AmstradComputerUser26-0187.pdf

The Ofﬁcial Amstrad Magazine

January 1987

MOO

COMPUTER USER

Starglider: Full review I

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Awa i M in h T a ia m m Prt -s fel a n d the Printed rembcd n it t a d * m a ks o f Brit ish T e le co m m u n ica b cce .

CONTENTS

5 News I L

11 Letters

15 Gallup Chart

114 Least Signiﬁcant Bit

40 Making Mallard ﬂy

Tip top tips from Cliff Lawson

for programmers using

the PCW.

47 Assembly point

Pete Green explains the 3 Rs

and wraps his words.

88 Hidden MS-dos ﬁles

How to keep your data from the

prying eyes of DIR.

64 Crawler

Horticultural horrors with this

type-in game.

19 Split screens

All 27 colours on screen, mixing

modes and more.

74 Mini Ofﬁce II

Can a budget-priced business

package really provide full

priced power?

Model Universe

The program from Arnor which

does for graphics what Protext

does for words.

52 Games for the PC

The huge software base for the

PC1512 includes a large number

of games.

69 StarGlider

The hottest game yet from

Rainbird. Realtime wave their

magic assembler over the 464

once more. Is it the new Elite?

79 Protext people

Who are the people behind the

roms? Jerry Muir ﬁnds out.

71 Jailbreak

Konami break on to the home

scene with a criminally good title.

93 Games scene

Drunken motorcyclists, stolen

millions, space zapping and evil

princesses. All in a day's work

for Nigel, Colin and Liz.

42 Frost Byte mapped

Keezer kidnap relief.

23 Hairy Hackers Haunt

Hacker help and powerful pokes.

58 PSSt — wanna

cheap call?

John Silver drives the data

equivalent of a motorway.

37 Behind Biggles

Pat Bitton shows that more than

just programming goes into

making a game a success.

29 Seek and ye

shall ﬁnd

Bill Brock adventures on.

105 Win a Jailbreak

Turn your room into an arcade by

winning a full-size Konami coin-op.

63 Citizen printer

High quality, high speed prize

printer to be won by the sharp-eyed.

ANTRA

COMPUTER USER

Editorial and Advertising ofﬁces:

169 Kings Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 ISEF.

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

Telec om Gold; 72:MAG021

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

News t ra d e d ist rib u t io n : D e a m o n d -Eu ra p re ss Sa le s & D ist n b u t io n L id

Unit 1 , Bu rg e ss R o a d . lyyn o u se L a n e , H a st in g s, Ea st Su ss* . T N 3 5 4 N R

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

Amstrad is a registered trade mark, and 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.

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of

all 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 personel

correspondence.

c Auralite Ltd 1986.

Editor: Simon Rockman

Advertisement Manager; Jan. Nolan

Advertisement Assistant: Lorraine Day

The ofﬁcial magazine for all

user s of Amstrad computers

Page 3

Amstrad User January 87

RYE

StIATARCADE

WASS FORME

PRICE WON

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Imagine So (1984) Limited, 6 Central Street, Manchester M2 5N5.Telephone: 061-834 3939 Telex: 669977

Deranbuteet ri F ra n ce by Oce a n F ra n ce T e te p h o n e 9 3 -4 2 -7 1 4 4 D o se n b u te d in Ge rm a n y b yllu sh wa re T e le p h o n e 2 1 0 1 -7 0 0 4 0

AMSTRAD

NEWS

Amstrad PC drafted,

educated and cooled

The Amstrad PC has been ordered by

the Royal Military College of Science.

The 100 twin drive PCs will be used as

stand alone systems to train ofﬁcers for

senior technical positions.

The price, power and the Amstrad

name for reliability were all factors

which the college saw as being impor-

tant when deciding on the 1512,

It was the price of the PC that also

appealed to Aston University. They feel

that the E399 model is within reach of

impoverished students. It provides the

power of IBM and Apple computers

which would offer the same facilities

but at many times the cost.

