't really think of anything else to say about them except they are really good and help to make the game what it is.
Sound is another area where Cycloids scores highly, there are plenty of tunes and effects which all add to the game. Unfortunately you can't have both so you have to make your choice during loading. Personally I prefer the sound effects. Whichever you choose you will end up at the main title page (shown above) and a tune will play loudly and will probably be too fast. This can be easily sorted - get a copy of !Vsync and with that running the tune will play at it's correct speed.
Into the game itself and the tunes are lively and jolly and in the same style of the title page tune, however it is the sound effects that I really like. A lot of effort has clearly gone into getting good effects for each event. If you collect the milk bottle which gives a score bonus you get a "Milky Milky" voice sample (inspired no doubt from Punt and Dennis's Mr Strange character) lots of car-horn type noises, and other silly and strange noises. My personal favourite is made by this little green dinosaur (shown in the screenshot below) who walks up and down the platform and when he reaches the edge turns and looks at you and makes a noise which sounds like "Meeh" and then walks back the other way!
Overall Cycloids is a great platformer. It is fun to play and very entertaining. The sounds and graphics add to the atmosphere of it all and the difficulty level is just right. Overall an excellent game and one of the best on the compilation. I really ought to try to finish it one day, after all, who knows what other sillyness I could be missing out on ?
Frak
Anybody who has owned an Acorn machine of some sort over the years, will have surely come into contact with this legendary game. Frak is one of the games that the BBC was well known for along with the likes of Elite and Repton. This new version brings it right up to date, but how does it compare with that the original?
In the original game the main character was called Trogg, a sort of typical caveman name, but in this version the caveman is called Gnurft which is a rather unusual name. This version of Frak, whilst based on the original, is not a direct conversion, so there are new and different levels included which is good. There is also a screen editor which before only appeared on the Electron version.
The objective is to make your way to then end of the level by moving along platforms, climbing up and down ladders, and jumping the gaps, along the way you must collect all the keys, as you cannot complete a level until all the keys have been collected.
Control of Frak is by the keyboard and the keys are fully redefinable from the main menu.
There is a time limit on each level and when it runs out the light goes and you are in the dark. You therefore need to collect the light bulb to give yourself more time as when it goes dark you obviously cannot see a thing. So make sure you collect those bulbs.
As always is with games there are some nasties and things out there to help hinder your progress. Many of the ledges contain great big monsters that sit there and get in the way - they don't move, just block your path. They will kill you on contact but there is a way past. This is the good bit, you can dispose of these monsters using your yo-yo - no guns or lasers here, a simple flick of the yo-yo and away they go. There are also daggers and balloons and things which float across the screen, they are also deadly, but a bit of yo-yo action will soon get rid of them as well.
You can also lose a life by falling off of the ledges. On the original version when you lost a life, a speech bubble would appear saying "Frak" meaning "Oh .....", I've just lost a life. You can fill in your own word there but I think it's pretty self explanatory what it all means. There are some hacked versions on the internet where the letters of Frak have been changed, and I don't think you need to be a genius to work out what they might be!
For some reason, and rather disappointingly, the Frak speech bubble has been left out of this version, so when you fall of the ledge or lose a life nothing happens until you lose your last life. Then you see a view from above of Gnurft falling to his death, which is a good touch, but the speech bubble should have been included!
Graphically Frak looks good. The style and look of the original has been kept and been updated and improved and it looks a lot better for it. The game characters are well drawn and the scrolling of the screen is very smooth.
As for the sounds effects they are OK, unfortunately there's no updated version of the Frak theme. It would have been really good to hear an updated version of this tune. The music that accompanies this version is alright but a bit bland - it is the same tune which plays on the title page and then carries on into the game. The tune may change on later levels but I didn't get that far. There are also in-game sound effects which are quite basic but functional and do the job.
Frak on RISC OS
Frak on the BBC - Did anyone notice that the ladders and ledges on the first level actually spell out the word Frak? I didn't spot it until now.
Overall this is a good re-creation of Frak and it wasn't intended to be a direct conversion of the original, but for me, the BBC version is preferable. Whilst as a game there's very little wrong with this RISC OS version and it is certainly worth playing as it is a good game, but for a real game of Frak I still prefer the Beeb version.
Gyrinus2
This is another Tom Cooper production. This game was a public domain release and is of very good quality indeed, better than some of the commercial efforts I've bought and played over the years.
Gyrinus2 (was there a Gyrinus1? I don't remember one) was one of Tom Coopers early games and in some ways looks a bit like an early version of Cycloids, but it is a totally different game. When it was first released it needed to be decompressed onto two 800K floppies before you could play it. I suppose it would have worked on a hard disc, but back in the A3000 days I didn't have the luxury of such things. Anyway this version (V3.5) works fine from the hard disc.
There seems to be a growing trend of games without a background story on this compilation and Gyrinus2 is another with no storyline for the game. However the instructions do tell us what the objective of the game is and it is to collect all the flashing crystals from each level. There are a certain number to collect on each of the levels and when you have collected them you move onto the next level.
Upon loading the game you will see the title page which is shown above, and you will immediately notice a tune playing way too fast. Unfortunately this game is another victim of the 'playing of music too fast on StrongARM machines syndrome'. Luckily, as with the other games, a copy of !VSync will solve your problem, and the tune will then return to the proper speed.
When you start the game there is a choice of doors 'Easy' or 'Fair' and it's up to you which one you choose. Easy is probably the best one to start with, move the character over the door and press the keypad 'Enter' button and you will go through to the level and the game will begin for real.
The main character of Gyrinus2 looks like the stereotypical mad professor, bald head - with a bit of hair at the back, glasses and a white coat. It's your job to guide him round the levels to collect up all the flashing crystals. The ones that do not flash are just bonus points so don't worry too much about them. There are also a number of special blocks scattered about the level which will give you bonus points, weapons and other goodies, so watch out for them, most blocks have a "?" on them, but some do not.
The number of crystals needed to complete a level is indicated at the top by a crystal symbol. The more you collect the more it fills in and when it is full the level is complete. Next to the crystal symbol is the number of lives left and the time remaining. These start off full and when they become empty you lose of a life.
The crystals are scattered all over the place and there are levels within the levels containing more crystals to be collected. You move between levels by simply pressing the keypad Enter button.
Gyrinus2 is easy enough to play but it can get difficult in places, especially when there's loads of nasties about and it can be annoying to get a precision timed jump, only to miss and fall to the bottom of the screen.
Controlling the character is easy enough just left, right and jump. You can also fire a weapon if you have picked one up. There are a number of weapons including bombs, guns, tomatoes, and custard pies. You need to get a weapon to dispose of the various nasties, which get in the way and block your path. A quick hint - there is a bomb to collect quite near the start of the first easy level.
The graphics are very typical of a Tom Cooper game, cartoon style,bright and colourful with some really good touches. For example when the character jumps up his glasses will stay above his head for a short while before landing back down!
The sounds are just as good - each level plays a different tune of which are typical of the early 1990s public domain demo era, some are good and some are not as good. I quite liked the tune played in the underwater level as it seemed to fit it really well, there are also plenty of noises and sampled effects which all add to the atmosphere of the game.
Overall this is an excellent game, it is hard to believe it was a public domain game. At the very least it should have been Shareware as it is of such good quality and puts some of the commercial offerings that I have had the misfortune to waste money on to shame.
Hamsters
This is another Tom Cooper production, which was originally only available as part of a compilation, which was called "Aries" and was the first in a planned series of compilations based on signs from the Zodiac. Unfortunately no other releases followed - so Aries became a one off release rather than part of a series!
So here we have the re-release of Hamsters, again only available on a compilation! But don't let that put you off because it is definitely not a filler game.
The background story to this game is that our hero has been exiled from his home planet, and told he cannot return until he has conquered another planet. Eventually after years of wandering through space, he landed on a strange planet. Armed with his laser gun he set forth to blast everything that stood in his path, unfortunately he had forgotten how to charge it and now must use basic methods instead, such as a dirty great big hammer!
The object of the game is to guide the hero through all the levels disposing of all the cute and furry animals (so says the manual). When they have all been squished the level is complete and you move onto the next one. There are various different types of animals, including birds, cats, tortoises, rabbits and other flying insects, to name but a few.
Controlling the game is straightforward enough, just Left, Right, Jump and use Hammer. There is a a technique to using the hammer, the longer you hold down the return button the more powerful the strike will be. This strike will not only squish animals but make your character bounce around the screen. This is used to jump up the platforms, but it can become a bit annoying when you are trying to get up onto a certain ledge and just keep bouncing around everywhere!
On later levels there are trampolines which make you bounce around the screen and help you get to those higher platforms that a hammer strike can't quite reach
The Hammer is not used for just squishing animals. By hitting certain blocks and signs you can obtain extra points and other useful bonuses. The game is against the clock so when the time limit runs out you will lose a life. So far in the game I haven't seen anything that anything kills you so your only enemy seems to be the time limit, however that may change on later levels.
You can configure a number of options which will determine how the game will look. These include entering a password to skip earlier levels, scenery detail level, sound options, blood splat levels, and finally Wibble - this determines how much the screen will shake from a hammer blow.
The graphics of Hamsters are very typical of a game by Tom Cooper, bright, colourful and in the cartoon style and they suit the game very well. With the sounds in the game it is the same as with Cycloids, you have to choose between music only or sound effects only, if you choose music you get a a selection of jolly in-game tunes which change throughout the game, and there is also a decent title page tune. If you choose sounds only then you get a get a selection of strange noises, including a splat noise when you squish an animal. You will also hear the cats meow, and I'm sure I remember others making noises too but I haven't heard anything just yet.
Overall I think Hamsters is a pretty decent game. However there is the obvious issue of squishing innocent little animals with a dirty great big hammer! Maybe this was the reason it has been kept hidden away on compilations? If you ignore that and just play the game for what it is, then you'll find it is quite an entertaining (if not a bit frustrating at times) platform game, and is certainly worth playing. Perhaps you could pretend the animals are in fact hate figures from every day life and vent your anger and frustration at them that way instead! Apologies for the small screen shots but that's the best I could get.
Joop
Joop was originally released by Gek programs, and you certainly can tell it is one of their games. You control Joop, a simple human being, who one day receives a strange mysterious package. Upon opening it he gets sucked into a strange world where a giant pig rules all living beings.
It is your job to save Joop from this world of weirdness which is full of ladders, levels and strange creatures. The saving of Joop is done by collecting up all the items on each of the levels and then finally destroying the pig, and ultimately you can go home. There are 5 different scenarios, each of these have 5 levels in them, so plenty of levels to get through before the game is complete.
Playing Joop is nice and easy, just guide him left, right up, down and jump to gather up all the collectibles on the level. You will know when you have collected them all as the level will automatically end. The levels are many times the size of the playing screen and will scroll along when you reach the edge to reveal the next part. In short Joop is your traditional platform and ladders game with added conveyors and platforms with different features, and also the monsters which will kill you.
There are many different types of objects to collect on the levels. In addition to the standard collectibles there a many different objects which will do different things. For example, there is a mushroom which will make you invisible, ice cream (I think that's what it is) will give you extra health and a boot will let you jump on certain enemies to get rid of them.
There are also many different platforms which have special features. These include spikes, crushers, and electric platforms, these are all hazardous to Joop, so avoid them. For a complete listing of all the special platforms and objects check the manual which lists them all and also shows a picture of what they all look like. Also watch out for various nasties which occupy the levels, they will kill you if you come into contact with them. If you do lose a life you are temporarily invincible when you start the game again so make use of this feature to get a bit further without losing another life.
The graphics of Joop are very typical of the style of Gek, and suit the game well. There are some nice touches, one of which is that if you leave Joop alone he will go to sleep. As for the sounds, there are tunes playing throughout the game which are quite lively and there are plenty of noises for when you collect items, lose a life and jump from platforms.
Overall Joop is not the most amazing game in the world, but it is a decent enough platform. It is quite a simple game and doesn't require much thought really, but I quite liked it and it is definitely worth checking out.
Morph
No not that Morph, nothing to do with Tony Hart's plasticine sidekick, this is a different Morph, although he does change shape, but there all similarity ends!
Morph is an arcade adventure with 15 levels. In order to complete a level you will have to solve a number of puzzles, and the ultimate objective is to find the magical gem. Once you have found it, you need to pick it up and use it, then you will be transported to the next level.
On your way to obtaining the magical gem you will encounter all manner of obstacles which will try to prevent you from reaching your objective. Throughout the levels you will discover different objects which will be needed to solve the puzzles which will in turn allow you to progress further into the levels.
Puzzles can be anything from opening a door with the right key or having to find a specific object to carry out a specific task. For example (not necessarily in the game but it might be) you collect a bucket of water to put out a fire! How obvious the puzzle solving is I don't know, but it can't be any worse than on the BBC Micro game Omega Orb where you needed some duty free to open a door - how you were supposed to know that I don't know - but it was a great game never the less.
There are also pickup objects which include food, weapons and other items to help you through the quest. You can only carry a certain number of items at one time. These are stored in your pockets and as space is limited make sure you have the right ones when you wander halfway across the level only to find you've got the wrong key with you. It does happen, I know! You can only pick up items when you are the main character (or hero as the manual calls him). When you have morphed into a different creature you cannot pick up items.
The morphing of the main character is obviously where the name of the game comes from. You can only change into other creatures that you have collected the morph for. Morphs are scattered about the levels so watch out for them as by turning into those creatures you then gain certain special abilities. For example if you morph into a cat then you can jump much further than when you are the normal character. There are eight different characters in total.
Watch out for the monsters in the game who will try to kill you. There are many different types, each with different behavioural patterns. They can be disposed of quite easily, but be careful as according to the manual some of them will help you in your quest. The game also uses passwords, so you can skip early completed levels - always a welcome feature.
There are a lot of keys needed in this game. They are not all needed at once but it would probably be useful to have a printed copy of the manual in front of you to see what does what. In addition to the usual left, right, up, down and jump there is also the firing of weapons, door opening, lever pulling and also picking up/dropping items.
Graphically Morph isn't that bad, the levels are quite detailed, with lots of different backdrops and blocks to keep it varied. The main character looks a bit strange and when he moves it doesn't look right, not quite sure why, but it looks odd. As for sounds, there is an in game tune which isn't particularly brilliant. I think it is a reworking of a well known tune but I can't remember what it is called. There are also sound effects for when things happen during the game such as jumping and losing energy.
Overall Morph isn't a bad game, but I can't say that I was that impressed with it. I played it a few times and it didn't really inspire me to want to come back and try again or keep playing it. But if you like arcade adventures and puzzle solving them you may well like this game. I've always liked arcade adventures but just didn't really click with this one.
MrPea
This game is only included in the second release of this CD collection, if you have the first release and want this game then contact APDL for a copy of it. Mr Pea is a public domain game and can be regarded as a freebie really.
Mr Pea is a very simple and basic game and therefore is ideal for children to play, as the simplicity of it should enable them to get far into the game. The object of the game is that of a typical platformer in the style of of Manic Miner - collect all the items and then head for the exit to progress to the next level.
There are 20 levels to complete and unusually in a game like this you only get one life, so lose it and it is game over. However there is a password system available so you can jump the previously completed levels, which always a good thing, as it does get quite tedious having to trawl through the earlier levels when all you want to do is get back to the place you lost your last life.
Graphically Mr Pea is nothing special and quite basic, but then it is probably supposed to be like that and it suits the game. The sounds are quite standard as well with a typical public domain demo style tune playing in the background. Apart from that tune there do not appear to be any other sounds in the game.
There is not really much else you can say about this game, it is a basic and simple, ideal for children to play, not really one for the serious gamer! Fun to play but don't expect too much from it!
Supersnail
Are snails super? Not really, but the one in this game is, although it doesn't actually say why, maybe it is because the snail you control zooms about instead of the more traditional snail's pace. As with a few of the other games on the collection there is no background story to this game, but we do have a game objective which is the main thing. The objective of the game is to collect all 5 spheres within a level to complete it and then you can move onto the next level.
Before you start a game you have to decide with type of game you are going to play. You have three options, these are 1 Player game, 2 Player team game or 2 Player head-to-head game. The differences being that in a 1 player you have to collect 5 spheres on your own, a 2 player team game involves 2 players working together to collect the spheres, and with the 2 player head-to-head game the object is to score more points than the other player. The game ends when all 5 spheres have been collected by either player and the one with the highest score wins. For the purposes of this review we will go with the 1 player game.
