AmigaShopper05-Sep91.pdf

EXPERT ADVICE • TOP TIPS • BEST BUYS • NO GAMES!

EDUCATION

Teach your kids and save money at the

same time. Find out how inside, page 107

SAMPLERS

What should a good sound sampler offer?

W e explain the technology............. page 49

PROGRAMMING

Learn to control your programs with the

mouse in our C tutorial...................... page 71

GRAPHICS

Need a paint package? Find out if

Spectracolor is the one for you., page 57

FREEZER CARTS

How can Datel's Action Replay help you

as a programmer?................................. page 36

SCANNING

Use image manipulation software to perk

up your scanned pictures.................. page 99

BACK TO BASIC

Translating mathematics into programs isn't

easy - discover how to do it........ page 41

All the jargon explained - guaranteed

PUBMfflftMAIN

Help is at hand with Am iga Answers

Dozens of real-life problems solved Inside

12 pages of expert assistance start on page 18

Save a fortune with our comprehensive

monthly guide to free software

f 1,750-WORTH OF SOFTWARE

- FIVE COPIES OF SUPERBASE

J :1 M W W J

Specifications are subject to change w ithout notice

POWER COMPUTING

N E W LOW

"V ;r

C E

NEW PC 880 B Power Drive

THE ONLY DRIVE OF ITS KIND ON THE MARKET!

BLITZ HARDWARE BUILT IN

VIRUS BLOCKER

ANTI-CLICK

ISOLATING SWITCH

TOP QUALITY MECHANISM

• T h ru -p o rtfo rd a is y chaining

• Blitz hardware copier built in (switchable)

• Virus blocker built in (switchable)

• H igh sp e c88 0 K F Io pp y Drive

• P ow erC om puting Anti-Clickfeature

• Isolating on/off switch

£65 00 inc vat

NEWBMtz Amiga

MEMORY EXPANSIONS

• Back-up your disks at lightning speed

• Copies from the internal to the external drive

• Backs-up an Amiga disk in as little as 40 seconds

• Backs-up other form at disks (Atari, PC)

• Copies up to three external drives at once

• Stops ALL external drives from clicking

• Contains ANTI-VIRUS sw itch !- prevents viruses from being

written to the bootblock

• W o rk s o n A m ig a 5 0 0 o r 2 0 0 0

1.5MB Expansion Board £79

FULLYSUPPORTS1MB CHIP RAM MOST BOARDS DON'T!

Check before you buy

Plugs easily into y o u rA m ig a *

512K RAM Card without clock

£25

£ 2 4

Original Blitz Amiga £15

PC880 Power Drive

512K RAM Card with clock

* F u l l y c o m p a t i b l e w i t h ' F a t t e r A g n u s ' a n d l M B C h i p R A M

K i c k s t a r t 1 -3 a n d a b o v e , s i m p l e i n t e r n a l f i t t i n g

• Isolating on/off switch

• Thru'port for daisy chaining

• N o a n n o y in g c lic k w h e n d r iv e is e m p ty

• 12 m onth warranty

'Strong construction, good design, & durability

make it an obvious choice - not forgetting the Power

drives Anti-click feature'... Amiga Shopper Best

Budget BuyApril '91

DUAL DRIVE

Availableonlyfrom Power

TheON LY company to makethedual drive

'Quite simply, the best all rounder' ... Amiga Shopper

Best Buy April '91

£55

£99 95

The only drive with'Anti-ciick'Beware of imitations

Dual 3-5" Drive with built-in power supply

NEW Po wer Scanner

A500 Replacement Internal Drive

No case m odification required

40MB Slimline Hard Drive

• Compact high speed drive

R e q u ir e s A m i g a t o b e o p e n e d f o r s i m p l e i n t e r n a l f i t t i n g

