AmigaShopper16-Aug92.pdf

EXPERT ADVICE • TOP TIPS • BEST BUYS • MORE FACTS^^&fc.

--------------------------------------------------------------- -Vter

The top-selling serious Amigo magazine

Does Hotlinks make laying out pages with

Pagestream a doddle?............ DTP: page 81

ISSUE 16 • AUGUST 1992 O £1.50 O YOUR DEFINITIVE GUIDE

EASY TITLING

How to use your Amiga to add top-notch

titles to your home videos... Video: page 73

Got Gajits' Sequencer One ? - then you

should check out Hit Kit ..... MIDI: page 122

It’s easier than you think to program a

neural network on your Am iga. ..Al: page 44

Save on phone bills - set up your own

Amiga bulletin board!........ Comms: page 86

All the latest low-cost and no-cost software

PLUS where to get fonts.

PD: page 141

WANTED!

- your problems

We just love 'em!

Nothing's too tough for

Your unmissable collection of

essential A m iga advice

3D Graphics, Printers, Music, BASIC

Hard disks. Scanners, Accelerators...

- The top 200 starts on pl6

- HOW TO GET 10 GRIPS WITH

mJj J J I A J

Beginner or expert -

we've got the solutions

uiure

PUBLISHING

GRAPHICS, DIP, VIDEO & MORE

770961 730025

Your guarantee of value

Commodore A600

New RC880B

| Now with X-Copy Professional!

RC501+ RAIVS Card

Our RAM hoard is designed specially for the new

A500+ computer and comes with 1MB of RAM on board

Ife to expand your memory to 2MB of chip RAM Plug in

and go operation (fits into trapdoor).

Gives you a total of 2MB of chip RAM £-49

32 chip RAM card

' Power Computing have teamed up with Cachet

; of Germany to bring you the ultimate in disk

backup systems.

£39.95

The new PC880B disk drive can be used directly

' with the X-Copy Professional ‘Cyclone’ software

without any extra cables or interfaces.

This gives you the the power and reliability of the

proven Cyclone' backup software with the conve-

i nience of the PC880B floppy drive.

8 IVI B for any ASOO

The new compact A600 from Commodore

Built-in TV modulator

Workbench & Kickstart 2

Enhanced chip set

1MB of chip RAM

IDE hard disk controller built-in

Credit card size RAM & ROM slot

A600 £399

A600 with 20MB £499

A600 with 40MB £599

A600 with 80MB £699

So now you can have two backup systems Blit/.'

and ‘Cyclone’ available at the touch of a button!

^ And the PC880B still has our unique switchable

anti-virus mode, preventing all write accesses to

the bootblock of your floppy disks!

^ Plugs into side slot

% Fully auto config

Full thru’port

Expand 2MB-8MB

•2MB £129 4MB

‘8MB £299

t .*-

; If you all ready own a PC880B, and the Cyclone

Njrf copier, a hardware upgrade is available to take

your drive up to the latest specification.

£189

1 x 4Zip £19.95

2 IVI B for any A500

Economy 2MB RAM externally cased

16-Chip (1\1 DIP)

No thru’port £99-95

A600 Memory Cards

New RAM boards for the Commodore A600 £POA

_ v New PC880B with Blitz & X-Copy £90.00

New PC880B (Cyclone compatible) £75.00*

<>S Cyclone hardware upgrade for existing PC880B

V owners £15.00

” ’ *This drive is available only to REGISTERED owners of X-Copy

^ C J Professional. You must provide proof of purchase of X-Copy |

Professional.

gS . PC880 Disk drive £49-95

Miscellaneous

1 . 5 IVI B R A IVI Board

| Plugs easily into your Amiga

|8 Fully supports 1MB chip RAM

Fully compatible with Fatter Agnus £79

a p p l (Kickstart 1.3 and above, not compatible with A500+)

(Your Amiga needs to be opened, this may effect your warranty)

UvD 1 IVI B with Thru'port

f§ffg Expand your A500’s memory to a total of 2MB without

PC881 A500 Internal drive £40.00

PC882 A2000 Internal drive £45

disposing of your existing 512K upgrade. Works with

'■ qjr

1MB of chip RAM, simple internal fitting. £49-95

: (512K RAM must he 4 chip type, or not exceeding 9cm in length)

| (Your Amiga needs to be opened, this may effect your warranty)

| 10 Maxell disks, optical mouse, Zipstick

, Power Mouse £15

Optical Mouse £29.95

1 Replacement optical mouse mat £9-95

A500 Plastic dust cover £9

Maxell multi colour branded disks ( Box of ten)

