[{"TitleName":"The Art Studio","Publisher":"Rainbird Software Ltd","Author":"James Hutchby","YearOfRelease":"1985","ZxDbId":"0007915","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 24, Jan 1986","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-12-12","Editor":"Graeme Kidd","TotalPages":196,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Publishing Executive: Roger Kean\r\nEditor: Graeme Kidd\r\nTechnical Editor: Franco Frey\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nProduction Assistants: Gordon Druce, Matthew Uffindell\r\nSoftware Editor: Jeremy Spencer\r\nAdventure Editor: Derek Brewster\r\nSub Editor: Sean Masterson\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Chris Passey, Robin Candy, Ben Stone, John Minson, Mark Hamer, Gary Liddon, Julian Rignall, Gary Penn\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\n©1985 Newsfield Limited.\r\nCrash Magazine is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nEditorial/studio [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]; Printed in England by Carlisle Web Offset Ltd (Member of the BPCC Group), [redacted].\r\nDistribution by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £14.50 post included (UK Mainland); Europe: 12 issues £21.50 post included. Outside Europe by arrangement in writing.\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH Magazine unless accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates. The opinions and views of correspondents are their own and not necessarily in accord with those of the publishers.\r\n\r\nMICRONET:\r\nYou can talk to CRASH via Micronet. Our MBX is 105845851\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"INSIDE THE ART STUDIO\r\n\r\nAfter much eager waiting, ART STUDIO has arrived at CRASH Towers. Franco Frey got his hands on it first, and as a result, was told to write the review. Here it is...\r\n\r\nProduct: ART STUDIO\r\nProducer: Rainbird Software\r\nProgrammer: James Hutchby\r\n\r\nEXTENDED ART STUDIO available by mail order from:\r\nRainbird Software\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nHARD COPIES available from:\r\nDimension Graphics Ltd.\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nHaving ART STUDIO personally demonstrated by Supremo Without Portfolio, Bruce Everiss, at the last PCW show, everybody at CRASH towers was eagerly awaiting the review copy from OCP. Little was it known that the final copy was to come from RAINBIRD SOFTWARE, a new subsidiary of British Telecom and part of the New Information Services, who have now taken over the marketing of the product. The packaging has not been finalised, so the comments are directed entirely to the program content, which is after all of more importance...\r\n\r\nART STUDIO follows the popular trend, commercially introduced by APPLE, of basing the program on a windows icons mouse pointing-device concept. The main aim behind this concept is to provide a program which is easily operated by the first time user with all relevant information on the screen and no complicated keyboard sequences needed to access commands. Commands are issued by simply pointing at options contained in screen menus. The pointing device, the icon, indicates by its shape the current instrument or mode.\r\n\r\nA menu bar at the top of the screen contains the major headings. Pointing at any of these causes a sub-menu to be pulled down (a window is overlayed). This contains a number of options, which may lead to further sub-menus, or cause certain commands to be executed. An option is chosen by moving the cursor down the list and the options which highlight may be accessed and chosen by pressing the select button ('clicking' an option). If the option is a command, the pull-down menu disappears and the arrow cursor changes into an icon indicating the present status. Whenever it is moved back into the heading area, the cursor reverts back to an arrow. To remove a menu pulled down by mistake, the cursor is moved outside the submenu box and the select switch pressed.\r\n\r\nSome menu options are neither commands nor submenus, but are flags or switches. These can be toggled on or off to modify the behaviour of other options. The on state is represented by a tick, the off state by a cross.\r\n\r\nThe full Spectrum screen occupies 24 lines, but the menu bar occupies 3 lines. Two boxes are provided in the menu bar containing arrows, which if accessed by the cursor, will scroll the screen up or down by up to three lines to make the hidden portion of the screen visible.\r\n\r\nART STUDIO comes supplied as a master tape configured to produce a 'personalised' copy of ART STUDIO, which allows you to produce a customised version ready to run under your particular hardware environment. To install ART STUDIO, the master copy is loaded and run. Following prompts, you enter all the required hardware data, and the installing program then saves the 'personalised' copy of ART STUDIO. The data to be supplied for configuring defines the input device, the printer interface and printer details regarding graphics printing mode. The flexibility of ART STUDIO allows any dot matrix printer to be accommodated and if the user should not have any of the listed Centronics devices, details are given in the concise manual on the three required machine code routines to control the particular interface.\r\n\r\nDespite the fact that ART STUDIO is configured to be run by first time users without the need to delve into long-winded manuals, RAINBIRD provide an excellent and easily digestible reference work, which at the time of the review is still in draft form.\r\n\r\nRAINBIRD make available to microdrive and Kempston interface owners an extended OCP ART STUDIO at £24.95 (mail order only), which includes Microdrive and Kempston Operating Systems, a screen compression facility and four extra text fonts. Owing to the fact that some lesser-used functions are stored on cartridge or disk as 'Overlays', the program has the ability to maintain a RAM based catalogue, which is displayed within the menu environment of EXTENDED ART STUDIO and includes an extra shape, Arc, which is a fractional part of a circle defined by three points. EXTENDED ART STUDIO is also available as an upgrade for £12 inc. P&P by mail order.\r\n\r\nART STUDIO is an excellent state-of-the-art graphics package and must be the best available for Spectrum owners. Despite the fact that the very structure of the program is based on a mouse operated system, the intelligent cursor, pack which speeds up the longer it is moved in the same direction, together with a sensitive microswitch joystick such as the Flightlink or Voltmace provide an excellent low cost replacement for this expensive controlling device.\r\n\r\nThe only criticism that could be found, if one tended to be finnicky, is that the spray patterns should also have been user-definable, especially as the existing patterns are very inked and don't allow for a fine regulation. At £14.95 ART STUDIO is an excellent buy. For the more pecunious, the pack includes a mouse offer from OCP and a hard copy offer from DIMENSION, who will immortalise your favourite screen creations on a £16,000 ink-jet printer: A4 size at £4.95 and ink-jet (320mm x 250mm) card mounted and gloss laminated at £7.95.\r\n\r\nPRINT\r\n\r\nPRINT provides facilities for hardcopy on a dot matrix printer. Five sizes dictated by number of dots on paper to one dot or pixel on screen. Height to width scale depends on resolution of printer selected, ie number of dots per inch on a line to line spacing pitch. Two resolutions can be accessed within ART STUDIO, single density and double density. No colour information is used unless grey scale dump is used Here the different colours are represented with stipples of varying density. Grey scale dumps are always in a 3 x 3 size. The picture can be printed sideways allowing bigger dumps, or from top to bottom, and can be situated left, right or in the centre. If an 80 column printer isn't available, the screen can be dumped to the ZX or ALPHACOM 32-column printer.\r\n\r\nATTRIBUTES\r\n\r\nATTRIBUTES deals with the colour control. The attributes once set apply to all painting and drawing that is done via shapes pens, brushes, fills and text. All ink and paper colours may be set including transparent. OVER and INVERSE can be toggled on or off, transparent sets all attributes to transparent and STANDARD sets the attributes back to their default values.