£ 4 9

• Scan from 1 00-400 DPI

• Simulate Grey Scale

• IFF & Printer support

Licensed from DAATA SCANNER

• Powerful Image Edit software

• Crop,cut, paste, magnify, edit

• m a n y m o re fe a tu re s

£ 2 9 9

£159

£9 35

A500 Internal Anti-Click board

All prices include VAT and are subject to change

POWER COMPUTING LTD

Unit 8 Railton Road W oburn Road Indust rial Estate Kempst on Bed ford MK42 7PN

Tel: 0234843388 Fax: 0234840234

A ll tra d e m a rks a c k n o w le d g e d

A c c e s s

VISA

CONTENTS

SHOPPING LIST

This is an alphabetically sorted,

quick-reference list to everything in

the issue. Jusl look For the n o n e of

the software, hardware or subject

you require and it should be here

Some things are cross-referenced

under more than one headirg for

ease of use.

Action Replay

AMIGA

REGULARS

News

Find out what's happening out there

Challenge our panel of experts w ith your

Amiga questions. Printers, graphics, DOS,

Basic - all is revealed on page 18.

Letters

The Hyde Park Corner of the Amiga world

Amiga Answers

Competition

Win a copy of Superbase 4 worth £41 1

Amiga DOS

9 5

SOFTWARE

A M O S

Bubbletet

Music

Sound samplers: the technology investigated

Bulletin boards

Spectracolor

Colour painting package

Buyeis Guide

1 1 1

Buying Advice

116

Graphics

Quarterback

Hard disk backup program

■ I

Canon BJ-330

Spectracolor is the latest paint package from the States

9 2

■

. :

Subscriptions

Competition

4 4

Quarterback Tools

Disk repair and optimisation utilities

Complete Colour Solution

Get Amiga Shopper every month and get a free gift!

Database

4 4 .8 7

Datel Action Replay

Video

New hardware from Rombo and G2

Superbase 4

Graphical database

Digitiser

DOS

9 5

DTP

Communications

The top Amiga bulletin boards revealed

Education

107

Touch-Up

Image manipulation program

Freezer Cartridges

G 2 VideoCenter Plus

6 7

. . :

: -

Business

We conclude our analysis of Superbase 4

HARDWARE

Golden Image scanner

9 9 :

G raphics

Image manipulation

9 9 :

Action Replay

How can this cartridge help your programming?

Learning

10 7 ;

Desktop Publishing

Touch-Up lets you perfect your scanned images

Music

4 9

News

Sound samplers

Education

Learning programs need not be expensive

107

How do they work and what should you look out for?

Public domain

107 119

Quarterback

8 4

Complete Colour Solution 65

Rombo claims this is everything you need for digitising

Quarterback Tools

84 i

Reader Ads

Sell, sell, sell; buy, buy, buy

114

RAM expansion

113

Reader ads

114

Rombo Colour Solution

VideoCenter Plus

A genlock and effects unit in one: is it worth it?

User Groups

The latest from groups around the country

115

Scanner

9 9

Shareware

119

Sound samplers

4 9

Canon BJ-330

Spectracolor

5 7

Buying Advice

Our guide to making a safe purchase

116

Subscriptions offer

Can this low-cost bubblejet match a laser for quality?

Superbase4

4 4 ,8 7

Supra RAM

113

Golden Image scanner

Touch-Up

T U T O R 1 AL S

Does its bundled software make this the best scanner?

Usei Groups

115

Video

Supra RAM expansion

Add up to 8Mb easily to an A500

113

Basic programming

Tackling simultaneous equations

VideoCentre Plus

CONTACTS

Editorial

Stuart Anderton - Editor

30 Monmouth Street, Bath BAT 2BW

* 0225 442244

or via the Amiga Shopper conference on CIX

Advertising

Margaret Clarke - Advertising Manager

2nd Floor, Rayner House, 23 Higher Hillgate,

Stockport SKI 3ER

« 061-474 7333

Subscriptions

The Old Barn, Somerton, Somerset

TA11 7PY

* 0458 74011

C Programming

Getting input from keyboard and mouse

AMOS

The compiler's here at last

The idea o f free softw are is great, but how do

you sort the w heat from the chaff?

