AmstradComputerUser28-0387.pdf

The ,Ofﬁcial Amstrad Magazine

March 1987

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COMPUTER USE

•

AIL

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US Gold interviewed

Music Machine review:

Ram's Binary boogie box

Plus: Listings, software reviews,

games reviews, news and views

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MASTERFILE III

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

FIRMLY ESTABLISHED

ALL THIS POWER

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.

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

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 ﬁ eld 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.

-ontrot PCW users: be patient, MASTERFILE 8000

will be ready early in 1987 *It*

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 CPC464,1664 with

DK 'tronics RAM. The price is just £33.00.

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 MASTERFILE 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.

110

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SPECIAL OFFER

You can save /10 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 41

Sona rs o f e a sin e ss A

Plater

Description

Microcomputer, 646: RAM • UM ROM ileiNtred !CP C 464

Microcomputer. taw Rilli • disc Anstrad • CP C 6128

Rise interface and 1.0l drioe. r An.trad DDT I

Det.mmtria printer S eep, M eal AteM red NV - Z11013

faecotioe b rie fca se Aq tle r

Wire p a p e r clip British Ste e l M AC

6191,00

6281.80

E141.SS

£15115

(4280

•

Rawer too nachiar

Bri

sh Telecom ,11.2806

1 E IBS .00

irazrlf""'

xe cutioe je t a ircra ft $ e a r F

Typewriter, electric .011oetti Leterra 06 600100

Dictation machine

Coffee m a ke r M i l e rs 0 6 3 4 1

Parcel scale S al t er ZS OP

elioreconpoter, 4 8 0 SI I I C a te ./ ru m sp e s

Letter scale itakonaster !30$10.

(38.98

6111.00

£121.95

618.88

. E S 262.294.26

Totals:

To re co rd 8 0 0 1 (Al fo r a n vil

lie, 1L12 P eturds S electee. 00IE are.lts,n8 FfM

1A,

England. Tel: (0378) 77762/3.

CONTENTS

REGULARS

FEATURES

5 News

9 Letters

13 Hairy Hackers Haunt

29 Adventurers corner

36 Gallup Chart

98 LSB

24 Protext power

David Foster, star of Prestel and

the author of the Protext

manual, looks at some of the

little known things which make

his favourite word processor a

joy to use.

11PCCPMIIIC

14 X

at Al IS 431413

121421431101.113

wrw rwriv Tv ea 1

Kt V IL Pi

.1• 10M

64 Music Machine

Ram Electronics has produced

a peripheral which pulls no

punches. It offers Midi, sound

synthesis and sampling for half

the price of some rivals. But is

it a jack of all trades and

master of none?

40 Nemesis

A Konami coin-op classic

converted for the CPC. Is it as

much fun in the privacy of your

own home?

81 Games

Reviews

Nigel, Colin and

Liz wear their

joysticks to the bone bringing

you reviews with the facts.

59 US Gold interview

Who are the men behind

Britain's top software house?

Where did they come from and

where are they going to?

Christina Erskine found out.

WOGRAMMING

44 Machine code

Learn to rotate with a character

manipulation routine. Pete

Green inﬂates his letters

69 Organ

program

Cy Noble

pipes up with

a program

for Basic and

Machine code

hackers alike.

52 Dogﬁght program

Chocks Away! A two player

WWI combat program with full

description. For the Amstrad

CPC in Basic and machine code.

ANTRA

COMPUTER USER

Editorial and Advertising ofﬁces:

169 King's Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 *EV

Tel: 0277-234459 (Editoriel); 0277 234434 (Advertising,'

Telec om Gold; 72,MAG021

Published by Awake Ltd. 36/38 St Petersgate. StoNport 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 Se e rs & D ist rib u t io n L t d ,

Unit I , Su rg e ss R o a d . I v o ve r L a n e , lla st e n g s, Ea st Su sse s 7 7 1 3 5 4 N F L

Tel 0 4 2 4 4 3 0 4 2 2

Am st ra d is a re g ist e re d t ra d e m a rk, a n d w e t 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 rm issio n o f

Am st ra d C o n su m e r Ele ct ro n ics p lc

- N o p e rt

publ i -

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

effort is m a 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 w e 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 e xp re sse d a re n o t n e ce s-

sarily t h o se o f Am st ra d o r * m o lt b u t re p re se n t t h e vie w s

of o u r m a rry re a d e rs, u se rs, a n d co n t rib u t o rs. M a t e re a i f o r

Pu b lica t io n is o n ly a cce p t e d o n a n a ll-ro g h t s b a se s. We re g re t

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 l

correspondence. r4

The ofﬁcial magazine for all

user s of Amstrad computer*

Cover p h o t o : M a rt in H o w e ll.

Editor: Simon Rockman

Advertiatiment Manager: Jane Nolan

Advertisement Assistant: Lorraine Day

Amstrad User March 1987

Page 3

AMSTRAD PROFESSIONALS

FROM DIGITAL RESEARCH

our Amstrad can handle

Interactive presentation

ality graphics.• to view the entire picture. Or

o here they are

Ideas become art with

DR DRAW E49.95.