\r\n\r\nFILL\r\n\r\nApart from the usual solid fill, ART STUDIO provides a TEXTURED FILL which displays a menu containing the 32 textures available, from which a choice has to be made. All fills are done in the current attribute settings (INVERSE and OVER does not apply) and can be aborted with CAPS SHIFT and SPACE. The texture at the end of the Nat row is a null texture and is useful for setting the attributes within a section of the screen without altering any pixel states.\r\n\r\nWASH TEXTURE maps a chosen texture onto any pixels on the screen that have been charged by a previous operation. This provides the facility of texturing outlines or even text.\r\n\r\nEach of the 32 textures can be edited by mating it the current texture and calling the EDIT TEXTURE window. The new texture can be used by clicking its normal sized image.\r\n\r\nFILE\r\n\r\nFILE features all the commands for saving, loading and verifying screen files to and from tape. The files must be either SCREEN files or CODE files not longer than six and three quarter kilobytes. Saving will prompt for a file name. For loading verifying and merging a file name can be specified or ART STUDIO can be instructed to load, verify or merge the next file on tape A tape file can be merged with a current screen file either on an OR basis (if the OVER switch is off) or on an XOR basis (if the OVER switch is on).\r\n\r\nPAINT\r\n\r\nPAINT provides access to the various drawing tools.\r\n\r\nSelecting PEN displays the sixteen pens available. The pen sets pixels by pressing select or if the INVERSE switch is on, resets pixels (erasing function).\r\n\r\n8 SPRAY CANS of varying diameters spray a random pattern of dots on the screen. If the spray can is held in place, the dots build up to a solid disc.\r\n\r\n16 BRUSHES are available of various sizes and designs and each brush has an associated mask with it. When a brush is used to paint on the screen, first the pixels corresponding to the mask are reset, then the pixels corresponding to the brush itself are set. The first brush in the menu is a null brush and can be used to colour an existing picture with new attribute settings without upsetting the screen pixels.\r\n\r\nEach of the 16 brushes can be edited. To edit a particular brush, it must be made the current brush. The newly edited brush can be used by simply pointing the cursor at it's normal size image in the BRUSH EDIT window and pressing select.\r\n\r\nMAGNIFY\r\n\r\nThree levels of magnification are available with facilities to edit pixels, pan and zoom the current screen part. Selecting a magnification converts the arrow cursor into s magnifying glass which can be positioned over the required screen area. Three modes of editing are provided under magnification, SET, RESET and TOGGLE. The ATTRIBUTE menu is available directly from the menu bar. The area magnified can be scrolled over the entire screen area by clicking the boxes with arrows in them, or homed by clicking the box containing the linked squares. White bars between the pairs of arrow boxes indicate the relative position of the magnifying window to the whole screen. The magnification can be changed at any time by clicking the appropriate magnification box. A grid is available in the x8 magnification mode with one square in the grid representing one pixel on the screen. This grid can be switched on or off from the initial Magnify menu.\r\n\r\nWINDOWS\r\n\r\nWINDOWS sets up a rectangular section of the screen marked by a dotted outline, upon which certain functions can be performed.\r\n\r\nCUT & PASTE copies the window to another area of the screen by displaying a duplicate dotted outline which can be moved around and set. Similarly CUT, CLEAR & PASTE copies the window but clears the source window. Multiple copies of a window can be made with the MULTIPLE switch on MERGE combines the copied window with the existing screen contents on an OR or XOR basis depending on the state of the OVER switch.\r\n\r\nA window can be enlarged, reduced, squashed or stretched by using the RESCALE option, which works similarly to the normal window copy command, but allows the destination window to be redefined in size. This function is extremely useful and provides a replacement for the missing elipce function in SHAPES. Windows can be inverted, flipped, mirrored and rotated or just simply cleared.\r\n\r\nSHAPES\r\n\r\nSHAPES provides up to seven different drawing routines, namely single point, lines, a continuous line, rectangles, triangles, circles and rays. All shapes are drawn (in current ink and paper colours) by moving the cursor about the screen and pressing select to define the vertices. Shapes can be drawn elastically by setting the corresponding switch. The shape can be expanded or contracted on screen until it is the right size and then fixed with the select switch. Again similar to text, the vertices of shapes can be snapped in two directions to come within attribute boundaries.\r\n\r\nTEXT\r\n\r\nTEXT can be printed in two directions, left to right end top to bottom, in normal or sideways orientation. Three character widths and three character heights provide up to nine different sizes. A bold switch is provided which prints characters twice with a one-pixel shift. All characters are printed in the current ink and paper settings (Inverse and Over apply), and provision is made to SNAP characters into attribute squares in both directions, horizontal and vertical so that they occupy an exact amount of attribute characters.\r\n\r\nThe FONT EDITOR enables the editing of character sets (fonts). There are 96 char eaters in a font. Whole new fonts can be created and stored on cassette, and loaded into memory as required. The 96 characters are displayed at the bottom of the screen, with the current character marked in vertical brackets. The current character and the characters immediately to its left and right are shown in enlarged form above the font. Pointing to any character in the font and pressing select makes it the current character. Alternatively, the current character can be scrolled through the entire font by clicking the boxes with arrows. The character may then be edited by toggling the pixels on or off.\r\n\r\nSpecial operations can b& performed by pulling down the CHARACTER box. This includes clear, invert, flip horizontal, nip vertical, rotate, scroll right and scroll down. The same set of operations can be performed upon the font as a whole by pulling down the FONT menu. The character set contained in the Spectrum's ROM can be loaded into ART STUDIO's font.\r\n\r\nCAPTURE FONT copies blocks of pixels from a defined window on the screen in the font and can easily be used to create user defined graphics. Fonts can be saved and loaded from cassette. Character sets created with ART STUDIO can be used in the user's own program with a simple BASIC routine.\r\n\r\nMISCELLANEOUS\r\n\r\nVIEW SCREEN removes the menu bar to display the entire screen.\r\n\r\nBoth grids use alternate bright and normal squares and can be used to position details within the attribute grid to cause minimum clash of colours. CHANGE COLOUR works in conjunction with a defined WINDOW and changes one colour into another as specified in the ATTRIBUTE menu. Paper is the source colour and ink is defined as the destination colour. The option then converts all occurrences of the source colour to the destination colour.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"General Rating: <None Given>","Page":"150,151,152","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Franco Frey","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"FEATURES\r\n\r\nWindows - icons - pull-down menus - pointing devices.\r\n\r\nAll information on screen.\r\n\r\nWorks with keyboard and Kempston, cursor, Interface 2 joysticks\r\n\r\nAMX and Kempston Mouse option.\r\n\r\nDot matrix printer dumps in five sizes and grey-scale.\r\n\r\nSupports 17 Centronics and R5232C interfaces.\r\n\r\nSave and load pictures to cassette.\r\n\r\nFull control over attributes.\r\n\r\n16 pens, 9 random sprays. 16 user-definable brushes.\r\n\r\nAttribute grids.\r\n\r\nUndo facility\r\n\r\nWindows can be cleared, inverted, cut & pasted, enlarged, reduced, squashed, stretched, flipped and rotated.\r\n\r\nSolid fill.\r\n\r\nTextured fill - 32 user-definable patterns include stipples, hatches, bricks, roof tiles etc.\r\n\r\nWash texture facility.\r\n\r\n3 levels of magnification with pixel edit pen and zoom.