Collecting the 5 spheres involves a lot of moving around the levels as parts of them are initially inaccessible. To get into these areas you need to collect keys to open doors, using trampolines to bounce up to higher areas. There are also switches, which when pushed, will remove a panel to allow you through. There are also hidden areas - some of the walls are not as solid as they look!
There are also plenty of hazards around the level to watch out for, some help you, for example collecting hearts gives extra lives. The '?' boxes will reveal a hidden item when you hit one. The nasty hazards include arrows which are fired at you from certain devices which are embedded in the walls and also spikes and lava pits which will make you lose a life.
There is also the updraft. These are large areas of white dots - if you enter one of these they will automatically move you along them until you reach the end, or move yourself out of it. These are just a few of the hazards you will encounter in the game.
Playing Supersnail is very easy indeed, just left, right and jump are needed to control the snail, and these controls can be redefined if you want to. During the game you should try to collect as many of the coins as you can, each time you obtain 100 coins, a crystal will be filled in (these are situated at the top of the screen) if you finish the level with all the crystals then you get to a play a bonus game called "Bansai Hedgehog" in which you have to kill all the moles by landing on them with your spikes. If you succeed you are awarded a power crystal, the manual says try to collect all the power crystals for a surprise, whatever that is I don't know.
The graphics of Supersnail are nothing particularly special, they are quite basic really, but they seem to suit the game quite well. The snail is large and well drawn and the hazards throughout the game look like what they are supposed to be. As for the sounds there is a lively title page tune and and then a different in game tune which sounds like it is from one of the old public domain graphics demos, not the greatest tune ever but it is OK. There are also in-game effects for collecting items and losing lives!
Overall Supersnail is an alright game, it is nothing amazing, but it's not a bad game either. I suppose it's somewhere in the middle, certainly worth giving it a try to see what it's like, the manual also mentions some extra levels being released in January 1999 but I don't remember them ever been released, did this ever happen?
Twinworld
This game was originally released for the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST by UbiSoft. The RISC OS conversion came courtesy of Cygnus Software, and they did a very good of it. Twinworld was and still is an excellent platform, where Cycloids was if you like a silly platformer then this is a serious one!
There is plenty of background story for this game, two pages of it in the original manual, but the edited highlights of it are that there is a race of peaceful people called the Gaspards, who have lived for centuries under the rule of an old family endowed with magic powers - the Cariken.
The family were in the possession of a symbol of power, an amulet which became the target of an evil druid by the name of Maldur. Aided by monsters he had created they massacred the Cariken and no one managed to escape or make use of the amulet to rid this evil druid. The legend is that if one of the family survived and got hold of the amulet then they could rid the land of the terrible Maldur.
In order to prevent this the druid has tried to destroy the amulet but has shattered it into a number of pieces which are now scattered all around the land. He has sent his monsters to gather up all the pieces before someone else does, that someone is Ulopa, the son of the last king of the Cariken, who is the main character of the game.
The object of the game is to defeat the evil druid Maldar, and collect all the pieces of the amulet in order to banish him from the kingdom forever. The levels of the game are divided into lower and higher worlds - hence the name Twinworld, these are accessed by doors and openings throughout the levels, these other worlds need to be visited to collect keys, power-ups and short cuts to other parts of the levels.
Each level has a piece of the amulet on it and once you have collected it you then need to go through the exit door, and onto the next level, of which there are four levels in each zone and upon completion of the final zone you then access a bonus area, after which the game resumes with the same objectives but in a different zone.
Twinworld is not the easiest platfomer I've ever played, but it's not particularly difficult either. It took me a few goes to complete the first level, but I didn't get much further than about the third level of the first zone, so will certainly take a while to complete the whole game. The game is controlled from the keyboard with the usual left/right up/down and fire key combinations - the down key is also used to enter the doors through the levels.
There are plenty of monsters which you will encounter throughout the levels, most of them can easily be despatched by firing weaponry at them. However beware as firepower is limited, but there are plenty of top-ups around. When you dispose of a monster there will be a bonus left behind to pick up of which there are many types. Each monster has it's own name. Interestingly the three headed creature that you will encounter is called "The Bothria" presumably because it constantly bothers you?
Another character to watch out for is "The Merchant". You can buy items from this character, but first you will need to be in possesion of a flute. This is needed to summon the Merchant. You can only buy items that you have already found in the game and you can only use the flute once, so don't waste it. To visit the Merchant again you will need to find another flute. Make sure you pick up the stars along the way as they increase your score and therefore increases the amount of money available to buy things from the merchant.
Visually Twinworld looks good, the graphics are quite typical of the 16 bit platformers of this era and the RISC OS port looks every bit as good as the original version does and doesn't look dated at all. The levels are all well drawn and each zone has different landscape graphics to add variation to the game.
As with the graphics the audio of Twinworld is of good quality as well, a decent tune accompanies throughout the game, with suits it well, if it becomes annoying it can be switched off, and there are plenty of in-game sound effects as well.
Overall Twinworld is an excellent game, as platform games go this is definitely one of the best ones to have been converted over to RISC OS machines over the years, well worth playing.
Wizard Apprentice
Last, but not by any means least, comes Wizard Apprentice. This was one of the last big commercial games released for RISC OS. However the release was a bit low key really - maybe it was because it was released by a Public Domain library rather than a well known software company. The story behind the game is that you are are the apprentice of some wizard and this is your final task to prove yourself worthy of becoming a fully qualified wizard.
Wizard Apprentice was written by Fantasia Software and released to the masses by 'The Datafile' public domain library. You needed a Risc PC with VRAM to play it, the original version would only run from CD, but this new updated version lets you install it on your hard disc - which is preferable - but you will need a lot of space to do this or you can run it direct from the CD.
Before running the game you need to setup two things, as without them the game will not run. Firstly you need to run the !Install program in the Wizard Apprentice directory. This installs files into the !System folder which is used to store game information. You will also need to add one of the supplied MDF files AKF60 or AKF85 to your monitor definition file, otherwise your monitor will not be able to display the modes used in Wizard Apprentice.
With both of these things in place you can now play the game. On loading you will see the introductory screen which has a rather silly tune played by a funny looking group of musicians. After this the main screen will appear, there are a number of options on here, from game settings, level select, sound options and you can also visit the level editor and make your own levels if you manage to complete all the supplied ones.
By selecting "Round Select", the option right in the middle on the screen, you will be taken to the level selection screen. There a number of different zones, each have a number of levels within them. To start with only the first one is accessible. So you have to start there and work through the levels to unlock all the other ones. By selecting a zone you will then see a screen with all the level numbers. If a number has a green tick on them then that zone has been completed. You can choose any of the levels to play but to complete the whole zone all levels need to be completed.
So, click on your level of choice, and finally we get to the game. The level will be shown and you can have a look at the layout and see if you can work out the obvious route through. Press Space to start and away we go. The first couple of levels are really easy to complete but the difficulty level does go up as you progress through the game. I would imagine some of the later levels are very difficult indeed to complete.
So what do you have to do to complete a level? Well you have to collect all of the objects, which can be flowers or mushrooms (there may be other types on later levels) and once this is done the level is complete. Objects can only be collected from the left or right, so you need to work out a route to obtain them all.
Working out a route is the key to this game. This is not an arcade action game, but a game of strategic thought and logic. You have to work out the correct route around the level. This is done by going up and down the ladders, moving blocks left and right, these blocks can fill in gaps to allow access to elsewhere on the level or just move them out of the way.
Some blocks can be destroyed to get them out of the way but care when doing this as you can easily mess up a level by destroying it at the wrong time, a lot of trial and error is involved in this game to find the correct way through the level.
There is also a special character who will appear on certain levels which cannot be finished without the aid of the little furry ball! When he is needed he will appear.
You do not die in this game. If you mess up a level you can abort it and start again, and you will find you will probably do this quite a lot. Some levels seem impossible to start with but with a bit of practice the correct route will be found.
Playing Wizard Apprentice is straightforward enough. Control is via the keyboard and your wizard can move left, right up and down. There is no jump or any weapon firing. The other keys used are 'G' to access the in game menu, and also the Space Bar is used to change to the second character if he is available.
Graphically Wizard Apprentice is excellent. It is bright and colourful and there is a lot of attention to detail with the levels. The backgrounds look really good, and these change at points during the game to keep it fresh. The wizard is well drawn and animated and the game objects all look like what they are supposed to be.
The sounds include many different tunes. I particularly like the tune used on the first couple of levels, up tempo and rather jolly - sounds really good loud too. There are a few sound effects as well.
Overall this is an excellent game, which I think was quite overlooked on it's original release. If you missed it before it is well worth checking out now. It has excellent sound and graphics and a good learning curve. If you like a game which requires a bit thought and logic then this is definitely one to go for. It can be frustrating but there is a real sense of achievement when you finally figure out how to do a level and complete it.
Summary
So there we have it, that was the 4D Platform game collection. All of the games should work without any problems on any RISC OS machines with StrongARM and RISC OS 4/Select, as they have all been updated to run on newer hardware. If you do have any problems with any of the games, then contact APDL and they will be able to help. As for Iyonix compatibility, none of them work natively on the Iyonix, apart from Twinworld if you use the patch it will then work fine, but with Aemulor Pro running these were the results.
Bloodlust - didn't work at all error message.
Cycloids - gave an error message and crashed after the title page.
Frak - displayed title banner and then crashed with error message.
Gyrinus II - No problems, music a bit fast, but apart from that fine.
Hamsters - Sort of works, the game seems to be running, but my LCD monitor wouldn't display the actual game screen, as it hasn't got the correct definition but the game was running so maybe with the correct MDF it should be OK. I think it uses a strange mode or something which is why I had difficulty getting some decent screenshots.
Joop - Displayed the title page, thought it was going to work, but then it dropped back into the desktop.
Morph - gave an error message and didn't work.
Mr Pea- Works fine with Aemulor Pro.
Super Snail - Got a blank screen and nothing else happened - could be incompatible with my monitor or lack of correct MDF.
Twin World - this runs fine on the Iyonix with a patch so no need for Aemulor Pro for this one.
Wizard Apprentice - Amazingly this does actually work using AemulorPro - it all works fine apart from one problem and that the bottom row of the screen cannot be seen properly I'm not sure why this is it, could be that the LCD screen cannot display the game modes correctly, so on a normal normal it maybe fine, but the game does work.
So not a very good result there, only 4 of the games seem to work on the Iyonix, pity that as there is some decent games on this collection.
This is a very good collection of platform games, Cycloids, Twinworld and Wizard Apprentice are the standout highlights. If you've not played them before then now is the time to do so. As for the games, Frak, Super Snail & Hamsters, Gyrinus2 are all very good as well, as for the Joop, Mr Pea are OK, and I didn't rate Morph or Bloodlust but as they are on the CD you might as well give them a go and try them yourself.
Overall If you like playing platform games then this collection is a must have. Out of the 11 games, I would say that 7 of them are quality games, and the others can be regarded as fillers, definitely a compilation that is worth buying.
Product details
Product:
Platform Games C
Supplier:
APD
Price:
£14.9
Address:
39 Knighton Park Road Sydenham London SE26 5R
Tel:
0208 778265
WWW:
Matthew Thompson
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/ARTWORKS/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, ArtWorks Made Easy
This book was originally published in 1993 and so is based on Computer Concepts' ArtWorks, that is, versions of ArtWorks up to 1.7. Later versions of ArtWorks produced by Martin Wuerthner (ArtWorks 2) have many extra tools and some dialogue boxes may have additional buttons and icons. These are described in the documentation supplied with these versions. However, ArtWorks' main drawing tools are the same and so this book still provides a very good basic guide for anyone new to ArtWorks.
Some minor changes have been made to the book to bring it slightly more up to date, but some sections, particularly Chapter 2 Installing ArtWorks, which refers to the "dongle" used in early versions, do not apply to later versions but have been retained for completeness.
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/BUSNESS/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, In business with RISC OS: Modern Sunclocks
In Business with RISC OS:
Modern Sunclocks
Douglas Hunt explains how his 'modern sunclock' business developed from a hobby into an international business based entirely on RISC OS.
For a number of years I had a hobby of 'Sundials' - you know, those vandal-prone garden ornaments that never seem to tell the right time - and in 1983 a local park was looking for something to commemorate their 1884-1984 centenary. I had previously designed (but never built) a large ground-level sundial that would use a person's own shadow to indicate the correct time including an automatic change-over from GMT to British Summer Time. The local council thought that it should be perfect for the park - vandal-proof, cheap to install, 'public improvement' and so on.
Two years later I found myself unemployed and the level of local interest had led me to believe that perhaps others would want to have one as a garden feature. Having the time on my hands, I sat down and developed a computer program (on the BBC Micro) that would calculate and print sets of plans and instructions for setting out my Sunclock, based on the geographic Latitude and Longitude of each location.
Being very naive, I had a vision of placing small advertisements in the newspaper classified section and collecting a lot of orders. It didn't quite work out like that. I barely covered the cost of the advert. The next spring, I started to take out advertisements in the gardening magazines and the orders slowly started to come in.
The next year my Sunclock was accepted into the National Garden Festival at Glasgow and my business really started to grow. It was something of a paying hobby and I also had a job as a Quality Manager and a brief time as a Computer Training Officer. The next year, "Gardening from WHICH" magazine favourably reviewed the concept (and I still get enquiries from that article).
The following year, something happened which would see the immense growth of the business. The new National Curriculum had a requirement for children to understand 'Sundials'. As a result the enquiries from teachers started to flow in. With a 'Sunclock' painted on their playground, there was an ideal educational project that was also vandal-proof. The concept became so popular that it was featured in a schoolbook, has been included in some education supplies catalogues and will be illustrated later this year in a Maths Dictionary for USA schools.
There are several well-known 'Human Sundial' layouts in Britain - "Chatsworth House", "Longleat" and "Lincoln Castle" being clear examples. As well as 'novelty' appeal of people being part of their own accurate sundial, it is essentially vandal-proof and with the selling point that every one is totally unique.
Our website - at www.sunclocks.com - gives you more information, including photographs of some layouts from Australia to Alaska, Tasmania to Tibet!
The nineties...
As the nineties launched, dealing with the orders and enquiries (some coming from as far as New Zealand) was starting to seriously interfere with my full-time job as a Quality Manager so I took the plunge and became self-employed. My business was supplying a personalised set of Plans and Instructions for these unusual 'Human Sundials'.
During the winter (as orders get a little thin), I also did some consultancy work for companies wanting to achieve the sought-after ISO9000.
When I found an Australian distributor I then didn't need to worry about 'seasonal variations' since there is now a non-stop influx of orders throughout the entire year. My website gets about four hits an hour, every hour of every day - this being 'visits' alone, the actual volume of page hits is considerably higher.
In twenty years, my hobby has turned into a full-time international business; and there are some business opportunities available. Further details are on the website at www.sunclocks.com/profit.htm.
If you believe in a product, persevere and have a mixture of determination and conviction in your product you'll find that success is quickly forthcoming. I could have easily let the low response from my initial advert force me into forgetting the whole thing; but instead I went on to run a unique international mail-order business. It is, literally, 'Banking on Sunshine'.
How this relates to RISC OS...
The bulk of this business is run on two Risc PC computers and an A7000+. The software that produces the "Sunclock" plans is written in BASIC and the programs have been adapted over the years to produce some different versions (Printed, HTML and now PDF) as technology has developed.
Towards the end of the 90's, more and more people were asking if we could supply the plans by email, so the programs were re-written to provide HTML (with GIF diagrams) so that customers could view them using their normal web-browsers. This was fine, except that we had no control over how pages might print out.
In 2001, I decided to offer a 'PDF' version, which would give the same output on any computer platform and the programs were all re-written again. This time they produced pages in Drawfile format, which are printed to file then converted into PDF documents through the Postscript driver which we can then email to customers worldwide.
Since they effectively cost nothing to produce, the business runs on a very high profit-margin; and if you look on our website you'll find that prices are guaranteed to be fixed permanently. That's not something that many businesses could do.