Floppy disks bulk £POA

£45

A500 Internal anti-click board £9-95

A500 R A IVI Card

512K RAM expansion with battery backed clock and a

free disk packed with useful software (4 chip RAM) £29

E jP 512K RAM card without clock £24

SsS| 16 chip RAM card with clock £24

16 chip RAM card without clock £19

(A500+ compatible)

Special upgrade

offer !

If you consider your scanner system to be inferior

to the Power Scanner, we will happily upgrade

your software and interface for only £49-95

(Power Scanner is compatible with most scanning head,1

£9-95

Blitz Amiga

Back up disks at lightning speed

Stops all external drives from clicking

Contains anti-virus from being written into the

bootblocker £20

Aries R A IVI

A 1 500/A2000

4MB £169 6MB £209 8MB £249

■/ V

M B £129

Send your order to Power Computing Ltd. Unit 8 Railton Road, Woburn Road Industrial Hstate. Kempston, Bedford MK42 7PN

Ring your credit card order through on 0234 843388 (10 lines) or Fax on 0234 840234 Technical helpline 0234 841882

All prices include VAT, delivery and are subject to change. Specifications are subject to change without notice. Next day delivery £4.50 (U.K. mainland only), all trademarks acknowledged

Distributor for Pow er Computing in Italy, D.R.R SRL 00142 Roma.

Via Duccio Di Buoninsegna, 22 Tel (06) 5193481/482 Fax 5040666

Power Computing I .S.A., 21 South ‘'tit Street. S-.iite ‘XXI, Philadelphia. PA 19106

Tel 215 922 0050 Fax 2 IS ')22 (>] 16

Pow er Computing France 15 Bid Voium- "Sul.. I'ari.s. France

IV. 11) ij5'Ul()V ((> lines- lax (1)

\ _ * n ks. I

W E L C O M E

* *

AT A GLANCE

GUIDE

esp ite last m onth’s som ew hat surprising

new s that Com modore had decided to

c e a s e production of the A 500 and

concentrate on a new range represented

by the entry-level A600, th e re ’s still no news on

w hat might fill the gap between that m achine and

the A3000. Com modore has alw ays refused to

sp ecu late on new m achines before th e y’re

launched - even to the point w here the first you

hear about them is som eone ringing in to sa y that

th e y’ve ju st bought one in Dixons or wherever! But

they will go so far as to intim ate one is on the w ay

and it se e m s pretty certain, talking to developers,

it’s a replacem ent for the A2000.

If you look at the letters pages this issue yo u ’ll

soon se e w hat the majority of readers think about

the decision. Throughout my replies I’ve tried to

stre ss that I personally believe all is not doom and

gloom. Neither Com modore, its developers nor

third party m anufacturers and publishers are likely

to dump a m achine range th a t’s sold 1.2 million

units in the U K alone. That the A 500 is no longer

the state of the art is unquestionable - it's ju st

that its replacem ent le a ve s a lot to be desired.

Com m odore would have

been much better off

delaying the decision to

c e a s e production of the

A 50 0 until a new

m achine with a faster

processor had been

brought to m arket. That

way it could have saved

a considerable am ount

of face. As it is, it has

lost credibility.

So , in this big m eanwhile, w h at’s a poor A 500

owner to d o ? Hang on in there! Buy the new chip

se t so yo u ’re assured of future software

compatibility, w ait for som eone to release an

adaptor w hich'll let you hook up forthcoming A600

peripherals... and relax!

To help you find what you want

quickly and easily, this is a cross-

referenced list of all the products

and subjects covered in this

month's Amiga Shopper. The

subjects covered in Amiga Answers

are detailed on page 45; the many

PD programs covered on page 146

are listed there. The page numbers

given are for the first page of the

article in which the product is

mentioned.

