AmstradComputerUser37-1287.pdf

December 1987

£1.25

Life in the fast lane ... with

Nigel Mansell's Grand Prix

The Ofﬁcial Amstrad Home Computing Magazine

Norway N OM 2 0 .0 0 Sp a in 3 0 0 Pta s T u rke y 1 6 5 0 T I . D e n m a rk M r. 3 1 .0 0 N e w Z e a la n d N Z 5 4 .9 5 R e c.

SOLID

3 DIMENSIONAL

GRAPHICS

SPECTRUM

COMMODORE

AMSTRAD CPC

Cassette E14.95

Disc £17.95

Maral - An abandoned Moon -An unstable Moon about to blow - A defence system set on automatic -

Lasers that don't miss Scanners that hunt you out. Mitral is MASSIVE . .

"The 3D presentation is Spectacular"siNcLAIR USER. "A Major Breakthrough"AMSTRAD USER.

"A New 3 Dimensional Reality.. WOW!"cRAsH.

THE DRILLER EXPERIENCE — IT'S JUST LIKE BEING THERE!

incentive 2 MINERVA HOUSE. CALLEVA PARK. ALDERMASTON, BERKSHIRE RG740W (07356)77288 C

32p-ro,ARE

CONTENTS II

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5 News

8 Gallup chart

10 Applications Advice

11 Letters

17 Adventures

30 Hairy Hackers

74 LSB

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38 Nigel Mansell's

Grand Prix

Martech want to cram all the thrills,

spills and excitement of formula 1

motor racing into 64k. Can it be

done?

46 Palace interview

Jerry Muir went to visit: This month

Palace Software, one of the few

surviving independents.

59 Cage Page

Turning to *CAGE# on Prestel

provides the most interesting

correspondence. Sneak a look

With us.

24 Basic tutor

Jeff Walker looks at the under-rated

keywords in Locomotive Basic. This

month: windows and streams.

63 Survivor

The plot sounds like aliens, the

screen looks Green Beret. But it's a

poor result,

64 Catch 23

A James Bond plot if ever I saw one.

Rescue scientists and defeat Mr Big

before he takes over the world.

41 Mode Madness

When you change mode the meaning

of each byte changes. Richard

Sargent presents a routine to handle

the translation.

50 Assembly Point

A quick and easy assembler

windowing routine to use with

your own programs.

68 Amageddon man

You've got the whole world in your

hands. Atom bomb annihilation is

just around the corner.

AMSTRAD

COMPUTER USER

Editorial and Advertising ofﬁces:

169 King's Road, Brentwood, Essex CM14 dIEV

Tel. 0 2 7 7 -2 3 4 4 5 9 lEd it o ria li: 0 2 7 7 2 3 4 4 3 4 rAd ve rt iSin g i

Telecom Go ld : 7 2 .M AG0 2 1

Published by Avralite Ltd. 36138 St. Petersgate, Stockport SKI 11.1L.,

News t ra d e d ist rib u t io n : D ism o n d -Eu ro o t e ss Sa le s & D ist rib u t io n L t d .

Unit 1 . Bu rg e ss R o a d lvyh o u se L a n e , H a Vin g s. Ea st Su sse x T A1 3 5 4 AI R .

Tel 0 4 2 4 4 3 0 4 2 2 ,

AM S! ra d is a re g ist e re d t ra d e m a rk, a n d w it h m e

Am st ra d C o m p u t e r Ose 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 a rt o f t h is p u b li-

cation 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 rid 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 Arn su lt b u t re p re se n t t h e vie w s

of o u r m a n y re a d e rs, u se rs. a n d co n t rib u t o rs. M g re e ia l f o r

publication is o n ly a cce p t e d o n a n a ll-rig h t s basis. 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. Avra lit e L t d 1 9 8 7

ABC

63.599

Jan-June 1Sli7

The ofﬁcial magazine for all

user s of Amstrad computers

Editor: Simon Rockmen

Advertisement Manager: Julien Herriott

Advertisement Assistant: Lorraine nay

Amstrad User December 1987

Page 3

THE NEW AMX MK. III MOUSE.

TRAP ONE SOON.

The MK III AMX Mouse is a product of Swiss precision and the result of a world-wide search to ﬁnd a worthy successor to the AMX Mouse MK

The new Mouse has been specially chosen to be the perfect partner to the ever expanding range of AMX software.

The unique patented design includes high resolution DPI. and superior ball technology to ensure that contact between the Mouse and the surface is

constant at all times. There's a new shape too, that ﬁts comfortably in the hand.

Join the great 'Mouse-Swap". Part exchange your old Mouse for the new MK Ill for only E2999_

an mom

AMX MOUSE MK III PLUS STOP PRESS, 3" DISC E79.99

WIE WW

•IMP

11111=

AMX MOUSE MK III PLUS ART AND CONTROL,

TAPE AND 3" DISC, L69 99

The most highly acclaimed desktop publishing software available for the

Amstrad CPC. Already thousands of users are producing professional documents,

newsletters, ﬂy-posters etc. In fact anything where text and graphics are required.

'Stop Press' comes complete with 18 variable typefaces. Available for Amstrad

CPC. 6128, CPC 6641- 84K min add on Ram), CPC 464 I + 64K min add on

Ram +Disc Drivel. Please state which version is required when ordering.

STOP PRESS IONLYI f 49.99

Acknowledged as the most sophisticated yet easy to use paint package

available for the Amstrad CPC, it's no wonder over 20,000 have already been sold.