\r\n\r\nText - 9 cheroots, sizes, 2 directions, sideways, bold.\r\n\r\nFont editor - clear, invert, flip, rotate characters or whole font, copy ROM, capture font from window.\r\n\r\nSave and load fonts to cassette.\r\n\r\nLines, rectangles, triangles, circles end rays.\r\n\r\nSnap and elastic shapes."}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Sinclair Issue 2, Feb 1986","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1986-01-16","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":98,"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, Luke C, Steve Colwill, Steve Cooke, Iolo Davidson, Ian Hoare, Alison Hjul, Steve Malone, Tommy Nash, Max Phillips, Rick Robson, Tony Samuels, Rachael Smith, Phil South, Chris Wood\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.\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 Sinclair ©1986 Felden Productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Sinclair is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"ART ATTACK\n\nAll artists should be hung - and Peter Shaw is no exception! His pictures may not make it to the Tatejust yet but with the help of Rainbird's Art Studio he reckons he's on his way.\n\nFAX BOX\nName: Art Studio\nPublisher: Rainbird\nPrice: £14.95\nReviewer: Peter Shaw\n\nNow I know what you're going to say 'cos I said it myself. What? Another art package? Well, it's gonna have to come up with something a bit special if it's going to drag me away from Melbourne Draw/PaintPlus/The Artist* (*delete as applicable). Well, prepare for a surprise.\n\nArt Studio, the new package written by OCP but marketed under BT's Rainbird label, has more than a few features to recommend it. The first thing you'll notice is the 'pull-down menu system' and it's not just a gimmick but the basis of all that makes this program so user-friendly. Yes, I know that word's overworked but you'll find you hardly need to refer to the manual.\n\nSo, how does it work? Well, it prints a menu bar across the top of the screen from which you can choose a comprehensive second menu that gives you access to the feature you want. Just move the cursor to your chosen option and press fire. If a feature has even more on offer, then you'll be presented with a third and sometimes a fourth menu on-screen. If you choose a joystick or even a mouse, you never need touch the keyboard at all!\n\nBut all this is still not the be-all and end-all of an excellent art package. To challenge the current competition a new package must offer a wider range of features than the rest - and be able to perform them quickly. Art Studio comes out shining on both counts. In fact, it works on the Spectrum with all the charm of a program like MacPaint on the Macintosh. Not altogether surprising as that program was obviously the main source of inspiration for Art Studio - the same pull-down menus, many of the same features and all of the flexibility.\n\nPlus both programs can be operated with a mouse. More than likely you'll have come across the mouse before - it's similar to an upturned trackerball that you roll around the table top to move the on-screen cursor. The combination of Art Studio and a mouse will make, it nigh on untouchable - and even without, the competition's gonna have to go a long way to beat such an excellent package.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"42,43","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Peter Shaw","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Art Studio's attribute handling's very good though you may find it a touch confusing at first. Say you want to paint an area in red - you'll need to choose Set Ink from this menu, the the red palette from the menu behind this, next into the brush menu where you can choose an empty brush to paint with. Not strictly Mac structure but it knocks spots off other Spectrum graphics packages."},{"Text":"Here's a ragbag of goodies that don't sit happily anywhere else. You can see the whole screen using View Screen, for instance, and the Bright Grids will superimpose a grid so you can set the colour just right. You'll find the rest of the menu options are fairly self-explanatory."},{"Text":"Here's the menu that greets you when you're in pen mode. The sixteen preset nibs produce some very interesting patterns and they're just great for writing italics."},{"Text":"How's this for paint power? In Edit Brush mode you can define any shape you like, yes anything, and then use that to paint the drawing area. The Pen option even allows you to draw with a pen of differing thickness."},{"Text":"I drew this hatch shading by roping off the area with lines and then texture filling it. I then tidied up the edges with the x4 magnification."},{"Text":"I used the brush to paint in the helmet and used the inverse lines to create the shine on the top. Not bad, eh?"},{"Text":"In x4 magnification you can change specific pixels without losing sight of the overall piccy. To scan across the screen, use the arrows on the x and y axes.\r\n\r\nOn the highest level of magnification (x8), you're presented with an on-screen grid option - it's well worth sticking with it if you don't want to get lost when you're getting down to detail."},{"Text":"Just take a look at the mega-print features on offer with Art Studio - grey-scale dumps and sizes never seen before on the Speccy. The printer option wasn't implemented on the version we saw so I can't judge how good it is - sounds promising though…"},{"Text":"Look at the window that makes this package different. Yes, windows allow you to cut and paste your piccy until you're completely happy with it. Art Studio also allows you to rotate, flip and invert your windows. Well, flip me!"},{"Text":"Most of the basic lines were created with the continuous line option."},{"Text":"Now this is probably the most important option of them all - undo. It erases the last operation so that all those little (!) boobs can be put right."},{"Text":"Now, the spray can selection may seem limited, what with only eight choices compared to the other menus, but remember they act as a random spray. So, each of these choices only acts as a guide to how large an area the spray will cover."},{"Text":"The brush is perhaps the most flexible way of covering the screen. And apart from the sixteen you see here, you can redefine any of them to your liking."},{"Text":"The file option will automatically give itself a header corresponding to the system you've chosen - I was using cassette but microdrive and disk options are also available. The most interesting item on the menu is for merging your screen creations with each other."},{"Text":"The Fill option is very powerful. The textured fill lets you choose from a wide range of preset choices but if you prefer you can always define your own with the Edit Texture feature. Now Wash Texture is very clever. With it you can texture the last thing you drew - text, single lines or circles it doesn't matter what."},{"Text":"The Font Editor is a package in its own right. It's extremely easy to use - well, I've yet to find one to match it."},{"Text":"The magnify feature is the best yet - it beats the Macintosh! Just choose the level of magnification you want and you'll be given a magnifying glass icon that you can position over the area you want to see. Natty, eh?"},{"Text":"The Text option isn't quite as clear cut as you'd think. You don't have to stick to boring ol' left to right script - how about trying the Chinese way of up'n'down. You can also have a whirl on anything up to treble height and width and even redefine the character set. The definition isn't too hot once you're into really big characters - but there I go wanting miracle again!"},{"Text":"This is the choice of present designs that you're presented with in Textured Fill mode. There are thirty six of them in all but remember you can always define your own."},{"Text":"This just cried out for x8 magnification - it's one of the most important focal points of the piccy and had to be spot on."},{"Text":"To achieve that 'jumping-out-of-the-picture-at-you' feel, I drew this box with solid-fill lines and the basic textured fill."},{"Text":"With these arrows you can move the picture up and down to view what lies beneath the main menu."},{"Text":"You'll find you keep coming back to the Shapes option. It hands you the power to draw lines, circles, triangles and rectangles. The Elastic option draws lines using the rubber band method to allow easy position. Snap horizontal and vertical puts your lines within the limits of the nearest character cell. That way it gets round any attribute problems when you come to colouring."