For email, we use Messenger Pro, although we prefer Fresco for web-browsing. For site maintenance we use FTPc. We use each machine to backup data and also have a DataSafe to ensure that data is encrypted in the event of failure. Using your webspace as a secure off-site backup also ensures that you can keep vital software securely elsewhere.
I am proud that my business exclusively uses RISC hardware, plus software - but must get around to upgrading again... perhaps to an Iyonix or A9.
Douglas Hunt
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/COMMENT/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Comment
Comment
David Bradforth has a few views about RISC OS...
Over the course of the last month, there has been much debate on the RISC OS newsgroups about Castle Technology. Pete Wild, one-time director of Wild Vision and director of Castle, is trying to dispose of his company's (Pattotek Ltd) 30% share of the voting capital in Castle Technology. Pattotek hold 75 of Castle's B shares. The latest information we have shows that the remaining B shares are divided between Roy Eastwood, Trevor Honey and Andrew Beeson, who hold 25 each, while both Jack Lillingston and John Ballace hold 50 shares each. In addition Castle have 200 A shares, split evenly between Jack, John and their two wives. So in total there seem to be 450 shares (200 A shares and 250 B shares). Last time we at RISCWorld did maths 75 shares out of 450 didn't equal 30%, it's actually just over 16%.
It's been reported on Drobe that Pete has had a falling out with Jack Lillingstone and John Balance over the future of the company. Various rumours are flying about, but given that Pete made a financial investment into Castle Technology to the tune of around £30,000 he's obviously either trying for some sort of return on that investment, or, given his comments about losing faith with RISC OS, to sever his ties with Castle.
One has to wonder what is going on at Castle. A couple of years ago the company was operating out of two sites, one in Framlingham, Castle's traditional base, and one in Cambridge. Although the Cambridge site was rented, the one in Framlingham wasn't, it was owned by CTL's shareholders and directors. In addition the company had support and office staff at Framlingham and a team of developers working in Cambridge. Fast forward two years and the company has lost it's full time developers and all the support staff and is now operating out of a complex that rents offices by the week. That doesn't sound too promising does it?
Castle's high profile product, the Iyonix, isn't looking much healthier either. Firstly it uses an IOP321 Intel processor. It has already been reported that Intel wanted to dump the "failing" ARM compatible chipset business. Indeed a purchaser has already been found, the Marvell Technology Group Ltd. In their press release Marvell said that "...Intel businesses will be able to continue licensing chip designs direct from ARM Holdings PLC...", which sounds suspiciously as though Marvell have no plans to make any more chips themselves, but will allow others to, if they need to and can afford it. Although there are large numbers of IOP family processors still available, more then enough to make Iyonixs for years to come, it does seem that further development of the IOP series is looking very unlikely.
Lack of further development in the IOP series is not the only problem that could be facing the Iyonix. The other is lead. Under the European Union Directive 2002/95/EEC certain standards and limits for hazardous material in electrical and electronic equipment have been set. One of those substances deemed as harmful is lead. The effect is this, from the 1st of July 2006 it will be illegal to manufacture new products using a traditional leaded solder process unless the product is for very specific purposes. For example servers are excluded from the regulations until 2010. The problem is that the Iyonix is assembled using a leaded process. Whilst this doesn't prevent Castle selling existing stocks, it might prevent further Iyonix motherboards being manufactured without some design changes.
So why not just switch to another type of process? Well it isn't quite that simple. The new types of solder have different properties to older solder. In particular its often necessary to alter the design of any PCB slightly so that it's manufactured in a form suitable for a lead free process. Typically the new processes operate at a higher temperature than a leaded process (around 35 degrees higher according to Intel - ED), and any components being soldered, including the PCB itself need to be designed to cope with the extra heat during assembly. In addition components need to be specified that are suitable for assembly with a lead free process. This includes the IOP321 processor itself, and as far as I have been able to ascertain this is not described as a component suitable for assembly in a lead free process. Some of the Intel X-Scale processors are available in lead free versions, including the PXA270 and others in the same series, but apparently not the IOP series.
So let us try to draw these items together. Pete Wild wants to sell Pattotek Ltd's share of Castle Technology Ltd. Assuming that he wants back his original 30K investment and given that he holds 16% of the company, that would value Castle Technology Ltd at roughly £190,000. Given that the company has few assets and no full time staff it wouldn't be unreasonable to conclude that this value relates mainly to RISC OS itself. The question that needs to be asked is simple; are the rights that Castle have in RISC OS worth nearly £200,000? It depends on what a prospective purchaser would want to do with it and here is another potential pitfall. If what I have been told is correct, and I have no way of verifying it, Castle's rights to exploit RISC OS could well be somewhat limited.
What is the value of RISC OS? All that I can say is that something is worth what someone will pay for it. John Ballance has said in the past that Castle would consider selling RISC OS for the right price, but what is the right price? Some time ago Pace tried to sell RISC OS for millions of pounds, but had no takers. In the end it was sold to Castle/Tematic for an undisclosed sum. Having spoken to a number of those connected with RISC OS my belief is that this sum would have been around £250,000. So have Castle increased the value of this asset, or decreased it? RISC OS is used in a number of products. I have already covered the Iyonix and it is also used in STB/Thin client devices. The DSL4000 box was a successful product for Pace and it's quite reasonable to assume that it has been an equal success for Castle, but it's an old design and will need to be updated, and that takes investment.
Another potential problem could be the formation of RISC OS Open Ltd. At this stage nothing is known about this new company but we can, at least, take a quick look at those involved. Richard Nicoll used to run Pace in Cambridge, until he was replaced by Andrew Clifforth in 2001. Andrew Moyler was vice president of marketing for Tematic, according to press releases issued last year. Andrew Hodgkinson worked for Acorn, then Pace and then Tematic, as did Ben Avison. The company secretary is Steve Revill, who runs 7th Software, a well known RISC OS developer. So what has RISC OS Open Ltd been set up to do? Well at the present moment I don't know. What I do know is that at least one of those involved, Steve Revill, who also worked for Pace, would seem to have copies of the RISC OS sources. At least, that would be a reasonable assumption based on his posting(s) on the comp.sys.acorn.programmer newsgroup in February this year.
This must therefore raise one important question for any potential investor in Castle. Has Castle's IPR in RISC OS leaked out to third parties and if so what rights do those those parties have to that IPR?
Finally one should consider Castle's most recent accounts as filed at Companies House. These show a loss of £48,667 on the profit and loss account for the year ending September 2005. One should, of course, accept that these figures are old, but they are the most recent figures available.
We therefore have a company, Castle Technology Ltd, whose flagship product, it would seem, can no longer be manufactured after the end of June this year, who are no longer operating from premises owned by the directors, have shown a near 50K loss in their last accounts, have shed all their full time staff and who might, potentially, have a leak in their IPR. This doesn't sound like good news.
So in the end the unanswered question is this: Is Pattotek (Pete Wild's company) selling it's share in Castle because they have had a parting of the ways and Pete wants to give others the chance to help steer RISC OS development? Or is the share in Castle up for sale now because it's shortly going to be worthless?
(I feel that I ought to add a bit at the end here. I don't entirely agree with Dave's conclusions. Certainly Castle have had some difficulties. However they are still here, they might have got rid of the premises and staff for sound financial reasons. Perhaps they needed to deal with a short term cash flow problem, there is no way of knowing. Certainly there have been further releases of RISC OS 5 since the period covered by the last set of accounts, so development work is continuing. As for the Iyonix, it could be that CTL have large stocks of assembled motherboards, it could be that the machine has already ben re-designed for lead free solder, who knows? As far as I am concerned the point is this, there is the potential to grab hold of a lump of Castle and try and build some bridges. Ultimately 16% of the company isn't enough, but it's a start. Someone could do something truly wonderful if they put their minds to it. - ED).
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/CUST/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The secrets of customer care
The secrets of customer care
If you're looking into starting an online business, it's important to take care of your customers.
Building a successful eBusiness is much the same as a traditional high street concern – you have to keep your customers happy. The old saying ‘the customer is always right’ has never been more important, even though you can be sure your new venture will attract more than its fair share of, shall we say, challenging consumers. There are certainly plenty of things that can go wrong when you’re first building up a business, and then there are additional problems that can occur as you go along. The best way around this is to make sure that you’re prepared and have a strategy in place to help you cope with everything that gets thrown your way.
Starting an online eCommerce venture is a little different to having a physical shop where people come and go during a regular set of opening hours. Your eBusiness is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to sit there permanently taking orders, and on a positive level it means you have a chance to make more money, thanks to the convenience factor.
Ready for action
People can order on a whim and that, needless to say, means you can boost turnover. The downside to this is that people can make impulse purchases and then regret it later on. In that respect, it’s important to have these sorts of scenarios well covered, so that you operate a clear way of working. You’ll need to have a crystal clear returns procedure and offer a sales guarantee to reassure the buyer. At the same time, you’ll need to cover your own back, so that troublesome customers don’t bankrupt you in the first few months of you opening your
fledgling business.
Do some research before you start out, by surfing the Net and seeing how other businesses do it. This is a great way to get information for free and an ideal way of finding the ideal compromise between good, solid customer service and protecting your interests. Check things like legal small print to see if there’s a basic pattern to the way you should go about things. You could even order a few things for yourself to see how the online ordering experience works.
There’s still quite a lot of negative feeling towards online ordering, due in the main to the publicised security issues that have blighted some areas of eCommerce. Things are better than they were, but it’s crucial you make your online ordering process and delivery system as secure as possible. A bullet-proof ordering page is a start, but it’s also important to gain a seal of approval, so try signing up to programs associated with this side of things. If consumers see you have a secure certificate from the likes of Thawte, www.thawte.com, they’ll feel more at ease.
Questions and answers
More obvious issues can also be promoted through a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ page within your Web site, where visitors should be able to find peace of mind relating to any aspect of the online ordering process. They’ll also feel better if they can see a number they can call should they have any more pressing problems to solve. People will grow doubtful about the prowess of any company if they can’t get in touch with whoever works there.
How many times have you selected a ‘Contact Us’ link in a site to find that it doesn’t work, or take you where you want to go? Much of this is attributable to poor site maintenance, so spend time checking that all the links on your site work. The same principle applies to the items you’re selling. Make sure they haven’t been sold or that new stock is slightly different to old stock. Has a make or model been updated or changed? If so, then the site content should accurately reflect that aspect.
When you’ve got all of these bases covered, fix your sights on getting the goods to the customer safely. Decide whether or not to build delivery into the overall selling price or add it on at the end, and be sure to make the various options open crystal clear. If you’re going to stick with a basic postal service, it’s a good idea to ask if people want items sent registered or recorded delivery, to ensure both parties are covered.
You may want to enlist a courier firm, especially if you’re selling high value items or bulky goods. The better the service the higher the cost, but it is worth it in the long run to ensure that your company’s integrity remains intact. People will feel not only impressed but also reassured if you offer a tracking process. At the very least, send an email outlining what they have been charged and an approximate delivery time.
Try a customer survey to see if you’re covering all bases when it comes to your service. Ultimately, customers will know what they do and don’t want from your site better than anyone. Remember that word travels fast in today’s business world, so encourage people to give you positive feedback wherever they can. If they’re happy, get them to say so!
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/DISC/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, DiscWorld
DiscWorld
Aaron Timbrell rounds up the software directory
The complete DiscWorld line up
As per usual we have our collections of the latest RISC OS games and applications, as well as support files for this issues articles. So the full DiscWorld line up looks something like this:
EasyFont2
An exclusive version of the EasyFont2 font manager previously sold by Fabis Computing for over £30. This has been extensively modernised to work with the later machines and operating systems including RISC OS Adjust, the Iyonix and the A9.
Games
All the games from this issues games world column.
PD
All the latest PD, shareware and freeware releases from the PD column.
SDL
Everything you need to write your own SDL applications.
ToolBox
This contains two sets of Toolbox Modules. The Castle archive contains the latest 26/32 bit neutral system components, required if you want to run a lot of new software releases on 26bit machines. The RISCOS Ltd archive contains later and improved versions of a number of modules and is suitable for all versions of RISC OS from 3.1 onwards. We have also included copies of SharedUnixLib and UnixHome as these are needed by some programs.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/EASYFONT/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, EasyFont 2
Need a 32bit compatable font manager? why not have one on us!
All rights reserved. This program is licensed for use on a single computer by a single user.
This version is supplied for the use of RISC World subscribers only.
Published by -
APDL
39 Knighton Park Road
Sydenham
London SE26 5RN
Phone : 020 8778 2659
Fax : 020 8488 0487
E-mail : info@apdl.co.uk
Contents
What is a font manager?
A quick demonstration
The icon bar menu
Creating extra styles
Un-installing fonts
File scanning
Fonts included with this copy.
EasyFont2
EasyFont2 is a font management system for RISC OS. It was originally published by Fabis Computing and is a predecessor of the EasyFont Pro. Although it lacks may of the advanced features of EasyFont Pro it is nevertheless a perfectly capable program for people who do not require all these additional features and have more modest needs.
The copy supplied with this issue of RISC World, version 2.10, has been updated to make it 32 bit neutral and will work on any version of RISC OS from 3.1 to 5, so as well as 'traditional' machines it's now suitable for use on the A9, Iyonix or VirtualAcorn.
EasyFont2 supports Acorn's interactive help, so you can use this if you wish to familiarise yourself with the program.
What is a font manager?
Many people seem to cope quite happily without any sort of font management. If you don't do any serious desktop publishing work and only have a small number of fonts then you can just place any additional fonts into the main system !Fonts folder and they'll always appear on the font menu with any program. That, however, is the main problem, they will all always appear on any font menu. If you have more than a very small number of fonts then that font menu can become rather cumbersome.
Most people use only a fairly small number of fonts most of the time. We might acquire various others, often a lot of fancy PD fonts that are ideal for headings on notices, Christmas cards, etc. but we don't want them cluttering up the font menu every time we run !Draw or a wordprocessor. By installing your fonts in a font manager like EasyFont2 you can just 'switch' fonts on and off with the click of a mouse so that they're there when you want them but you don't get great clumsy font menus when you don't need them.
A quick demonstration
Just double-click on the !EasyFont application icon and it will install on the icon bar in the usual way. Note that you don't normally need to run the program to use the fonts as will be explained later.
If you click SELECT on the EasyFont icon the window shown below will open.
This window lists all the fonts installed within EasyFont plus the fonts 'built in' to the RISC OS ROM, namely Trinity, Homerton and Corpus. All the other fonts shown were supplied pre-installed with this copy of EasyFont.
If you put the mouse pointer over any of the font names in this window and click MENU a small menu will open showing all the styles available with this font, that is, italic, bold, etc.
Now, to see how EasyFont switches fonts in and out of use run !Draw and open a Draw window. Click MENU over the Draw window and follow Style -> Font name to open the font list menu. You will see that (in addition to any other fonts you might have installed on your machine) all the fonts shown in the EasyFont window will also appear. Close these menus and go back to the EasyFont window and click on Archeo and Zurich so that they are no longer selected, that is, the button beside them isn't depressed.
Go back to the font list menu in !Draw again and you will see that Archeo and Zurich have vanished.
If you now quit EasyFont (select 'Quit' from the icon bar menu in the usual way) you will see that all the fonts switched 'On' in the main window are still available in Draw even though EasyFont isn't running. In fact, you don't need to run EasyFont at all for all of the fonts you have enabled to be available to any programs. All that need to happen is for !EasyFont to be 'seen' by the filer. To achieve this you can either place !EasyFont in your 'Apps' folder or, with RISC OS 4 or later include !EasyFont in your 'Look at' list.
The icon bar menu
If you click MENU on the EasyFont icon bar icon then the following menu will appear.
Installed
Clicking on this will open the window shown below. This, like the main font window, lists all the fonts in alphabetical order but it only shows those which are currently switched On.
You will find this extremely useful when you have collected a lot of fonts, many of which you use only infrequently and hence normally have them switched Off. It's a lot easier to see which fonts are available from this window than the main fonts window as it only shows those which are active.
Font viewer
This will open the window shown below.
If you now open the main font list window and place the mouse pointer over the name of any font which is switched On and press both the CTRL and Insert keys together this font will appear in the Font viewer window. You can then the various styles available in that font by choosing from the menu which will appear if you click on the menu icon. You can also select the size you wish to view by using the 'bump' icons, clicking on one of the Size buttons or entering the size directly into the writable icon. You can also alter the text by clicking in the text field and changing it in the usual way.