DR DRAW lets you create

organization charts.Flowcharts.Business

logos.Technical diagrams. Maps.

Or just about any shape or line drawing

imaginable.

And each element can be enhanced

or highlighted with a variety of colours

and patterns.

Easy-to -follow menus let you select

pre-programmed shapes circles, bars,

arcs, rectangles, polygons, and lines —or

create your own pictures by modifying

these shapes via mouse or keyboard.

Add text anywhere you wish, selecting

between a wide variety of

type font styles.

Revise with the stroke

of a key. Fill a shape with

colour or patterns.

Enlarge or reduce it.

Move it to a new location,or

copy it,

Change type fonts, size,

colour, and location with just

a few simple keystrokes.

Zoom in for detailed

work,then zoom back out

TheAmstrad 8256 and

zoom out to ﬁt your picture

- neatly in a 8

6128 don't simply have massive

memory capacities that take

them across the dividing line

between home and business

machines•They also have GSX graphics

extension systems that make them

potential producers of high qual ity (and

highly exciting) graphics for business,

educational, scientiﬁc, industrial or pure

pleasure purposes.

NowDigital Research,creators of the

(PM operating systems that make this

graphics capability possible,offer you

two professional graphics software

packages which exploit it to the full:

DR GRAPH and DR DRAW.

Data comes alive with

DR GRAPH E49.95.

DR GRAPH lets you use data

entered manuallyor created with

popular spreadsheet programs such as

SuperCalc to design vividly effective and

professional line, bar, scatter and stick

graphs,and pie and text-only charts,

quickly and effortlessly.

Simply choose options from menus

and byﬁlling in a form.

When you've completed your

selections,you've completed the graph.

Choose from three different type

styles (plus your machine type) for titles,

legend and annotation copy. Deploy

different line styles, line and barwidths

and eight ﬁlled patterns to add clarity

and emphasis. Add borders, colours and

labels. Bar charts can be stacked,

clustered, or arranged in steps orsticks"

Pie charts can include exploded "slices"

Annotation can be incorporated,

modiﬁed, and moved anywhere you

want. Different graph types can be

combined within one chartand as many

as four different charts or graphs can be

combined on a single page.

page layout On extra- large

• drawings,you can pan the

screen back and forth over each section.

See, store, print, present!

DR GRAPH and DR DRAW let you

see exactly what you've designed on

screen.lben store it on disk for recall or

update later. Or print or plot on paper or

overhead transparency ﬁlm.

Either way, you've got a totally

professional presentation.

Both packages run on Amstrad

CPC 6128 or PCW 8256 computers with

one or two disk drives. Hard copycan be

produced on anyGSX-driveable printer

or plotter, such as Amstrad, Epson or

Shinwa printers and the HP 7470A

plotter.

Now with FREE

support for 30 days.

Amstrad Professionals from Digital Research.

Now Professionalism begins at home.

To place an order, send cheque to: ArnStrad Sales, Digital Reasearcn (UK)

Limited, Oxford House, Oxford Street, Newbury, Berkshire RG13 1.18

Or telephone Newbury (0635) 38787 or 38783, with your credit card

details. Or contact your local Amstrad dealer.

*FREE telephone support for 30 days following receipt of registration

card Thereafter a full year's on-line telephone support is available for

just f 15.00 + VAT. Full deta;15 will come with your software,

•

DIGITAL

RESEARCH

The creators of GYM

stage and VAT.

FM *

lell74

Amstrad PC

launched

in USA

Amstrad has taken on IBM at home

with the launch of the PC 1512 in the

US. The unveiling took place at The

Consumer Electronics Show in Las

Vegas early this year.

The price of PC's is somewhat lower

in America with many companies

touting cheap clones. These are often

sold in kit, form and require some

knowledge of electronics before

assembly. And the speciﬁ cation is

pretty primitive when compared to the

PC 1512.

However, the sub $800 price tag over

there does not sound as impressive as

sub £500 does here, so the emphasis

was on the complete system approach

using the slogan "The 'family friendly'

computer".

Visitors were invited to the stand (or

booth to use the Stateside phrase) by

eight "English bobbies" - Keystone

cop-type characters with white gloves

and whistles.

The full range of Amstrad PC's is

available throughout the States, a dis-

tribution task taken on by the Texas

based company Video.

Amstrad does have an ofﬁce in the

US but will stay very much in the

background, allowing Video to handle

sales and marketing.

Amstrad takes

on Big Blue on

its home

ground

helped by the

boys in blue -

fake British

bobbies

In pursuit of

Trivia

With E10,000 at stake the man from

ACLI took part in the Domark Trivial

Pursuit competition, ﬁ ghting bravely

for a wedge of the action.

Unfortunately Simon Jordan didn't

win, but as the youngest entrant he

was awarded a parrot by Dave Carlos

(the one with the beard) and Johnny

Ball the one without the numbers).

Our thanks to all who took part.

Amstrad User March 1987

Page 5

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