Acorn Risc Technologies StrongARM CD-ROM

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___________________________ _____________ ________ / | \| \ | | / | | \| | / | |\ | | | / /| | |/ | |\ | | / /_| | | | > | | / | ______/| |/ | |_______ / | | | | | / /| | | | | | / / | | | | /| | /_________/ |________|_______| |_____________/ |________________| Archimedes Public Domain Library A.P.D.L -=-=- PD and Shareware for Acorn computers 39 Knighton Park Road, Sydenham, London SE26 5RN __________ ________ __________ _________ | \ / | | \ | \ | \| | | \| \ | |\ | ---- _ | |\ | |> > | |/ | | | | | |/ | / | /| | __ _ _ __ __| | | /| \ | ____/ | ---- / _` | '_ \ / _` | | ____/ | |> > | | | | | (_| | | | | (_| | | | | / |_____| \________| \__,_|_| |_|\__,_| |_____| |_________/ IBM PC and compatibles and Pocket Book _ _ | | | | ___ __ _| |_ __ _| | ___ __ _ _ _ ___ / __/ _` | __/ _` | |/ _ \ / _` | | | |/ _ \ | (_| (_| | || (_| | | (_) | (_| | |_| | __/ \___\__,_|\__\__,_|_|\___/ \__, |\__,_|\___| __/ | |___/ Discs count as ONE POINT towards Bonus Discs unless stated otherwise. This section contains programs to run either on a PC or under a PC Emulator or PC card plus programs for the Pocket Book computer. The reason they are grouped together is because the Pocket Book is based upon the same architecture as a PC. This means it uses the same type of files and so programs for the Pocket Book will normally be supplied on 720K PC format discs so that file extensions are preserved. Pocket Book discs and individual programs follow the PC discs. As well as the compilation discs of Pocket Book programs most are sold separately in .ZIP format. These can be found at the end of this file. See also the archive called PC <something> which contains 1,000's of other PC Shareware and PD programs in ZIP format at low prices. If you obtained your catalogue on a single 800K disc this will not be included. If you obtained it on two 800K discs then the second disc will be PC programs. You can order individual PC ZIP files with the !PCorder program. The full list of PC programs fills two 800K or a single 1.6Mb disc and costs £1.00 ===================== PC EMULATOR DISCS ===================== These discs do NOT run in native Archimedes mode but need a PC Emulator or PC card. Prices are the same as 'normal' discs. See file 'APDL Info' for details. PC discs may be added to Archimedes discs for Bonus discs. If you don't have a pc emulator we now sell Faster PC (see the Commercial catalogue). Even if you do have Acorn's PC Emulator many programs (especially games) run quicker with !FasterPC, so it's worth buying anyway. With the Risc PC a hardware PC emulator is at last economically viable. This means that programs which either would not run or were too slow using software emulators can now be used. Also there are now many Arc users who own or use a PC as well. Therefore I am including some programs which don't work using software emulators. Whenever this is done it will be clearly shown. So far I haven't included any Windows programs but I shall do so in the future and I already have quite a selection. Why PC programs? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There are thousands of PC Shareware and PD programs. I'm not trying to turn APDL into a PC library but, because there are so many, whatever your interests or needs there will be something to help. With a smaller user base the Arc can't cover such a range. Using a PC emulator gives an Archimedes owner access to these programs. They won't be as good as 'proper' Arc programs but there should be something to do the job. You may need a common program on an Archimedes at home and a PC at work. The obvious solution is a commercial PC program but most assume you have at least a 386, VGA graphics and a big hard disc. At home you may have an A3000 with a single 720K drive. If you have ever tried to run a program like Wordstar from a computer with only a single drive you will appreciate the problems. If you haven't don't try it with your own computer, you might end up jumping on it in frustration. Most Shareware programs are written for less than state-of-the-art equipment. They often run happily on a simple 4.77mhz XT with a single 720K drive or at most need either two floppies or a (small) hard disc. It is often possible to find a program somewhere amongst the Shareware multitude that will do what you need and will work on your Arc and your office PC. Some programs don't work properly on the Arc, are too slow for software emulators or have other problems. Some can be actually destructive because they try to 'talk' to hardware that isn't there. If you ask for help from a PC library you will get either a strained silence or be told it's a PC program so you can only run it on a PC. Many won't even know the Arc exists, or think it's a computer kids use at school. Does it work? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All are tested to make sure they actually work using the PC Emulator and !FasterPC. As many programs are complex I give no guarantee that EVERYTHING works. Some eg. A86, Qedit, Galaxy, I have tried quite extensively and found no problems. I have spent quite a bit of time testing but I could use some for days and not explore every possibility. How fast? ~~~~~~~~~ All run at adequate speed using a software emulator. This means fast enough with an ARM 2 to be useable. Don't expect them to whiz along as fast as your office 486 or native Arc programs. Where appropriate an indication of speed is given. I have rejected many popular programs because they are too slow. Some slower programs have been included if they are particularly good or useful or have special features but then I say they are slow. Remember that because I describe a program as 'sluggish' or 'a bit slow' doesn't mean that it is slow on a real PC. Most are naturally fast programs. Hard disc? ~~~~~~~~~~ Most of these programs have been selected because they do not require a hard disc although many will be faster or better if you have one. I have often chosen one program rather than another because it will run from a 720K floppy. I have avoided programs that require disc-swapping. You may need to switch discs with databases and wp's when accessing files but with 1.44mb discs even this may not be necessary. Archiving ~~~~~~~~~ PC libraries supply programs archived. This is so they fit on 360K discs and to save 'download time' for BBS's. As I use 720K discs they are not normally archived. This is useful because you are spared the task of de-arc'ing, which is real pain with only one drive. Some programs don't quite fit on a single 720K disc. In this case I normally offer the option of having part of the program archived or de-arc'ed on two 720K or a single 1.44Mb disc. How can you run them from a single floppy if I can't fit them on one disk? Most PC Shareware programs have extensive manuals, often around 150 pages, and as you don't need this on your working disc there's plenty of room. Programs which require a hard disc or are only suitable for experienced users may be supplied archived (.ZIP format) although they will normally have an 'Install' program. Shareware ~~~~~~~~~ Most programs are SHAREWARE, not Public Domain, and require payment to the author used outside the trial period. Please play fair with Shareware, it is not free. It's commercial software and the authors expect to be paid for their work like anyone else. If people don't send registration fees to Authors then they won't write programs and we will be entirely in the hands of the conventional software producers. If you don't think that's important consider that registration for the Lotus 123 clone 'As Easy As' is £45. The equivalent version of Lotus 123 costs about £250. There are many similar examples. If users don't pay the writers won't write, and we'll all be worse off. It's as simple as that. Programs for Real PC's ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The programs described are aimed at PC Emulator users but I already have or can obtain almost any PC Shareware program. I don't want to list everything because to include too many would eclipse the ones I believe will be of special interest to Arc owners. If you want a particular program or have specific requirements please contact me. I will probably be able to offer better (and cheaper) service than you will get from a PC Shareware library. Others ~~~~~~ I am still expanding this list. It takes time because I have to try each program first and I don't want to include anything until I am reasonably sure that it runs OK. If you want to use a particular program or have special requirements please write (with an SAE please) or phone (number below) and ask. If I know of a program that might meet your needs I will try to obtain a copy and test it. If you have PC Shareware programs which you use please tell me about them so I can expand this list and pass the information on to others. If you have any queries about either these programs or others that you might be interested in I will try to help. You can telephone me on 081 778 2659 Why buy from APDL rather than ordering from a PC Library ?? Some PC libraries employ fast formatting/copying techniques and often the PC emulator can't read the discs. If you return it a GOOD library MIGHT copy it to a normal pre-formatted disc, others will say they aren't responsible if you can't read it on an Archimedes, which is not unreasonable. Also if you examine most PC libraries catalogues you will see many programs come on two or three discs because the contents are designed to fit on to 360K. You will find many discs shown below contain two or more programs which would each be a separate disc from a PC library. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Business ~~~~~~~~ P002 INSTACALC Spreadsheet, similar to As-Easy-As but has some advantages. It's slightly faster, has good documentation (135 page manual) as well as on-line help. Like most PC spreadsheets it's Lotus compatible. Personally I prefer it to As-Easy-As. It can also be used as a TSR program although I doubt if many Arc. users will want to use it in this way. Speed - Quite good NOTE To get everything on the disc I have put the documentation in a self extracting archive which must be copied to another disc before you de-arc it. This is very simple and takes only a couple of minutes. P003 ALITE A cut down version of As-Easy-As (hence the name). Has most of the spreadsheet functions of its bigger brother but because it's smaller it's easier to use on a single floppy machine. Registration is also cheaper. Speed - Satisfactory P004 CENTRAL HEATING CALCULATOR More comprehensive PC version of !Heating (disc B022) by the same author. Now being used by some Technical and Trade colleges as part of their curriculum. No registration fee if used for DIY. Speed - Quite fast Also on this disc is HEAT the only other CH calculator I can find. Awkward to use as it works from text files so you will need an editor to write the data files. P005 FASTFILE No frills flat file database. It's big advantage for the Arc user is that it's intended for use on portables so unlike almost every other PC database you don't need a hard disc since it works entirely from data held in RAM. It was designed to run on a basic 4.77Mhz 8088 laptop so works at reasonable speed under the emulator, certainly a lot faster than most other PC databases. P006 PAGE CHEQUE BOOK Cheque book and bank account manager. Handles standing orders, balances, reconciliation, reports, etc. Written in Ireland so it's not just another American program (note 'cheque' not 'check'!). There are probably better programs that run from the Arc desktop but if you need PC compatibility..... Speed - A bit sluggish but useable P007 SUPERBEAM Calculates sizes of beams (RSJ's or timber) for structural engineers and builders. This is a British program so it conforms to the requirements of the Building Regs. The user interface is a bit crude but it's a lot better than using a calculator. Speed - Fast for simple calcs, takes a few seconds for more complex loads. There is also a faster version on the disc if you have a FPU but that won't help on an Archimedes. P008 FREEWAY PAYMASTER (v.2.00) UK's leading payroll program, updated constantly to allow for changes in tax laws. Even allows for things like deducting poll tax contributions from wages. Best with a hard disc or at least 2 floppies but it can be used with a single 720K drive, especially if you don't have a lot of employees. I wish there was something in Shareware for the Archimedes but there isn't, so if there's anyone who understands payrolls and wants to co-operate in writing one contact me. Speed - Bit sluggish but useable. NOTE You should telephone the Authors for a licence number before using this program (no charge and no obligation) but you can use the program temporarily by entering the company name as TRAINING (in capitals) and the licence number as 3891. The password will then be PAYROLL. P009 SURE ACCOUNTS General accounts program. British so handles VAT which most American programs won't. Sales ledger, nominal ledger, purchase ledger, cashbook etc. Even I managed to understand most of the (fairly short) manual so it must be easy to use! Ideally should have two drives or hard disc but as the program doesn't use overlays you can run it from a single drive. Registration fee is only £40 inclusive so it's a cheap solution for small business accounts. Speed - Some functions a bit sluggish but useable P010 MEDLIN ACCOUNTS - Actually five separate programs. Double entry ledger, accounts due, payroll, accounts payable and invoicing. It's American so I doubt if the payroll module will be much use but the rest looks quite interesting. As the modules aren't 'linked' like most of it's type it's probably not the best to use if you require a full accounts package but it does mean that you only need use the bit(s) you want and it runs perfectly from a single floppy. Registration is separate for each module so you don't pay for functions you don't need. Not a fully featured program your accountant will drool over but worth a look for a small business. P011 AS EASY AS Ver 5.5 Spreadsheet clone of the best seller LOTUS 123. Good on line help. Anyone who has used Lotus should soon feel at home with this. Speed - Satisfactory There were some problems with earlier 5.x versions but this one now seems OK so I have withdrawn the old v4. P012 ALL-IN-ONE - Shareware version of the now popular combination package spreadsheet/wordprocessor/database/comms package. It's not brilliant, certainly not in the same class as MS Works or Lotus Symphony, but it's reasonably fast and if your needs are modest it might fill them. Far superior to the other Shareware program of this type 'Compass'. The whole lot fits on a 360K PC disc so you can run it easily from 720K. This would probably be a useful package to run on a small laptop. EZ SPREAD - A rather dated and not particularly brilliant spreadsheet, but it does live up to it's 'easy' title. 512 rows x 64 columns. Actually seems slightly faster than some of the more powerful packages when used with the Emulator. Some printing functions are disabled on the Shareware version, you can't print to a file or have a page wider than 80 columns or longer than 66 lines. Frankly I don't think it's now worth the registration fee asked because there are so many good Shareware spreadsheets, but if you only want a simple program and don't mind it's limitations I suggest you try it. P013 3by5 No frills database which is nevertheless quite powerful. It is intended to emulate the old 3 x 5 inch 'card index', hence the name. Very simple to use and fast. Even using a floppy disc speed is adequate, but as the files are compact if you don't have a very large database you can use it with the Ramdisc on P304 and then it's quite rapid. Has very straightforward but quite good form letter facilities. The 170+ page manual is very comprehensive. Even if you've never used a database before you shouldn't have any trouble with this one. P014 ZEPHYR4 A database package which uses the famous Foxpro database engine. Broadly DBase compatible but very much faster and with additional features. Easy to use with extensive on-line help. This is one instance where you really DO need a hard disc. I expect that Zephyr will mainly be of interest to those who have either a PC card or wish to use it on a 'real' PC but it might also be useful if you need to access DBase files because of its higher speed. NB - Zephyr is obviously an extensive application and so it is supplied only in archived format. This consists of two archives with an installation program is very simple to use. This program is supplied by most PC libraries on at least two discs but I supply it on a single disc for just £1.50 P015 PAGE FINANCIAL CONTROLLER v1.12 The 'standard' program for sales ledger, invoicing, purchase ledger, cashbook, stock control, sales and purchase order processing, job costing etc. Handles VAT. Probably better than most commercial equivalents. A bit slow with the Acorn emulator and an ARM 2, although still perfectly useable, but fast enough with an ARM 3 and !FasterPC. In theory It is possible to fun PFC from a 1.44Mb floppy but a hard disc is certainly best and the installation program will only let you install it to drive C: and upwards. Supplied archived on a 720K disc with an installation program ____________________________________________________________________________ Wordprocessors and Editors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WP's