Turn to page 119 fo r our unique PD guide.

AmigaDOS

Analysing the Startup-sequence

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 5 • SEPTEMBER 1991

10 MARKETPLACE

ST. ALBANS

HERTS AL1 3DG

TEL (0727) 56005/41396

THE GALLERY

ARNDALE CENTRE

LUTON, BEDS LU1 2PG

TEL (0582) 457195/411281

A M I G A T H E L O T ! !

E V ER YTH IN G Y O U C O U LD EVER N EED !!

C AR TO O N CLASSICS O R SCREEN G E M S G AM E S PACK

A S LEFT, PLU S:! 0 G REAT IN D IV ID U A L L Y PACKAG ED G A M E S

previous RRPs £19.99-S39.99 each, phone to choose from current list

of 15, or leave it to us! Children’s games available.

15 D ISC H O BBYTE PD GREATS P A C K , including Virus Killers, the BEST

Star Trek Computer Conflict, Breakout and construction Kit, Blizzard ond other gomes,

Arcade Classics, Boord Classics, Shootem-Up Classic, Best of the Utilities, Home pock J

including Word Processor/Spell Check, Spreadsheet, Dotobose

D ust Coyer, 10 Blank Discs, Disc B ox, M ouse M o t, M ic ro s w itd i

Turbo Joystick 1M B Am igo £389

5 1 2 K A m ig a £365

I W ITH O U T CARTOON CLASSICS/SCREEN GEM S DEDUCT £ 2 0

A M I G A G A M E S P A C K S

C A R T O O N C LA S S IC S O R SCREEN G E M S

Full Amiga 500 pack, PLUS: Lemmings, The Simpsons - Bart v The Space

Mutants, Captain Planet and the Pkineteers, Deluxe Paint III (Deluxe Paint II

with 512K Cartoon Classics)

OR Screen Gems software: Shadow of the Beast II, Back to the Future II,

Days of Thunder, Nighttxeed, Deluxe Paint II

A M I G A S T A R T E R P A C K

Full Amigo 500 pack, WITHOUT Cartoon Classics/Flight/Screen

Gems software: BUT WITH:

15 disc Hobbyte PD Greats pack, including Virus Killers, the

Best Star Trek and other top ten games, Arcade Classics, Board

Classics, Best of the Utilities, Home pack including Word

Processor, Spreadsheet, Database,

Joystick

5 1 2 K A M IG A

1 M B A M IG A

1 M B A M IG A £ 3 4 9

5 1 2 K A M IG A £ 3 2 9

Sceen Gems Upgrade Pack..................................£ 3 9

Cartoon Upgrade Pack.......................................... £ 5 9

£ 2 9 9

£ 3 2 5

A M I G A 1 5 0 0 / 2 0 0 0

Full UK.spec, latest version with 1MB RAM, mouse, expansion os

manuals and operating discs, available as:

A1S O O PLU S:1 S DISC H O BBYTE PD GREATS PACK including

Virus Killers, the BEST Star Trek,Computer Conflict, Breakout and construction Kit Blizzard j

and other games, Arcode Classics, Board Classics, Shoot-em-Up Classics, Best of Utilities,.

Home Pack including Word Processor/Spell Check, Spreadsheet, Datobose.

WHhout 10S4SDI With 10S4SD!

modulator

A M I G A F I R S T S T E P S

EX PAN D ED E D U C A T IO N A L/A P P LIC A T IO N S PACK

FULL A M IG A 5 0 0 P A C K , PLU S:

A501 512K RAM expansion

lets Spell at Home, Music Mouse, Prowrite WP, InfoFile spreadsheet,

Deluxe Point II, Deluxe Print, Music Mouse, LOGO, Talking Tuttle, BBC

Emulator, 5 BBC programmes, 10 discs, DOs ond DON'Ts poster,

Resource File, In Pock Video, NAPE Booklet.