A570 139

A600 13

Amiga Answers 47

AmigaDOS 92

AMOS 98

Artificial Intelligence 42

Bulletin boards 86

Buying advice ' 151

CD-ROM 137

CDTV 137

Comms 86

Competition 154

Desktop publishing 81

DTP 81

Education 78

For sale 140

Graphics 16

HAMA 290 genlock 76

Hit Kit 126

Hotlinks 61

Letters 13

Listings 70

Mail Order 135

MIDI 122

Modems 86

Music 122

Neural networks 42

News 7

PggeStream 61

Product Locator 152

Professional Calc 131

Programming 70,108

Public domain 141

Reader ads 140

Scala 2.0 139

Shareware 141

Shades 61

SID 2.0 141

Smoothtalker 76

Spellbound 78

Subscriptions 114

Talking Shop 13

User groups 112

Video 73

Word Processors 16

Are there any products or

subjects you’d like us to

take a look at? Well, just

drop a line to:

Amiga Shopper,

30, Monmouth Street,

Bath BA1 2BW.

J m m *

I P

■ W 'JJlLL

HARD DRIVING

There are thousands of Amiga programs which are

available for little more than the price of a disk. And

many more which allow you to try the software free

before you buy. Each month in Public Domain World

we examine the best of these programs and explain

how to get hold of them.

This month our resident PD sampler, Ian Wrigley,

scans through his latest batch to focus on SID 2.0

the great hard disk manager and samples a whole

bunch of new fonts. Public Domain World or...

cor baby that’s nearly free...

as we call it, starts on page 141

13 PAGES DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO

ANSWERING YOUR QUESTIONS

Every month in Amiga Answers our panel of experts

answer more genuine reader questions than any

other Amiga magazine. And for beginners our easy

Expert Tips will help you get to grips with your

Amiga, and understand the other features in this

month’s issue.

We answer questions every month on

Workbench • The CLI • Comms • Programming •

DTP • Video • Business software and more.

THE ANSWERS START ON PAGE 47

FO R A FULL LIST O F C O N TEN TS, TU R N THE PAGE

Your guarantee of value

This magazine comes from Future Publishing, a

company founded just seven years ago, but which

now sells more computer magazines than any

other publisher in Britain. We offer:

diagrams, summary boxes, annotated

photographs and so on.

Greater relevance. At Future, editors operate

under two golden rules:

• Understand your readers’ needs.

• Satisfy them.

Better advice. Our titles are packed with tips,

suggestions and explanatory features, written by

the best in the business.

The home of Britain’s finest computer magazines:

Amiga Shopper • Amiga Format • Amiga Power

• Public Domain • Commodore Format

• PCW Plus • PC Plus

ST Format • Your Sinclair • Sega Power

Amstrad Action • PC Answers • PC Format

Mountain Biking UK • Needlecraft • Classic CD

• Cycling Plus • Photo Plus • Total!

and millions of other top-sellers in the pipeline

More reader interaction. We draw strongly on

readers’ contributions, resulting in the liveliest

letters pages and the best reader tips. Buying one

of our magazines is like joining a nationwide user

group.

Stronger reviews. We have a cast-iron policy of

editorial independence, and our reviews give clear

buying recommendations.

Clearer design. You need solid information, and

you need it fast. So our designers highlight key

elements in the articles by using charts,

Better value for money. More pages, better

quality: magazines you can trust.

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 16 • AUGUST 1 992

LOWEST PRICES GUARANTEED!

lllllllllllUlWWW

CORTEX 1/2 Mb RAM

EXPANSION

for the Amiga A500

CORTEX 1 Mb

MODULE

FOR A500 plus

Gives 2Mb CHIP MEM •

t-uncfonal equivalent to A501

A501 Lower power 1Mbit DRAM • latest

technology high-quality components

■Fatter Agnus' compatible for 1Mb CHIP

MEM • tow profile enable/disable sw1'^ 1

S a b ^ rth or without battery-backed

clock/ calendar module.

CLOCK £22.95

£ 17.95

CORTEX 8Mb RAM EXPANSION

for the Amiga A500/A1000

The ONLY RAM upgrade approved by Commodore UK •

plus • Ultra low power desiqn •

Low component count for

maximum reliability • Available

populated to V2MB or 1MB.