and text editors are very personal things. Also some programs which are brilliant on a real PC are not so good on the Arc. If you want a good general purpose WP which does most things I would suggest you try Galaxy, Flex or Pace. If you need a more powerful package that you also intend to use on a 'real' PC then Word Fugue will probably meet your needs. If you are familiar with Wordstar or use it on your office PC and want a compatible WP to use on the Arc. then again try Galaxy. New York Word has some features that make it attractive and Sagewords is well worth a look if you either have a copy of Borlands Lightning or are prepared to forgo an interactive spelling checker. P100 Text editors - These would normally be supplied on at least four separate discs from most libraries so this is a bargain QEDIT - Fast text editor. A big advantage is that all key functions are user definable so it can be adjusted to use the same keys as your favourite Arc text editor. I have included a file to configure the keys to work like Twin or Edit. Good manual. Compact with no 'config' files etc. so it's ideal if no HD. Speed - Adequate (the fastest editor I've found) DGEDIT - Another excellent editor. Personally I don't like it as much as Qedit but opinions differ and it has some special features like on-line help and box drawing routines. Speed - Adequate EDITEXT - Nothing special but it's small (less than 10K) so it's useful because you can put it on your System disc instead of EDLIN. E88 - Rather old now but still liked. BLACKBEARD - A fairly good editor but takes a lot of space. I don't think it's as good as Qedit or DGedit but it has some features which make it attractive. NOTE - Because of space limitations Blackbeard, Dgedit and E88 have been archived. These are self-extracting archives but you must copy them to another disc to de-arc. Alternatively for £2.50 I will supply the contents of this disc completely de-archived on two 720K discs or a single 1.44 mb disc. P101 GALAXY LITE 1.7 Good general purpose wordprocessor. Fast enough to be used without frustration. Pull down menu's, can work with Wordstar files and even use Wordstar keyboard commands if required so it's particularly useful if you want to bring work home from the office and find Wordstar itself too big and too slow for the Emulator. Not 'state of the art' but does most things required of a straightforward WP and it's simple to use and easy to learn. Has a good spelling checker, although it spells in American, but you can add your own words. Saves text as plain ascii so can import/export to Arc programs. P102 WORD FUGUE Ver 3 Very good wordprocessor. More advanced than Galaxy and nearly as fast but not so easy to learn. Version 3 has grown quite a bit and it's now too big to run from a 720K floppy. You could just about use a 1.44Mb disc but I don't recommend it unless you have a hard disc as the 'executables' take over 1Mb of disc space. For this reason I won't bother to supply it fully de-arc'ed because if you don't have a hard disc or a 1.6Mb drive you can't use it anyway. It works OK on the emulator but I don't suggest it as a 'first choice' unless you intend to use it mainly on a 'real' PC. Good spelling checker (Australian instead of American for a change) mail merge, indexing, etc. Speed - Quite fast With documentation and printer definition files in self extracting archives on two 720K or one 1.44Mb disc -- £2.50 P103 ***** PCWORD HAS BEEN WITHDRAWN ***** I have done this reluctantly because the early versions that I saw were very good and showed great promise (and it's British!). However the Author seems to have departed at a tangent and developed the Hypertext aspects while completely abandoning the basic WP functions. It will also no longer work properly on a 'basic' PC or a PC emulator. P104 NEW YORK WORD Fairly venerable but has been continually updated. Now has pull down menu's and on screen help, although this is loaded from disc each time you ask for help. Good general purpose WP. Built in calculator and can total a column of figures so useful for estimates etc. Works well from a single drive. Like Galaxy it doesn't have automatic reformatting. Worth a look and a good alternative to Galaxy P105 SAGEWORDS Nice general purpose WP. Quite compact by PC standards so runs well from floppies. Only WP I've tested that doesn't overshoot when scrolling. Has a nice 'feel'. Very good pop-up help but no manual. To help overcome this I have included the Help text as a text file and this is very comprehensive (about 75K). No spelling checker. Sagewords is intended to work with Borlands 'Turbo Lightning' so if you have a copy you can check your text from within Sagewords. As registration is only $25 if you are prepared to forgo a spelling checker it's good value. Speed - Fastest WP I've found on the emulator P107 PACE Very straightforward WP. Some nice features and many keystrokes are the same as Wordstar. There are two things I don't like. All formatting and print commands are strings of ascii characters which begin with '@' and take up spaces in the text to mess up your formatting. Also there is no 'Reformat Paragraph' command, or if there is I can't find it. You mark the paragraph as a block then reformat the block. Reformatting is incredibly slow. However it's very easy to learn, probably because it isn't as sophisticated as some others. If you don't use many print and format commands and don't do much alteration and revision Pace may be worth trying. Saves files as plain text so it might be useful if you want a simple WP to write 'first drafts' at home which will then be taken to the office and revised. P108 SHARESPELL - Highly acclaimed spelling checker. With Pace it flags all the '@' codes as spelling mistakes which can be a bit tedious but it would be easy to include them in the dictionary. Remarkably it's dictionary doesn't include either 'shareware', 'keypad' or 'wordprocessor' and flagged 'I've' as misspelled. It couldn't find an alternative for 'inteface' (interface) but offered correct alternatives for 'blcok' (block), 'caharacter' (character), 'preiod' (period), and 'effecient'. As usual it insists on colonial spelling but comes with a dictionary management utility so yoo kan teech itt to spel rite eesily. EZSPELL - Not as comprehensive as Sharespell but with some good features. Like Sharespell works with plain text files but doesn't correct spelling just reads the file and records individual words then compares them with its dictionary and displays (in context) any it can't match. You can correct the word or it is 'marked' so you can load the file back into your WP for correction. This may seem crude but it means the program is small, about 25K, and very fast. The dictionary is rather small, less than 11,000 words, but it's plain text so you can add to it. I tried EZSpell with a 42,000 word extended dictionary (from B126) and it seems OK. GDSPELL This program is rather slow on the emulator because it keeps most of it's dictionary on disc. However it's very easy to use as it displays the text as it's checking. If you have a hard disc it's just about useable and so I have included it in a self-extracting archive. P109 FLEX A new wp from Canada. In many ways similar to Galaxy. Works well with the emulator and is quite fast. Like most PC wp's uses Wordstar- like keystrokes and has pulldown menu's. Text is saved as plain ascii so can be easily loaded into most other wp's or transferred to/from !Edit etc. No spelling checker but because files are plain text you can use Sharespell etc. As it's Canadian the registration (C$30) may be paid in £ equivalent. Good general purpose WP for the emulator with all the basic features. P110 BOXER ver 5.0 Very good editor with lots of features. Bit slow for an ARM 2 and even with an ARM 3 it feels rather sluggish. No problem on any 'real' PC. Takes about 500K of disc space. VISION EDIT Very comprehensive editor written using Borland's Turbo Vision and obviously intended as a replacement for Turbo C and Turbo Pascal editors. Even has facitlies to compile etc. from within the editor. However it's **BIG**, all the files total over 1Mb so you won't be able to use it unless you have a high density drive or hard disc. Turbo Vision is a desktop-like environment with pull down menu's, dialogue boxes, etc. It's very easy to use programs written this way, even if you are unfamiliar with DOS. However it does make them slower than 'no frills' programmers editors. I do not recommend it unless you have at least an ARM 2.5 and preferably an ARM 3. NOTE - You don't need A level maths to see that these add up to a lot more than 720K. Both are supplied as self extracting archives. You will need either a high density drive or a hard disc even to de-arc VISION EDIT