HOBBYTE EDUCATIONAL PACK, featuring up to 12 'Learn

while you play' games Ivories according to age group)

H O BBY TE 3 0 EASiY C H ILD R E N 'S G A M E S , 10 disc pock

inc; Train Set Game, Flashbier. —

JO Y S TIC K JtSlS

‘ STOP PRESS - FIRST STEPS’ N O W £ 4 4 9

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS PACK

FULL AMIGA 500 PACK, PLUS:

PO STM AN PAT, SNAP, SNAKES AN D LADDERS, LUDO

FU N SC H O O L 2 AND FU N SC H O O L 3

(specify under 6 years, (specify under 5 years,

6 to 8 years, or 8+ years) 5 to 7 years, or 7+ years)

12 stunning UK educational gomes with beautiful pictures, exciting animation and

music that help to develop number, word and other skills. Up to 6 skill levels.

Conform to National Curriculum requirements.

HO BBY TE ED U C A TIO N A L P A C K , featuring up to 12 'learn while you

ploy' gomes (varies according to age group)

HO BBY TE 3 0 EA SY C H ILD R E N 'S G A M E S ,

10 f a pack inc; Train Set Gome, Flashbier. ,

JO Y S TIC K 4 1 2 K ........................................... £ 3 5 5

1 M B A M IG A ................................................. £ 3 7 5 ^

ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS SOFTWARE PACK

for existing Amiga users.............................£ 5 J

SINGLE DRIVE

459

679

DUAL DRIVE

499

719

SD + 2091/52 MB QUANTUM H DRIVE 799

999

A 1 5 0 0 PLU S: A 1 5 0 0 SO FTW AR E PA C K including

The works. Platinum Dotabose, WP, Spreadsheet, Delux Paint III,

Sim City. Populous, Their Finest Hour, Bottlechess, A-Z of Computer

Jargon, Get the Most1 from your Amigo,

PLU S: 1 5 DISC H O BBYTE PD GREATS PA C K AS ABOVE

4S0I With 1034SD1

FIRST STEPS SOFTWARE

U PG R A D E PACK

for existing Amiga owners

£ 1 9 9

SINGLE DRIVE 619

DUAL DRIVE 649

SO+ 2091/52 MB QUANTUM H DRIVE 949

A3000 WITH 1950 MONITOR OFFER

A3000 25/40 25 MHz, 40 MB HO, 2MB RAM, 1 x 3.5" 880K floppy, keyboord £1989

A3000 25/100 25 MHz, 100 MB HD, 2MB RAM, t x 3.5" 880Kfloppy, keyboord £2289

PHONE FOR DETAILS OF 1 950 OFFEF

A3000 Trade in price as above less £1 SO - £200. Ptease phone.

Please see under “Extras" for additional expansion

■

A 1 S 0 0 SO FTW AR E PACK

for existing A500 (1MB) or A2000 owners £ 1 4 9

A500TO 1500 TRADE IN

D u d D riv e , w ith H ob b y te 1 5 Oise PD G rea ts P a d i,

but without A1500 software pack or monitor.............£369

As above with A1500 software pack...........................£ 4/9

As above with A1500 software pack plus 1084 SO.. £679

S h d e D riv e plus 5 2 M B Q uantum H a d D riv e and

2 0 9 1 c on tro le r, w ith H ob b y te 1 5 Disc PD G reats P ath,

out without A1500 software

pack or monitor..............................................................£689

EDUCATIONAL PACK

Available only to educational users - see note below

Full Amigo 500 pack, plus A501 512K RAM expansion plus any

ONE of the following (please state first and second choice) Prowrite

WP, InfoFile spreadsheet, Deluxe Paint II, Deluxe Print, Music Mouse,

LOGO, Talking Turtle, BBC Emulator + 5 BBC programmes, MIDI

Interface, Superbase Personal, Maxiplan 500, Dr. T's MIDI Recording

CBM CDTV

A (evolutionary new concept in home entertninment and education. Amigo based with o _

professional CD system and infra-red remote control unit, it is similar in appearance to a VCR |

end simply conneds to your television (and^our M sge m ^o u wish) for in

mterulwe . U M B »™ I

s,udi0 £ 2 9 9 p l u s V A T

Important Note: This offer is strictly only available to LEAs, schools,

students, educationalists and teachers - please provide official order, or

identification such as a letter confirming student status from school or college, or

copy of DES card, or similar. Delivery on this package may be up to 14/21 days

from date of order.

| = ^ e | M

CD ^

E X T R A S

Stor LC200 colour printer with leads....................................................