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"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: OCP\r\nPrice: £12.95 (cassette version. Opus disc/microdrive); £19.95 (cassette/disc version)\r\nMemory: 48K\r\n\r\nLast month I reviewed The Artist, from Softechnics, and said there was nothing which could beat it.\r\n\r\nI was proved wrong. Art Studio, from OCP, outclasses it in speed and style. Once loaded from disc or tape, the program display is set to white with a blue double-decked bar menu across the top of the screen. Near that is an arrow cursor which can be manipulated using the keyboard, joystick, or Kempston mouse.\r\n\r\nTo select an option on the menu, the cursor must be moved over it and the fire button pushed.\r\n\r\nAs well as being able to draw single lines, by placing two points on the screen with the cursor, you can extend lines to create shapes such as triangles and elastic banded lines. Elastic banding starts from a specified point. The potential line is then dragged across the screen by the cursor and set in position by pressing the fire key.\r\n\r\nOnce you have produced your drawing you can start to fill it in with solid colour or one of the textures provided on the FILL menu. Those include roof slates, brick structures, lines and dots.\r\n\r\nTo produce a fill effect, all you have to do is put the cursor inside the shape, and press the fire button. The shape is first filled with a backdrop of colour and the texture is then dropped in.\r\n\r\nThe most impressive part of the package is its ability to cut and paste parts of screen pictures. That process is accomplished using windows. You must first put a window around the shape which is to be transferred to another part of the screen. Then choose one of two options. The first allows you to do a straight copy of a shape, the original remaining on the screen. The second performs nearly the same operation but the original is cut out and a hole left on the screen.\r\n\r\nWhile the cut and paste up operation is taking place it is possible to change the scale of the shape along the X and Y axes. To do that, open a window using the cursor, set it to the position in which you want the new shape to appear and make that window larger or smaller.\r\n\r\nThe only problem when using windows to achieve those results is that a rectangular patch is left in place of the shape. The screen then has to be retouched with the package's pen.\r\n\r\nApart from that one flaw, the package outperforms The Artist in almost every way. It has superior speed to the Softechnics package and the menus are easier to use. It can be used with disc, tape or microdrive and contains a printer driver which handles most compatible Spectrum printers. It is an extremely powerful utility which should be of use to professional artists and designers as well as the home user.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"28","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 59, Feb 1987","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1987-01-18","Editor":"David Kelly","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: David Kelly\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nSenior Staff Writer: Graham Taylor\r\nStaff Writer: Jim Douglas\r\nDesigner: Gareth Jones\r\nAdventure Help: Gordo Greatbelly\r\nZapchat: Jon Riglar\r\nHelpline: Andrew Hewson\r\nContributors: Richard Price, Andy Moss, Gary Rook\r\nHardware Correspondent: Rupert Goodwins\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Louise Fanthorpe\r\nSenior Sales Executive: Jacqui Pope\r\nProduction Assistant: Alison Morton\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Linda Everest\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nPublisher: Terry Pratt\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Stuart Hughes\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. Please write Program Printout on the envelopes of all cassettes submitted. We cannot undertake to return cassettes unless an SAE is enclosed. We pay £20 for each program printed and £50 for star programs.\r\n\r\nTypeset by PRS Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Nene River Press, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by EMAP Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1987 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458\r\n\r\nABC 90,215 July-Dec 1985"},"MainText":"Label: Rainbird\r\nAuthor: James Hutchby\r\nPrice: £24.95\r\nJoystick: various\r\nMemory: 128K Only\r\nReviewer: John Gilbert\r\n\r\nJust as Art Studio had to compete with The Artist from Softechnics so, inevitably, Advanced Art Studio will be compared with Artist II.\r\n\r\nUnlike Artist II, (given a Classic in November's SU), Rainbird's advanced graphics extensions are built around the core of the old program. It includes standard design features, such as varying widths of brush and pen, different airbrush density, a wide variety of shape designs, together with a large number of block colour or pattern fills. You can also type text over your graphics, in any direction, and create character sets - there are five included in the package.\r\n\r\nMost of the advanced features involve the 128's extra 59K of memory which is split into a 43K Ramdisc and a 16K graphics scrapbook.\r\n\r\nThe Ramdisc is accessed through the Files menu. Select the Microdrive control menu and click the R option. You can then get a list of Ram-stored files, or Save, Load and Erase files. Graphics screens can be merged together by loading in one and overlaying another using the Merge option. The program can store at least two of these screens and more using the screen shrinking option, which takes all the unnecessary bytes out of a screen file.\r\n\r\nPictures can also be compiled from the Studio's internal scrapbook which comprises a library of images snatched from any drawings you have made. For instance, the program contains a scrapbook file called Logical Pad which has a series of circuit diagram components. You can search for the component your diagram needs and switch to the main screen which holds your work. That screen now contains an outline window, the size of the' component. You can move it into position, press Fire, and the image is dropped into your schematic.\r\n\r\nYou can create a scrapbook file just as easily. Draw your image on the main screen, position a window around it and switch to the scrapbook mode. When you click the insert option the image within, the window appears on the Insert option the image within the window appears in the scrapbook and can be stored on Microdrive or tape.\r\n\r\nAdvanced Art Studio is compatible with most dot- matrix printers - you'd be safe with Epson compatible but with a little help from the manual you should be able to convert the software to run most printers under the sun.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, the initial printer/mass storage setup takes place during loading so you have to sit by the Spectrum for ten minutes, stopping and starting the tape when told and entering printer options and codes when necessary. At the end of the Load when you've tailored AAS to your hardware set-up you can save the new version of the program.\r\n\r\nAlthough Advanced Art Studio is an extension of it's 'little' brother it is a real step forward which makes the best use of the 128K+2 machine.\r\n\r\nIt provides a professional environment which, no doubt, graphics artists and designers could just about use.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"The enhanced 128K version of Art Studio continues the competition with the rival 128K upgraded Artist.A classic.","Page":"97","Denied":false,"Award":"Sinclair User Classic","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 2, Feb 1986","Price":"£1","ReleaseDate":"1986-01-16","Editor":"Simon Beesley","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Simon Beesley\r\nEditor Designate: Gary Evans\r\nSoftware Editor: Lee Paddon\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nActing Advertisement Manager: Ian Faux\r\nExecutive Editor: Paul Coster\r\nPublisher: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\n©1986 Focus Investments Ltd\r\n\r\nPrinter by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and Typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £14 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\nABC 131,769 June-December 1984."