AmstradComputerUser29-0487.pdf

E1.00

April 1987

,COAPUTER USER

•

Computer Journey: What

goes on inside your CPC

Sentinel; riteuird's Megagame

SCOOP: Amstrad to

launch a rocket

Plus: PCW listing, ivlicroProse interview,

news, reviews, hints, help and gossip

The (Oﬁcial Amstrad Magazine

Norway N OK 2 0 .0 0

Spam 3 0 0 Pt OS

Turkey 1 0 5 0 T 1

Denmark Kr. 3 1 .0 0

New Z e a la n d N Z $ 4 .9 5 Roc.

MASTERFILE III

FOR THE AMSTRAD CPC 6128 (ALSO CPC 464(664 WITH DK 'TRONICS 64K RAM)

ALL THIS POWER

FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

This is no toy thrown together in BASIC and half-

tested, but real machine-coded computing power

professionally constructed. We have had IBM and

Apricot users beg us for a MASTERFILE for their

machines — when they had seen the earlier CPC

MASTERFILE. All this power is yours for

£39.95.

MASTERFILE III is now ﬁ rmly established as

THE ﬁ ling system for the CPC6128. It has received

rapturous reviews and we could paper the walls of

our new ofﬁ ces with our customers' letters of

appreciation.

For the beneﬁt of newcomers to the CPC machines:

MASTERFILE III is a powerful and ﬂexible data

ﬁling and retrieval system. All "database" systems

require that your data is organised into ﬁelds and

records. Unlike most, MASTERFILE does not

commit you to ﬁeld lengths or formats, since ALL

data is variable-length and optional. Files are not

pre-formatted, and only used bytes are saved to

disc. Also, unlike the rest, MASTERFILE allows

multiple user-deﬁned ways of viewing/printing

your data. And unique in its price range, MASTER-

FILE offers RELATIONAL FILE options, where-

by common data can be entered just once and

shared by many records. Maximum ﬁ eld size is

240, maximum ﬁ elds per record is over 50, and

maximum ﬁ le size is 64K. Room for 1,000 full

names and addresses, for example. Only one disc

drive is required. It is menu-driven throughout, and

comes with detailed illustrated manual, and exam-

ple ﬁles.

For those who already have an earlier MASTER-

FILE, we offer updates; please telephone for

details. You will be amazed at the performance

improvements and extra functions.

-ork* PCW users: be patient, MASTERFILE 8000

will be ready early in 1987 Alk*

MASTERCALC 128 SPREADSHEET

We also have one of the fastest and friendliest

spread-sheet programs around, MASTERCALC

128. Its unique features include: individual tailor-

ing of column widths and precision; relocatable

formulae; split-screen option; automatic cursor

advance; text output to printer, or to disc for

interface with PROTEXT or TASWORD; hi-res

graphic histogram of any three rows. MASTER-

CALC 128 runs on CPC6128, or CPC4641664 with

DK'tronics RAM. The price is Just 03.00.

SO VERY VERSATILE

Just about ANY kind of information can be

handled by MASTERFILE. You can EXPORT the

data to other systems (e.g. PROTEXT/MERGE and

TASWORD). You can even merge your own USER

BASIC to MASTERF1LE for customised ﬁ le

processing, or build new ﬁles from other computer

sources. The speed of SEARCH of MASTERFILE

is second to none. Records can be sorted ascending/

descending, character or signed numeric, even

embedded keys such as surnames. Other functions

are ﬁ eld-to-ﬁ eld calculations, and several-across

label printing. We simply don't have room to list all

the features; give us a call if you are still in doubt

of the power of MASTERFILE III.

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SPECIAL OFFER

You can save 110 by taking MASTERFILE III and

MASTERCALC 128 for a combined price of just

£62.95.

Prices include VAT and P&P to anywhere in

Europe. Elsewhere please add 20% for air-mail

service. ACCESS/VISA/MASTERCARD welcome,

written or telephoned, quoting card expiry date.

Make cheques payable to "Campbell Systems".

Our normal response is return of post, 1st class.

CAMPBELL SYSTEMS Dept. (ACU)

7 Station Road, EPPING, Essex CM16 4HA,

England. Tel: (0378) 77762/3.

SUONdify of Dosinels Assets

'Maier

Nadel

Descriptiou

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CONTENTS

5 News

11 Letters

14 Gallup Chart

37 Hairy Hackers Haunt

68 Adventurers Corner

98 LSB

31 MicroProse interview

Iola Davidson visits the UK

branch of the company that

spent 81.2m on developing

one program.

17 Sentinel

John Baker enters a world of

Guardians. Firebird's newie

absorbs him totally.

46 RS232 - A missed

opportunity

Ian Hoare looks at the new

CPC interface and suggests

I mprovements.

77 Games Reviews

Colin, Nigel and Liz look after a

Little Computer Person,

FlySpy, Bactron and

Impossaball. Then they race in

500cc Grand Prix and sample

Agent Orange and Koronis Rift.

50 Computer Journey

A silicon saunter through the

workings of your computer.

Thrill to the power of the ULA,

gaze with wonder at the

graphics from the 6845 and

learn what makes it tick.

64 Amstrad Space

Scoop

Alan Sugar embarks on the

most ambitious project yet — to

get on the air by 1990 he's

going to build a rocket for his

TV satellite.

zz Assemoly poirn

You need never forget to save

your work with help from Peter

Green's little reminder

program.

n A

11_ I

•

58 Quoite

Super smooth

screen scroll

graphics game

to type in. It's

difﬁcult — but fun.

