AmstradComputerUser23-1086.pdf

The Ofﬁcial Amstrad Magazine

October 1986

COMPUTER USER

LocoMail PCW

mailmerge delivers

Amdrum, Speech and

Rainbird's Advanced

Music System sounded out

Compiler speed trials

Pius: News, reviews, programs and pokes

rnstra

E8.95tap

i•13.85ditk

CONTENTS

T-tv 771

REGULA

RS1

ItEl%.11.) Latno

rtti Iti

5 News

11 Letters

54 Gallup chart

New look top twenty

28 Sounding off

Amdrum, The Advanced Music System

and Speech' given aural inspection

34 Animator

Making movies on your micro, the

Gremlin way

40 In the air tonight • • •

Take off without leaving the keyboard -

which ﬂ ight simulator is best?

106 Least Signiﬁcant Bit

rwri It MT Tilricoli_

r EatIL UILEJO

57 Supercharged Basic

HiSoftTurboBasic meets the Ocean Laser

Compiler in a high speed race

64 Amstrad PC1 512

Guy Kewney looks at Amstrad's newest

micro and sees how it measures up

73 Basic 2

A new Basic for a new computer, Basic 2

is very different. Simon Rockman takes a

quick look at what it offers

77 LocoNlail

Speedy mass mailing on the PCW

17 Adventure column

Playing Old Scores and Mandragore

23 Hackers Haunt

Hacking help and hints

52 Tubaruba map

Where does the money lie?

36 Goin' Loco

Get in the queue for some smart sounds

45 Helicopter

Eight levels of absorbing action with this

type-in treat

86 Games software

Liz falls in love with a Centipede. Colin

takes to the skies with Thrust and Nigel

runs away from a Helichopper

COMPETITION

Ut'

85 Win a PC1512

CDS software is offering a PC as a prize

for answering three simple questions

100 The ACU shop

Backnumbers and binders,

subs and savings

Editorial and Advertising offoces

169 King's Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 AEF.

Tel. 0277-234459 (Editorial); 0277 234434 (Advertising)

Telec om Gold: 7.2!MAG021

Published by Avralite Ltd. 36/38 St. Petersgate. Stockport SK1 1HL.

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 o a d , t vyh o u se L a n e . H a st in g s, Ea st So sse x T N 3 5 4 N R

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

Amstrsd is a registered trade mark, end with the title

Amstrad Computer User, is used with the permission

of Amstrad Consumer Electronics plc, No part of this

publication may be reproduced without permission

White every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of

on features and listings we cannot accept any liability

for any mistakes or misprints. The views and opinions

expressed are not necessarily those of Amstrad or

Amsoft but represent the views of our many readers.

owners, members and contributors. We regret that

Amstrad Computer User CAnnot enter into personal

correspondence.

c Avralite Ltd 1986

AMSTRAD

COMPUTER USER

Editor: Simon Rockman

Assie t e n t Ed it o r: Ale xa n d e r M a rt in

Ad ve rt ise m e n t M a n a g e r: Ja n e N o la n

Ad ve rt ise m e n t Assist a n t : L o rra in e D a y

The o f ﬁ cia l m a g a zin e f o r a ll

users o f Am a t ra d co m p u t e rs

Amstrad User October 86

Page 3

per hour (cheap rate) to run

(Assuming Prestel local call access).

Special Introductory offer: We'll

pay your VAT. A complete CPC pack —

Modem and Software — for just i119.90.

PCW Pack (Voyager II and Serial Interface) £199.95.

Fill in the coupon then stand by to access mainframes

and micros worldwide,

„.or Tuesday_ or Thursday_ the

sooner you send off the coupon,

•

• a

the sooner you'll have the entire

knowledge of the world at your ﬁngertips.

The Voyager range of Modems has full BABT approval

and is fully compatible with just about any micro

throughout the world. And you could pay twice the price

for a modem and still not get these features:

• Multi Speed — including 300/300, 1200/75, 75/1200

full duplex, and 1200/1200 half duplex • Full

Function LED Display • More software support than any

other Modem — and the best.

The Voyager CPC range of Software gives you:

• Auto Dial/Auto Answer • Full Colour Prestel/

Viewdata Emulation • Full Prestel/Viewdata Graphics

Emulation • Full Telesoftware support • File Upload/

Download and/or Spooling to Cassette, Disk, Memory

and/or Printer • X-Modem File Transfers Bulletin

board Software available soon • The total software on

ROM package for just £39.95 (ex-VAT) • PCW Software

available — the most powerful and bestselling pack —

,E75,00 (ex-VAT).

With Voyager 7 you can link Prestel, Micronet, Viewfax,

Amsnet, BT Gold, Microlink — and most other data bases

and for 98% of the country it'll cost you only around 40p

DAN HOUSE

THE SINGLE SOURCE SOLUTION

ModemHouse.

APPPOVE0 • 1 2 ,m,Q

70 Longbrook Street. Exeter.

Devon EX4 6AP e

CCP

tr .