I will describe some other features of this window later.
Font info
This will open the window shown below.
This window shows the total number of fonts Available, that is, those which have been installed into EasyFont2, and those Installed, that is, those which are currently switched On.
From the information shown you can see that 10 font families are available, eight of them are switched On, that is, two are switched Off. There are a total of 44 styles available, but by switching Off two fonts this is reduced to 30.
Add Fonts
This will open a small window, shown below, which alows you to add more fonts to EasyFont2.
You will see that there is no Close icon on this window. Instead, if you open the main menu while this window is open you will see that Add fonts has a tick beside it, indicating that the window is open. Click on Add fonts on the menu again and the window will close.
To add a font to EasyFont2 just drag it to this window. Its name will appear in the upper icon (which shows "<Nothing>" in the picture above) and the Style currently being added will appear in the lower icon.
After a font is added it will appear (switched Off) in the main font list window and is available for use. Its name will remain in the Add fonts window to remind you of which font you added last if you are adding a number of new fonts.
Export
This opens the dialogue shown below which enables you to export various types of file to illustrate your fonts.
The simplest is TextFile. When you select this Terminator options become available and, if Multiple files is ticked Lines on page also becomes active. You can enter a suitable filename and then drag the file icon at the top left of the window (this will be a folder icon is Multiple files is selected). Either a single large textfile or a folder containing a number of individual pages will then be saved. This will contain a list showing every font and, if Include styles is ticked, every style.
DrawFile will produce either a single or multiple DrawFiles containing the text in the writable icons on the right hand side of the window in the actual font and style (if this is selected). This is a great way of printing out a complete illustrated list of all your fonts.
Objects does the same except that every fonts and style is included in the DrawFile as a 'path object' and not as a 'text object' in the chosen font. This takes longer and may be slower to render in !Draw but has the advantage that it will always display (and print) correctly in !Draw even if the actual fonts are now available.
Choices
This lets you set the various options for EasyFont2.
The item Access fonts without running Easy Font would normally be ticked and this means that all the fonts you have switched On will be available as soon as the filer 'sees' EasyFont. If you do not want this to happen then un-tick this item. You will then need to actually run EasyFont, that is, install it on the icon bar, for the fonts to be available.
File scan will be dealt with later.
Creating extra Styles
If you open the Font viewer window and click on Show styles the window will extend downwards as shown below.
If you are viewing one of the System fonts then the styles shown at the bottom left will be feint as these cannot have extra styles created as the fonts are in ROM.
In the illustration show I have chosen the Jarman font. I have then selected SemiBold from the style list and EasyFont2 has automatically created a SemiBild variant of this font, (shown in the viewer) which previously did not exists. If you look at the Styles menu in the main font list window you will see that the SemiBold style has now appeared there.
This is a 'real' font, and can be used in other programs just like any other font. If the time comes when you don't need it any more then you can remove it by just de-selecting the style in the Font viewer window again.
If you want to create a 'special' style then if you click on Edit style another window will open where you can set a variety of options. This lets you create specialist variations on a font very quickly and easily and these fonts can be used in any program which uses Acorn outline fonts.
Un-installing fonts
If you wish to un-install a font from EasyFont2 then just open the main font list window, ensure that the font is switched Off and double-click on its name with ADJUST. You will be asked to confirm that you actually do want to un-install the font and if you do so the font will be 'ejected' from EasyFont and placed in a folder called Removed which will be placed in the same directory that the EasyFont application is in.
File scanning
It can be very annoying to load a wordprocessor file or a DrawFile containing fonts only to find that because some fonts were not switched on you either get a lot of error messages or, in the case of a DrawFile, some text is rendered in the System font.
If you drag a file to the EasyFont icon on the iconbar then EasyFont will scan the file looking for any font names. If it finds any which it 'knows' about but which are currently switched Off it will switch them On.
If you have Auto-run files after searching selected in the Choices window then, after scanning, EasyFont will issue the appropriate 'Load file' command so that the file is automatically loaded into the correct program for that filetype.
Fonts included with this copy.
We have included a few useful fonts with this special RISC World edition of EasyFont2.
Archeo - A rather nice font with a good choice of styles taken from the Typography 2500 collection by iSV.
BroadNib - Another font by iSV taken from the Typography 2500 collection. This is an Open Face font, that it, the letters are not 'filled in' but just have outlines. Very good for large headings (and also saves a lot of ink when using large headings with inkjet printers)
BrushScrip - A heavy italic PD fonts that is widely used.
Jarman - A font created by Christopher Jarman especially for use in primary schools as it has been designed to be very easy to read for younger children.
System - This is an outline font version of the Acorn System font. It is ideal for use in documents where you want to represent what a user should type or whet should appear on screen as it not only looks like what you would see at the command line but it also has all those funny Acorn 'special' characters.
Typewriter - Does what is says on the tin. A font that looks like a typewriter.
Zurich - A rather nice italic font. Very readable and suitable for main body text.
If you run into problems buying or selling online, RISC World is here to help. Direct your questions to us at the address below, and David Bradforth will provide the solution.
Following on from the Buying & Selling helpdesk last month, we've got another selection of questions and answers for those looking to get more out of the online shopping experience. If you have any questions of your own, do please direct them to me at david.bradforth@ebayadvisormag.co.uk and we'll provide the answer to your email and also in the next issues of RISC World and eBay Advisor.
So here we go with our questions and answers.
Bad feedback
Most of my recent experiences with Internet auctioning have been positive, but something happened to me recently which disturbed me. I collect radio-controlled cars. Until about six months ago, I only bought my spares and new models from shops, as I didn’t trust the Internet. I then found out from a friend that a number of shops I visited had been selling bits on online auction sites for a cheaper price.
I bit the bullet and tried to buy a few small parts to test the water. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and received my parts quickly and at a cheaper price. Over the following months my purchases became bigger and bigger, as races often lead to the cars needing spares before they can race again. My horizons began expanding to vendors outside the UK, and I ended up buying some new wheels from the US. After a particularly fraught race, I decided a new car was in order, so I found a good price for a new Monster Truck.
After paying over PayPal I waited to receive my new car. A few weeks later, I contacted the company to find out what was happening. I was told that it was waiting for the model to be delivered from Hong Kong. Many months passed, in which I was forced to spend money on a similar model from a local store. I was reassured so many times that the car was just around the corner, when it wasn’t even in the country. Eventually I asked for my money back, to which the company obliged. I may not be out of pocket in the literal sense, but the effort spent leaves me feeling as if I have lost hundreds. Mark Howes
Your tale of woe isn’t the first we’ve heard Mark, but I hope it doesn’t discourage you from online auctions. Most auction sites do have a degree of trust involved when putting money down for items. Plenty of situations have arisen in the past when this trust is betrayed by either side; the end result can mean that one party is left out of pocket. Look at the feedback for the seller before spending too much, and read any recommendations. Don’t be afraid to email the seller to ask questions, either.
Football crazy
After many years supporting Liverpool, I’ve built up a fair stack of programmes, scarves and shirts. My second son was born a few weeks ago, and it looks like my beloved gear will have to be shifted to make some room for our new arrival. I think most of the stuff is valuable, as I have had most of the programmes signed by legends like Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan. The scarves are a bit tattered and worn, but would do for any visitors to Anfield. The shirts range from 1979 to 1986, and a few more modern ones.
Anyway, over Christmas I saw a lot of adverts relating to eBay, stating how easy it’s supposed to be to sell anything on there. I thought I would have a bash at it myself after looking around the site a bit. I’ve had a quick look at the footy memorabilia that’s already there, but none of it seems to be quite as old as mine. I was wondering if you think they are worth anything, and if people would be interested in them? I have got a 2 megapixel digital camera as well that can take pretty decent photos. Do you think the pictures would be good enough to stick on the auctions? Mike Bloomingfield
It’s a cliché that anything even remotely worth selling can be sold on eBay for a tidy profit. Not to belittle your collection, however – you are approaching it in the correct manner, doing a little research into the potential competition to gauge an accurate price level before selling. A rule of thumb is that anything signed is valuable enough to be sold separately, especially if the match in question was particularly memorable. If there are too many programmes to list separately and time is an issue, the best option may be to list the items of note within the auction, so that buyers have a taste of what’s available.
It may be worth investing in a decent frame for the items that go together, for example a scarf, programme and shirt from the same season. Good presentation can really bump the price up for anything being sold on. A 2 megapixel camera should be enough for the Internet, although it depends on the resolution and speed of your connection. eBay recommends a relatively small file size of 50Kb in either ‘JPEG’ or ‘GIF’ format. Putting the camera on the highest quality setting may go beyond this, so re-save it in a lower quality once it is saved onto the computer.
Skin trade
I’ve been an eBay user for a few years and have thoroughly enjoyed my time buying and selling a number of items, and have been pleased with the overall quality of the site. I have started noticing a worrying trend for so-called joke auctions that could easily develop into something far more serious. After reading about the young man who sold space on his forehead to the highest bidder, I was appalled to learn of the young woman selling space on her upper chest for a similar reason. Most people have dismissed this as a joke or applauded the entrepreneurial skills of these people without addressing the problems that may arise. I’m as much of an advocate for the Internet as the next man, but I feel this is a step too far. There seems to be little in the way of boundaries set by the proprietors of eBay to stop the sale of a body in exchange for money, even if it is for the purpose of advertising. How long is it before people are being sold over an auction to the highest bidder? I apologise for this rant, but I am truly concerned as to the depths that this will drag us down to. Jeff Holmes
Jeff, we fully understand your standpoint on the sale of bodily advertising. eBay is often given the image of a perfect tool for sellers without scruples. In reality, eBay’s owners do set boundaries for users, and although they are often allowed to open an auction, they rarely run their course if the content is deemed unsuitable. As for the auctions you’ve mentioned, reading through the item’s description reveals there was both prior thought and some moral boundaries set. Neither sellers wanted to advertise anything offensive or unsavory, and only allowed the ad to exist for a month. Your argument is valid, although it’s tricky ground to find a happy medium between the right to expression and being offensive. Judging by the majority of public reactions, these auctions fall just on the right side of tasteful. Rest assured though Jeff, if anything does cross the line, eBay will quickly remove it.
Top-up fees
Being an international purchaser of goods, I was surprised recently to discover the proposed increase in fees at eBay in America. It appears that eBay has hiked up the prices for frequent sellers, which will force them to increase prices on the items they’re selling.
As a seasoned online consumer, I feel disturbed by this and think it’s proof that companies with a monopoly over a certain field will be able to get away with more things than those with realistic competition. The only result that I can see coming of this is a push towards the other auction sites like QXL. Personally I’m looking towards Amazon and Froogle to find more bargains. These alternative sites are just as good and, with more user interest, could be a serious threat to eBay. I realise that this may be seen as reactionary and unfair, but this is one in a long line of incidents that have caused me to look elsewhere. Tony French
Your pleas and those of thousands of other eBay users haven’t fallen on deaf ears, Tony. Plenty of petitioning and unhappy posts have appeared on various forums, prompting eBay America to alter certain parts of its proposal. The majority of it remains intact though, which means a 50 per cent increase in some cases. There hasn’t been a mass abandonment of the site as yet, although newspapers prophesied doom as soon as the news broke. Of the alternatives you mentioned, all of them are are blossoming into excellent sites. eBay having decent competition will not only help us by creating more choice, but the competition might force the proprietors to reassess the site and make some changes for the better.
Counting costs
I’m pretty new to buying and selling online, but after a successful Christmas getting a few presents, I’ve decided to become more involved. I’ve seen how eBay can get some much cheaper prices, so a few days ago I thought I’d sign up. I went through the address and name entering stage, and chose a suitably individual username. In the final stages I had to put in my email address, which I did. I then got a message telling me it needed bank information to verify it. I didn’t really want to put my bank number in just to set up an account, so I quit out of it.
Why did eBay ask for my bank details if I just wanted to start up an account? I thought it was free to join. I’m very confused by this, so please advise! Jeff Steckley
No payment is needed to start an account on eBay. It sounds like you may have a Web-based email address, Jeff, some of which unfortunately need verification. As plenty of these email address require no payment and can be shut down as quickly as they are put up, it would be very difficult to track down a scammer if they were using one. Try using an ISP-based address, which you should have when getting your Internet connection. Alternatively, a friend or relative with their own Web site might be able to give you an address from that.
Lost in the crowd
My main problem with selling online at the moment is my advertising. I have a small high street shop that sells rings and necklaces, mostly second-hand. I’m tucked away in a little corner where it is difficult for people to find me unless they are looking in the right direction.
I’ve started selling a few choice items online on a number of auction sites and have run into the same problem with my auctions. People don’t seem to know where I am, and those that do don’t seem to be spreading the word.
I’ve tried emailing a few people, and have printed up flyers, but it doesn’t seem to be making that much of a difference. At the moment I could give up on the Internet side of things, but it would make selling goods far easier if it worked. Any help would be much appreciated. Pete Cooke
You’re finding one of the big problems with online auction sites now, Pete, in that so many people are using them, the smaller sellers are getting overlooked.
One way round this is to start up your own Web site with links to the auction sections. The site can be submitted to search engines such as Google, increasing your visibility. Alternatively, some auction sites now offer the opportunity to put a sale on the first page for a price, allowing interested customers to be immediately presented with it when getting to the site. Try getting in contact with some other sellers as well, so you can advertise on each other’s sites.
Name change
After months of wrangling, I’ve finally gotten rid of a particularly persistent buyer who claimed I hadn’t sent something to him, and he left negative feedback on my profile. I’m a good seller with mostly positive feedback, but this one buyer wanted to tarnish my good reputation.
Eventually I managed to settle with him after it turned out he put the wrong address down on his profile, and he has agreed to withdraw his comments from my profile. I’m still a bit shaken by it, and I was wondering if there was any way of wiping the slate clean and starting all over again? I don’t have too many loyal customers who keep coming back, so I could just delete my current profile and start with a fresh ID. I am worried about people thinking that I am dodgy because of this though, so I was wondering if I could just change username? Lewis Thomas
A username can be changed pretty easily, Lewis. Going into the profile options allows you to change username to something else, although an icon will be associated to your new profile for the first 30 days.
Your feedback will then be transported over to the new username, and any running auctions will automatically carry the new moniker. If you don’t want to carry feedback over, just get rid of your old username and start up a new one, but all of your good feedback and ratings will be lost. It all depends on how desperately you want to make the change.
Forum finder
eBay seems a bit daunting to a newcomer like me, but I thought I would start to get involved anyway. I like looking through products, even if I don’t buy them, so I know what to look for if I ever do need them. I’m always asking sellers questions to find out as much as I can about the item, and most of them get back to me quickly.
The last seller was very helpful and suggested I went to the forums to find out about things in general. Not knowing what a forum was, I did a search on Google and found some very varied and often rather obscene content. I decided not to go back onto a forum unless I was completely sure it was all above board, but it was hard to find any that were restricting the use of language. Do you know of any good, clean forums I could use? Gerald Merkin
There are a number of problems with browsing through forums without guidance, and one of them is the relaxed way in which many of them are policed. Because of this, content that isn’t to many people’s taste is often passed into forums.
The freedom of speech employed on the Internet is a double-edged sword, and it would certainly be almost impossible to impart any blanket decency laws on
the subject.
On the matter of a good auction forum, try official Web site forums such as the eBay Chatboards, which are both well-policed and informative.
I've had an interesting experience recently. There was a thread on the "news" site Drobe about Qercus. Specifically it was a list of things people could have spent their money on, apart from a Qercus subscription. Anyway a couple of users posted something about RISCWorld. At the time Dave Holden and I were putting the finishing touches to a plan to increase the number of subscribers. To do this we had decided to offer anyone who asked a free copy of RISCWorld Volume 6 Issue 6, that's the issue that came out at the end of March this year. We had decided that we would make the offer available to any RISC OS users no matter where they live in the world and that we would pay the postage. So all anyone would need to do would be ring or e-mail, and they would get sent a free issue in the post. It sounded like a good plan, in fact it is a good plan and we have so far sent out over 200 free copies and picked up a number of new subscribers because of the offer.