P111 More text editors. The first three are all written using Turbo Vision (see P110). I wouldn't normally recommend them for use with an Emulator but they are so easy to use that you may prefer one, especially DEDIT, for batch files or whatever rather than taking the trouble to master a faster editor. TVEDIT Smaller than Vision Edit, about 230K total, and slightly faster. Not so comprehensive but with all the usual functions. BRAGED Smaller than TVEDIT, about 100K. DEDIT Dale's Editor. Again around 100K, and the fastest of the three. Just about useable with ARM 2 but still overshoots on scroll/delete. HEDIT Hex Edit. A file editor that edits the file in Hex format. Useful if you want to 'patch' a binary file. P112 Text editors again. BREEZE Very powerful editor. All sorts of features, far too numerous to list. Quite a large program and really needs a hard disc. TECHEDIT Smaller but still nice editor. Easy to use and quite fast. Just over 100K so useable from 720K floppies. TERSE A very small editor, only 4K!. Despite it's small size it does most of the things you will probably need in a basic editor and because it's written in assembler it's *FAST* P113 GALAXY PRO-LITE IMPORTANT: This program WILL NOT WORK WITH THE EMULATOR 'Big brother' to Galaxy Lite. Much bigger dictionary and generally faster and more powerful. Replaces the old 'standard' Galaxy before the Lite version appeared. Needs at least a 286 to run and so can't be used with any of the software emulators. The reason I have included it is because I'm told that it does work with PC cards. It might also be the better choice if you want to use it on a PC with Galaxy Lite on your Arc. You need at least two 720K drives or a 1.2Mb or 1.44Mb drive but it's best with a hard disc. I only supply this archived on a single disc with an installation program as it's really only for more experienced users. P114 ENVISION PUBLISHER ** NB This disc costs £2.00 ** This is the first Shareware DTP package. It will work using the emulator (in CGA mode) but it's painfully slow, although slightly better with !FasterPC. You must have a hard disc. I don't suggest that you should use this with a software emulator but it might be useful if you want a DTP program to run on your office PC where you can at least bring files home and look at them or perhaps print them on the Arc. To do any serious work with this you do need a 386 or better. For the Arc you will be much better off with Impression but if you have a real PC and want a cheap DTP package this really is worth trying. Comes with good manuals and a tutorial. Registration (only £49) brings 68 scalable fonts, a 305 page printed manual, lots of clipart, filters to import files from many popular wp's, a selection of 'templates' and other goodies. The 'Pro' version (£99 reg.) has 124 fonts, more clipart, more templates and can create documents up to 2500 pages. Supplied archived on a 720K disc with installation program for £2.00 _____________________________________________________________________________ Programming ~~~~~~~~~~~ See also discs B124 and B125 in the main catalogue which are tutorials for 'C' and Pascal. These can be supplied in Archimedes or DOS format. P200 A.P.B. Basic compiler. Very good Editor and Compiler. Not much documentation, just a list of commands with syntax and examples (actually the 'help' text which can be viewed from within the Editor). There are example programs but not recommended unless you are a reasonably proficient in Basic and preferably QBasic which has similar syntax. On registration you get proper manuals. Programs can be compiled and run from within the Editor or compiled into .EXE files but there are restrictions until you register. Speed - Editor - quite fast, Compiler - Slower than on PC but adequate, Compiled programs - Good P201 A86/D86 multi file macro assembler/debugger for the 80xx family. In my opinion the best. Very fast and small enough to run from a single floppy. If you want to learn P.C. machine code (which is a *pig* after the ARM) this is the one you need. Good manuals on disc. Normally assembles directly to .COM files which saves all that messing about linking, PROC NEAR etc. but can assemble to .OBJ files for linking with 'C' or other languages. D86 debugger/dissasembler/single-stepper is designed to work with A86 but will operate on any .COM or .EXE file. Not as flashy as some packages but works well and it's cheap. You can register for either A86 or D86 or the two together. P202 P.C.C. Personal C Compiler. Superb 'C' language compiler and linker with small but adequate libraries for the P.C. Comes with example programs. Very fast on a PC with a hard disc but, like all compilers, is slowed up by disc access if you run it from floppies. However it's still fast enough and you can run it from a single 720K drive. Produces compact code which runs quite fast. Good manual. If you're thinking of learning 'C' (my sympathies) this is a lot cheaper way of finding out how horrible it can be than buying the Acorn C compiler. See also disc B124 for a 'C' tutorial P203 ASIC Basic compiler. Version 4.00 A 'basic' compiler using subset of 80 Basic commands including WHEN-WEND and multi line IF-THEN-ELSE so you can write moderately structured programs. Very easy to learn. Comes with it's own editor or you can compile from the command line. Has compiler error throwback and now an interactive debugger with variable watch. Manual is very good with a tutorial section. One problem is I get compiler errors as like all American programs it can't spell 'COLOUR'. Compiling is a bit slow on the Arc, the example 'Life' program compiles in 5 seconds on my PC and took 50 on an Arc. Compiled code uses BIOS screen routines so screen updates are slow(ish) compared with compilers using direct addressing but with the new version you can POKE characters and attributes to screen RAM for speed. Registration is only $10 so it's the cheapest and easiest way to write programs that run at reasonable speed. The whole package has a nice 'feel'. Although not as powerful as other languages like 'C' or Pascal it's a very useful package and could be used to write serious applications. Version 4 supports string arrays and can create EXE as well as COM files so they can be bigger (64K code + 64K data + 64K stack). Can now CALL functions written in assembler (or presumably C or Pascal) and these can be linked with the ASIC code which will then be compiled in OBJ format. Highly recommended if you want to write PC programs without the expense and complication of something like C or Turbo Pascal. Speed: Editor - reasonable, Compiler - sluggish on the Arc. but OK Programs - Screen a bit slow but a *LOT* better than GWBASIC LIBRARY This is a library of functions written in machine code and designed to be linked with ASIC programs now that this is possible. No linker is provided but I have included one. *** Updated and the Library added Feb 94 *** P204 WASM - Wolf Assembler. Very simple to use and assembles directly to .COM files. Not as fast as A86 which makes it a bit slow on the Arc. Some people prefer it to A86 but I don't think it's as good. If you only intend to assemble short utilities then Wasm will be adequate and with a registration fee of $10 it's cheaper (my A86 registration cost £29) but for serious work not as powerful. P205 TSRBASIC - Basic interpreter which can be a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) so you can LOAD it and when you press Ctrl-Shift-B it 'pops- up' ready to use. Unlike most PC Basic's there's no editor, just a crude line editor, but as programs are plain text it's best to write them with a text editor. The language is fairly powerful but not structured. You only have Goto/Gosub, For/Next and If/Then/Else/Endif, but that's all you get with most, we've been rather spoiled with BBC Basic. Good graphics commands. One thing that sets TSRBasic apart is that because it's a TSR not only is the interpreter pop-up but programs can be too. There are examples for a pop-up notepad, clock and calculator. You can also use the LINK command to turn the programs into '.EXE.' files. This doesn't compile the code, it just 'grafts on' the interpretter (which adds about 72K) but it means you can RUN the program by typing it's name like a true .EXE or .COM file. Speed - Programs run much faster than GWBasic but there's a delay when you type 'Run' presumably as the code is compiled into intermediate state as this doesn't apply to .EXE files. P206 SURPAS PASCAL - Straightforward Pascal compiler with its own editor. Nothing very exiting (not in the same league as Turbo Pascal) but a good introduction to this versatile and easy language. Little documentation but I can recommend the book 'Mastering Pascal Programming' by E.Huggins (about £6 from