},"MainText":"Spectrum\r\nRainbird\r\nGraphics Utility\r\n£14.95\r\n\r\nWith its first two programs, British Telecom's new software label, Rainbird, has got off to a cracking good start. The Music System, which was originally released by Island Logic, is generally acknowledged to be the best music program around; and Rainbird's other re-release, OCP's The Art Studio, can likewise claim to be the best paint and draw program.\r\n\r\nThe Art Studio relies entirely on pull-down menus and icons. There's no need to flip through the manual for the right key combination. You simply move the pointer to the menu bar at the top, pull down a list of options, and highlight your choice.\r\n\r\nIf, for example, you select Fill, you have a choice of solid, textured, and wash textured fills; or you can create your own texture. Pick the textured fill option and there is a further menu with 32 available textures. Then it is just a matter of moving a paint roller icon into the shape you want filled.\r\n\r\nIt is just as well that the program uses pull-down menus, since it offers an exceptionally wide range of features: most of the features, in fact, that you would find in programs for 16-bit micros, like MacPaint - including a spray can, a brush, and a magnify options.\r\n\r\nBest of all perhaps, is the Window facility. With this you open a window on any section of the screen. You can then cut and paste, rotate, invert, copy, and flip the window; or even re-scale it so that the contents are compressed or enlarged in any direction.\r\n\r\nBoth powerful and easy to use, the Art Studio is an exceptional product. Too bad that it is only available, as yet, on the Spectrum. By the standards of the Amstrad, the machine's pixel resolution is limited, and its colour resolution even more so. But then the great thing about the Art Studio is that it pretty soon makes you forget you are working on a Spectrum.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"25","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Simon Beesley","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Pull down means - no need to thumb through manuals."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"5/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Value For Money","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Rating","Score":"5/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 24, Apr 1986","Price":"£1.5","ReleaseDate":"1986-03-20","Editor":"Bryan Ralph","TotalPages":100,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bryan Ralph\r\nAssistant Editor: Cliff Joseph\r\nConsultant Editor: Ray Elder\r\nAdvertising Managers: Mike Segrue and John McGarry\r\nDesign: Argus Design\r\nA.S.P. Advertising and Editorial [redacted]\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Ltd 1986"},"MainText":"QUICK DRAW\r\n\r\nComputer Graphic Designer, Neil Strudwick, explores the capabilities of Rainbird's Art Studio.\r\n\r\nNow there's a piece of software that boosts the graphic potential of the Spectrum and is great fun to use.\r\n\r\nThe Art Studio (£14.95) is an exciting new graphics package which uses the WIMP environment (windows/icons/mouse/pulldown menus) to create professional looking graphics, and does it as well as the bigger and more expensive micros. The WIMP environment is easy for even a first time operator to use, and has no complicated keyboard sequences to learn. It is also smooth and fast in operation.\r\n\r\nBy now you may be familiar with all the commands available but may not realise that by using a combination of commands you can create some great effects. So here are some suggestions for getting the most out of the Art Studio.\r\n\r\nStart with a simple outline shape, such as a letter or symbol. If you are not artistic, then trace around your image from a photograph or something already drawn, onto a piece of clear acetate. Draw the image as large as possible, but so that it fits in the screen of your tv/monitor. Trace round the image using the \"Shapes' commands (ie Elastic on/Cont. Lines).\r\n\r\nThe reason for doing the shape large is so that you have the option of rescaling it smaller (smaller images enlarged become distorted).\r\n\r\nHaving completed your shape, save it to tape, or microdrive if you have the extended Art Studio. Now you can begin to experiment on it. If there is room on the screen make two copies on it, in case you make a mistake, that way you won't have to reload your original.\r\n\r\nYou can now fill your shape with various textures, using 'Undo' to experiment, or try out the drop shadow effect mentioned at the back of the manual.\r\n\r\nThe drop shadow effect uses the 'Windows' commands quite extensively, firstly fill your shape in solid, then copy it using \"Cut & paste window'. Immediately after you have positioned and printed the copy, select a wash texture (halftone) and the shape becomes a halftone. You can then copy and merge your solid shape on top and off centre to give the shadow effect.\r\n\r\nYou can then put a window around the whole image, clear it using Clear window' and then immediately select a further wash texture. You could go on selecting wash texture until your image eventually disappears.\r\n\r\nThis technique of clearing a shape and washing texture can be applied to the commands 'Cut, clear & paste' and 'Clear & re-scale', indeed any command that erases a shape.\r\n\r\nTry 'Clear & re-scale' without 'merge' and print the rescaled shape over the original, then apply a wash texture. The original shape reappears behind the second shape. Now if you have 'Over' switched on from the 'Attrs' menu, your first image will blend with the second if you merge them. If the 'Over' switch is off pixels merged are unchanged ie black pixel + black pixel = black pixel, but if 'Over' is switched on then the combination is on an XOR basis, this would mean black pixel + black pixel = white space.\r\n\r\nThe best use of Over (other than a special effect) is when you would like to turn a solid shape into an outlined shape. A simple example would be if you wanted an outline of a square from a solid square. With 'Merge' and 'Over' switched on put a window around the solid square, select 'Re-scale window' and print the re-scaled window directly over the solid square but one pixel smaller all round.\r\n\r\nIf your shape is a solid and you wish only part of it to be textured, select a brush, pen, or airbrush from the 'Paint' menu with the 'Inverse' switched on, erase part of your shape that you wish textured, then immediately after select a wash texture. The removed part will reappear in the chosen texture. This technique also applies if you use commands from the 'Shapes' menu and 'Text' menu!\r\n\r\nRemember that 'Inverse' also has an effect on the 32 textures, with 'Inverse' on you have 32 inverse textures giving access to 64 textures. This 'Inverse' also applies to the 'Text' menu and the 'Paint' menu when using the 'Brush' command. Depending on whether you have inverse on or off it will give the effect of having a solid or outline brush shape.\r\n\r\nReturning to 'Windows' I have quite often used this menu if I wanted a larger brush. For example if you wanted to draw a shape made up of large circles, first draw a circle from the 'Shapes' menu, put a window around it, with 'Merge' and 'Multiple' switched on. and then by repeatedly moving and pressing the fire button, you can draw with that shape. Try this technique using the 'Over' switched on, and see what happens.\r\n\r\nFinally I will mention the use of colour. I cannot go into great detail about it because of the nature of the Spectrum attribute screen, but a good way to reduce colour attribute problems is to use 'Windows' to reposition areas of your picture. One way to colour areas of the screen easily is having selected your appropriate colours, go to the 'Paint' menu selecting Brush'. Choose a 'null' brush (ie a blank brush that changes attribute colours, not pixels). Quite simply you then brush colour onto the relevant areas of your picture. For large areas choose a 'null' texture that will rapidly colour areas of the screen.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"54,55","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Neil Strudwick","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Drawn from a photo."},{"Text":"The changing face of Sir Clive."},{"Text":"Two faces merged."},{"Text":"Variations."