Anyway, back to Drobe. I posted a short sentence or two saying that we would send out a free copy of RISCWorld to anyone who asks. Oh dear. Dave and I then incurred the wrath of Chris Williams, the main journalist at Drobe, who moved our posting to the off topic section of Drobe and the told us to "Take our filthy spam and shove it where the sun doesn't shine." What a charming man. He then went on to say, "I could not care less about a special offer." So if the main journalist on a site that announces itself as a RISC OS News site isn't interested then things are pretty black.
This set me thinking, how do you promote RISC OS to a wider audience. You could advertise in computer magazines, but that's generally prohibitively expensive for small RISC OS developers. The only adverts for RISC OS related products I have seen in the general computer press in the last 4 years have been for VirtualAcorn. That's not blowing my own trumpet, it's worth advertising VA products in PC mags as the products run on Windows, so we have something that we can actually sell a PC user. Does the average RISC OS developer have something they can sell to a PC user? No. So it's not worth them advertising in PC mags is it? One method of advertising that does work is Google Adwords, I use them myself as do a small number of other RISC OS developers including Advantage Six. However most developers don't seem to bother, which is a shame as they certainly pay for themselves several times over. So how can a RISC OS developer promote their wares?
The options available are limited. There are currently only four active subscription magazines, RISCWorld, Eureka, Foundation Risc User and Archive. Of these only Archive is published on a monthly basis, so you could be looking at a delay of two months or more before your news gets out to people. There are the comp.sys.acorn newsgroups, but these are nowhere near as popular as they used to be, you only have to look at the number of postings over recent years to see the decline in readership of the various comp.sys.acorn groups. There is of course direct e-mail, but at least on RISC OS developer has tried this and got accused of spamming. This really leaves the RISC OS news sites, such as the Cybervillage, Iconbar and Drobe. Drobe is the most frequently updated and has the most content, but apparently they aren't interested in "special offers". Now that is, in my view, rather shortsighted. Drobe exists to be read by RISC OS users. RISC OS users are, by their nature, interested in RISC OS. So Drobe should be doing it's best to promote RISC OS. After all if there are more RISC OS users, then there are more people to read Drobe! However this doesn't seem to be the case, which is a shame. The RISC OS world could do with a frequently updated news site that promotes the platform as a whole and has all the news, not just a carefully selected sample. I'm sorry to say that currently this simply isn't Drobe.
Editors Rant of the month
The following is about the vehicular faith, not specifically about computing.
Here is a quick question, what's the official vehicle for those working on RISCWorld? Not sure? Then I'll tell you, it's a dark blue Isuzu Trooper. Why? Well why don't I tell you (Please don't - HJ). As regular readers will know I used to own a Mitsubishi Shogun, a nice big 5 door four wheel drive. It was an ideal size for me, plenty of room for dogs and also plenty of room to bring DIY projects home. However, as things often do, it broke. I couldn't fix it, so I ended up buying a Citroen Xantia because I urgently needed a car. I've had this for over a year but decided that I really did need (want) another four wheel drive vehicle. In the mean time, having seen my Shogun, Dave Holden went and bought an Isuzu Trooper.
I started looking around, another Shogun was going to cost around £3000, for a 1992 model, which is a bit old for a 3 grand vehicle. So I started looking a bit further and discovered that both the Jeep Chrokee and the Ford Explorer depreciated heavily and that £3000 would buy a good 1998 version of either. I looked at a Jeep Cherokee advertised locally. It was a little small, however it was also more than a little rusty. There were holes under the floor, in the sills and under the fuel tank. Thanks, but no thanks. I then did some more research and discovered that the Jeeps have a reputation for rusting badly. They also aren't all that big inside and don't have a separate chassis, so I decided to look at the Fords.
I found an Explorer fairly close to home and went for a look. Although the vehicle design was fine, as was the size, and indeed everything else the fresh bright red rust on the entire chassis wasn't too good. I decided to keep looking. So I got up early on a Friday morning, the day that the Midlands Auto Trader comes out. Took the dogs out, came home and sat down for a read. I found what looked like the ideal Ford Explorer. A 2000 model for just under my price limit. Then I dropped the Auto Trader on the floor. When I picked it back up it had fallen over a few pages and the first advert I saw was for a 1998 Vauxhall Monterey, which is a badge engineered Isuzu Trooper. It had 12 months MOT and was advertised for a paltry £1200, better still it was only a couple of miles away. I was immediately on the phone and was viewing it before 10 o'clock. Anyway, it wasn't bad, it had a few scrapes and knocks and the miles were a bit high, but it was cheap, was the spec I wanted (auto, leather, air-con etc) so after a bit of haggling I bought it for £1100.
Now things got a bit weird, I was chatting to the seller and discovered that her surname was, wait for it, Timbrell! Now that isn't a common surname, so it's a big of weird coincidence. I wasn't looking for an Isuzu and if I hadn't dropped the Auto Trader I wouldn't have seen it. Perhaps our friendly household ghosts were doing me a favour? We will see. So far it's had a full service and a cam belt change, now I need to do a few other tidying up jobs, then use it. The only problem is that it looks almost identical to Dave Holden's one, which is a bit embarrassing. Anyway that's enough about it for now. No doubt I will have something to report next issue, if the ghosts will let me. I have to go now and talk to the aliens at the bottom of my garden.
Printing RISC World
The new look of RISC World means that you will no longer get the yellow background when printing articles from RISCWorld. However you will still get the blue border on the left unless you turn off the printing of background images. The example below shows the print dialogue box from Fresco.
As you can see the option "No Background" is ticked. If you want to print out any of the RISCWorld pages and don't want to waste ink on a blue border then make sure you have clicked a similar option in your browser.
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/GAMES/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Games World
Games World
Paul Brett with the latest gaming news.
Hello once again. There has been some interesting rumours floating round the RISC OS gaming world in the last few months, so before we look at the latest releases you can actually play lets take a quick trip round the RISC OS rumour mill.
32bit Tek?
The RISC OS news site Drobe recently reported that a team of programmers are interested in converted the RISC OS game Tek1608 to run on 32bit machines, including the A9 and the Iyonix. Apparently the team have approached the authors of Tek, Deck13, formally know as Artex, with a view to obtaining the sources in order to produce a 32bit version. The company with the publishing rights to Tek are R-Comp, so it may well be interesting to see what develops over the coming months. Certainly a version of Tek that takes advantage of more modern hardware would be well worth playing.
DeathDawn
RISC OS developer Jeffrey Lee is working on a game similar to Grand Theft Auto (GTA) for RISC OS machines. Although DeathDawn is in it's early stages it does look promising. Currently it's not so much a game as a test of the game engine, however it is still well worth having a look at in order to see how things could develop. You can get full information on the keys used from the iconbar menu, as well as alter the graphics resolution and set up the sound options.
Currently DeathDawn requires RISC OS 3.5 or later, 2Mb of disc space and 2Mb of free memory, version 5.45 or later of the SharedCLibrary and SharedSound version 0.24 or later. The game engine is written using the
Magnetic Scrolls
Now lets us move on to the newly released full games you can play on RISC OS. For some time now there has been an interpreter that allows you to play copies of the Magnetic Scrolls adventure games from the late 80's and early 90's on modern RISC OS machines. This has now been updated by Shaun Lindsley and should run on the older 26bit machines as well as on the Iyonix and the A9. For those that don't remember Magnetic Scrolls produced a small number of adventure games, with pictures of some of the locations, for a wide range of home computers. Although not that many titles were published the quality was exceptionally high and the games are very well respected amongst those who play adventure games.
The real good news is that as well as the interpreter being freely available, so are the games. Originally founded by Anita Sinclair, Ken Gordon and Hugh Steers, Magnetic Scrolls released their first game, The Pawn, in 1985. The next title was The Guild of Thieves, released 2 years later. Games continued to be launched sporadically up until 1989's Myth. Then the company re-write their game engine and launched the first in a new series of titles, called Wonderland. However the huge costs involved in creating the game and the game engine effectively bankrupted the company. Ken Gordon tried to continue but ended up working for another games publisher. So that was the end of an era.
I have included a copy of !Magnetic (the game interpreter) and copies of the games Myth, Pawn and Jinxster. Those that want to get more information about Magnetic Scrolls games, or, need help solving them could do a lot worse that look at
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/HUGHJ/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, The Hugh Jampton Experience
The Hugh Jampton Experience
It's the man with a 30% stake in Castle and enough left over for a fish supper...Hugh...Jampton!
Hello, and when I say hello I actually mean hello. So hello. As you might be able to tell I'm having a bit of trouble getting this column started (try jump leads - ED) but if you bear with me I'm sure we can all get through it. My excuse for the poor start is the heat, it's been over 35 degrees today and I'm finding it hard to keep waffling. Still, lets quickly move into the wonderful realm of the (un)official RISCWorld caption competition...
The caption competition
As I am sure you all remember last time I asked you to come up with a caption for this little beauty...
So, without further ado, lets see what delights were sent in by our ever vigilant readers.
Yes, that's right, bugger all! Yes, not a sausage, so in order to try to fill up a desperately thin column I have asked around the RISCWorld offices to see what we could come up with.
"Qercus staff try to make a quick getaway from Wakefield"
Aaron
"New electronic traffic signs are much clearer, claims government spokesman"
Dave Holden
"EBay advisor is now available from all.." (thanks Dave but we've had to cut this short due to space concerns - HJ)
Dave Bradforth
"New Skoda owners identification system comes on-line"
Paul Brett
So we don't have a winner this time, which means this issue is a Rollover! Whoooo. So not only could you win a luxury one course mean in a Five Star McDonalds of your choice we will even throw in (Up - Ed) an Extra Hit Apple Pie (bring your own oven gloves).
So lets see if we can get a response to this picture.
Send your entries to hughj@riscworld.co.uk and you too could win a years supply of Sanatogen.
So before I close this column and go down the pub here are this issues amusing photos...
Hugh's picture gallery
Firstly some good advice...
Although this probably isn't good advice...
I'm not sure what I can say about this...
And to be honest this pretty mush speaks for itself as well...
Matt Thompson with the latest news for Iyonix owners.
Last month's column was a bit on the thin side, but thankfully this month there is more content, helped no doubt by the recent Wakefield show, which included a number of software updates. Unfortunately there is still no release of Oregano 3, but it seems the project is still alive and should happen, it's just a case of when.
Also there is talk of a new RISC OS 5 ROM release at some point soon, this could be a payable update this time and one of the features will be that USB 2 will be put into ROM. This will decrease boot up time, which is good news. (This update may have even happened by the time this goes to electronic print as Castle releases appear out of nowhere) anyway on with the stuff that is available.
MessengerPro
The MessengerPRO updates keep coming and we are now at V4.12 - this new version sees a number of changes which include better control of distribution lists, a new address book system a feature which allows the program to read emails out loud, plus the email editor program has also been updated.
In addition to the updated program there are new printed manuals available for £8 inclusive. They are exactly the same as the original manual supplied with MessengerPRO but have been significantly updated to include the developments of the program over the years and is well worth obtaining especially as printed manuals aren't that common anymore. Indeed give me a printed manual over an electronic one any day, simply because you can take it and read it anywhere at all.
Netfetch
This is the broadband equivalent of Dialup and this new release takes it up to V2.20. This new version is much faster at downloading emails - it is said to be up to 5 times faster, I don't know what the exact speed increase is, but there is no doubt about it that the email/news downloading is definitely much quicker. The RSS fetching feature has also been updated along with a few other bug fixes.
Grapevine
This program has had a lot of work done to it over recent months, the current version is 2.11 and although there were a few some problems with V2.10 on Iyonix machines - mine in particular - the problems were soon dealt with. This, the latest version, runs fine. A big thank you to both Andrew at R Comp and the Grapevine author Alan Wrigley for their assistance and beta test versions to help get it working - it's very much appreciated.
For more information on the new versions of these programs and the new printed MessengerPRO manual contact rcomp@rcomp.co.uk or see the website at
Easiwriter
Updates to Easiwriter keep coming, now at V8.60, this version adds a number of new features to the program, a list of changes in V8.60 can be found at
This is a payable upgrade and the cost of upgrading will depend on which version you have, upgrades from the previous version V8.54 costs £20.00, and upgrades to the latest version from older versions will cost more. Check the price guide at
!ID3TagED
Another update to this excellent MP3 tag creation utility, now at version 0.21 and this release features a few changes and tweaks, you can download this new version from
Star Fighter 3000
Since the last column there has been a small update to the classic game Starfighter 3000. The game is now at V3.08 and this new version includes some changes which improve the running of the game but aren't changes that are obvious, never the less it's all welcome development. This update is available from
Chuckie Egg
One of the all time classic 8 bit games is Chuckie Egg, and the RISC OS version has now been updated by Alan Buckley to run on 32 bit machines, originally written for RISC OS by Michael Foot, it is a faithful update of the BBC Micro version and is still as good today as it was back then.
This screenshot is from the BBC Micro version running on 6502em - I couldn't get a screengrab to work properly from the new version, I assume this is because of the screenmodes being used, however they look the same anyway.
Download the latest version of RISC OS Chuckie Egg from
Z80Em
Z80em is the RISC OS ZX Spectrum emulator, and was updated last year to Version 4 which, amongst a number of improvements, made it 32 bit compatible. However there was a problem with a sound module which wasn't 32 bit compatible, therefore many 128K games failed to work or if they did work they were silent. This problem has now been resolved and Z80em is now fully 32 bit compatible and the previous problem games now work perfectly.
Jet Set Willy5 (ZX Hero) - One of the games that now works with the new version of Z80em.
To obtain this upgrade to Version 4.00 of Z80em, contact the author Michael Borcherds at mrb@borcherds.co.uk and he will send you the upgrade, many thanks to Colin Ferris for making this module 32 bit compatible.
StrongED
This text editor program has also had a recent update, now at version 4.67, this release includes a number of bug fixes and improvements, the latest version of StrongED can be downloaded from
Ebay and Paypal on RISC OS
There have been problems with getting Ebay and Paypal to work properly with the selection of RISC OS browsers available, however I seem to have found a way of using Ebay reliably so I thought I would mention it here incase it is of use to anyone else.
Using Oregano 2, you need to make sure the "Enable Scripting" option is switched off - this is done by selecting 'Choices' from the program icon bar menu, then select 'Scripting' this is the 8th tab across, and then make sure 'Enable Scripting' is unticked as shown in the picture below, and then click on Save.
Ebay does seem to work well under these conditions - however it is not totally 100% reliable and it will crash occasionally but it is much more stable and usable than it would be if scripting was enabled.
If you are using Paypal to pay for anything then you will need to return to the choices menu and re-tick 'Enable Scripting' otherwise the transaction will get stuck and you will be unable to complete it, you do this once you are into the PayPal website.
I have found this method works successfully - hopefully we will see Cookies working very soon on Netsurf which will resolve the Paypal situation and hopefully let me log into Ebay as well. With the release of Oregano3 at some point this problem will hopefully become a thing of the past.
It is also worth mentioning that RISC OS Firefox works fine with Ebay/Paypal but it is rather slow, but it does work.
Talking of Ebay, a new magazine has appeared on the newstands, going by the name of Ebay Advisor - it is produced by Alligata Media and edited by David Bradforth.
The magazine is not platform specific, instead it is about general use of Ebay and Paypal, with hints, tips, advice and much more, therefore any user of any platform can read it and make use of the content. It even has an advert for the Wakefield RISC OS show in it!
Ebay Advisor costs £4.99 and is available from WHSmiths or buy it online at
RISC PC Keyboard on the Iyonix
I don't know about other Iyonix users, but personally I don't go a lot on the standard keyboard that comes with the Iyonix. It may have changed recently but the one that was supplied originally I thought was a bit lightweight and not a particularly good keyboard.
I always thought it was a shame I couldn't continue using my Risc PC keyboard - but the lack of a PS2 interface on the Iyonix put an end to that idea. However after using my Risc PC again for a short while I decided that it's keyboard is so much better to use than the standard Iyonix one and set about getting it connected up.
An easy job this, I bought a USB>PS2 cable, which as you've probably guessed has a USB connection at one end and a PS2 connection at the other end, so with one of these in place the good old Acorn Risc PC keyboard was back up and running, and it seems to work perfectly.