W.H.Smiths). You shouldn't have any trouble with the examples in this book using Surpas. Also see disc B125 which is a Pascal tutorial. The Editor is rather slow so I recommend using something a bit faster if you intend to do any serious work. A.D.A. PROLOG - Straightforward Prolog interpretter. Also has an editor. Not the most sophisticated implimentation but it's P.D. and will fit on the disc. P207 MODULA 2 COMPILER - Modula 2 is a derivative of Pascal. Its structures are very similar. Documentation on this disc is mainly concerned with the implimentation but if you understand Pascal you should't have any trouble. An editor is included. A very comprehensive compiler and suitable for producing major programs so not the best choice if you just want to dabble. In the Author's words it's a 'memory hog' and needs at least 512K free. (NB. most libraries supply this on two or three discs). P207-A MODULA 2 TUTORIAL - Comprehensive tutorial with examples for Modula 2 compiler. As this is mainly text files I will supply it on an Archimedes format (800K) disc if you prefer (specify Arc. format when ordering or you'll get 720K DOS). NOTE The files and demo programs on this disc are over 1Mb so if you don't want it partially archived I will supply it on two 720K or one 1.44Mb disc (specify!) for £2.50 P208 COBOL I don't expect anyone wants to run Cobol on a PC but this is a fairly good version and it's PD. It may be of interest to students and others studying Cobol which is widely used on mainframes. There are some minor glitches but nothing that prevents the package working well. No editor so you'll need a text editor. Plenty of examples and a fairly good manual which describes the language well enough for someone who's never used it to understand the examples and write elementary programs. Compilation to .OBJ format and you link the .OBJ file with the Library supplied. Compilation is a bit slow on the Arc when run from floppies, mainly because of the large amount of disc activity, but reasonable with a hard disc. I expect it would work much faster with the AMDISK RAMdisc on P304. NB This is version 6. There are later versions and I can supply one if required but all versions after 6 were produced by others after the Authors death and are inferior with various restrictions. I therefore recommend this version as the best one to use. _____________________________________________________________________________ Utilities ~~~~~~~~~ P300 PROFESSIONAL MASTER KEY General disc utilities. Undelete files, map disc, disc editor, locate files, etc. Menu driven. Will even 'unformat' a hard disc just in case you make a mistake (!). I haven't tried it on a hard disc on the Arc but I am told that it works OK but no guarantees. Also has a 'mini-editor' on the disc (only 14K) that's ideal for batch files etc. P301 DISK COMMANDO Norton Commander clone. All the utilities of PMK and more. Once again I can't guarantee that everything works perfectly on a hard disc but I've tried it on floppies so it should be OK. P302 GENERAL UTILITIES All the invaluable bits that DOS doesn't include and a few other useful utility programs. This isn't a standard collection, they are the ones that I think are most useful and work well with the PC emulator. With most Shareware libraries this lot would be spread over about three or four discs so it's a bargain. REND - Rename Directory, which you can't normally do with DOS MV - Move file, faster and easier than COPY followed by DELETE LIST - Display text files in a scrollable window. Makes it easy to read instructions and manuals etc. without printing them. SMARTDOC - Turns a text file into a readable .COM program where the text is displayed in it's own scrollable window. Make your own 'Help' texts etc. KILLDIR - Delete a directory and it's sub directories without needing to delete all the contents first. Dangerous but useful. ZAP - Same as Killdir. LHARC - Famous archiving/de-archiving program. Not quite so fast as PKzip but cheaper. LZEXE - Compresses .EXE programs so they automatically de-compress themselves when you Run them. Invaluable if you only have a single drive. Sometimes it's the only way you can actually use large programs if you don't have a H.D. Worth ten times the price of this disc on it's own and it's PD! VDEL - (Verify Delete) Substitute this for the Delete command when wildcards are used. Asks for confirmation before each file is deleted like the Arc's WIPE command. Can save disasters. DOSEDIT - Command line editor/recaller. Allows you to recall commands and edit them. Insert or overtype mode. Invaluable if you aren't 100% familiar with DOS commands. Saves typing the whole command over again because you made one tiny mistake. POPTIME - A resident clock. Press CTRL-SPACE and a clock pops up in the top right corner of the screen for a few seconds. DELBUT - Delete but not.... Allows you to use a wildcarded delete command but specifying files you DON'T want deleted. KWIKEY - A TSR program that doubles the keyboard repeat rate. Makes a terrific difference to the apparent speed of WP's etc. DDIR - Double column DIR command. puts twice as much info on the screen as the normal command. A bit slow but at least you can normally see the contents of a whole disc at once. WHEREIS - Finds files hidden in subdirectories. Really a H.D. utility. PKXARC - Standard de-archiver PKXUNZIP - Standard un-zipper DIRCOMP - Directory Compare. Compare the contents of two directories FREE - Bytes used/free space on a disc, faster/smaller than CHKDSK EDITEXT - Text editor. Rather basic but reasonable fast and less than 10K so it doesn't take up much disc space ED - Even more basic text editor but it's less than 3K long! GET - Batch file enhancer. Lets batch files get keyboard input, info about files and lots more. Extremely useful. STUPENDOS - Menu 'front-end' for disc file management. There are quite a few of these about. This isn't anything exceptional but it takes up only 64K and doesn't use any external files so you can use it on floppies. Easy to use and has built-in help. PC BOSS - Another menu program. This is even less sophisticated than StupenDos but it's only 29K long so you can afford to put a copy on all your discs if you're not very good at remembering all the DOS commands. P303 Printer utilities. PPRINT - Patriquin's Print Utilities. Sets printer configuration, page layout, headers/footers etc. Configurable for most printers including lasers, inkjets etc. Very powerful utility. If you've got something like a Deskjet or an Integrex and have trouble printing even simple text files from the PC emulator this will probably solve your problems. PCU - Printer Control Utility. Prints text files in various formats and sets text styles etc. Only works with standard Epson codes but as these are used by a lot of DM printers even with this restriction it's still pretty useful. P304 SLIM File compressor/decompressor. Similar to ArcFS on the Archimedes. You compress files then the 'resident' part of the program automatically decompresses them when you RUN or LOAD them. As with ArcFS compression is slow but decompression is fairly fast - in fact disc access with the emulator is so slow you probably won't notice it's happening. Very useful if you have only a single drive as although it really comes into it's own with a hard disc it works on floppies too. Unlike Stacker or Superstor it doesn't use a partition system so you can mix compressed and uncompressed files indiscriminately. This version (V1.10) is much faster than earlier ones. Invaluable for the PC emulator, especially without a hard disc. AMDISK Adjustable RAM disc. Not only much better than any other RAM disc I've tried on the PC but also works perfectly using the PC Emulator! The big advantage is that, unlike almost every other RAM disc, it's size can be adjusted from as little as 5K up to 512K while it's 'running' without losing any data. (Obviously you can't 'shrink' it below the size of the files on the disc). If you haven't got a hard disc this is highly recommended. I've tried it quite a lot and ** SO FAR ** it hasn't lost any of my files so I think it should be OK. LHARC - PD archiver, very good and quick. Can also make self-extracting archives. LZEXE - Compresses .EXE files so they automatically decompress themselves when they're run. Won't work with everything but if you have only a single drive it can make it possible to run some software without disc swaps. Compress all your utils and squash them onto your system disk. The only problem is that the prompts and error messages are all in French but the documentation is an English translation. P305 4DOS A replacement for COMMAND.COM That doesn't sound very exiting but COMMAND.COM is the DOS's command line interpretter (CLI) which is the bit of the OS which decides what to do with all the things you type at the '>' prompt. Commands like DIR, MD, CD, etc. and the commands used in batch files are all DOS 'internal' commands, which means that the code for them is built in to the CLI whereas the 'external' commands like FORMAT are loaded from disc. As 4DOS replaces the usual CLI it replaces all the internal commands with it's own equivalents, usually much improved. eg. DIR can display the contents of a directory in 1, 2 or 4 columns, with colour coding. It also adds many new features and commands, eg. a command line editor/recaller, improved copying, an 'EXCEPT' option and much more. Gives extra commands in Batch files so you can make menus and draw boxes etc. On- line help available. Some 'advanced' features of DR-DOS 6 and MS-DOS 5 have obviously been 'copied' from 4DOS. Extensive manual (nearly 250 pages) and instructions on setting up your system. I've have tried it out fairly thoroughly on the Archimedes and everything seems to work. NOTE 4DOS won't fit on a 720K disc when de-arc'ed. The manual alone is a 980K file and I have split it into two sections, otherwise it would be impossible for someone with only a 720K drive to de-arc. I will supply it on one 720K disc with the docs. in self extracting archives or de-arc'ed on two 720K or a single 1.44Mb disc (specify!) for £2.50 P306 TREACLE UTILITIES A series of utilities to enhance Batch files. You can create multi-coloured pop-up windows and menu's, get keyboard input, deal with disc files, etc. There are some nice 'fancy' items to make your menu's look really flash, like letters sliiiiding in from the side or dropping from the top. If you want to make a 'turnkey' system or just enhance your batch files so that they don't look like batch files any more this is worth trying. Some functions are a bit slow on the emulator but otherwise very useful. P307 I know that most Arc. Emulator users probably don't need to be as worried about PC viruses as regular PC users but if you ferry discs to and from the office it's best to be careful. F-PROT 2 Frisk Software's PC virus scanning and protection program. I have selected this from amongst many because it seems fairly good and works OK on the Archimedes (some don't). Although it's Shareware, if you are using it on your own personal computer, which probably covers the majority of PC emulator users, there is no registration fee, although there is of course a charge for updates to later versions as new viruses appear. Speed - Some functions a bit slow, particularly the memory test (but you can bypass this). Floppy disc scans are reasonable and this is where it is most useful. NORTON VIRUS SCAN No,it's not a pirated version. This is a cut-down demo of the famous anti virus program. It has many of the . functions removed, for example it will only detect viruses and not remove them, but it's fairly fast and simple to use. It's quite adequate for scanning a disc before you use it. It's a good advert for the full product and also demonstrates how mainstream software producers are at last beginning to lean towards the Shareware concept as an alternative to the old 'interactive demos' or spending a thousands on advertising. P308 VIRUS SCAN McFee Associates virus scanner. This is a well known virus scanner and works reasonably well on the Arc. The Shareware version only detects viruses, when you Register you get a Clean Up program that actually removes them CHECKUP Again a well known program from Richard Levin which works in a unique way. Instead of looking for viruses it goes through the disc and records a checksum of every file. Next time you Run it it compares the file with the checksum, if there's no change the file can't have been infected. Naturally files which alter, eg. WP or spreadsheet data files, your own programs, etc. give an error, but as it displays files as they're checked you can easily see if it's an .EXE or .COM or other suspicious file that's changed. In theory it's a good system because it looks for changes, not specific viruses. However the first scan when it creates the checksums is very slow. It took about 10 minutes to scan just 20Mb on my PC. The repeat was much faster, about 3 minutes. The second problem I find impossible to live with, although others might not, is that for every file it creates an equivalent checksum file! This means the number of files on the disc is instantly doubled, and every file has a short 'twin' with the same name and an .XUP extension. Despite the disadvantages it could be useful to someone who doesn't want the bother (and cost) of constantly updating a conventional scanner. If you don't mind the .XUP files it could be a good choice as the system works equally on hard or floppy discs, and if the checksums are OK you can be sure that you haven't been infected by some new virus your scanner hasn't heard of. P309 PKZIP (2.04) and PKLITE (1.15). PKZIP is the 'industry standard' file compression program for PC's. There are alternatives but all CD ROM's and professional Shareware Authors use PKZIP. It's not the easiest to use and it does take time to master the various command line switches but it is very comprehensive and the new version is much faster, especially if you have a 386+ with expanded/extended memory. PKLITE can be used to create automatically self-expanding programs. This operates in a similar manner to LZEXE but it works on many more types of executable files. P310 Programs for making 'turnkey' systems where the computer boots up into a menu from which you can run applications, perform DOS commands from menus, etc. The menu system must, of course, be created by the user but it is ideal for 'office' computers as it enables someone with no computer expertise to 'work the computer'. AUTOMENU Very easy to create the menus (there's an 80 page manual) which can have descriptive text associated with each item plus sub menus, etc. There is a slight problem as it seems to corrupt 4DOS workspace but then you wouldn't normally use 4DOS on a system run from a menu. MACE (Menu Ace) Perhaps not as comprehensive as Automenu but still very good and doesn't take up so much disc space. ADMENU (Allen Dew's Menu) A much simpler system than the previous two but perfectly adequate for most users. As it's Freeware there's no registration fee so if it does the job it won't cost you anything. ____________________________________________________________________________ Hobbies ~~~~~~~ P400 PUNTERS PAL Horse racing analysis program for National Hunt or flat. UK author. As I'm not a gambling enthusiast I haven't tried but I'm told by someone who has that it works! If you want to know the answer to the obvious question (ie. why is the author slaving over a hot computer and not retiring on his winnings) I urge you to read 'Twice Shy' by Dick Francis. FOOTBALL FORECAST Pools predictor program. Again a British program so it's not in many Shareware libraries. Handles Australian football so you don't need to abstain in the summer. P401 Railway simulation from S.I.A.M. Includes Penzance, Crewe, Paddington and the West Highland line. Not a game but a traffic simulation for railway enthusiasts. ____________________________________________________________________________ Misc. ~~~~~ P500 SOFTCAT, a software cataloguing system. Up to 99 categories can be used to sort the discs. The system can also handle multiple disc sets where more than one disc makes up a software package. It can also print categorised listings of the discs & disc labels. P501 PC TUTOR A fairly comprehensive interactive tutorial for DOS users. It's a bit slow but otherwise very good. Extremely useful if you don't know much about PC's and only have the PC Emulator manuals to work with. Much cheaper than books. *** See also P508 *** P502 HELP-DOS A series of help files and a reader with info on most of the DOS commands. It's a bit slow since it loads the files from disc as you read them but you can also print the data so you could just print the things you are interested in as a cheap DOS reference. Still a cheap way to get info on how to use MS DOS. *** See also P508 *** P503 SHARE GENIUS A program for keeping track of your share portfolio. Draws graphs of performance etc. Some functions are a bit slow on the Arc. but otherwise it looks very useful. Follow the fortunes of your privatisation shares.... P504 DosEA This is a play on words, the full title is 'A Dossier on DOS'. It's actually three Hypertext programs which comprise a comprehensive beginners guide to DOS. You can 'navigate' about the files to investigate things you want to know, or browse through it like a book. Runs at reasonable speed using the PC Emulator. It's very basic so will only be useful to someone who knows absolutely nothing about DOS This is normally three separate discs but by