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue Annual 1986,  1986","Price":"£2.5","ReleaseDate":"1985-12-01","Editor":"John Gilbert","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"EDITORIAL\r\nEditor: John Gilbert\r\nConsultant Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nStaff Writers: 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 Annual is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\nCover Photograph: Spitting Image Productions Ltd.\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. ©Copyright 1985 Sinclair User ISSN No 0262-5458"},"MainText":"USER-DEFINED POSSIBILITIES\r\n\r\nJohn Gilbert says: Why not stop playing games and do something useful instead?\r\n\r\nThe definition of a utility in computer parlance has widened in the past year. In the early days of the industry it meant a program which aided the machine code programmer to accomplish a task. Now it can have five meanings.\r\n\r\nThe first category takes in the graphics and sound toolkits. Those expand the Basic command set, adding instructions which create shapes, fill them in, and save pictures to tape or microdrive. The sound generators sometimes included within those packages can make music or even create a voice for your computer.\r\n\r\nMachine code utilities include assemblers, disassemblers and monitors, all of which are designed to help you write your own machine code routines. If you are not up to that sort of exercise you may like to acquire a new operating system or high level language such as Pascal, Forth or C.\r\n\r\nGeneral utilities which will teach you the highway code, help you with car maintenance or show you how to diet efficiently are also available.\r\n\r\nGraphics packages have the most visible effect on a Spectrum or QL, and they have proved popular this year even with people who would not normally program a computer. Light Magic, from New Generation, started the interest in all things graphical during 1985. It carried on where Melbourne Draw, from Melbourne House, and Paintbox, from Print 'n' Plotter, left off.\r\n\r\nThe program is totally menu driven and can be operated either under keyboard or joystick control. There are five modes of display. The first is pen mode in which, you can draw on the screen using an electronic nib.\r\n\r\nCircle and Fill mode will allow you to produce circles and arcs which can then be filled in with colour. Brush mode is similar to Pen mode but you can use 10 types of brush.\r\n\r\nThe block mode operates in parts, or blocks, of the screen. It allows you to rotate and mirror blocks on pictures, saving time if you need to draw an object which is symmetrical.\r\n\r\nFinally, the Text mode enables you to write on the screen. User-defined graphics can also be produced as a UDG generator is included in the package.\r\n\r\nIf Light Magic does not impress you then The Artist, from Softechnics surely will. It is one of the most powerful packages on the market.\r\n\r\nThe Artist can be used to take one section of a picture and reproduce it on another part of the screen, where it can be enlarged or reduced. The package will also allow you to produce UDGs and a animator utility is included within the program. Not satisfied with that the author has also included a simple routine which will take a screen display and reduce the number of RAM bytes required to store it.\r\n\r\nArt Studio, from OCP outperforms The Artist in almost every way. It has superior speed to the Softechnics package and the pull down menus are easy to use. It can be used with disc, tape or microdrive and contains a printer driver which handles most Spectrum compatible printers. It should be of use to professional artists and designers as well as to the home user.\r\n\r\nA similar package came onto the market for the QL. GraphiQL marked the entry of quality software house Talent onto the QL scene. Not only can the package produce every conceivable type of line, circle, are and angle, but it can also be used to define textures, using form and colour. Those can then be used with Fill routines.\r\n\r\nThe program allows you to enlarge shapes on the screen. That facility enables you to ensure that Fill texture does not leak out of a shape which has a hole in its border.\r\n\r\nQL Art, from Eidersoft, has the same sort of facilities as GraphiQL but does not have the same professional edge to it. Unlike the Talent package it is fully menu driven. One of the faults with GraphiQL is that you must rely on the instruction manual or special help option for information about user commands.\r\n\r\nIllustrator, from Gilsoft, is the long awaited adventure graphics designer for the Spectrum. It is no ordinary package as it produces graphic screens which can be put into adventures designed by Gilsoft's adventure design program The Quill. Although the routine can only produce static screen pictures it brightens up the adventures written by its sister program and gives adventure programmers more scope for invention.\r\n\r\nWhite Lightning, from Ocean, is one of the most exciting advances in graphics design packages for the Spectrum that I have seen in the last year. Its aim is to allow you to produce high standard arcade game graphics and, in order to do that, you must use its special Forth-type language. The package combines a sprite generator with a screen layout designer. It is great fun to use and its limitations are only in the mind of the beholder.\r\n\r\nA similar package has been produced for the QL, although Super Sprite Generator, from Digital Integration, will produce and animate only sprites and not full screen game backdrops.\r\n\r\nThe program adds extensions to SuperBasic and is run in two parts. The first is the generator and the second the animation routine. It is an excellent package which has been used by professional programmers to produce arcade games. Night Nurse from Shadow Games is one example of its use.\r\n\r\nOnly one good example of a sound toolkit came onto the market last year. Varitalk produces speech through the Spectrum Beep unit. Its performance can be enhanced using a loudspeaker or by putting the sound through a tape recorded output channel.\r\n\r\nA large number of phonetic sounds are included in the package. Those can be accessed by using a code made up of the first letter of the type of sound required and the number of that sound from a list which has been provided on the cassette inlay. There are no parameters within the program to allow you to set emotion or inflection into the speech. You cannot even get the package to ask a question properly.\r\n\r\nMachine code utilities may only appeal to assembly language programmers but that audience has grown larger during the past year, especially within the ranks of those who own a QL.\r\n\r\nNo less than four QL assemblers arrived on the market during 1985. The most powerful was from Metacomco. The QL Assembler Development Kit comprises a full screen editor, together with a three-pass compiler.\r\n\r\nThe editor can input ASCII code files and so can be used with code Basic programs and even word processor files. Once your assembly code listing has been entered you must save it to microdrive, or disc, and then load it into the assembler program. The package takes approximately two minutes - and three code overlays - to convert the code file into a machine code format.\r\n\r\nAlso included with the assembler is a library of QDOS calls. Those can be named within you programs. A linker was put into the second version of the assembler package at which time Metacomco dropped the price.\r\n\r\nComputer One was also quick to produce an assembler for the QL. The difference between it and the Metacomco program is that it can be loaded into the machine complete with the source editor. You can, therefore, write your assembly program and then convert it to machine code without having to load any overlays from microdrive.\r\n\r\nThe Sinclair Research assembler is similar to that from Metacomco, but it is not as powerful. Incidentally, the full screen editor in the package was written for Metacomco. GST, the company which wrote the Sinclair assembler, just does not seem to have the knack of producing editors.\r\n\r\nAdder Publishing was not as quick to produce an assembler package as Metacomco and Computer One but it did release one after the launch of its classic QL Advanced User Guide.\r\n\r\nThe program was similar in structure to the other products on the market but adheres closely to the notation in the User Guide Book.