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Archive Magazine 1996
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volume_03
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issue_10
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1995-02-16
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Å 1M / 4M upgrades for A3000 Ö Atomwide are getting into the A3000
memory upgrade market. They are doing a bare p.c.b. (costing ú35 through
Archive) which has eight sockets into which you plug the memory chips.
If you want a 1M upgrade, you use a standard 410/1 memory upgrade (ú70
through Archive). The Archive price for a populated 1M board is ú100. If
you want to make a 4M upgrade, you use the larger 4M by 1 bit chips
(HM514400ZPÖ8) instead of the 1M bit chips. At the moment, these are
about ú350 for a set of eight but the price is dropping. So, the current
Archive prices are ú100 for the 1M upgrade and ú375 for the upgrade to
4M. (The prices of the Morley upgrades are currently ú105 and ú285 but
note that the Atomwide boards are 4 layer boards and only have 8 chips
compared to the Morleyæs 24 chips. This reduces the current consumption
and comes closer to Acornæs tight specifications for memory upgrades.)
If you buy the 1M Atomwide board from us and then wish to upgrade,
simply return the board and we will exchange the chips at the current
rate. Remembering that the prices of both sets of chips are still
falling, it would be worth contacting us before either ordering a 4M
board or sending a 1M board for upgrading.
3.10
Å A3000 ram prices down again Ö The Morley A3000 ram boards are now down
to ú105 and ú285 for the 1M and 3M boards respectively.
3.10
Å A3000 SCSI drives Ö Due to overstocking, we have a few 20M and 80M Oak
A3000 SCSI drives with podule at very special prices of ú520 and ú920
respectively. The normal Archive prices are ú560 and ú970, and the Oak
prices are ú615 and ú1100. (Please ring before ordering to check
availability.)
3.10
Å A310 upgrades from Computerware are down in price a little: ú370 and
ú575 through Archive for the 2M and 4M respectively. Those prices
include fitting by Computerware themselves; they include collection and
return delivery by overnight carrier and a free MEMC1a upgrade (normal
price ú74).
3.10
Å A310 memory upgrades Ö D.I.Y. A310 memory upgrades from Protokote Ltd
are now available. The 1M boards are ú345 +VAT and 3M boards are ú510
+VAT. (ú375 and ú570 respectively through Archive.) They, too, will take
the larger OS ROMs (if they ever appear!) though it does require track
cutting and soldering to implement it which should only be done by an
Acorn Componentlevel Service Centre. Also, it looks as if it would not
be possible to fit an ARM3 upgrade with it, unlike the Computerware one.
You donæt actually need to fit a MEMC1a to get either upgrade working,
but it is our opinion that fitting either memory upgrade will shorten
the life of the old type MEMCæs.
3.10
Å Acom Ö A full multitasking comms package for only ú29.95 (inc VAT)
from ECD in Delft, Holland. (ú28 through Archive) It has various
terminal emulations: rawVDU, ANSI, Viewdata, VT52, VT100 and VT220 as
well as a Viewdata editor. (See Comment Column for more details.)
3.10
Å Another new monitor Ö We have now added the Eizo16ö colour multisync
(9070SZ) to our list of monitors (ú880 including a free VIDC enhancer).
It is very similar to the 9060SZ (14ò Ö ú520), so is the extra 2ö worth
the extra cost? Well, having actually used it, I would say it certainly
is. In fact, if you were thinking of getting an Oak 20ò monitor (ú1550)
it would be well worth looking at the 9070 first since, at virtually
half the price, it offers comparable resolution and takes up somewhat
less desk space.
3.10
The 9070 is a standard IBM type monitor and can therefore also be used
on computers other than the Archimedes whereas the 9060 comes specially
adjusted to the Archimedesæ output. If you try the 9070 on a standard
Archimedes you will find that it does not work in anything other than
the multisync modes but with the VIDC enhancer added to your computer it
works in all the normal modes as well as the extra modes provided with
the enhancer. You will find too that you can leave the enhancer switched
on all the time as it even works in the lower modes with the higher VIDC
clock speed. Mind you, you will have to switch the enhancer off for
applications where the pitch of the sound is important since the
enhancer raises the pitch somewhat. I am going to be using the 9070 for
DTP work on the magazine in future, I think, rather than splashing out
on an Oak 20ö.
3.10
Å ArVis video products Ö Video Electronics Ltd have a range of video
products for the Archimedes: ArVis video controller & genlock podule
(ú279 for PAL or ú295 if SVHS is also required), Videographics expansion
card (ú877) for colour digitisation and framestore, ArVis PAL encoder
(ú139). Send to them for technical information or send them ú5 for a
demo disc. (All prices are exc VAT.)
3.10
Å Cheaper Joysticks Ö Bulk buying of the Voltmace joysticks has enabled
us to reduce the price from ú28 to ú25.
3.10
Å Computerware drives down in price Ö The ST506 drives produced by
Computerware are now almost as cheap as the (slower) Oak Computersæ
drives. See the Price List for details.
3.10
Å Escape from Exeria is an escape from the caves game for just ú2.95
from Soft Rock Software.
3.10
Å First Word Plus special deal Ö We have ended up with rather a lot of
copies of First Word Plus in stock so, öwhile stocks lastò, as they say,
we are offering it at ú75 (Acornæs full price is ú92).