Finally Bug Hunter In Space which appeared on last months CD will run fine on the Iyonix using Aemulor Pro, great to see this classic game back, it would be even better if the original Bug Hunter could make a re-appearance as well and maybe some more titles in Minerva's back catalogue. Some great games were released by them in early days of RISC OS.
Supersnake
This is an update of an old RISC OS game to make it work with the Iyonix, written by Paul Vigay. Supersnake is based on the arcade game of the same or similar name - you know the one, you control a snake which eats the things on the screen which make it get longer and longer until it takes over the screen.
Supersnake is a shareware game and if you like it then you are asked to pay £5.00 to upgrade to a version with more levels and options, if you don't upgrade then you get a cut down limited demo version.
You can download Iyonix Supersnake from
And so we reach the end of another column. If you have any comments, questions, help or advice, about anything Iyonix related - then the Iyonix Issues column can be contacted at Iyonix@riscos.org.
After careful overnight monitoring the letters page has recovered enough to be allowed home...
The page that everyone loves is making a sterling recovery, so what have our readers been saying to us recently?
Dear Editor,
When I renewed my subscription to Qercus early in October last year, a note
on the renewal form stated that the next issue was about to go to the
printers. When nothing had appeared.
By the end of the year I tried to telephone the publisher, but the only
response was a recorded message to the effect that "the person you are
calling is unavailable at present", there was no response to a written enquiry.
In February this year I wrote to the trading standards office in Manchester
in case it had some information. and several weeks later received me
following response from the trading standards office in Hereford:
"I can confirm that according to the Companies House website the status of
the Company (Finnybank Ltd) at this time is 'Proposed to strike off'."
"Therefore at the moment there is little chance that you will be able to obtai
any redress until the company is wound up and a liquidator is appointed. Onc
this has occurred the details of any liquidator will be shown on the Companies Hous
website, Therefore my advice so you is to monitor the website (www.companieshouse.gov.uk
until these details appear so that you may contact them."
I infer from this that the publisher of Qercus is bankrupt, so I was very
surprised to read in your report on the Wakefield Show in the June issue of
RISC World that John Cartmell gave a talk about Qercus magazine, and hope
that he wasn't taking subscriptions,
Mr A.J. Beasiey
This is a difficult one. Qercus is certainly late, well, 9 months late so far. As you are no doubt aware John Cartmell has offered a number of reasons for the delay, but has been saying for months that the next issue as at the printers. I'm sorry but that simply doesn't wash any longer. The delay in getting Qercus out the door is a huge embarrassment for the entire RISC OS community. However let's look at the situation regarding the erstwhile publishers of Qercus, Finnybank Limited.
The company Finnybank Limited (company number 04555426) was dissolved on the 25th of April 2006. Looking at the Companies House website it seems that the reason the company was dissolved was that it had failed in it's statutory obligations with regard to filing accounts. Accounts were due to be filed by the 31st of August 2005, but none had been filed. In addition a company return was due on the 4th of November 2004, again none had been filed. Companies can be dissolved even if they are in profit if they do not abide by the regulations, and it seems that Finnybank Limited did not do so.
So that sounds like the end of it you would think. However, a new company called Finnybank Ltd (not Finnybank Limited) was set up on the 5th of May 2006. This new company (company number 05807640) looks like it is continuing in the tradition of the old one and hasn't yet filed any paperwork. Now lets see if we can untangle this a little. Anyone who paid for a Qercus subscription before the 25th of April 2006 will have paid the old company, which no longer exists. Anyone who paid after this date will have paid the new company. The new company certainly seems to have taken on the assets of the old company, the question is, has it also taken on the liabilities? There is only one way to find out, ask for your money back and see what happens.
I don't like this sort of activity one bit. I've seen this sort of behaviour before with dodgy double glazing companies. One company goes bust and another one with an almost identical name springs up with all the assets of the old one, but none of the liabilities, usually with regard to guarantees etc. I am concerned about this sort of behaviour. I would be much happier of John Cartmell stopped messing around on the newsgroups and got on with the job in hand. I can only suggest that anyone who isn't happy should pursue the matter with John himself. If that fails then perhaps it might be worth contacting trading standards again and provide them with the information about both companies.
Now lets move on to a more pleasant subject...
Dear Aaro
The human mind seems to be quite predisposed to noticing pattern
and perceiving things as amazing coincidences when, in fact
probability indicates that because there are so many amazin
coincidences that CAN happen, but mostly don't, the few that d
happen aren't actually all that amazing after all.
So it's probably not an amazing coincidence, and it's even mor
likely that it's not even a slightly dull coincidence or, in fact
not even a coincidence at all, that while reading the latest issu
of RISCWorld I spotted a pattern - not least because that patter
involves RISCWorld.
Specifically, whenever RISCWorld arrives, I've only ever rea
about half of the previous issue, so I will invariably then finis
reading that before making a start on the latest issue - whic
I'll get half way through before being distracted by somethin
else (probably either a pattern or something that isn't remotel
interesting, let alone amazing, irrespective of whether or no
it's a coincidence) and subsequently forget to read the rest o
the issue until the next one arrives to serve as a reminder.
One example amongst many of the problems this presents me is tha
I can't enter the caption contest on Hugh Jampton's page, sinc
when I come to read it the results have already been publishe
(although I won't actually get around to reading those result
until the next issue arrives).
With this in mind, I have decided to offer an entry to the NEX
issue's caption contest now, even though I have absolutely no ide
what the picture will be. So, with no further ado, my caption fo
the RW7.2 caption contest is as follows:
"And in conclusion, gentlemen, it is plain to see that th
planetary core is in fact a very big ball of belly button fluff."
Cheers,
Vince M Hudd
Thanks for this. I don't think this is a coincidence. When the new issue arrives it acts as a reminder to finish reading the last issue, before starting on the new one. This pattern of behaviour needs to be broken, so I have e-mailed you a reminder about finishing the last issue before this one arrives, hopefully that will correct the imbalance and mean that you will be freshly invigorated once the new issue arrives.
Moving on to the preemptive caption for the competition, this could prove interesting. I've passed this e-mail onto Hugh. This now means that when he selects his picture for this issues caption he will already know what the answer is supposed to be. This could cause all sort of potential problems, possibly including the word "quantum", but certainly not including the words "venting plasma from the warp nacelles". Put another way, your action, by sending the e-mail might have influenced future events in unpredictable ways. Much in the same way that a butterfly flapping it's wings in the rain forests of Brazil could easily cause knock-on effects culminating in the stuff I've won on eBay actually turning up.
Lets move on to something else related to past issues of RISCWorld.
Hi Aaron,
I have recently subscribed to RISCWorld and took out the DVD compilation o
volumes 1-6 option.
After reading the article on the debate between emulation and hardware fo
RISC OS, I am pleased to inform both the reviewers that I purchased VIRTUA
RPC-SE (later upgraded to SA) and found my interest in RISC OS had bee
rekindled. I dusted down my Risc PC StrongARM and started to use it again.
upgraded some of my most frequently used programs and upped the system t
RISC OS 4.39.
I use the emulator on my laptop at work as the ones there are all Window
PCs and I find RISC OS so much easier to work with. There are some program
I have that allow me to use files I have created on both my Risc PC an
Windows (Artworks and Xara Xtreme to name 2) which can only be a good thing.
So I say that BOTH options are good, as in the case of emulation remindin
people of what they're missing and of purchasing new hardware to support ou
dwindling suppliers.
On a personal note, may I ask subscribers if they could help with th
following:
After upgrading to Adjust, my Cumana SCSI II card no longer function
correctly, so is there a way around this?
I have the original Artworks 1.56 CD and some files on it will not load int
2.34. I seem to recall a way around this but I cannot remember the fix fo
it. I seem to recall it meant having to alter the files, loading them int
Edit and stripping some info from the file and then resaving.
Thanks for a great 'magazine'.
Regards
Peter Dalziel.
Many thanks for the letter. There certainly seemed to be a big divide between those who welcomed the idea of emulation and those who saw it as the beginning of the end. However things have moved on and I think that most RISC OS users now realise that there is room for both the real and virtual machines. I know that a lot of VirtualAcorns are actually used on Laptops, where no "real" RISC OS solution exists. At the end of the day a computer is still simply s tool for a job. Ideally you use the best tools available. Some of the jobs I do are done on RISC OS, because it's better, some are done on Windows because that's better for those particular tasks.
I can't offer any help with the Cumana card. Have you tried asking Canon Computing as I believe they now handle Cumana products. Another suggestion would be to ask RISCOS Ltd, as they may have encountered the problem before. With regard to ArtWorks, the man to ask is Martin Wuerthner, because if he doesn't know I doubt that anyone does.
Well that's it for this issue. If you would like to write to us then use the following e-mail address savetheletterspage@riscworld.co.uk. I'm off to find out how much a 30% stake in Castle Technology Limited is worth...
Aaron Timbrell
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/PCCASE/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Fitting a RiscPC into a PC case
Fitting a RiscPC into a PC case
Dave Holden takes out his toolkit...
Part 3 - Fitting the internals.
In the previous instalment I covered modifying the computer case, and this brought us to the stage where we are ready to start fitting things into it.
During the fabrication of the back of the case the mount for the rear of the motherboard was constructed. It now needs a single mounting pillar and a support along its front edge. This front support is very important as it must also restrain the motherboard to prevent it being pushed forward when leads are plugged into the rear sockets.
On a "real" RiscPC case this is done with a series of small lugs and clips moulded into the bottom of the case. It is not easy (or desirable) to duplicate this, although I have seen one example where this section of the RiscPC case was cut out as a long rectangle and bolted to the bottom of the new case. A much better method is to make a support of some type with a groove into which the front edge of the motherboard sits. This can then be screwed to the bottom of the case.
The method I suggest is shown below.
This mount supports and restrains the entire front edge of the motherboard and can be simply fastened to the base of the case with either self tapping screws or bolts. It is constructed from a couple of pieces of 13 mm. plastic angle, which can be purchased quite cheaply in most DIY stores.
The diagram below shows how this is constructed.
The large "L" shaped piece on the left has its vertical arm trimmed to suit the height of the motherboard above the case base. This will vary according to the case being used, and it's possible that this might be larger than 13 mm, in which case you would need to use 20 mm angle instead.
The inverted "L" shaped piece on the right is made from another piece of plastic angle by cutting the horizontal side so that it projects no more than about 4 mm. over the motherboard. The piece cut off is then used as a spacer to make the groove into which the motherboard is seated deeper.
The three components are then stuck together using superglue, which works well on this type of plastic. If you look closely at the end of the support in the enlarged version of the first picture you should be able to see the construction clearly. You will also see that I've used some small self tapping screws to hold the assembly together as well as glue. This isn't really necessary, but I prefer it as a security measure.
Note that the protruding lip on the left hand end of the support has been cut away. This is necessary because the hard drive connector is very close to the edge of the motherboard in this area. The lip must therefore be cut away to clear this allowing the bracket to continue on the underside of the motherboard to support it when the drive cables are being inserted. It is easier to do this before the assembly is glued together.
Incidentally, if you do decide to make a mounting bracket of this type, before you start do first read the part of the article about making a support for the backplane. It might save you some extra work later.
An alternative, and a method I have often often myself, is to use a PCB guide rail. This is simply a piece of plastic with a groove which is used to support plug-in printed circuit boards in electronic equipment. However, unless you just happen to have one of these of an appropriate size lying about it probably wouldn't be cost effective.
The picture below shows a typical guide rail, and also illustrates how you can very easily screw it to a small strip of wood to make a suitable support. This works very well, even though it does look rather crude, and it can be secured with small woodscrews through the bottom of the case. Using a strip of plastic angle in a similar manner is equally effective and gives a much neater appearance.
As well as the front support for the motherboard there is also a single screw which can be found just to the right of the front SIMM socket. If you have made a good support for the front of the motherboard then this is not absolutely essential, but it provides lateral location for the motherboard and also ensures a good earth to the case metalwork. Of course, if your case has a large hole in this area (as some do) this may not be possible, but it is best to fit this support if possible.
The correct method is to use a proper internally threaded pillar. This is then secured with a screw passing through the bottom of the case and the motherboard is fastened with another screw through it, just as in the original Acorn case. The cost of a pillar like this is negligible, but it's not the sort of thing you can normally buy one off. If you don't have something suitable to hand a good alternative is to use a 3 mm. set screw and either a small unthreaded spacer retained by a nut at the top or a series of nuts. The motherboard is then secured with a nut on the set screw which protrudes through it. Not quite as convenient or neat, but just as effective. The diagram below illustrates this.
It is very important that whatever method you use it is exactly the correct height. If it is either slightly higher or slightly lower than the front support then it will force the PCB to bend. You should therefore make the front mounting bracket first and only when this is made and fitted should you fit the support pillar. It is a lot easier to adjust the pillar to suit the height of the front support than the other way round. As it is most unlikely that you will find something exactly the correct height you will have to adjust it either by cutting or filing or adding packing washers under it's base.
The next picture shows the motherboard fitted into the case, using a front mount made from plastic angle as described earlier. You can clearly see the cutaway by the hard drive socket and the three self tapping screws securing the bracket to the bottom of the case. You can also see that as there was a depressed section in the bottom of the case the mounting bracket had to be extended to the right to bridge this.
When you get to this stage you might want to install the power supply, processor, RAM and hard drive temporarily and power up the machine just to make sure that everything is working OK. However, there's still one more piece of metalwork that you will probably want to do before you can complete the electrics.
The backplane support
In an Acorn case the backplane is supported by the internal case structure. This obviously isn't present in a PC case. As described in the first part of this series it is not absolutely essential to do this, especially with a two slot backplane. but with a four slot backplane it is advisable because even if you never insert or remove a podule without supporting the backplane by just moving the computer the weight and leverage of an unsupported four slot backplane can put considerable strain on the socket on the motherboard.
There are two main methods you can use to achieve this. With either you will first need something to actually hold the backplane circuit board. This must, of course, be insulated. You could use a short length of PCB guide rail of the type previously illustrated, or you could use the same techniques previously described to make the motherboard support.
On the right of the following picture is shown a short length (about 12 cm.) of support fabricated from 13 mm. plastic angle in exactly the same way as the motherboard support except that it is made "back to front" with the mounting flange turned under the PCB. Since the dimensions aren't critical you can simply cut this at the same time as the motherboard support, gluing it together the other way about (look at the earlier diagram and imagine the large "L" shaped piece with the bottom of the "L" pointing to the left instead of to the right). You can then cut it in half to make two pieces each about 6 cm. long.
The first method of supporting the backplane was illustrated in Part 2 of this series, consisting of two pieces of 13 mm. aluminium angle bolted together to form a "T" shape. A plastic section is then bolted to either end of the crosspiece of the "T" and the bottom of the "T" is then bolted to the drive cradle. If you examine the illustration in Part 2 the method of construction should be self evident.
The case being used now has a member running from back to front just under the power supply (see earlier picture). This type of strut is quite common in PC cases and if yours has one then it can be used to brace the backplane.
The picture above shows a piece of aluminium cut and shaped to form a bracket. The following picture shows it with the plastic strip cut in two and bolted to it. This is best done by drilling the aluminium, temporarily attaching the plastic strips to the backplane with tape or a rubber band and then marking the holes in the plastic using the aluminium bracket. This ensures that they're spaced exactly the right distance apart. If they're too close the backplane will be difficult to slide in and out, if they're too far apart it will be a sloppy fit and may even slip out.
The two previous pictures should make the shape of the bracket clear. The exact dimensions will, of course, depend upon the case you are using. I have put a "kink" in the bracket so that the support is moved down from the top of the backplane, and you will probably need to do something similar. Again the amount of this "kink" will depend on the case. I have also cut away part of the bracket to give it a triangular appearance. This isn't really necessary, it just looks better.
The following picture shows the brace installed, which should make everything clear. Points to note are that the bolts that attach the support to the strut on the PC case should be far enough apart to ensure that the support can't move back to front. This, and hence the dimension on the bracket, will depend upon the stiffness of the strut. Some are quite flimsy. With the case I was using the strut is quite solid so they are spaced at 5 cm.