\r\n\r\nIt was some time before anyone realised that what the QL market was missing was a debugging tool such as a monitor or disassembler. That was soon put right, however, as four companies put monitors onto the market almost simultaneously.\r\n\r\nThe first program came from Digita1 Integration. QL Super Monitor is an economical package, put out in a cassette format box. It performs its task well and allows to view and alter code in a hexadecimal format.\r\n\r\nComputer One was again quick on the scene with a monitor which followed, and was compatible with, its assembler package.\r\n\r\nNot to be outdone Hi-Soft also decided that it should bring out a token QL product and opted for Andrew Pennel's QL MON. Unlike the Computer One program it is not automatically invoked when the machine is powered-up. Pennel's monitor is a QDOS job and can be called simply by typing a new SuperBasic command, MON. As it is easy to break out of the package back into SuperBasic the monitor can reside in RAM, be called at any time, and not disrupt any of the other tasks being performed by the QL.\r\n\r\nThe same technique is used in Tony Tebby's QL Monitor which is produced by Sinclair Research. The package has all the usual debugging facilities, a one line disassembler, and routines which displays the values of the registers or a block of memory in hexadecimal.\r\n\r\nAnother good feature of the package is that you can set it to run on any channel or in any window. That means that you could set up several versions of the program within the machine, each of which work on different sections of code.\r\n\r\nYou may prefer, however, not to get tangled up in the web of machine code. That does not mean, however, that you have to stick to SuperBasic, or to buying packages off the shelf. You can still experiment with QDOS and machine code by buying one of the toolkits or SuperBasic extension packages which have just become available.\r\n\r\nThe most famous toolkit, of course, was written by Tony Tebby and can be obtained for the QL from Sinclair Research. It provides a whole spectrum of new SuperBasic commands and run-alone programs which show the power of the QL multi-tasking operating system.\r\n\r\nThe main body of QL Toolkit comprises SuperBasic extensions which control jobs, allocate or clear memory, and display the status of the system.\r\n\r\nA series of separate programs, some in SuperBasic, some machine code, are also included in the package. They provide a user-defined graphics generator, an exceptionally fast back-up utility, and a multi-tasked digital clock which can be run while the package is in operation.\r\n\r\nOne task which the toolkit will not do is to check microdrives for errors or repair files which have become corrupt. Those sort of occurrences may be well known to you. They are unfortunate but fairly regular and if you do not have a back-up copy of a file you will usually be in trouble.\r\n\r\nThe Cartridge Doctor, from Talent, does away with many of the problems posed by the microdrives. It checks every sector on a cartridge to see it any errors have occurred and informs you if files have been corrupted.\r\n\r\nOnce you know about an error you can set up the Cartridge Doctor to deal with it. The most usual way is to read the file in and display it in ASCII format. A cursor is then provided by the program and you can rewrite any parts of the file which have been damaged. You can even repair the headers of files if necessary.\r\n\r\nMachine code is a low level language because you cannot understand it but the computer finds it easy to understand. A high level language, such as Basic, is easy to understand from your point of view - as a user - but needs some translation before the computer can understand it. There are several types of high level language for both the Spectrum and QL.\r\n\r\nAlthough Sinclair Basic, for the Spectrum, is highly respected it does have some faults and one software house, Betasoft has brought out a new version of structured Basic. Many of the additions provided by Beta Basic can also be found on machines such as the BBC Microcomputer, Amstrad and QL. They include WHEN and WHILE loops, a real time clock, new graphics commands and instructions to make Interface 1 and microdrives easier to use.\r\n\r\nThe Betasoft version of Basic is one of the best on the market for any machine. It has undergone several transformations during its relatively short three-year life span.\r\n\r\nPascal is another popular language and can often be found in schools. Indeed it is on the curriculum of some O and A level examination boards.\r\n\r\nThe first company onto the market with a full version of the language was Hi-Soft. Although it does not have an ISO standard of certification, which most full versions of the language have, it does run many times faster than Sinclair Basic and includes Logo turtle graphics.\r\n\r\nThe big Pascal launch of the year, however, was for the QL, from Metacomco. The QL Pascal Development Kit did receive ISO standard certification - an award which is to Pascal what a BSA certificate is to car safety seats.\r\n\r\nThe Metacomco package provides a full version of the language with extensions for QL graphics and sound. The source code is taken from a full screen editor and compiled into true 68000 code.\r\n\r\nIt was the first QL product to receive a Sinclair User Classic and, indeed, it was the first utility to receive that award for software excellence.\r\n\r\nComputer One brought out a version of Pascal which while not up to the standard of the compiler from Metacomco comes a very close second. The first version of the package compiles the source into P-code which, although faster than SuperBasic, requires the Pascal operating system to be in memory. Computer One later amended the program so that code could either be translated into P-code or compiled to form a job which would run without the operating system being present.\r\n\r\nThe compiler is more user friendly than the Metacomco package - all sections of the screen editor and compiler can be accessed through a menu based program - but the QL Pascal Development Kit wins hands down in the features race.\r\n\r\nMetacomco and Computer One both brought out versions of the popular artificial intelligence list processing language LISP. The Computer One program is less expensive than the one from Metacomco. Both versions can deal with the QL graphics commands and both are interpreted.\r\n\r\nThe medium level language C also proved popular with QL software houses during 1985. The first company to bring out a version was GST, which is famous for the 68K/OS alternative QL operating system. Unfortunately the product is a version of public domain RATC, a scaled down version of the original with additions to allow the use of QL graphics and QDOS traps. It is, of course, a compiler but the source must first be typed into a screen editor, run through a compiler which produces assembly language source, and put through an assembler to produce 68008 code. It is an unnecessarily complex operation and the code could be compiled in one go if GST had produced a machine code compiler.\r\n\r\nGST also ranks among the companies which brought out QL operating systems in 1985. Its 68K/OS was originally intended to be the QL operating system. The package consists of as ROM board, slotted into the expansion slot at the side of the QL, and several microdrive cartridges.\r\n\r\nAs operating systems are usually judged on the amount of software available for them 68K/OS is a dismal failure. So far GST has only produced an assembler and word processor for its baby. One wonders what would have happened if Sir Clive had decided to use the GST operating system.\r\n\r\nThe C/PM-68K operating system from disc drive manufacturer Quest Automation did little better than the GST product. A few business packages are available for it but, despite the fact that it uses discs or microdrives, few software houses have taken up the challenge to produce anything of note for it.\r\n\r\nA large variety of DIY utilities came onto the market in 1985. They teach everything from garden design to touch typing and computer athletics.\r\n\r\nSinclair Research wins our first Most Useless Utility Award for 1985 with QL Gardener. While it is obvious to see the benefits of a plant dictionary and garden design package for those who like gardening, and own a QL, with the dearth of QL software the company must be green behind the ears to bring out such a product. Where are all the fantastic business and educational programs which will show off the true power of the 16-bit - or is it 32-bit - machine?