using LZEXE on the main program files I have managed to compact it so that it will all fit easily on a 720K disc. P505 TYPE TREK This is a typing tutor with a difference. It's aimed mainly at kids (but thankfully with no upper age limit!). You zoom about the Galaxy zapping Klingons just like the usual Star Trek games, but in order to fire your photon torpedoes and phasors etc. you have to type (constantly changing) words. If you want your zapping score to improve then so must your typing. It's also very fast so it works well with the Emulator. Highly recommended for Trekkies of all ages. P506 EARLY BIRD A general purpose home and business reminder/diary program. This is a comprehensive program with lots of features but not cluttered up with all sorts of flashy gizmo's like some of the more flashy products. P507 FAMILY SCRAP BOOK A genealogy database to help you trace your family tree. Can handle up to 65,535 persons and compile many types of reports, including pedigree charts, relationship diags. lineage charts, decendancy charts, etc. You can also link text files to each person. NOTE You must have a hard disc to run this program as it needs a minimum of 1.5Mb of disc space. P508 PC-LEARN This is another DOS and PC tutorial. It is basically a series of files with a scrolling 'reader' and a pull-down menu system. All the files can be printed if you wish. This is one of the best DOS tutorials I have seen and it's also fast so if you have previously bought P501 or P502 I will exchange it for PC-LEARN for the usual upgrade price of only 50p if you return your original P501/2 disc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- P509, P510, P511 - These discs contained programs for and concerning the Pocket Book computer. This now has its own section at the end of this catalogue so they can now be found there, where they have become PB-01, PB-02 and PB-03 respectively. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- P512 FRACTINT. The definitive Fractal program for the PC. It has been written by and with contributions from a long list of people. On a 'real' PC with super VGA this can produce stunning images. With (either) PC emulator the screen resolution is more limited so unless you have a good mutisync you might have to 'fiddle' with the display selector to get the one that produces the best results. Some won't work at all. You will have to use a bit of 'trial and error' with different combinations of the FracTint monitor type and the way you set the PC Emulator. The latest version of FracTint I have is v1.81. However it is too big to run from a 720K floppy (over 1.2Mb) so you will need a hi density drive or a hard disc to use it and it will be supplied as a ZIP file. The last version that will work from a 720K disc is 1.51, so UNLESS YOU SPECIFY OTHERWISE this is the version I will supply, de-arc'ed on a 720K disc with the documents in a SFX. ____________________________________________________________________________ Educational ~~~~~~~~~~~ This section contains educational programs and games for children. As most are not intended to be fast speed is not so important. However many, especially those aimed at the young, use sound to play tunes etc. The Acorn PC emulator is not very good at this and often emits only a few feeble farts and beeps. !FasterPC reproduces sound and music much more faithfully. P600 Learning games for tots/pre school. As their names suggest these are intended to teach letter and shape identification and consist of simple 'bash the right key and something good happens' games. PLAY and LEARN SHAPES and LETTERS ABC FUN P601 MATH MANIC A comprehensive maths learning/exercise program for all ages. This is written using Borland's Turbo Vision which is a 'desktop' style environment and so requires a little computer knowledge. All the exercises are external files and although quite a few are provided you can write your own to suit any level. Keeps logs of progress and errors. MATH LADDER JUNIOR Simple maths game for the young. MATH LADDER SENIOR Same thing but with slightly harder lessons. ____________________________________________________________________________ Games ~~~~~ P700 HUMONGOUS CAVE Text adventure game. This type of game is ideal for use with the emulator because speed and graphics capabilities are not paramount. This example is very good. Text adventures may seem a bit old fashioned but if it's a good game who needs fancy graphics? By 'crunching' some files I have managed to get it all on one 720K disc. A bit slow changing locations if run from floppy but not unreasonably so. Has an extensive 'hints' system but there's a problem with this as it swaps out data to disc when invoked. There isn't room for the swap file on a 720K disc so if you don't have a hi density drive or a hard drive you can't use the 'hints' system. Hints works OK with a 1.44Mb disc but without a hard disc swapping takes several seconds it works but it's slow. The game is best if run from a hard disc but playable from floppy although you'll have to forgo 'hints' if you only have a 720K drive. P701 More text adventures JACARANDA JIM Following an attack on his ship by an army of homicidal armchairs Jim is forced to crashland on the world of Ibberspleen IV. Rescued from the wreckage he must do battle with manic-depressive deckchair attendants, the Post Office and a sinister network of dank caves. This is often regarded as one of the best text adventure games on the PC. HUMBUG By the same Author as Jacaranda Jim. You, Sidney Widdershins, are sent to your Grandad's for the school holidays. Why is Jasper the dentist so desperate that Grandad should sell the Manor? Why has Grandad hidden a time machine in the cellar? What would you do with a trombone, a terrapin and half a pound of lard? All this and more will be revealed. CRUISE A 'who-dunnit' mystery adventure with murder on a cruise liner T-ZERO A text adventure game with literary leanings. P702 SEABATTLE This is more of a simulation than a game, so you can pretend that you're carrying out serious historic re-enactments while really just having fun! It's is a simulation of 'big gun' naval engagements. Each side can have many ships, all of which act independently. There's a simple 'map' which shows the position, course and speed of each vessel. You can 'play' one side, with the other being the computer, or there can be two human players. It's not a perfect simulation but most basic factors have been taken into account, including the armour protection and compartmentation of vessels and, in some cases, their 'state of readiness'. This is a Shareware program (reg only $10) and it comes with ten 'scenerios', Bismark (Denmark Strait), River Plate, Java Sea, Penang Island, two versions of a hypothetical battle of the Phillipines, a hypothetical English Channel battle which is based upon the idea of the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen trying to run North to Norway (actually proposed at one time) and hypothetical battles for Norway, Morocco, and the USS Alaska v Haruna. When you register you can obtain many more scenerios plus the tools to create your own and a large database of ship characteristics. This is a thoroughly absorbing game and ideal for the Emulator as it doesn't have any 'fast action' ============================================================================ POCKET BOOK ==================== Programs for the Pocket Book are normally supplied on 720K DOS format discs to preserve file extensions. As well as the following compilation discs most programs are also supplied individually in ZIP format on 720K or 1.44Mb discs. A copy of PKUNZIP will normally be supplied with each order. The most obvious problem with programs for the Pocket Book is that you somehow have to transfer them to the machine. This normally means using either a PC or an Archimedes as a 'terminal' so that the files can be transferred via a serial link. This is easier (and quicker) if they are supplied as ZIP files, but then you will need to unZIP them on the Pocket Book before you can use them. As all the programs on the compilation discs are supplied uncompressed they are 'ready to run', but a program may consist of several files instead of a single ZIP file, and it will be larger and so be more awkward to transfer. The choice is therefore yours. You can either buy complete discs, or buy the individual files and unZIp them yourself. You can, of course, buy individual ZIP files and unZIP them before you transfer them. You can do this on the Archimedes under the PC Emulator or a 'real' PC using PKUNZIP. You could do it from the Archimeded Desktop using David Pilling !Spark, but this can cause problems because !Spark truncates filenames to 10 characters, even if you are unZIPing to a DOS format discs, and so an