Fully compatible with A500 lus for 10Mb maximum RAM •

External fitting (Warranty remains intact) • Through port

(covered by blanking plate) • Fully implemented auto-

configure • Zero wait states • Compatible with A590 and all

major hard disks • UsesIM x 8bit or 1M x 9bit SIMMs •

Complete with its own power supply unit (UK, US, or

EURO) • FullyAI 000 compatible • RAM test software.

2Mb 4Mb 8Mb

£185.00 £241.00 £353.00

GVP 8Mb RAM EXPANSION

for the

Amiga A1500/ A2000

Fully implemented auto‘c.0J?*'9Q^t

I Zero wait states- Uses lMx9M

SIMMs 2,4, or 8Mb configurations.

GVP IMPACT SERIES 2

HARD DISK WITH RAM

(A500HD8+)

52Mb Hard disk system with up to

8Mb of RAM • Factory-fitted

Quantum Pro-drive, 11ms access

Uses 1M x 8bit SIMMs (see RAM

CHIPS section for prices) • Game

switch (hard drive disable) and power

supply.

ENHANCED CHIP SET

(E.C.S.) UPGRADES

8372A

240Mb

£799.00

52MI I

£359.

ra.TL»

Fatter Agnus

Other GVP products availble: call for prices

8373

Super Denise

£34.95

EXTERNAL FLOPPY-DRIVE

High-quality silent mechanism •

Tnrouah-port • Enable/disable

MegaChip 2000 with Super

Agnus (allows 2Mb to be

fitted to A500/1500/2000)

See 'KICKSTART "

switcr

£ 47.95

£199. S3

■—

ROMS' for ROM

upgrade.

GVP

Full range available including new mini-slot

AT-Emulator.

NB. Price promise applies!

PRICE PROMISE

Cortex will match any genuine price offered by one of our U.K. competitors on

goods that are in stock on a like-for-like basis. This offer applies at the time of

purchase only and does not apply to prices offered in sales of bankrupt stock,

clearance or closing down sales.

2 YEAR GUARANTEE

All product bearing the Cortex brand name carries a 2-year guarantee. Other

products in this advertisment carry a 1 year guarantee.

All prices include VAT and postage & packaging. All products shipped same day

where possible. Allow 14 days for delivery if ordering by cheque. Make cheques/

P.O.'s payable to CORTEX..

ROM SHARERS

Essentia! upgrade to all A500 &

owners* Enables sate ana e. ^ .

K e S d controlled switching -Has 2

R O M sockets to allow for ■ • i j . i a

future expansion.

RAM CHIPS

1Mx 8 bit SIMMS (for

Cortex, GVP etc) EACH j

£3.49

4Mx 8 bit SIMMS (for

GVP etc)

£ 112 .

EACH

I T ' rr^-"

As above but with

2 position slide switch

KICKSTART ROMS

V1.3 ROM

V2 04 KICKSTART

256K x 4 bit DIPS (for A590,

2091 ICD etc) ' EACH |

1M x 1 bit DIPs (for older ,

A2000 cards)

EACH I

1Mx 4 bit static-column

mode ZIPs (for A3000) j

EACH |

f JcjcfM fcj

£19.95

ROM

DEPT AS, CORTEX DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY LTD, BRITANNIA BUILDINGS,

46 FENWICK STREET, LIVERPOOL L2 7NB. • 24 HOUR SALES

TELEPHONE: 051-236 0480 24 HOUR FAX: 051*227 2482

CONTENTS

AMIGA SHOPPER

Issue 16 August 1992

Editor: Andy Storer

Deputy Editor: Cliff Ramshaw

Layout Sub-Editor: Diana Taylor

Production Editor: Alison Harper

Consultant Editors: Jeff Walker,

Mark Smiddy

Contributors: Jason Holborn, Paul

Overaa, Gary Whiteley, Phil Harris,

Ian Wrigley, Philip Gladwin, Jolyon

Ralph, Toby Simpson, Wilf Rees

Guest Composer: J S Bach

Ad Manager: Margaret Clarke

Senior Ad Sales Executive:

David Eckett

Production: Richard Gingell

Production Technicians:

Simon Windsor, Chris Stocker,

Jerome Clough

Assistant Publisher: Stuart Anderton

Circulation Director: Sue Hartley

Promotions Manager:

Michele Harris

Group Publishing Director:

Greg Ingham

ABC audited circulation:

July-December 1991:

45,209 copies/month

Printed by Redwood Press

News Trade Distribution -

UK: Future Publishing 0225 442244

Worldwide: MMC Ltd 0483 211678

News

If the demise of the A500 weren't enough, we now hear

rumours that Nintendo plans to buy Commodore!