3.10
Å Genesis special deal Ö We have ended up with rather a lot of copies of
Genesis in stock so, öwhile stocks lastò, as they say, we are offering
it at ú75 (Software Solutionsæ full price is ú100).
3.10
Å Herewith the Clues! Ö A Dennis Wheatley murder mystery from Actual
Screenshots. ú23 through Archive.
3.10
Å Laser Direct is here! Ö Computer Conceptsæ new laser printer mentioned
in last monthæs Forthcoming Products is now available. Well, a small
number have been shipped out of which I have just one for sale at ú1080.
Weæve tried it out and it does seem very much faster than the Apple
LaserWriter NTII (PostScript) laser we use normally. The quality is, as
far as we can see, identical (at about 1/3 of the price!). We hope to
have some detailed comments on it next month in the DTP Column.
3.10
Å MultiFS Ö allows you to access MSDOS, Atari DOS and BBC DFS disc from
the desktop. ú36 from Arxe Systems Ltd. (See advert on page 15.)
3.10
Å Ovation Ö the professional DTP system from Beebug Ltd is now avail
able. For ú99 +VAT (ú105 through Archive) you get wordprocessor and DTP
rolled into one. It comes with four full outline fonts. We hope to get a
review copy soon, so keep your eyes on the DTP Column.
3.10
Å Panasonic SheetFeeders & Ribbons Ö We now sell cutsheet feeders for
KXP1124 printers at ú125. Also, ribbons for Panasonic KXP1124 printers
(which had been proving difficult to get hold of) are now also available
at ú11 each.
3.10
Å Pendown II Ö Schoolsæ wordprocessor from Longman Logotron is now
available in a prerelease version of the Primary version for ú39 + VAT
(ú42 through Archive) with a free upgrade to the full Primary version
when it is released öin Septemberò. The secondary school version with
spelling checker and other extra features is due in January 1991.
3.10
Å Poster from 4mation is now available. It provides facilities for
taking !Draw files and combining them together with text to produce
öinterestingò effects for displays, posters, etc. Images can be
stretched, squashed and twisted. Poster comes either without any fonts
for those who have already bought some outline fonts, or with a
selection of about 20 fonts. The prices are ú64 and ú89 respectively
plus VAT or ú68 and ú93 inclusive through Archive.
3.10
Å Presenter II / Graphbox / PipeDream 3 Hotlink. There are now upgrades
available for Presenter II and Graphbox which allow them to be dynami
cally linked to PipeDream 3. The idea is that, as you change the data in
the Pipedream spreadsheet, the graph of the data is replotted automati
cally without further intervention from the user. Contact Lingenuity or
Minerva for more details. (See also PipeLine Column on page 31 for
details of the PipeDream upgarde necessary to run it.)
3.10
Å Shareware Outline Fonts Ö Shareware discs 27, 28 and 29 are now
available each with a batch of outline fonts. Each disc also has !FontEd
and !Chars on it. Shareware 27 has 6 headline fonts, 8 script fonts, 12
serif fonts and 4 symbol fonts. (30 in total) Shareware 28 has 38
sansserif fonts and Shareware 29 has 30 serif fonts. These fonts are not
hinted and so will not be quite as effective at very small sizes on a
dotmatrix printer though at larger sizes they are indistinguishable from
more expensive commercially available fonts. Note that, to use them, you
need Acornæs font manager which is available with Acorn DTP, Impression
or Acornæs Font Starter packs.
3.10
Å Slideshow Ö ú14.95 inclusive from 628 Software turns your computer
into an electronic projector by allowing you to display consecutively a
number of mode 12 or mode 15 full screen sprites with a range of
different transitions.
3.10
Å Stig of the Dump and The Worst Witch have now been upgraded to
Archimedes versions. ú19 and ú22.50 +VAT respectively from Sherston
Software. (ú21.50 and ú25 after 31/7/90) Both relate to English AT1 & 2
but Stig of the Dump is for 913 year olds and The Worst Witch for 710æs.
3.10
Å !Store from LCI Software (ú4.99 + 75p p&p) is a utility which stores
certain system variables which enable the computer to know how to run
various files which you may have on your (hard) discs. It stores the RMA
sprites which are used to give icons for the various filetypes from
different applications which you may have.
3.10
Å Superior Golf is well named! For ú19.95 (ú18 through Archive) you get
six courses (3 at 18 holes plus 3 at 9 holes) plus a driving practice
range and a course and hole editor. It has a lot more features than
Holed Out including onscreen map and range indication as well as club
selection with distances quoted (all of which are on paper with Holed
Out). The driving is done with a power meter similar to Holed Out but
then you have to catch it on the swing meter to avoid hooking or slicing
the ball. The other immediately obvious difference is that putting is
done with the same 3D view as driving whereas Holed out gives a birdæs
eye view of the green.
3.10
Å Watford ARM3æs available Ö We are now stocking the 30MHz Watford ARM3
upgrades. Although the supply is intermittent, we do have a couple in
stock at the moment. For comparison with the Aleph equivalent, see the
Comment Column on page 11. Also available are ARM3 upgrades from SPEM in
Italy. More details later.
3.10