important part of the 12 character DOS filename may be lost. I do not have one of these machines myself so I have not tried any of these programs and have to rely on the Authors descriptions. Please be careful if you are writing an order for Pocket Book discs by hand. The discs all have a 'PB' prefix for obvious reasons, and this could easily be confused with 'P8' if you don't make the 'B' clear. For example, it would be easy to confuse PB-04 with P804 if you don't write clearly. (I know there isn't a P800 section yet, but there probably will be soon). PB-01 A selection of PD/Shareware programs compiled by Steve Litchfied of Handheld Computers Direct. HEXED Edit binary/hex ICONED Icon Editor NP40 Notepad application (latest) NPDRV Drivers for Notepad PRIORITY Priority manager BITMEIST Bitmap/icon editor S3UUCODE UUENCODE ASCII<->Binary PS3-PS Postscript driver S3SPY Multitasking process monitor TOSHELL Bring System shell to foreground 3DOS DOS command line for the Series 3 FILESCOP Display hex/binary OPLHEL On-line OPL help PSIPOWER Battery life predictor DIARYCNV Convert diary formats IPC Example of inter-process comms PB-02 Psion/Pocket Book Games etc. Compiled by Steve Litchfield ASWARM Space Invaders S3BJACK BlackJack demo BOM101 BOM strategy game JUMPY#1 Jumpy platform game MINES32 Minesweeper game PITCH&P Golf simulation S3SLIDER Sliding tile puzzle S3_GAMES Various games (incl Hangman) TETRI_S3 Tetris WIT&WIS Wit and Wisdom ORGY3 GIF (view on PC) of (almost) Series 3 RICK PIC file VIEWPIC PIC file viewer PB-03 -=O =- Psion Series 3 Emulator -=O=- A series 3 emulator which runs on a PC and was written by Psion to help with Psion 3 program development. There is little documentation and it is released on the understanding that you do NOT contact Psion to ask for help as this program is not supported by them. PB-04 -=O=- General Utilities -=O=- 3DOS DOS command line simulator. Won't run programs by most filing system commands work. CHARSET Displays the full Series 3 charater set CON3A Currency converter CONVERT Another currency converter, primarily intended for use by travellers. FINDER Lets you start any application or switch between running applications in just two keystrokes. FLUTILS A set of assorted utilities for Series 3 by David Rushall FNDFIL Searches a directory fo filenames matching a pattern INSTALL Lets you install all of your apps in one go after a soft reset KILLAP Application killer KMAC091 Keyboard Macro record/playback utility OUT119B A thoughts/ideas organiser POWER Continually estimates remaining battery life S3INFO Returns free memory on all devices, plus lets you adjust auto switch off time S3KILL Runs a named application SCRSAVE Screen saver SETTAB Sets Tab positions on Epson compatible printer SHELL25 Shell for series 3a SNDOFF Turns of the sound. Avoid being seriously mauled by your neighbours on bus/train/plane. TEXTVW21 Text viewer for series 3a. Only needs 10K of memory. TIMER Simple OPL program that lets you use the computer as a timer TM12 Taskman. Lets you switch quickly between applications on a series 3a WRD2TXT Word processor to text converter PB-05 -=O=- Business and Finance -=O=- ACCTS3 Bank account program. Handles standing orders, printout, etc. ADDBKV10 Address book for serieas 3a only. Handles names, addresses and phone numbers. Also features DTMF dialing, envelope printing, etc. ADDRESS A simpler and smaller address book AMORT A spreadsheet which is an exmaple of amortization using the Psion spreadsheet. This carries out all the required calculations and can be easily changed. BANK Bank account program BARCODES A barcode generator for most Epson printers EXPA Simple app to help keep track of your expenses KALL610 Allows cost of calls to be calculated either during a call or in anticipation. Includes costs for Mercury, BT, Chargecars, BT payphones, etc. MOC20 Master of Ceremonies. For series 3a, helps people organise conferences, meetings, and other structured events. PAY Simple app to help calculate your pay and overtime. PLN212 A project planning program for series 3a. Calculates schedules for each task and helps you plan the whole project. VACATION Keeps track of the holiday times and trips of your friends, business contacts, employees, etc. so you know who's available PB-06 -=O=- Puzzles -=O=- ILUMI_1A Pattern logic game KAPARA10 Board game against the computer MINES3 Minesweeper game MONT1A Montana Patience for series 3a QUAKE Follow the computer's moves YNOT100 Dice game playe with 5 dice BANGKO Bangkok game. Uses six dice and can be played against computer or other players. Instead of a winner, you end up with a loser, so it's an ideal pub game (loser buys next round!) CSWORDS This is a 'crippled' version of a 'Shareware' program (Author obviously doesn't understand what Shareware is!). It is limited to playing the supplied crosswords and, unlike the full program, you can't create your own. HANG Hangman OTHELLO otherwise known as Reversi, etc. S3POKE Video poker for series 3 SOKOBA Push to objects to the shaded area being careful not to create a 'deadlock'. SOLO A number of variations on Solitaire SOL Solitaire TETRIO Good Tetris game TETRIS Series 3a Tetris PIPE3A Join up the pipes before the liquid arrives RISK101A Risk for series 3a for from 2 to 6 players S3SNAKE Steer the snake around and eat the dots INFO7C Infocom interpretter by Brian Scattergood FRAC The Author calls this a 'hop-a-long style game' PSIMAN13 Inspired by the Commodore 64 program 'Little Compuer People' ARTILLAR 'Artillary' game BOM107 A multi-level maze game. Collect keys, eat dots, avoid bombs. PB-07 -=O=- More Games -=O=- BLITZ 'Bomber' game COLS211 Line up the dropping Psion logo and get bonus points FAIR22 Fairway golf. A complete golf game JUMPY A platform game with all the usual features. Pick up bonuses, open doors, plus various hazards LANDER3 Guess METEOR Guide your space shuttle through the meteor field S3TANK A 3D tank game with 20 levels TANKA Tank Attack TRON Two player game. WILLY Platform game. Collect the keys to open the door to the next screen. PB-08 -=O=- Comms programs -=O=- VT122 VT100 terminal emulator OFFLINE Offline mail reader for Cix. READ35A Another Cix offline mail reader for Series 3a RFM110 Cooms/Remote package. Looks very comprehensive although some functions not yet full implimented. S3UUCODE UU encoder RDCIS Read Cis helps automate Cis navigation with the 3a SY Sylink - a comms utility for communication to Psion computers BEAMV1 This is not a serious application but an experimental program from Psion to investigate the possibility of two 3a's communicating by 'bbeping' at each other. Sounds like just the thing to really upset the other customers in a restaurant! PB-09 -=O=- Graphics/Painting programs -=O=- 3DPIC Those ****ed 3D pictures again! FLICK2 Animated pictures VIEWGIF View .GIF files in greyscale WSPCX Converts .PCX files ANIMAT Displays a number of .PIC files in sequence. Depending upon how fast this sis you can either get a 'slide show' or an animated sequence. Complete with examples. EXPIC Searches through files for bitmaps, especially icons, and estracts them. PAINT3A Psion Paint for 3a PICDRAW Lets you create and modify .PIC files. Primarily intended for icons but it can work with much larger items PICPOC Comprehensive paint program for series 3 PICVIE Lets you view .PIC files PSIONPBM Displays and converts between .PIC and .PBM formats SCROLL Lets you scroll a .PIC file so you can view pictures bigger than the screen. TTF2FSCB Converts Truetype fomts to Psion FSCB format SCAPT Takes a snapshot of the screen and sends it to a PC in .PCX format. SLID10 Creates database-driven slide shows with sound and other special effects. PB-10 GRAPH2 Graph plotting program GPLOTA Plots graphs of functions with various features. JAICNV10 JAI Convert. A general purpose conversion program that can convert between hundreds of different units. PRTNMB2 Maths program that can integrate, derivate, solve equations, print tables, plot graphs etc. ELEMENTS Displays the periodic table with info about the elements PERIODIC Ditto SOLUN25 A planetarium program for the series 3. Can calculate and display the positions of the sun and planets, plus a world day/night map and other features. LWORKS Language Works. An electronic phrase book with support for 5 European languages DBC10 DBCalc. A database browser and calculator which can produce sorted indexes of databases without changing them. SHEET A simple spreadsheet ========================================================================== POCKET BOOK INDIVIDUAL ======================== All of these files are compressed using the 'idustry standard' PC archiver PKZIP. They will be supplied on DOS format discs (normally 720K) and, space permitting, a copy of PKUNZIP will be supplied.