AMX Art features include cut, copy, paint, plus many, many more such

as fantastic spray and zoom facilities. The package also includes AMX control

which enables you to create a mouse environment in your own programs_

Available for Amstrad CPC 464, 684, 6128_ Please state which version is required

when ordering.

EXTRA! EXTRA! 2 3" DISC f 24 99

300K fantastic clip art and over 25 extra fonts.

*AMX MAGAZINE MAKER 3" DISC (129.99

•MAX 3" DISC E19,99

A combination of Stop Press and the Rombo Vicli-Video digitiser. Using any

video and the digitiser, images from a camera

or TV can be converted into a graphics screen

with Stop Press to illustrate magazines or

newsletters. In fact anything that needs to be

created on A4 size paper_ With Stop Press's

many features a variety of pictures can be

composed, the only limit being your imagination.

ROMBO Viol DIGITISER (ONLYI 189,99

MAX provides an easy to use graphic based front end to your computer's disc

ﬁling system including a comprehensive set of

disc management operations such as cataloging,

copying, deleting and re-naming. Also included

are disc utilities such as sector editing,

recovering erased ﬁles, formatting, verifying

and faster tracking_ You can also run programs

from within AMX. Available for Amstrad CPC,

464; 664, 6126. Please state which version is

required when ordering_

There is also a growing list of AMX support software including: AMX 30 Zicon (3" Ousel f 24,99 with Zion you can transform vector data into on screen graphics.

Printers and platters are fully supported, AMX Utilities (3" Disc) [19.99 Utility software for the original art program supplied with AMX Mouse, A Mouse and Interface

(only) can be purchased for 1

34 99

all good computer dealers or direct by cheque, Access or Visa. All prices include VAT and post and packaging.

FOR INSTANT ACCESS, VISA ORDERS TELEPHONE (0925) 4135011213

"Alt T H ESE PR OGR AM S WOR K WI T H

lemma JOYSTICK OR mairsE

•IMASINAHON AT YOUR FINGERris-

ADVANCED MEMORY SYSTEMS LTD. 166070 WILDERSPOOL CAUSEWAY, WARRINGTON, WA4 60A. TELEX 628672 AMSG. FAX 0925 58039.

TUB E L V RiIbI•6002560 S OP 3IITS THE 41,4X P A CIE it. A NL: AU_ AMS SOFTWARE

Alan Sugar

ﬁgures it

just right

ALAN Sugar has produced yet another

balance sheet. oozing success. The

Amstrad chairman answered the City

pundits he blames for keeping his share

prices down by announcing record sales

and proﬁts for the past 12 months.

Sales totalled E512 million, up 68 per

cent over the previous year's E304 mil-

lion. Pre-tax proﬁts, too, were at a new

high of El 35 million — an increase of 80

per cent over the previous year.

Sugar told his shareholders:

"Amstrad's growth record has been an

amazing feat. During the past four

years we have almost doubled sales and

proﬁts every 12 months,

"A major part of our success is our

management philosophy. We have a

small team of ﬂexible decision makers

with none of the bureacracy to be found

in some companies with half our

turnover".

However, the Stock Market was not

impressed with the ﬁgures, and there

was an immediate 20p drop in the

value of Amstrad shares to 177p.

The detail which seems to have been

missed is that the expected 1140 mil-

lion ﬁgure would have been exceeded if

Amstrad had not acquired its new

American and Spanish subsidiaries.

The Video takeover cost E5 million and

Indescomp cost E22 million, although

neither of these were totally cash pur-

chases.

Sugar revealed that more than 20

new leisure and business products

would be released next year, among

them "a range of business computers

that will penetrate sectors of the market

not covered by our existing products.

In his report, he said: "We have the

largest new product development pro-

gramme in the company's history.

"If Amstrad could achieve the penet-

ration in other world markets that it

now enjoys in the UK, I am convinced

our sales turnover would increase at

least ﬁvefold".

Amstrad has expanded further inter-

nationally by adding the Spanish dis-

tributor Indescomp to its group of

Jose Luis Dominguez and Marion Vannier join the board

of directors as Amstrad expands internationally

wholly owned subsidiaries overseas.

The new company is called Espana

SA and will continue to be run by Jose

Luis Dominguez who has also joined

Amstrad's board of directors. A second

appointment to the board is Marion

Vannier who has masterminded

Amstrad's domination of the French

market as head of Amstrad Inter-

national SA.

One plug good,

two plugs better

THE Cheetah 125 Special has solved

the problem of not enough buttons on

your average joystick. You usually only

have eight directions and a ﬁre button.

This becomes a problem when the game

offers more than one weapon or spell.

The usual solution is to use the

spacebar, an unsatisfactory com-

promise when there is a horde of angry

aliens attacking at warp ﬁve. The new

Cheetah stick offers two ﬁ re buttons

and a twist grip in addition to the

standard four direction switches. This

extra information is sent to the com-

puter through a plug to the second joy-

stick port.

The CPC is unusual in having both

ports built into one socket, so you will

need a joystick splitter to combine the

cables.

Several software houses have

expressed an interest in the joystick,

Ocean plans to have a game ready for

Christmas and Rainbird will conﬁgure

Carrier Command to make the most of

the 125 Special. Look out for some 125

Special ACU pokes in future issues.

Page 5

The Cheetah 125 Special may do

wonders for your high scores but it

clearly does not help your manicure

Amstrad User December 1987.

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