7 AmigaDOS

Why bother buying an off-the-shelf appointments scheduler

when you can code your own the easy way!

AMOS 108

More tips on better AMOS programming PLUS: how you

can win a free copy of the forthcoming AMOS Professional

T alking Shop

1 3

A 5 0 0 R . I . P . S P E C I A L

You respond to Commodore's decision to

(ease production of its most popular Amiga...

and there's flak flying left, right and centre!

Programming 108

Cliff Ramshaw continues his BASIC attempts to beat his

Amiga at Noughts and Crosses

AMIGA ANSWERS

4 7

Artificial Intelligence 42

The third part of our new series revealing the secrets of

neural networks and practical Al programming

A problem shared is a problem solved!

13 PAGES of your worst nightmares

diagnosed by our unrivalled panel of

experts. Absolutely nothing’s too tough

for these guys - just try ‘em!

Expert Tips 119

How to choose the programming language for your needs

MIDI Music 1 2 2

Can Gajit’s Hit Kit add-on for its popular Sequencer One

package make your music composition a cinch?

Business 131

Is Professional Calc from Gold Disk, the successor to

Advantage, the only Amiga spreadsheet you’ll ever need?

TOP TIPS 16

The biggest collection of handy Amiga advice ever

published with sections full of essential tips on:

• printers • desktop video • 2D & 3D graphics

• hard drives • word processors • Workbench

• RAM expansion • DTP • sound sampling

• BASIC • comms • accelerators • Shell

• C • scanning • music composition

• spreadsheets and Assembler... Phew!

Are these twenty pages you can afford to miss?

Amiga CD 138

Andy Storer looks at a new easy-to-use CDTV authoring

system which could make you a lot of money

Future Publishing Ltd. No part of this

magazine may be reproduced without

written permission. We welcome

contributions for publication but regret

that we cannot return any submissions.

Any correspondence will be considered

for publication unless specifically stated

otherwise.

Editorial

30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA12BW

Tel: 0225 442244 : Fax: 0225 446019

E-mail: amshopper @cix.compulink

Advertising

Rayner House, 23 Higher Hillgate,

Stockport SKI 3ER

Tel: 061-474 7333:Fax: 061-476 3002

Subscriptions

The Old Barn, Somerton TA11 7PY

Tel: 0458 74011

So how about winning another year’s free

subscription then ch a ps? - This month all w e

want you to do is send us the name of the

actor who the girlie, who starred in the

Hollywood movie referred to in these pages,

fell in love with in th a t film. You got it ? Then

ju st send it in to: ‘I go into a sw eat just

thinking about her in th a t chiffon dress’, Amiga

Shopper, 30, Monmouth S t, Bath, B A 1 2 B W .

First out the bag wins 12 free issues .

Oh, and last ish’s winner w as N P W ilson - well

done N P - yep it w as Tony Hart’s Vision On.

S t s l I What progran do you use

I F I LHfllK arcMwed

** J J __J I I (Be sure to add

by Timm Martin I j an archive, such

•

DIY Listings

How to write your own Search and Replace text utility

courtesy of reader, and £20 winner, Fu Sang Li

PARIS fflETRO

Public Domain World 141

Could all your hard disk problems be solved for free

with SID 2.07 PLUS: where to get hold of oodles of

fonts - well 281 anyway - for next to nothing

Video 73

How to get the most from a video titling package PLUS:

HAMA's new 290 genlock put through its paces

Education 78

We show you the best way to present your data, graphs

and stats PLUS: How to improve your spelling__________

81 Product Locator 137

We rate all the Amiga hardware on the market in this easy

access, at-a-glance guide to the top products

87 Win Easy AMOS! 154

Yep, we have 15 copies of this programming package to

give away. All you have to do is answer 3 easy questions!

Desktop publishing

Jeff Walker checks out whether the Hotlinks data

exchange system for PageStream does the biz

The world of Comms

Let the Amiga world come to you! We show you the easy

way to set up your bulletin board

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 16 • AUGUST 1992

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