Stor LC24-200 colour printer with leods...............................................

Gtizen Swift 9 pin colour printer with leods.........................................

Gtizen Swift 24 pin colour printer with leads.....................................

CBM 1270 ink jet printer..........................................................................

Commodore 1084SDI or Philips 8833 Mkll Stereo colour Monitor,

Second external 3.5" drive with daisychain through port and disable switch ....£49

PC 880 anti-dkkext. drive............................................................................................£ 55

A501 The Official CBM 512K RAM exp

512K RAM Expansion + Clock.........................................

1.5 MB RAM Board (needs KS1.3)................................

GUPA500 50 MB HD+2MB.............................................

AT once AT Emulator for A500........................................

A590 Hard drive...............................................................

Amiga 590 Hard drive + extro 2MB............................

10 blank discs 100% guaranteed with PIN no in box

50 blank discs 100% guaranteed with PIN no............

Rendole 8802 Genlock-...................................................

G2 Genlock for 2000/1500

A2300 internal genlock for 2000/1500

A2088 XT Bridge Board, 640K, MS DOS 3.3 + 5.25" drive, for 2000/1500 .£139

A2058 8MB RAM exp board, populated to 2MB, for 2000/1500....................£19 9

8UP 8MB RAM exp board, pop to 8MB for 2000/1500.....................................£34 9

A2630 68030 card, populated to 2MB for 2000/1500......................................£99 9

A2320 Display Enhancer card (Flicker fixer) for 2000/1500

A2091/52MB Quantum Autoboot HD for 2000/1500...

A2091/100MB Quantum Autoboot HD for 2000/1500.

A1950 high res colour monitor for3000 and 2000/1500 with A2320.

1MB static RAM for A3000

A500/1500 modulator

CD + GRAPHICS DISCS: Display onscreen graphics os accompaniment to CD audio tracl|

CD KARAOKE DISCS: With CD audio backing, the words displayed on the TV screen,

mixer unit and stereo microphone, you have your own high qulaity Karaoke system for c

fraction of the normal commercial cost.

CD MULTIMEDIA TITLES: Similar to computer games and educational titles but better. |

CDs have a massive 540MB storage capacity. ContoBed by user via remote control unit.

CDTV SY STEM ............................................................£ 5 9 9

INCLUDES: CDTV player, infra red remote control unit with batteries, Hutchinsons

Encyclopaedia inc 25,000 entries, 7,000 biographies, 250 tables, Lemmings - top

selling game, Welcome disc, disc coddy, manual, cables.

KARAOKE

R D E R I N G :

TELESALES NO: (0727) 56005

N e x t d a y d e liv e ry fo r c re d it card o rd e rs pla ce d b e fo re j

4 .0 0 p m su b je c t to a v a ila b ilty . Alternatively

send cheque, postal order, bankers draft or official order

(PLCs, Education and Government bodies only) to; D e p t.

A S , H o b b y te C o m p u te r C en tre , 1 0 M a rk e t P lace,

S t. A lb a n s, H e rts A L 3 5 D G . Please allow 7 working days for

cheque clearance. Subject to availability, despatch is normally

within 24 hours of receipt of cleared payment.