Aston is particularly interested in

using the PCs to run spreadsheets, ter-

minal software and UCSD-Pascal. The

VT100 terminal software will link the

computers to the university computer

centre which has several large DEC

machines.

The ﬁ rst batch of PCs has been

delivered to some lecturers with the

eventual aim of a computer for every

lecturer and administrator.

Despite the large corporate orders for

ﬂoppy systems Amstrad has been

surprised by the percentage of users

who have opted for the hard disc

systems.

Initial predictions expected the more

expensive computers to account for

only 20 per cent of sales, but actual

ﬁgures run closer to 45 per cent. so

Amstrad has second sourced hard

drives from the old man of the disc

industry, Tandem

Minor changes have been made to

the standard Tandon design — the front

panel has been changed from black to

Amstrad PC beige. Amstrad has

and so some large customers have

insisted that the computer does

overheat,

Whatever the truth, Amstrad has

decided to offer a German-made electric

fan free with all hard disc machines

and as a ,E20 extra with ﬂ oppy disc-

based computers.

This is described by Amstrad's mar-

keting director Malcom Miller as a

marketing tactic. He says: "Amstrad

has simply decided to satisfy those

potential customers who feel more

secure with an integral cooling system.

We know that a fan is unnecessary but

recognise the commercial sense in sat-

isfying all our customers and their spe-

ciﬁc needs".

Alan Sugar was a little more direct in

his feelings about ﬁ tting a fan. He

described it as a waste of money and

recommended that operators switch

the fan off. "It'll save on electricity and

won't make any difference to the oper-

ation of the machine", He told the

Financial Times: "If it's the difference

between people buying the PC or not

we'll stick a bloody fan in it. If they say

they want bright pink spots on it, I'll do

that too. What's the use of me banging

my head against a brick wall and

saying You don't need a damn fan,

sunshine!".

AMX works

on MAX

Malcolm Millen "We know a

fan is unnecessary, but ..."

adopted a new disc controller from

Western Digital and has again

improved the design to give better error

messages. There will be no apparent

difference to users between the new

Tandon and old Xebec models, but the

new sourcer should mean that hard

disc machines will be easier to buy from

now on.

The Amstrad PC gets hot. How hot is

a matter for debate, it depends on

which cards you put into it and how

much power they draw.

The important question is does the

machine get too hot? After all, every

computer generates a bit of heat, es-

pecially from the power supply (The

Commodore 64 power supply is great

for warming your toes on — Ed).

But the Amstrad PC does not. over-

heat. Amstrad is certain of that, Unfor-

tunately not everybody believes that

MicroProse for the Amstrads

MicroProse, the number one developer

of simulation software for the home

computer in the USA, has announced

its ﬁ rst titles for the Amstrad range.

It has launched two of its most

famous packages, Silent Service and

AcroJet, for the CPC machines. Both

are priced at E9.95 on cassette and

E14,95 on disc.

Silent Service is a simulation of

World War II submarine combat in the

Paciﬁc, while AcroJet recreates the

thrills of ﬂying a one man 200 mph plus

acrobatic aircraft.

Also in the pipeline is F-15 Strike

Eagle, one of the MicroProse epics

which has lifted the company to the

number three spot in the United States

entertainment software league.

On the PC1512 front, six MicroProse

titles have become available ranging

from Spitﬁ re Ace to Crusade in Europe,

priced from .E17.95 to ,E24.95.

The news that MicroProse is to

market titles for the Amstrad machines

is being seen as yet a further acknow-

ledgement of Alan Sugar's success

story,

For MicroProse produces only a

handful of titles each year, spending up

to $I million developing each to guar-

antee it will be a blockbuster.

Advanced Memory Systems has a new

product due before Christmas, Max is a

Gem-style front end for the CPC. This

makes controlling the mouse, sound,

graphics mode and ﬁ le manipulation a

doddle.

The screen can be dumped to an

Epson-compatible printer and there is a

Help and note pad facility. When it is

available the software will cost .E19.95

and be a disc-only program. The author

of the program, Chris Honey wrote the

Commstar rom for Pace and has

worked for Amstrad.

Amstrad User January 87

Page 5

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