The best way to position the support correctly is to fit the motherboard and backplane with a podule installed in the top socket. this ensures that the backplane is the correct distance from the back of the case. With the backplane held firmly in place by the podule you can then fit the support and drill the holes to secure it to the case strut. (The same method is used it you are using a "T" strut as described previously). If you don't happen to have a podule you can use then the correct distance from the outside of the case to the face of the backplane PCB is 76 mm..
I have seen backplanes supported by struts or plates to the back of the computer, but as the picture above shows the method described gives good, clear access to all three RAM sockets, much better than in a normal RiscPC case whereas bracing it to the back of the case inevitably means that the struts obstruct this access.
Finally, there is no reason why you couldn't use an aluminium plate to brace the backplane from the drive cage. Imagine the plate in the picture extended forward and bolted to the drive cage instead of extended to the side. In this case just a single mounting screw will be sufficient.
The power supply
I will assume that you are using an AT power supply rather than an ATX type, though I'll try to cover the latter in a future article.
The leads for the floppy and hard drives can be left exactly as they are, but you will need to make a power connector for the RiscPC motherboard. The picture below shows a typical motherboard power connector from an AT power supply. Almost all power supplies use standard colour codes for the various supply voltages. The ones we are interested in are;
Red - plus 5 volts
Black - 0 volts or Earth
Yellow - plus 12 volts
Blue - minus 12 volts
Some older AT power supplies use orange instead of yellow for +12 volts, but in this case they will have almost certainly used orange for the disc drive connector 12 volt leads, so it should be obvious. Otherwise orange is the code for 3.3 volts in later power supplies.
You will need two 5v (red) leads, two 0v (black) leads, one +12v (yellow) lead and one -12v (blue) lead. The remainder are not required. The best way to get rid of them is to open up the power supply and unsolder them from the PCB, but if you don't want to do this then you could simply cut them short and fasten them neatly out of the way after sealing up their ends. If you are installing an A7000 motherboard the connector is different but you will require the same six leads.
Although it is possible to purchase a connector for the motherboard they're not readily available through retail sources and so expensive for a single unit. However there are two alternative solutions.
Firstly you could use a connector taken from an actual RiscPC power supply. Removing the leads from the connector block is a fiddly job and so the easiest way to do this is just cut the leads and connect them to the leads from the new power supply, tidying the joins by enclosing them with heat shrink sleeving. If you want to hide the joins you could shorten the leads so that the joins are concealed inside the power supply casing. The advantage of this method is that you will have a "proper" power connector but the disadvantage is that you will render the old power supply useless in the process. You might not think this is important but a good, working RiscPC power supply (especially if it's the 103 watt variety) does have a significant value if sold on ebay.
The second method is to use six separate connectors and just plug them individually into the motherboard. This still looks quite neat and as you won't need to remove the motherboard power supply leads very often it's not much of a disadvantage. Furthermore the connectors required are readily available since you can use the female ones from disc drive power connectors, and these can be purchased from suppliers such as CPC or even Maplin or you can just "canibalise" any old power supply. Having soldered on the connector it is best to use some sort of sleeving over each lead. This not only serves to make it look much neater but also acts as an insulator on the outside of the connector to ensure that they don't touch together and cause a short circuit if you switch on the power supply while they're not plugged in. The following picture shows this method with heat shrink sleeving placed over each connector. As you can see it does give a neat appearance. Also in the photo are a couple of connectors of the type used.
The next diagram shows the power connections on the RiscPC motherboard. This is included in case you are starting out with a bare motherboard and so don't have an existing power plug to refer to.
Although the A7000 and A7000+ motherboard requires the same six leads as the RiscPC the power connector is different. Once again you may have difficulty getting hold of the correct type as it's slightly unusual (although as it has a 0.15 inch pitch you might be able to find something that will fit) so the best solution here might be to remove the leads from an existing A7000 power supply, especially as these have little resale value. Note that although there are only six power leads the connector is a seven way type, one connector being unused. The following diagram shows the connections.
The speaker
Before we get to the final wiring up it is quite possible that your PC case may not have a speaker, or if it does it might be a tiny piezo sounder (a little back cylinder about 1 cm. in diameter). These are now becoming quite common as they're much cheaper than a "proper" speaker and PCs almost invariably use a sound card and external speakers so all that is required of the internal speaker is the ability to emit a few 'beeps'. If you do have one of these, or no speaker at all, then you will probably want to fit a normal speaker.
You could transfer the speaker from the RiscPC, but it's a pretty feeble device, though the A7000 one is fine, but all that is required is a small 8 ohm speaker about 5 cm. diameter. If you don't want to buy a new one then almost every home has a collection of old portable radios or cassette players that haven't been used for years, probably contain leaky batteries that have done so much damage they have made the thing useless anyway, and could well have just the right type of speaker. So before you buy one take a look in the back of that cupboard where all the old stuff seems to congregate (you know the one I mean).
If the case wasn't fitted with a speaker then it may not have anywhere for you to mount one. What it probably will have is somewhere on the front of the case for a fan. This will be some sort of pierced grid and you can fasten a small speaker to this. You can either use a couple of plastic cable ties to fasten it in place or just a few blobs of silicone bath sealant, making sure it doesn't come into contact with the speaker cone.
The final connections
With all the metalwork completed, the hardware mounted in the case and the power supply ready to go there is only one final job to do, the leads for the power and hard drive indicator LEDs, the speaker and the reset switch.
The next picture shows the PC leads for these. These follow an almost universal standard, although some proprietary systems such as Hewlett Packard, Dell etc. may vary.
You can see that each connector is identified with its function. If you want to be really fussy then you could fit the same type of connector as used on the RiscPC, but it isn't really necessary as although the PC connectors are different they fit perfectly. All you need to do is switch a few wires around.
If you examine these connectors you will see that the metal inserts are retained by a small plastic "flap". This can be raised slightly with the point of a small knife or screwdriver and then the wire with the connector can be withdrawn.
The four warning LED leads on the RiscPC use a single four way connector and the speaker lead uses a two way connector, so the first job is to re-arrange the PC leads to suit. Withdraw the leads from the speaker connector which will give you a four way connector block. Now before you fir the leads superglue a small piece of scrap plastic to the outside of the connector. The purpose of this is to thicken the connector on one side so that it can't be inserted the wrong way round. Remove the two leads from the connector marked "HD LED" and fit them to the front two slots in the connector, yellow at the front, white next. Now remove the two leads from the connector marked "Power LED" and fit them to the rear two leads in the connector, white at the back, blue in the 3rd slot. You should now have something that looks like the next picture.
One of the two way connectors removed from either the HD or power LED leads can now be fitted to the speaker lead. The diagram below shows the layout of the this group of connectors on a RiscPC motherboard. The orientation of the speaker is unimportant, but the two LEDs do need to be connected the right way round. However, if the the colours of your leads don't correspond with those shown don't worry, if they're fitted the wrong way round nothing will be harmed, the LED simply won't work so you can try the lead the other way.
The A7000 and A7000+ have a similar set of six connectors at the front corner of the motherboard divided into a block of four and a block of two. However, these are not quite the same as the RiscPC. The block of two is at the front, and this is not the speaker connector but a 12 volt supply for the fan. If you plug the speaker into this you'll just fry it. The block of four is identical to the connectors on the RiscPC so can be treated in exactly the same way. The speaker connector on the A7000 and A7000+ can be found at the rear right hand corner of the motherboard, just in front of the reset button, labelled "LK5".
If you have a Series 3 RiscPC motherboard (the one with built in 16 bit sound) then you can connect the Reset button to the two pins shown in the diagram below. The connector on the end of the lead should just push on to the two pins. If you don't have a Series 3 RiscPC then if you want a working front panel reset button you will have to solder a pair of leads onto the middle two pins of the actual RiscPC reset button where they protrude under the PCB.
Finally....
I have now covered just about everything you need to know to fit a RiscPC or A7000 motherboard into a PC case. Obviously exactly how you proceed will depend upon the case you are intending to use. Some are easy, some are difficult, and some are very difficult. The case described in this article was fairly straightforward and so almost anyone with the most basic of tools should be able to manage such a conversion.
In general tower cases are easier than desktop cases, and the easiest of all are old AT full tower cases. These will have the correct type of power supply and mains switch which can save quite a bit of fiddly work.
I haven't described installing and wiring up the peripheral devices such as floppy and hard drive, CD ROM etc. There's really nothing difficult about this, in fact it's much easier than doing the same job on a RiscPC.
One final point. In view of my earlier article on RiscPC cooling you might have wondered why I haven't made any mention of it here. The principle reason is that with a large PC case, especially a tower case, without all the internal plastic struts and obstructions of a RiscPC case there is so much room for the air to circulate unimpeded that there really is no cooling problem. Most RiscPC cooling problem are caused by the design of the case, not because the components require any special cooling.
To finish off here is a picture of the computer. At this time the only things still to be fitted were the floppy drive and CD ROM. It was actually running when this picture was taken undergoing soak testing of memory and hard drive.
Dave Holden
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/PD/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, PD World
PD World
Paul Brett with the latest freeware and PD releases for RISC OS.
This is likely to be a shorter column than usual, due to the lower than usual number of new releases in recent weeks. I am not concerned by this as PD development always slows over the summer (damn right, who want's to write code in 30+ degrees - ED) and picks up again once the autumn starts. Despite the hot weather I have still been sent a number of newly released RISC OS applications, so let us take a look at the latest ones.
Bingo - Kevin Wells
Bingo is, basically, a random bingo number generator. It produces a random number between 1 and 90 displays the number, just like a Bingo caller picking balls from the machine. It also keeps a record of each number called so that it won't produce duplicated numbers.
Bingo
The program is very simply to use. Simply load it as normal and click on the iconbar icon to open a new blank set of numbers. Click on the Draw Number button to draw a number. A new window will open on screen showing a large display of the number chosen. Shout out the number then close this new window using the button provided. The person operating the program can just continue calling numbers until one of those playing bingo shouts "House". I can only think of one improvement to the program, it would be nice it it used a speech synthesizer to actually speak each number as it's generated.
DRU100 - Dave Higton
Some time ago we featured a driver for the DRU-100 USB radio for use with the Castle Technology USB stack, as found in the Iyonix and in Castle's plug in USB podules for the RiscPC. Now Dave Higton has ported his driver to the Simtec stack, as found in the A9Home and in the Stuart Tyrell Developments Unipod. Although Simtec have already produced a driver for the DRU-100 the one written by Dave does have some advantages. Firstly it can be remotely controlled by another application, for example to record a number of programs from different radio stations at different times. Secondly, according to Dave, there are:
"...proper links to an archive of remote control example and test programs so that interested users can experiment with using other applications to tune and turn on/off their DRU-R100 and/or AVerMedia USB FM radios."
The software is released under GPL (a Gnu Public Licence).
Draw to SVG - Steven Simpson
Draw to SVG allows you to convert RISC OS draw files into SVG (Scaleble Vector Graphics) files for use on other platforms. The program needs to be installed correctly in order for it to work. Firstly open the DrawSVG2.zip file. Inside this you will find a copy of !Boot. Drop this over your existing boot sequence to install the SVG converter into !Boot.Library. Now you can extract the main SVG converter from the DrawSVG1.zip file. Draw to SVG allows you to set up a large number options by clicking Menu over the iconbar icon and clicking on "Options...".
Draw to SVG
The application is very easy to use, simply drag a drawfile onto it's icon and a save dialogue box will appear. From here you can drag out your converted SVG file. If you need to exchange vector graphics files with other people who don't use RISC OS then Draw to SVG can be a very good way of doing it.
Tau - Tim Birks and Peter Killworth
Tau is a fully featured graph drawing package that compares exceptionally well to full commercial offerings on other platforms. This is a very comprehensive program and I simply can't do it justice in a couple of paragraphs. I can only suggest you experiment with it yourself. Watching it automatically update the graph as you alter the data is a joy to behold.
Tau in action
Tau was originally written by Tim Binks and has now been taken over by Peter Killworth, who had this to say about Tau...
"!Tau (RISC OS only) is by far the nicest graph-drawing software I've ever used, designed to give a publishable-quality graph first time round. It aims to give the user complete control over how the graph will look, with defaults that give a really good graph immediately (if you don't like the default settings, just change them till you're happy and save your own). You can save style files to speed up reprocessing of similar data sets."
"It will also do computations on your data, sort them, normalise them, fit best fit lines and curves through them, all via a huge spreadsheet-like area which lets the user drop in several datasets in various places. It works in colour (useful for computer presentations) and / or line styles, all of which are adjustable. It permits you to bound the data area shown (so that extreme values are blocked off); it will autoscale if you wish. The most recent additions are full 24-bit colour on all drawing options and a quick way to change which columns are plotted."
Example output from Tau
Signing off
That is all from me for this issue, I shall undoubtedly return in the October issue with more software delights to tempt even the most jaded palette.
Paul Brett
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/SDL/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, Neil White
SDL for RISC OS
Neil White
Before I start I feel that I should point out that I am not a professional programmer and that this is not intended to be a in depth technical review, but a look at how to write and build a basic SDL program on RISC OS. I have been using SDL and GCC for a few years now, so I have a enough knowledge on the subject to just about make my games work. Hopefully I can pass this knowledge on to you and if you have always been wondering about delving into programming C and using GCC perhaps today is a good day to try it out. GCC can be a bit daunting to a first time user, but with a little patience and understanding you will soon be tweaking your C code and Makefiles like a true botcher hacker like myself. A basic understanding of C code syntax is assumed.
A quick look at GCC
GCC, or the GNU Compiler Collection is a free open source collection of source code compilers, there are many supported languages and it is available on many operating systems, for the purposes of this article we shall only be using the C compiler, and make tools.
When you write your code it is simply a text file containing source code, you need to tell GCC what to do with it either by writing a long instruction on the command line or by using a makefile. The makefile tells GCC amongst a gazillion other options, where the source code is, what compiler to use, any libraries required and the name of the output executable. Below is the makefile we will be using for our SDL program.
From my experience, no single person on the face of this planet actually knows all of what Makefiles are capable of, if it doesn't work you're best just hacking around until it works, the Makefile above tells GCC the final binary TARGET will be called !RunImage, and next tells GCC all source files are to be compiled into !RunImage.
CC = tells GCC what compiler to use.
CFLAGS = are any extra instructions we need to give the compiler in this case -O2 means double optimisation, -Wall means all warnings will be displayed on compilation, programs can compile with warnings, but not errors.
-ISDL: is an include directory, defined by the !Boot or !Run file of the !SDL directory that holds the library files.
Anything starting -D means we are defining something for within the compiled code.
-D_REENTRANT means we tell the compiler that the code can be called from multiple processes (read the disclaimer).
-DDATA_PREFIX='"<rwsdlex1$$dir>"' means that anywhere in the C code, loading images for example DATA_PREFIX will use <rwsdlex1$dir> $ is a character code used by C compilers, so by using two $'s it actually tells the compiler we only want one.
LDFLAGS = is where we tell the compiler what libraries we want to use, in this case just the main SDL library.
$(TARGET) = means the makefile will is using the TARGET= string we previously defined and this is where we actually send all the previously defined instructions to the compiler and it (hopefully) compiles.
Each source file is made into an object file, which are then compiled into the final executable, here we only have one small source file called main.c which is compiled to main.o larger programs will have several source files and header files which hold function definitions and variable definitions.
There is much debate about file naming conventions in GCC, and as RISC OS doesn't use dot type extensions (program.exe) but gcc does, so your C files are called main.c in the makefile, but on disk there is a file called main inside a directory called c, ask the GCCSDK team. That is about the limit on my makefile knowledge, there is a lot more too them and lots of tools related to using them, in theory you can write one makefile, one piece of SDL code and it will compile on any system you have supported in your makefile.
What is SDL?
SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) is a cross-platform multimedia library designed to provide level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, 3D hardware via OpenGL (unsupported on RISC OS) and 2D video framebuffer. It is used by MPEG playback software, emulators and many popular games. Simple DirectMedia Layer is available for RISC OS, Linux, Windows, BeOS, MacOS Classic, MacOS X, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, BSD/OS, Solaris, IRIX, Windows CE, AmigaOS, Dreamcast, Atari, QNX, NetBSD, AIX, OSF/Tru64; SymbianOS and others. RISC OS SDL is mainly maintained by Alan Buckley: The main SDL library web pages are
Basically, if you write a piece of C code using just SDL C functions and standard C functions, it should compile and run on any supported system.
