[{"TitleName":"Operation Caretaker","Publisher":"Global Software","Author":"Marc Isherwood, Peter Green","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0011972","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 43, Oct 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-09-19","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\nEditor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne, Clare Edgeley\r\nDesigner: Craig Kennedy\r\nEditorial Secretary: Norisah Fenn\r\nPublisher: Neil Wood\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\nAdvertising Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nDeputy Advertisement Manager: Shahid Nizam\r\nAdvertisement Sales Executive: Kathy McLennan\r\nProduction Assistant: Jim McClure\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\n\r\nMAGAZINE SERVICES\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\n\r\nTELEPHONE\r\nAll departments [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Photograph: Henry Arden\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles to:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by Saffron Graphics Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Peterboro' Web, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1985 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\n102,023 Jan-Jun 1985"},"MainText":"Publisher: Global\r\nPrice: £9.95\r\nMemory: 48K\r\n\r\nIt is often impossible to know what to do if a program crashes, or won't load. How many times can you face taking a duff tape back to the shop and asking for a new one?\r\n\r\nWhat many people forget is it could easily be the tape recorder causing the problem. Tape is grotty stuff. The oxides rub off on the heads and make a mess - it's like sandpaper. Also, the heads come adrift and change position. The alignment of the heads is called the azimuth, and Global has produced a piece of software to cure all ills.\r\n\r\nOperation Caretaker contains two cassettes and a screw driver. One cassette is a tape cleaner, a strip of fibrous material which rubs against the heads and collects the filth.\r\n\r\nThe second cassette is a program which sends out a steady stream of data and then interprets it. The data is sent through at a high speed to make it difficult to read, and a display shows you how many bytes were accurately read. You then stick the screwdriver into the azimuth screw on the tape deck and twiddle it until the readings are as good as you can get.\r\n\r\nThey tend to be a little different on each side of the tape, which is confusing, but there should be a narrow area where both are at their best. That's the point you want. As far as we could test it, the program seemed to work.\r\n\r\nOf course, the program is fairly useless if you haven't got a cassette recorder with a little hole in it for adjusting the tape heads.\r\n\r\nThe package will remove a great deal of aggravation with tapes which won't load. Next time you go down to the shops to complain, you'll know you're in the right.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"28","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Chris Bourne","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 21, Dec 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-11-21","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":82,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cox\r\nArt Editor: Martin Dixon\r\nDeputy Editor: Peter Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Teresa Maughan\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dougie Bern, Nick Davies, Peter Freebrey, Ross Holman, Dave Janda, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Tony Samuels, Chris Wood, Phil South\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Baskerville\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Neil Dyson\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Chris Talbot\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Egerton\r\nPublisher: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England. Telephone (all departments): [redacted]\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Spectrum ©1985 Felden productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Spectrum is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"OPERATION CARETAKER...\r\n\r\nFeel like bashing your head against a brick wall when your copy of Jet Set Willy iI has failed to load for the umpteenth time? Well bash no longer 'cos Global Software claims to have the answer.\r\n\r\nGlobal's new package, Operation Caretaker promises to solve all your problems - apart from a pounding headache. In case you haven't already guessed, it's an azimuth head alignment system. And for those of you that don t know, azimuth is just a posh way of referring to the position of the head in your cassette recorder.\r\n\r\nThe ideal head position for reliable loading and saving is at right angles to the tape and an azimuth alignment system lets you set the heads as close to this as possible.\r\n\r\nOperation Caretaker contains a cleaning and demagnetising tape, a small screwdriver and of course a natty little piece of code. The program works by listening to a pre-recorded signal on the tape. It already knows exactly how the signal should sound, so a few calculations are all that's needed to determine whether the tape is running at the correct speed, or if the clarity of the signal is good enough for a successful LOAD.\r\n\r\nUsing both graphics and text, the screen shows the tape speed and the quality of the signal - if it's not giving a good reading you'll need to adjust the azimuth with the screwdriver provided until the readings improve. All hi-tech stuff!\r\n\r\nPrograms like Operation Caretaker are a relatively new idea though Speccy users have been adjusting their azimuths for years.\r\n\r\nIn fact it's so simple, even the Ed could do it! All you need to do is listen to your loading signal and twiddle with the azimuth screw until the signal improves. But having used the 'twiddle method' myself for some time, I must admit that I found Operation Caretaker consistently more reliable.\r\n\r\nThe only doubt I have about Operation Caretaker is the cost. £9.95 isn't particularly expensive but it's the sort of program you're only going to need now and then. So, unless you have more trouble than most, the best thing to do is persuade your local computer club to buy one so it can be loaned to members as the need arises. Alternatively, keep twiddling!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"12","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Samuels","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]