26 PCW Programming

Program your Joyce to play

Flip-'em, the strongest reversi

game anyone at ACU has

seen. Written in Mallard Basic

it's more fun than LocoScript.

AMSTRAD

COMPUTER USER

Editorial and Advertising ofﬁces:

169 King's Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4EF.

Tel: 0277-234459 (Editorial), 0277 234434 (Advertising)

Telec om Gold: 72,

Am st ra d is a re g ist e re d t ra d e m a rk, a n d w it h t h e t it le

Am st ra d C o m p u t e r U se r, is u se d w it h t h e p e rrn e ssio n o f

Am st ra d C o n su m e r Ele ct ro n ics p lc. N a p a rt o f t h is p u b li-

cation m a y b e re p ro d u ce d w it h o u t p e rm issio n . Wh o le e ve ry

effort is m o d e t o e n su re t h e a ccu ra cy o f a ll f e a t u re s a n d

listin g s We ca n n o t a cce p t a n y lia b ilit y f o r a n y m ist a ke s o r

misprints T h e vie w s a n d o p in io n s expressed a re n o t n e ce s-

stioly those of Amstrad or Amsoft but represent the views

of o u r m a n y re a d e rs, u se rs, a n d co n t rib u t o rs. M a t e ria l f o r

publication is o n ly a cce p t e d o n a n a ll

MAG021

Published by Avrelite Ltd, 36/38 St Peterscate. Stodu3ort SKI I Hi-

News t ra d e d ist rib u t io n : D ia m o n d -Eu ro p re ss Sa le s D ist rib u t io n L t d ,

Unit 1 , Bu rg e ss R e a d , I vy/ lo u se L a n e , H a st in g s. Ea st Su sse x T N 3 5 4 N R .

Tel 0 4 2 4 4 3 0 4 2 2 .

The ofﬁcial magazine for all

user s of Amstrad computers

Cov er photo Marten Howett

Editor: Simon Rockrnan

Advertisement Manager: Jane Nolan

Advertisement Assistant; Lorraine Bay

that Am st ra d C o m p u t e r U se r ca n n o t e n t e r in t o p e rso n a e

correspondence. Aw o ke L t d 1 9 8 7

Page 3

Amstrad User April 1987

akASTALLO

COBRA

C 1986 Warner Bras Inc.

All nghts reserved.

6 Central Street* Manchester M2 SNS

Tel 061 834 3939•Te3eK 669977

The prophets were

almost right

Whenever the Amstrad ﬁ gures loom,

the City starts to trade the shares and

guess the results. Before the announce-

ment on February 11 proﬁ t estimates

were running at between E55 million

and 00 million for the six months to

December 31, 1986. Then Alan Sugar

announced the results - a record

pre-tax proﬁ t of 01.3 million. Well

over twice the proﬁ ts for the same

period last year.

In a bullish chairman's report Alan

Sugar attributed the success to steady

sales of CPC computers, continued

growth in POW sales - with no sales

lost to the PC-1512 as many pundits

had predicted - and of course to the

huge impact of the PC itself which rep-

resented 25 per cent of sales.

This is even more phenomenal when

you realise that the PC 1512 was not

launched until September and did not

become readily available until Novem-

ber. With production now full steam

ahead the ﬁgures should carry on look-

ing good.

Companies often hint at what they

have planned when talking to the City.

Unfortunately the only mention of new

computers in the report was the sen-

tence: "Later this calendar year we will

launch a host of computer and audio/

video products to see us well into and

beyond the next ﬁnancial year."

The City reacted well to the ﬁgures

and shares rose 20p, but the day before

they had fallen around 10p and the day

after they again fell 9p, so the actual

effect was minimal_ Still this left the

company valued at E900,000 million

pounds, with Alan Sugar owning a

shade less than 46% - all on paper of

course.

DMP 4000

ﬁnally

available

The high speed, wide carriage printer

ﬁrst promised last September is now in

the shops. Priced at E349. it has a print

speed of 200 characters a second, is

Epson and IBM compatible and uses

the Centronics port.

buffered so that machines which can

only work at one baud rate at a time

can talk to the modem at, say, 1200 full

duplex and to the line at 1200/75.

The modem is Hayes compatible, and

uses all the standard command codes

implemented within the leading

communications packages. There is a

through connector which allows you to

keep a normal telephone plugged into

the line and a reset button.

Not only is the modem very cheap

but it comes with a free membership to

MicroLink - part of Telecom Gold - and

a comprehensive communications pro-

gram called DataTalk.

DataTalk runs under MS-DOS and

supports a number of protocols,

including VT100 and Prestel. The

package represents a major threat to

other modem manufacturers who

would not think twice about asking

over MOO for the modem, E80 for the

software and E40 to join Telecom Gold.

Cheap modem

for the PC

Through an exclusive deal with Pace

Amstrad has released a modem for the

PC 1512 at less than half the price of its

direct rivals. The Amstrad PC Modem

costs E149. The design is based on the

Pace Linnet and shares all the same

features but is built on a card which

plugs into the PC 1512 expansion slots.

You get a lot for your money. The

Amstrad modem will run at both

120015 and 300 baud full duplex

allowing connection to bulletin boards

and viewdata systems. It is line

Amstrad User April 1987

Monty gets

materialistic

Monty Mole doesn't live in a hole, he

wants an island to call home. The

island in question is Montos, but to buy

the place calls for a Iota loot. In Gremlin

Graphics' new game Auf Widersehen

Monty you have to make the money as

you travel the world.

Page 5

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