A Look At Some Code:
Below is the source file for the code example we are playing with. Lines beginning with // or text enclose with /* */ are treated as comments by the compiler.
// main.c part of a RISC OS SDL tutorial by Neil Whit
// This line tells the compiler we will be using the SDL librar
#include <SDL/SDL.h>
// This includes the C standard library, for basic maths i/o functions etc
#include <stdlib.h>
// This Includes string.h which has basic string functions
#include <string.h>
// All images, including the actual screen area are defined as surfaces
// here we define a pointer to 'screen' which we will use as the main windows image
// All other images are plotted to this surface to be displayed on screen
SDL_Surface *screen
// This sets aside a surface for where we will keep the Risc World logo
// and a surface we can use for the background
SDL_Surface *background
SDL_Surface *rwlogo
// This sets the variable we will use to get mouse events
SDL_MouseMotionEvent mmevent
// int defines an integer, here for the x and y positions of the mouse
int mousex,mousey
// This defines unsigned 32 bit integers needed, in this case 'secs' an
// 'cents' for holding information about time for control of the speed o
// the program
Uint32 sec, cents
// This sets a pointer we can use for collecting data from a file on disk
FILE *file_ptr
// Some more integers, in this case if we set quit to 1 the code wil
// quit, bounce factor is how much the logo will move, rwx and rwy ar
// the coordinates of the logo and bouncing is used to tell the progra
//if the logo is bouncing or not
int quit = 0,bouncefactor=0,rwy=60,rwx=60,bouncing=0
// This function is used when we want to plot an image to the screen surfac
// SDL_Surface (in this function called image) is the image we are sending t
// the function, x and y are the co-ordinates we sent to the function
void imageplot(SDL_Surface *image, int x, int y
// An SDL_Rect holds the width height and x,y positions of a rectangle
// here we define a SDL rectangle called pos
SDL_Rect pos
// Set the x and y value of the rectangle to the x and y valu
// sent to the functio
pos.x = x
pos.y = y
// Now we blit (plot) the surface image into the screen surfac
// at the x and y positions we sent to the functio
SDL_BlitSurface(image, NULL, screen, &pos)
// Note- all SDL co-ordinates origin from the top left of the surfac
// This function will load the images we want when calle
SDL_Surface *loadimage(char *name
// Define some surfaces for use within this functio
SDL_Surface *surface
SDL_Surface *image
// Define a string to hold the location of the file we want to loa
char path[256]
// In the Makefile we defined DATA_PREFIX as <rwsdlex1$dir>
// this line makes that the start of our files locatio
strcpy(path, DATA_PREFIX)
// Now we add gfx/, the directory the images are store
strcat(path, "gfx/")
// Here we add the name of the file that was sent to the functio
strcat(path, name)
// And we add the extension of the fil
strcat(path,".bmp")
// so now our string 'char' contains '<rwsdlex1$dir>/gfx/image.bmp
// The main SDL library has support for windows bitmap files (bmp) so we ca
// load bmp's without using any other libraries. This line loads the bm
// into the temporary surface we defined for this function
surface = SDL_LoadBMP(path)
// this is a little error trap for if we cant find the file
if (surface == NULL
fprintf(stderr, "Can't load image %s", path)
return NULL
// this tells SDL what colour to treat as transparent
// Set video mode ( x width , y height , Bits per pixel and palette information
if ( (screen=SDL_SetVideoMode(320,320,8, SDL_HWSURFACE|SDL_HWPALETTE)) == NULL
return EXIT_FAILURE
// Calling the loadimage function to load all the images
if (!loadimages()) return EXIT_FAILURE
// Set the title of the SDL window
SDL_WM_SetCaption("Risc World SDL Example 1", 0)
// Tell SDL if we want the cursor or not, in this case we will leave it on ( 1 )
SDL_ShowCursor( 1 )
// Collect time information for controlling the speed of the program
sec = SDL_GetTicks()
// The beginning of the main loop
d
// more time control stuff, here we get the time and wait 8
// centeseconds then continue with the program
cents = SDL_GetTicks()
if (cents < sec + 80) SDL_Delay(sec + 80 - cents)
sec = SDL_GetTicks()
// Calling the checkkeys function to see if the mouse has been clicked
checkkeys()
// Plot the background image
imageplot(background,0,0)
// Plot the Risc World Logo
imageplot(rwlogo,rwx,rwy)
// Move the image if clicked
bouncer()
// SDL_Flip(screen) will redraw the entire screen
SDL_Flip(screen)
// The end of the main loop, if quit has been detected th
// program will stop
while (quit == 0)
// We assume everything went OK and the code quits
return EXIT_SUCCESS
Compiling And Running The Code:
I have supplied a bundled version of GCC with the C compiler and make tools required for this example, usually you would download the bits you need separately, the SharedUlib module is separate because you may have a more recent version, but this on will defiantly work with this example.
Also in the archive is the official SDL documentation in HTML format, !UnixLib, !SDL and the directory containing the example called rwsdlex1.
First double click the !gcc application, this tells RISC OS where GCC is, double click the !SDL application, this tells RISC OS where to find the SDL stuff, and double click the !UnixLib application, again to tell RISC OS where everything is. !UnixLib holds the basic C functions used in the same way !SDL holds the SDL functions we will be using.
Now open the rwsdlex1 directory and double click the Compile obey file, a task window will appear and you can see the commands the Makefile has sent to GCC.
Now your SDL program has compiled! Double click the newly created !RunImage File and SDL window will appear, click in the window and the RISCWorld logo will bounce up and down.
Even if you don't have a clue what that code is all about, why not try changing the height of the bounce, or add a movement left to right as well. Hack away, gcc will tell you what you have done wrong when it compiles if there are any mistakes, the only real way to get your head round C, SDL and Makefiles is to just close your eyes and give it a whack, as it were.
Next time we will look at using the keyboard, using different image file formats with SDL_image, using sound with SDL_mixer and some animation techniques.
Neil White
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/TYPE/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, What's your type?
What's your type?
The type you make use of within any design document can ultimately reflect on how people perceive your product or service. David Bradforth takes a look at how designers can most effectively select a typeface and use it to best effect within their documents.
Type is everywhere, and not just on the (virtual) pages of the magazine you're reading at this moment in time. Take a moment to look around you and you'll see evidence of type. From the train departure board within a station to the warnings on cigarette packets, the text on a loaf of bread to the idents used on television each has a message to convey. It's all about communication through visual markings, using the right text to accompany images; and ultimately to become a great designer takes an understanding of the messages type conveys and how you can manipulate those messages to work for you.
Typography is such a vital part of graphic design, but it gets very little respect. While the computer has made fonts accessible to the many, there are literally thousands (if not millions) of badly designed corporate business brochures, websites and so on that illustrate the need for training.
Having an understanding of your audience is vital when it comes to selecting typography. Hotdog and PC Basics magazines addressed two distinctly different audiences and the type used reflects this.
Selecting the right words for your message is vital; but the way you present it is equally so. Consider a magazine such as Hotdog; if the magazine were presented in a fashion similar to say PC Basics; but with the same content it would not have half the success it does. The reason is simple – you need to understand your audience. PC Basics has an older readership than Hotdog, and it’s an entirely different market.
So how do you go about selecting type successfully?
Using type in context
Typography is basically about communicating a message through the use of a legible pattern of shapes. Back in the early days, it was by carving a message into rock, then progressing over time to the digital layout systems of today. Whether you were using a rock or Ovation Pro, the principle is much the same; to visually stimulate the reader so they have a better understanding of the message you’re trying to convey.
With the introduction of the graphic designer as an artist, type was taken into new territories; forming a part of the design in such a way that occasionally it was impossible to read the text used. Hence one important consideration in typography is this, do you want people to notice the design, or to notice the words but without an understanding of the work that’s gone into it.
Consider the branding for McDonalds, with the ‘M’ logo forming the well-known golden arches. While the menu may change in restaurants around the world the branding is consistent; so whether you’re in the USA, France, Spain or the UK you can always tell a McDonalds from a distance because of the bold yellow branding. Psychologically, the bright colour is attractive to kids with the arched logo indicating fun within.
Where health and wellbeing are the primary aims of a company, the corporate logos take a classic approach in their formation. Using a combination of simple type (Marks & Spencer use the font Optima to good effect within their stores; while their online presence uses a light variant of Helvetica to signify that the company has everything for you) and stylish presentation the impact of type in this sense cannot be understated.
Fonts and feeling
With a quick walk down the high street you’ll quickly notice that the same fonts are used everywhere. Variants of Comic Sans are frequently used where fun is the primary emotion (along with various ‘illustrative’ types that incorporate fun elements into the fonts themselves). If your message is important, a bold type such as Helvetica or Impact is often better. The strength of fonts is key, crucial to the delivery of the message – so using the most appropriate font weights is also important.
When developing your own artwork, it’s worth remembering that despite the variations in styles and fashions the fundamentals of typography have remained the same. While Serif fonts (such as Times and Garamond) can add respectability to a brand, over-using Italics can cheapen the perception of a product.
The use of colour will change the perception of what a product might be. Using bright colours for a business product may lessen its appeal to your target audience. Imagine purchasing photocopy paper with bright red and yellow packaging – it’s an added expense in production and ultimately the customer will go for the product that does the job best for them.
One of the great things about fonts in logos is that you can alter the text of a logo without changing the impression of the font. With McDonalds being a prime example, where various activist websites have produced logos based upon the McDonald’s golden arch design and font, the signage remains familiar regardless of the fact the aim is different.
Changing the meaning of words
What’s important about typography is this. No matter which typeface you set your work in, it will still be the same work. Regardless of whether it’s a 2000 word article, or two words, typography serves as a way to improve the impact of a good quality message.
If you’re developing a branding for a new product line, but there is some flaw in the text side of the branding (or other graphical elements of it) choosing a stylish typeface will not help to correct what is already a fundamental error.
The essence of choosing fonts is to convey tone, style and attitude. Clear, crisp and concise lettering will always have visual appeal, whereas typefaces with more of a flourish to them have their place in headings/promotional items as well.
The right face for the right job
Ultimately when it comes to selecting a typeface to use within a creative piece, whether it’s web or print-based, you’ve got a number of primary considerations to make.
Through the use of Cascading Style Sheets you can use literally any font within a web page. However there’s very little point in selecting a font that only a small percentage of your audience will have access to; hence limiting the overall impact of your site. Sticking to the standard fonts supplied with Windows (Times, Arial and Courier) will ensure that your site maintains the best visual impact and experience across all users’ computers.
On the other hand, using the latest version of Flash there’s nothing to stop you building a Flash project that makes use of each font; although this will ultimately slow down users experiences of your websites and have you running into issues if you need to update quality within the future and don’t have easy access to the fonts used.
In the print sense, selecting the right face comes down to a number of factors. You need to understand the message you’re trying to send to those picking up your item, regardless of what it is. If you’re trying to sell low-fat food to the audience of today, do you have a way of passing on the message that it’s low-fat without including the word ‘fat’ as a part of the branding? Sainsbury’s Be Good to Yourself range is a prime example of a successful implementation of this theory.
Next you need to understand your target audience. If you’re going for a younger audience, the style of typography used will reflect this perhaps using type with somewhat more of a flourish; an older audience appreciates type that’s clear and easy to read, presented appropriately. Using graphical backdrops for a younger audience is acceptable, but if the majority of your audience is a little older than that making the text easy to read should be your priority.
When it comes to physical typography, an understanding of the golden rules of typography will help to ensure that your message is best achieved. They’re certainly there to be broken, but provide useful guidance as to how you can get the most out of type on the printed page. These are:
Don’t mix too many different fonts on a printed page; use at most two on a page and keep them very different. This will ensure that the reader makes more focus on your content rather than the way in which it’s presented
Keep capitals to a minimum; perhaps using them purely for headings on the printed page. Using capitals within body text MAKES IT LOOK LIKE YOU’RE SHOUTING
If you ensure that your text is divided into columns of between 40 and 50 characters, the eye can scan it quickly making it easier to read
Orphans (short lines at the top of a column) and Widows (a single world on a line) just look wrong
Don’t centre text for headers within body text. It makes the page less easy to scan
What’s the point of the typography? Is it the words, or their style? Either way it’s fine, just so long as you state it at the start
Finally take a look at other existing examples around you to get an idea of what’s been achieved before. Plagiarism is nobody’s friend, but taking inspiration from the creative elements around us is a basic element of design. Then, once you go shopping for the right typeface (through www.eff.co.uk or similar) you’ll have a clear idea of what you’re looking for and hence be in a position to better understand which faces are available for your needs.
David Bradforth
ÿÿÿÿISSUE2/VA/INDEX.HTM Issue 2, VirtualAcorn Tech Support
VirtualAcorn Tech Support
More from Aaron's tech support notebook
I think that I've just had the quietest couple of months, on the tech support front, that I can remember. I can usually guarantee at least 1 sticky problem a week in addition to the usual problems for which I know the solution. However in the last couple of months there haven't been any new issues that I haven't previously seen and know how to resolve. So instead of simply recovering old ground I thought it would be best to have a quick look at one long term VirtualAcorn related issue.
Select3i3 and big screen modes
RISC OS Select, which is a subscription scheme of updates from RISCOS Ltd, is designed to be installed on RiscPC/A7000 hardware, or something that "looks" like a RiscPC, such as an Omega or a VirtualRPC. Normally VRPC-SE and VRCPC-SA, which both come with RISC OS 4.02, support screen mode up to 8Mb in size, meaning that you can easily select a mode of 1600 x 1200 or above in full 24 bit colour. However when Select is installed VRPC then only has access to screen modes up to 2Mb in size. This means that it behaves just like a RiscPC. This problem comes about because Select "thinks" it's running on a real machine, not a virtual one. Although there are plans to correct this problem in the next release of Select that doesn't help at the moment for those running Select3.
Recently we launched new "StrongArm" versions of both versions of VRPC. Both of these include the original Arm7 core from the older versions of VRPC, but they also include both Arm7500 and StrongArm cores. Although we tested Select3 on the new VRPC-SA before we launched the new product we didn't have time to fully test the use of screen modes. So is there anything to report?
Well, yes, Select3 works fine on VRPC-SA but there is one bonus. Although when using the Arm7 and StrongArm cores the screen mode limit is still 2Mb, when using the Arm7500 core the 2Mb screen mode limit is removed and modes up to 8Mb in size can again be chosen by the user (theoretically modes up to 16Mb could be used but I haven't tried yet). Both Graeme and I thought that this was likely to be the case but didn't want to publically say anything until we had completed tests.
The user doesn't need to make an changes to the VRPC-SA configuration files, or to the mode definition files (as far as I can tell from the tests). All that needs to be done is to start up VRPC-SA with the Arm7500 core and then simply choose a large screen mode (e.g. 1280 x 1024 in 32,000 colours) from the monitor icon on the icon bar and it just works.
Having spoken to a couple of users about this one potential problem did become apparent. Supposing that you have unticked the "Show this window at startup" button, so that VRPC-SA just starts with the previously chosen processor (in both cases the StrongArm), how do you get it to show this startup screen again
Well it's not difficult, but you do need to edit one of the VRPC configuration files. If VRPC-SA is running then quit it. Then using Windows navigate to:
C:\Program Files\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-S
In here you will find the main VRPC-SA files. The one we are interested in is called either VA or VA.cfg depending on how the copy of Windows is set up.
To edit the config file simply double click on it. Hopefully it will then load directly into Notepad. If not then Windows will ask what you want to do with the file. Tell Windows that you want to open the file using a program chosen from a list, then choose NotePad. Do not under any circumstances choose WordPad as this is not a plain text editor.
You will then see the human readable configuration file as shown below.
The line we are interested in is right near the top and says:
forceselect = 1
This sets up VRPC so that it will show the startup screen asking which processor you want to use. Make sure the line reads exactly as shown above. You may find that it reads:
forceselect = 0
In which case change it so that the ForceSelect value is 1. Now simply save the file from NotePad using the Save menu and load VRPC-SA. It should now start up with the processor select window. You can now choose the Arm7500 and start using big screen modes in RISC OS Select.
That's all for this issue. As usual I haven't the faintest idea what will be in the next article until some more interesting tech support issues arrive on my desk!