D E LIV E R Y C H A R G E S : UK Mainland (not Highlands)

Small comsumables & Despatched by post, please check

software items charges when ordering

Other items, except lasers Next day courier service, £10 per box

laser printers Next day courier service, £17.50

Offshore and Highlands Normal rate plus £20 + VAT per box

In addition we offer the following express services:

Saturday deliveries

CDTV KARAOKE S Y S TE M .......................................... £ 6 9 9

As above, complete with Sony Stereo Microphone, Mixer Unit, leads, plus any one

Karaoke disc, containing 18 fop Karaoke tines.

CDTV PROFESSIONAL KARAOKE S Y S TE M ..............£ 9 9 9

As KARAOKE system above,

PLUS any TWO Karaoke discs, containing 36 top Karaoke titles,

PLUS a pair of high quality Bose Lifestyle Roommate Speakers and leads, (30W rms

full range powered speaker system) for tTuely professional sound.

Telephone for full list of CD+G, Multimedia ond Karaoke Titles

NO DEPOSIT CREDIT FACILITIES (UK mainland)

Credit terms at 34.8% APR (variable) can be arranged for pucbases over £150,

subject to status. Competitive leasing schemes are also available for businesses,

including sole traders ond partnerships. Just tel fat written details ond

application form.

C O M M O D O R E P R E M I E R D E A L E R

Hobbyte proudly announce this highest CBM

accolade, awarded to only the top few

dozen CBM dealers offering the best in

expertise ond support.

COMMODORE 1084S OR PHILLIPS 8833 COLOUR MONITOR,

LEADS £220 WITH ANY PACK

STAR IC24-200 COLOUR PRINTER AND LEADS £279 WITH ANY PACK

Normal rate plus £10 + VAT

7am to 9am next day

Normal rate plus £10 + VAT

L surcharge per box

Am next day

Normal rate plus £5 + VAT

surcharge per box

C A L L E R S W E L C O M E AT O U R B R A N C H E S

id a v to S a tu rd a y \Amig-

O P E N 9 - 5 . 30 , M o n d a y to S a tu rd a y \lmm pricls e x *p t wben stated are inc. VAI. Pikes ato subject to change without notice. F.&O.E

AMIGA NEWS

Hard disks

offered

A new line in hard disk

drives for Amiga 500

owners have been released

by Protar. As well as being

competitively priced, the

A500HD is claimed to be

five times faster than the

Commodore A590 drive.

A variety of

configurations are available,

starting at £279 for a 20Mb

model to £939 for a 160Mb

Quantum model. An internal

disk cache is an optional

extra, speeding up data

throughput by as much as 50

per cent. Up to 8Mb of RAM

can be added internally to

the drives. A price for this

has yet to be finalised, but

expect to pay between £50

and £60 per megabyte.

The A500HD's casing

looks similar to that of the

A590. Like the A590, it has

an external SCSI port for

daisy-chaining extra drives. It

also has a games switch, for

switching the drive off when

required.

Protar, already a leading

force in the Atari ST hard

drive market, hopes that the

A500HD will put it in a

similar position in the Amiga

market, which it sees as

providing very little in the

way of competition. Protar ®

0923 54133.

Jail sentence for software pirate

A computer dealer has been prosecuted

for the duplication of leisure software

and sentenced to three months

imprisonment. The prosecution was

brought by Nottinghamshire Trading

Standards Authority after an

investigation initiated by FAST, the

Federation Against Software Theft.

On June 21 Andrew Jayes, of A&J

Software in Nottingham, discovered that

selling software on the cheap was not a

I idea when he was found guilty of

five offences under the Copyright,

Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

Said Bob Hay, chief executive of

FAST, "I am sure that the decision of the

Magistrates in this case will serve as a

strong deterrent in the future."

N e w p a c k a g e o f f e r s t o p g a m e s w i t h u p g r a d e d A m i g a

A500 bundled with

DPaint 3,1 Mb RAM

and... Bart Simpson

A new Amiga bundle, entitled Cartoon

Classics, has been announced by

Commodore. Originally intended for

release in September for the Christmas

market, the bundle has been announced

earlier because of the recession.