11'3,5n:1442 1

As Stocked by AO)

Please send me: ( Ti c k which requiredj

I 1. Voyager! Modem 191. 94 (Inc VAT)

1 2. Complete Amstrad CPC pack Inc. Software & Modem 1119.90E1

1 3. Complete PCW Pack (Voyager II Software &Serial Interface)i199.95E1 i

1 I enclose cheque/PO payable to 'Modem House for

▪ OR Access No:

NAME

▪ ADDRESS

I Post to:- Modem House. 70 Longbrook Street. Exeter, I

Devon EX4 6AP Tel: (0392) 213355 ACU/10/8E.

L.•

NEWS

User News

Amstrad PC 1512

launched

In addition to being very good the

Amstrad PC is very cheap - for et PC.

The monochrome model with a single

drive is .E399 and the top of the range

micro with a 20Mb hard disc will set you

back E949. This is around ﬁ ve times

cheaper than a comparable machine.

Amstrad is maintaining its policy of

not allowing upgrades from one system to

another, but has authorised Dictaphone

to do so. You cannot upgrade from a

mono system to a colour one but it is

possible to add a second ﬂoppy disc drive

for E149, a 10Mb hard disc for E400 and a

20Mb drive for 1;500. These prices

include ﬁ tting.

The most useful service Dictaphone

offers is a memory upgrade expanding a

512k machine to 640k for just i:45. You

will ﬁnd a full review of the Amstrad PC

on Page 64 and a review of its new Basic

on Page 73.

Amstrad has launched the long awaited

PC 1512, and it has proved to be a better

buy than anyone predicted. The machine

is IBM-compatible, comes with 512k

RAM and uses a 16 bit 8086 processor

running at 8N1H7..

This means that the computer is very

much faster than the IBM original. It is

available in eight different conﬁgura-

tions with colour or monochrome mon-

itors, single or dual drive ﬂ oppy disc

drives and 10 or 20Mb hard disc. There

are serial and parallel interfaces as

standard so printers, modems and a host

of RS232 devices can be connected. The

clock is battery backed up - so the

machine doesn't forget the time when

you switch it off.

The Amstrad PC is unusual in having

both a joystick port and a mouse as

standard, the mouse being essential for

using the Gem software you get with the

computer.

Two operating systems are supplied

with the Amstrad PC: DOS Plus - an

improved version of CP/M 86 - and

MS-DOS 3.2, the new version of the

standard operating system for the IBM

PC. Version 3.2 costs more than E100

from IBM. The software supplied

includes Gem Desktop, Gem Paint and

Locomotive Basic 2.

The most impressive feature of the new

PC is the 16 colour graphics mode. This

offers as many colours as the 464 Mode 0

but with the high resolution of Mode 2.

One feature which makes a PC

compatible so ﬂexible is the expansion

slots, which allow the user to add

hardware inside the main unit, Two

types of card can be added, full length

and half' length.

The Amstrad PC has room for three

full length cards. This may sound

restricting when it is compared to the ﬁve

slots on some machines, but you have to

remember that the rivals need extra slots

for memory expansion, colour graphics

cards, serial and parallel interfaces and a

mouse port.

All these are built into the Amstrad as

standard, leaving the expansion slots for

more esoteric applications. These

include modems, memory drives, second

processors and a host of special uses.

Unfortunately these cards are often

expensive but with the impact of the

Amstrad PC we should see prices fall.

Star of the

big Show

The new PC is set to be one of the star

attractions at the ﬁ fth Amstrad Com-

puter Show.

Its presence has boosted the new

product launches scheduled for the event

to a record high of more than 200.

Companies are currently working

round the clock to ensure they make the

deadline - October 3, the opening day at

the Novotel, Hammersmith,London.

A survey has revealed that one third of

all the innovations on display at the three

day event will be for the new machine.

One company alone, Digital Research,

will be showing nine products for the PC.

Apart from 1512 versions of four

established products - Gem Draw,

Gem Write, Gem Graph and Gem

WordChart - the company will be

launching ﬁve new packages,

These are Gem Diary, a page-per-day

facility complete with notepad, 11

alarms, and card index ﬁ le costing

.09.99: Gem Fonts and Drivers Pack

and Gem Draw Business Library, both

priced at 09.95; Gem Font Editor at

09.95; and Gem Programmers Toolkit

at ,E175.95.

Caxton Software also has two new

products for the PC. Condor Junior, a

relational database and report system

suitable for novices, costs L99•99, while

Timekeeper, a time management

system, is priced at E49.99.

Citadel Products is also aiming to

jump aboard the PC bandwagon with a

and a new printer

To complement the Amstrad PC there

is a new, old, printer. The [)MP-3000 is

a PC compatible version of the popular

DMP-2000. The new printer has slight

differences in the ROM and is coloured

to match the Amstrad PC. As with the

DMP-2000 it has a good near letter

quality mode and bit image graphics.

With a draft quality speed of around

100 characters per second it is a good

budget priced machine. The eight bit

parallel interface on the PC allows full

access to the character set.

The new machine costs .U0 more

than the DMP-2000 at 1'155.65.

Rumours of a forthcoming wide car-

riage version cannot be substantiated.

Page 5

Amstrad User October 86

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: