AmstradComputerUser16-0386.pdf

COMPUTER USER

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Free Business Supplement

Preview: Rainbird Music Systems

Game of the Month

Plus! Pages of News, Reviews and Listings

SPECTRUM*SINCLAIR QL*COMMODORE 64*

AND NOW for ANY AMSTRAD

Lcpjsoftwarel

THE STRONGEST VERSIONS OF THE CLASSIC GAMES from good retailers or by mail order

3-D VOICE CHESS

WITH SOFT SPEECH — PATENT AOLIED FOR

BRIDGE PLAYER 3

TM' STRONGEST AMSTRAD BRIDGE PLAYER

NOW a t ru ly EXC EL L EN T L irg ig e p ro g ra m t o r t t e

Amstrad, written by the Author of our immense

successful Bridge 2 and the new Bridge 3 for the

Sp e ct ru m .

Play a CHALLENGING AND REALISTIC game

01 Bridge againq the computer with exceptionalh

strong bidding and play of cards. The Computer

can pla as DEFENDER or DECLARER, generates

random !lands, and allows proper bidding in the

ACOL system including the Stayrnan and

Blackwood COmPntr0O5. Then it takes you on.

playing both your opponents hands.

Ideal as a tutor for beginners, and will give

highly skilled players an engrossing game.

*Optron to bias th e d e a l to g ive yo u a n d yo u r

"thinner

NEW STUNNING TECHNICAL

INNOVATION!

Unique new program by Superchess 3.5

Author Chris Whittington. Brings you all

the playing power of our original Amstrad

Superchess, plus SPEECH and brilliant

3-D graphics. Specially developed

program available only on Amstrad that

brings you all the strengths of Superchess

enhanced by the latest developments of

sound and vision. Saves to Disc.

Beginners to expert levels and classic

helpful features:

*Analyse mode

*Problem solving

*Large opening library

*Help Menu

*Change colours

*Recommended move

FEATURES

*Versatile b id d io g ro u t in e s g ive s yo u a w o rt h y

opponent

*improve yo u r g a m e -Po st -m o rt e m f a cilit y

allows re b id d in g and re p la yin g o f a n y hand

*You ca n re vie w b id d in g o r p la y t o p re vio u s

tricks w h ile p la yin g a hand

*Input a hand o r u n I N I KO

, o r yt )L it

* R EST AR T th e 1 )1 4 , " o f the ca rd ,

A R EAL L Y ST R ON G OPPON EN T

FOR A R EAL L Y GOOD GAM E OF BR I D GE

ANY AMSTRAD

Cassette £12.95

Disc E15.95

ANY AMSTRAD

Cassette E12•95

Disc E15.95

t o

test yo u rse lf

*Comprehensive ON SCREEN

NFORMATION d isp lN ys-co n ira cto tricks

won so t a r, ca rd s p la ye d in cu rre n t and la st

trick, sco re

DRAUGHTS

CHECKERS 'Aci:0=7,3,m

FOR AMSTRAD AND SPECTRUM

Nev er underestimate the brains needed to

master the classic game of ordinary men

throughout the world. This dynamite

program by Chris Whittington takes you

from beginners level to what Sinclair User

called 'the Karpov of the Draughts

world'. Complete with strategic ﬂints,

kings and several levels to challenge you.

Easy to learn but plenty to challenge you

in this high-speed version of the great dice

classic_ Superb graphics and a very

intelligent playing strategy which gives

you a run for your money. Complete with

rules and tactical hints.

ANY AMSTRAD £8.95

STOP PRESS. . STOP PRESS

WATCH

THIS SPACE

- telephone for details

1 11W Amstrad Supercode

Superb, colourful last-action graphics and

sound give this game the feel of a real

arcade pin-table. Realistic launch, ﬂippers,

bumpers, high-score, bonus scores and

freeball features. Be a Wizard!

CP SOFTWARE is working now on several new programs

to include: more classic games, strategy games, utilities and

disc software. We believe in the future of the Amstrad computers and

intend to provide quality software for them. Please contact us for

further information (SAE) or send in any good programs you think

would ﬁt with our style.

CP products are sold in Boots, WH Smiths and all good

retailers. Trade enquiries welcome at the address

below. In case of difﬁculty contact us for instant

mail order.

_I thought that a few minutes wordd sufﬁce,

and then bond that a couple of hours had

passed and

Wiz ard has it made" CRASH mAGAZINE

"A brilliant idea that's totally absorbing and so

addictive. • ." YOUR SPECTRUM

"The display is welt-designed and colourful and

ball inovernera is very realistic.''

PERSONAL COMPUTER GAMES

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att os•

faio'•

anT A O..

— Mai

NA441

IAN

• K4WTIVAt E •

For AMSTRAD

MAIL ORDER Simply slate which programs and send

heque, postal order or Ac essAiisa number twith expiry date.

Telephone for instant credit-card order's. Send SAE for catalogue

for catalogue and return postage tor submitted programs.

ANY AMSTRAD £8.95

111••••••11v,••••

software

Dept AMU10,

15 Despard Road, London N19 5NP

DELIVERY by soonest post. Post tree in UK. Europe add 80p per program.

All other places add Li per pmgram tor surface mail or for Airmail add 12 for

ﬁrst program and 1. 1 for each additional_

WANTED! Strong and original programs at an intelligent nature for any of

the above computers. Top royalties paid by this reliable company.

Tel: 01-272 2918 Telex: 57784 MCCL G

CONTENTS I

5 News

12 Letters

17 Gallup Chart

The ofﬁcial Amstrad Top 20

98 Least Signiﬁcant Bit

Shows and other happenings

94 The Amstrad

User Shop

Dodgy deals from ACU

_OFFERS

[REGULARS I

REVIEWS

18 Hitchhikers/Elite

Two great science ﬁction

games reviewed

41 Adventure

column

Bill Brock guides us through the mazes

[FEATURES II

22 Laser

Basic

A comprehensive

sprite package

32 Software reviews

Battle of the planets, Sweevos World,

Spitﬁ re 40 and Spellbound.

81 Dart lightpen

A graphic input device

46 Goin

Loco

Part Two of Alex Martin's series on Basic

51 Windows

More things to do with the screen from

Richard Sargent

65 Comms

Simon Rockman talks to the world with his

micro

92 The

Music

System

A melody making

utility

r — • • • • • 4.•

:;:" . I '• :• • • I

•.:t

r 14

-4_

70 Roland

takes a

running

jump

The ﬁnal

instalment

ABC

Editorial

Cardbox

Jeremy Vine opens up

this ﬁling system

VIII ABC letters

Serious comment

XV Listen with locoscript

Sue Maybee dons her Walkman

X IX GSXplained

Ken Clark sheds some light on a murky

subject

AMSIBAD

COMPUTER USER

169 King's Road, Brentwood, Essex CM

u Amstrad Computer User: 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

Amsofr but represent the views 0/our many readers,

owners, members and contributors. We regret that

Amstrad Computer User cannot enter into personal

correspon den

14 AEF.

Telephone: 0277-234434, Telecom Gold: 72.

MAG012

Editor: Simon Rockmart

Adver ti sement Manager: Jan. Nolan

The OFFICIAL magazine for users of Amstrad computers

News t ra d e d ist rib ? m e n _ Evro p re ss Sa le s 4 D ist rt h u t io ri L iu , ? ﬁ ri9 Aw n

F.froid. C ,

Amstrad User March 86

Page 3

•

We thought it

was about time we

&.t

e 3

•

••tc '

put you in the picture.

When we introduced our AMX Mouse to micro-users,

the response was phenomenal.

And no wonder!

Hailed by the press as 'probably the best input device

that has arrived recently', the AMX Mouse brings to

AMSTRAD CPC users, the same sophisticated, positive

control that has, until now, been the province of more

expensive computers — like the Macintosh.

The fantastic AMX Mouse Package opens up an

entirely new and exciting world to AMSTRAD users and

comes complete with Mouse, its own interface and these

fabulous programs. AMX ART

This computer aided, drawing program has to be

seen to be believed. Making full use of on-screen

windows, icons, pull-down menus and pointers, you'll

be simply astonished at the quality of work you can

produce, store and print. There is even a pattern

design program which gives you an unlimited

number of designs for use in your own

drawings.

It's a program that can give hours of

family fun and at the same time is ideal for serious

professional applications.

AMX CONTROL

Now you can create a 'Mouse' environment in your

own programs, AMX Control adds extra commands to

normal Basic and features two programs.

1. The machine code program to extend the Basic

interpreter which gives you full use of windows, icons

and pointers.

2. An Icon designer, an individual program for creating

and storing icons for use in your own programs. The

number and variety of icons you can create is limited

only by your needs and imagination.

This fabulous AMX Mouse Package costs only

E69.95, a price as remarkable as the package itself arid it

includes a fully illustrated operating manual.

The software is supplied on cassette, and 3" Disc.

The AMX Mouse Package is compatible with Amstrad

CPC 464, CPC 664 and CPC 6128.

Ordering couldn't be easier.

This superb package is available from all good

computer dealers or direct using the freepost order form

below.

So what are you waiting for?

Get into the picture now!

AMX MOUSE AMSTRAD PACKAGES

AT E69.95 EACH INCL. VAT AND P & P.

I ENCLOSE CHEQUEPOSTAL ORDER FOR E

OR DEBIT MY f ACCESS 1111

TICK A S A P P ROP RIA TE I 1 V IS A

CARD NO

EXPIRY DATE

SIGNATURE

NAME

I RO O .

ADDRESS

POSTCODE

IMAGINATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

SEND TO: ADVANCED MEMORY SYSTEMS LIMITED,

FREEPOST, WARRINGTON WA4 1BR.

;t t•!!:;

User News...

Amstrad makes

1,000,000

Sometime in January the one millionth

Amstrad computer was sold. There was

no fanfare, no presentation, no one even

seems to know if computer number

1,000,000 was a 464, 6128 or 8256.

One million is a heck of a lot - do you

realise that if all the Amstrad com-

puters were put side by side they would

reach from London to Paris (the ones in

the middle would get a bit wet).

Some time ago Amstrad had to have

new moulds made for the green screen

monitors after the originals started to

wear out.

Amstrad computers are now sold in •

nearly every country this side of the

Iron Curtain and we have even heard of

journalists using them to report back to

London from Moscow. If you know of an

Amstrad which is put to a good,

unusual use, particularly in an indus-

trial application then drop us a line. We

have had letters written with a Joyce

from all kinds of interesting places -

The House of Commons and Rolls

Royce to name just two.

National computer games champ

has been found

competition contact Nlikro-Gen, Unit

15, The Western Centre, Western Road,

Bracknell, Berks. RG12 1RW.

Rian Hulme has just been presented

with his trophy for winning the ﬁrst

National computer games cham-

pionship run by Mikro-Gen.

If you would like to enter the 1986

Galaxians strike back

Those sneaky invaders the Galaxians

really got their revenge last month. A

couple of the rotters swiped half the

listing for Galaxians Revenge when we

weren't looking.

So that you can get the program

working and wreak havoc in the skies,

here are the missing lines:

causes problems on a cassette system_

The solution to this one is to delete the

'.bin' extension to the ﬁlename in line

140 of listing 2.

On a cassette system, the computer

takes the ﬁlename to be 'GAME.BIN'.

On disc the ﬁ lename is taken as

'GAME'.

Lovely RITA

Alan Sugar is the personality of the

year, and that's ofﬁcial.

RITA stands for Recognition of

Information Technology Achievement.

This year the Awards were sponsored

by the BBC Micro Live programme and

Canters Exhibitions who organised the

Which Computer Show.

::240 DATA 04,00,03,03,04,03,00,00, 17

2250 DATA DC,00,00,00,00,00,00,00, 220

2260 DATA 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00, 0

2270 DATA 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00, 0

2280 DATA OD,21,30,53,06,0C,C5,DO, 821

2290 DATA E5,CD,88,57,FE,00,CA,20# 1145

2300 DATA 55,CD,41,56,3C,3C,3C,3C, 681

2310 DATA 32,FF,51,21,FF,51.00,7E, 1102

2320 DATA 00,3D

Computers

against drugs

AMX stuff on

its way

The Softaid tape sold to raise money to

aid famine relief in Ethiopia is to be

followed by 'Off the Hook',

This is another games compilation

tape where the proceeds will be donated

to the ﬁght against drug abuse. Like the

Softaid tape, Rod Cousens, managing

director of Electric Dreams, has

organised the release.

He has lined up an impressive list of

contributing software houses including

Activision, Beyond, Elite, Firebird,

Gremlin Graphics, Melbourne House,

Ocean and US Gold. A tape will be

available in the spring for £6.99 hut

there is no word about which machines

it will be available for.

It is hoped that the sale of the tape

will bring in at least E100,000, The

Softaid tape raised £322,000 for the

Ethiopian Famine Appeal,

8 9 5

2330 DATA 54,C6,09,8E,F2,32,54,C3, 1052

2340 DATA 4A,54,21,F7,51,Db,7E,10, 882

2350 DATA 8E,F2,3F,54,C3,4A,5406, 1146

2360 DATA 061,C3,10,52,C3,4A,54,CD, 1067

2370 DATA F0,55,00,7E,20,FE,01,CC, 1163

::380 DATA 78,54,Ft,02,CC,9C,54,FE, 1158

2390 DATA 05,CC,30,55,FE,06,CC,48, 878

New software to run in conjunction

with the AMX mouse is due for release

any time now. AMX Utilities comple-

ments the facilities already available

with the AMX graphics package.,

It includes full page scrolling, cut and

paste, and a 'ram disc'. The cassette

version will sell for E14.95 and a disc

will be £19.95,

Also planned is Pagemaker. Cur-

rently getting rave reviews on the BBC,

Pagemaker is a typesetting and gra-

phics package which enables A4 pages

to he produced. It is intended for

making letter headings, posters and

newsletters.

While we are owning up to errors

there are a couple of' other things that

readers have drawn our attention to.

Pak Caverns: This works perfectly on

the 464 but uses the variable name

'frame'. As 'FRAME is a keyword on

the 664 and 6128, used as a variable

name it will give a 'syntax error'. The

solution is to change all the references

to 'frame' to something legal, such as

'fram'.

Roland Takes a Running Jump: This

works perfectly using a disc system but

Amstrad User March 86

Page 5

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