Stephen Franklin, managing director

of the company, described Cartoon

Classic as "the best bundle we have

ever assembled". It consists of three

games, two of which are yet to be

released, and Electronic Arts' stalwart

Deluxe Paint III. The games are Ocean's

Bart Versus the Space Mutants, based

on the cult TV cartoon The Simpsons,

Captain Planet and the Planeteers,

Mindscape's contribution to ecological

awareness, and the already famous

Lemmings from Psygnosis.

Deluxe Paint III replaces version II of

the software included with last year's

Screen Gems pack, just as interest in it

as a stand alone product is dropping

due to the imminent release of Deluxe

"teasers which show what the Amiga

can do", whereas he thought the Atari

bundle tended to discourage users from

buying more software.

The inclusion of Bart Versus The

Space Mutants in the package marks the

second time in three years that

Commodore has procured a major

licence for the Amiga, the last being in

1 989 with Batman. This was very nearly

a hat trick: last year Mirrorsoft pulled out

of a deal at the last minute to include

Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles as part of

the Screen Gems pack.

As well as the software, the pack

contains an A500 (fancy thatl), a TV

modulator and a 512K RAM expansion.

Both Ocean's and Mindscape's games

will be specially expanded versions to

take account of the extra memory.

Despite the recession, Commodore

hopes to sell 50,000 units over the

summer, and a further 150,000

between September and December.

Don’t have a cow, man, but Bart’s in

the new Amiga pack - and proud of

it. Also included is Deluxe Paint III.

Paint IV. Simon Jeffreys of Electronic Arts

was reportedly pleased with the bundle,

saying, "We're delighted Deluxe Paint

has been part of Commodore's success

and we are glad to see it bundled along

with such high quality games."

Comparing Commodore's strategy to

that of Atari, which bundles 23 games

with the ST, he described the games as

N a m e s

c o n f u s io n

The recent closure of

SCS Com puter S oftw are,

the Tyne and W ear-

based PD house, has be

causing problem s fo r

the folks a t PCS

International, the

unrelated W igan-based

com pany. Some parties

have ap pa rently been

m istaking the dem ise of

SCS fo r the dem ise of

PCS. Toby Green o f PCS

w o uld like to point out

tha t his com pany is in

no w a y connected w ith

SCS, and is still happily

trading.

M o re p rin te rs

A printer hits the

A m iga m arket this

m onth from Seikosha.

The SP2415 is a 9-pin

d o t-m a trix unit.

The m achine is said

to be fast, w ith a

claim ed speed fo r

N ear Letter Q uality

p rin t o f 50 characters

per second. Two

em ulation modes are

provided fo r purposes

o f com patibility.

The SL2415 costs

£376. Seikosha

O- 0753 685873.

Catchword catches an Amiga

by G ary W hiteley

Once again the Amiga has been showing its

true colours (and then some) in the wonderful

world of television.

Sixty episodes of Catchword (not to be

confused with ITV's Catchphrase ) have recently

been completed by BBC Scotland, with help

from an Amiga fitted with the Amiga Centre

Scotland's 24-bit Harlequin board to do the

graphics honours.

As well as providing live feeds of 24-bit

animations and graphics for the word-based

game show, the Amiga was also used for live

stereo sound samples and still had enough free

capacity to be able to load animations in real

time from hard disk.

The Amiga was seen as a cost-effective

way of replacing more expensive graphics

hardware to provide high quality graphics

which could be run directly into the

programmes.

Nationwide transmission should take place

in the autumn on BBC2.

And there's more news from Scotland's

pioneering Amiga dealers with an

announcement that TV Paint, the fully featured

24-bit paint program for the Harlequin board,

is now finished and should be shipping as you

read this. We'll have a full review soon.

For more details of the Harlequin board

and TV Paint, contact Amiga Centre Scotland

on 031-577 4242.

The n e w s p a g e s a re

c o m p ile d b y C liff

R a m s h a w .

AMIGA SHOPPER • ISSUE 5 ® SEPTEMBER 1991

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