\r\n\r\nOur second MUU of 1985 award goes to Car Cure, a program which aims to diagnose the problems which you may encounter with your car. All you have to do is type in the symptoms of your vehicle's illness and the program will come up with an answer to your problems - maybe. Most of the time it just recommends that you contact a qualified mechanic immediately.\r\n\r\nAnother car-orientated program which is marginally more useful than Car Cure is Highway Code. Through a series of multi-choice questions it will teach you about the signs and situations which you may encounter on the road. The graphics are simple, but effective, and the program has been checked by a qualified driving instructor.\r\n\r\nIf you want to stay fit then Microfitness from VO2 is for you. It will take you through a series of carefully graded exercises culminating in - I hope for your sake - physical fitness. When it was reviewed early in 1985 our own Clare Edgeley found out how unfit she was!\r\n\r\nFinally, touch typing programs for beginners came from QL software houses during the past year. Two were produced, one from Computer One and the other four months later, from Sinclair Research. Touch 'n' Go from Sinclair Research provides more in the way of graded exercises and a more complex results table.\r\n\r\nThe utility market is the area in which the QL has done best. There are many languages available for it and a host of machine code utilities which allow the use of the power of the 68008 processor and QDOS.\r\n\r\nIt is a pity that the same cannot be said of the Spectrum. Very few utilities were produced for the machine and most software houses have moved to other machines. That is unfortunate as the Spectrum still has a lot of power within it which lies untapped because people like you cannot get at it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"72,73,74,76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Left, GraphiQL; below left, three screens from The Artist and below right, three from Art Studio"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 47, Dec 1987","Price":"£1.25","ReleaseDate":"1987-11-26","Editor":"Barnaby Page","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Barnaby Page\r\nStaff Writers: Dominic Handy, Lloyd Mangram, Ian Phillipson\r\nSubeditor: David Peters\r\nPhotographers: Cameron Pound, Michael Parkinson\r\nOffice: Frances Mable, Glenys Powell\r\nTechnical Writers: Simon N Goodwin, Jon Bates\r\nAdventure Writer: Derek Brewster\r\nPBM Writer: Brendon Kavanagh\r\nStrategy Writer: Philippa Irving\r\nEducation Writer: Rosetta McLeod\r\nContributors: Robin Candy, Mike Dunn, Paul Evans, Ben Stone, Paul Sumner, Bym Welthy\r\nEditorial Director: Roger Kean\r\nProduction Controller: David Western\r\nArt Director: Gordon Druce\r\nIllustrator: Oliver Frey\r\nDesign: Markie Kendrick, Wayne Allen\r\nProcess and Planning: Jonathan Rignall (Supervisor), Matthew Uffindell, Nick Orchard\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Roger Bennett\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Andrew Smales\r\nSubscriptions: Denise Roberts\r\nMail Order: Carol Kinsey\r\n\r\nEditorial and Production: [redacted]\r\nPlease address correspondence to the appropriate person!\r\n\r\nMail Order and Subscriptions: [redacted]\r\n\r\nADVERTISING\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nTypesetting by The Tortoise Shell Press, Ludlow\r\n\r\nPrinted in England by Carlisle Web Offset, [redacted] - member of the BPCC Group.\r\n\r\nDistributed by COMAG, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced whole or in part without written consent of the copyright holders. We cannot undertake to return any written material sent to CRASH - including written and photographic software and hardware - unless it is accompanied by a suitably stamped addressed envelope. Unsolicited written or photo material which may be used in the magazine is paid for at our current rates.\r\n\r\n©1987 Newsfield Limited\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"CHRISTMAS LISTE\r\n\r\nBen and Dom,\r\nCrash,\r\n[redacted].\r\n\r\nWhat's small and black and bursts the seams of a stocking? A Spectrum add-on, of course - there are hundreds of little black boxes for music, printing, screen art and program transfer.\r\n\r\nDominic Handy suggests some utilities and hardware for the Christmas list, and Ben Stone brings joysticks to the world - but don't fight over them, or they'll all be broken by little black Boxing Day.\r\n\r\nJOYSTICKES\r\n\r\nTERMINATOR\r\nSupersoft £19.9\r\nLike most pointless street cred - take Raybans, expensive earplugs on a Radio Shack personal stereo and the Beastie Boys - the Terminator does serve a purpose, but only just. And its wacky design takes a lot of getting used to.\r\n\r\nBeing so tiny the Danish stick has a lot of travel, so it's quite unresponsive. And the fire pin is difficult to use: you have to hold the grenade and fire with the same hand, but you can get it to work fairly quickly it you're prepared to go through hand-ache agony. The Terminator is all but indestructible, made of very thick plastic and durable electrical parts, but for nearly 20 quid I'd expect something a little more efficient than this.\r\n\r\nOMPETITION PRO 5000\r\nDynamics £14.95 (£15.95 with transparent case, Competition Pro Extra £16.49 with autofire and go-slow mode)\r\nThis is THE joystick. The fire action is brilliant and the stick performs like a dream. It looks much the same as the Euromax Professional, but for just a pound more you can get it with high-tech clear casing (as in the picture).\r\n\r\nIt's durable, because the shaft is made of steel and the microswitched mechanism inside is remarkably simple (and pretty much user-serviceable). The fire buttons work with reed switches, sometimes considered unreliable, but I've never had any trouble.\r\n\r\nSadly, there's no autofire on either model, though there's a souped-up version on the market (the Competition Pro Extra) with autofire option and a go-slow mode never before seen on any joystick.\r\n\r\nSPEEDKING\r\nKonix £11.99 (£12.99 with autofire)\r\nThe Speedking was a novelty when it appeared - the first truly hand-held joystick that worked well. It's easy to use, though it has the problem of the Euromax Professional in reverse: the diagonals are a pig to find and use quickly, which makes playing games like fighting sims very difficult.\r\n\r\nThe position of the fire button really makes your hand ache if you're pressing it a lot - shoot-'em-ups turn into a nightmare when you're doing well! - though it would be difficult to have it anywhere else on the compact little body of the Speedking. There is a Speedking with autofire available.\r\n\r\nEarlier this year Konix claimed one Speedking lasted for 17,604,000 waggles (that's 27 days of nonstop waggling, folks!), but the story is not now believed, Our Waggling Editor writes.\r\n\r\nPROFESSIONAL\r\nEuromax £15.95 (£18.95 with autofire)\r\nThe Euromax Professional has most of the features now becoming standard in the joystick world: posey design and microswitches, and an autofire option if you want to pay a bit extra. (It's the autofire version in the picture.)\r\n\r\nAt first it's a little difficult to get to grips with, literally, because it's biased slightly to the diagonals. Theoretically this means the joystick's eight directions are equally easy to use, but in practice the stick often slips out of the vertical/horizontal into a diagonal.\r\n\r\nBut the Euromax Professional has a brilliant fire action. And it's a great stick for games where deft, precise movements aren't needed; it feels rather flimsy, but the couple that were in the office had fairly long lives considering the hammering a CRASH joystick gets!\r\n\r\n125 SPECIAL\r\nCheetah £12.99\r\nThis new joystick, introduced in last issue's PCW Show report, has the usual eight directional controls as well as two independent fire buttons - and a special rotate function which allows the player to twist the joystick for extra-realistic movement. Of course a joystick of such complexity needs more than the usual five pin in/outputs; you'll have to have an extra joystick port, or use both ports on the +2 and +3/. There is an autofire function.\r\n\r\nIN THE BLEAK MIDWINTER\r\n\r\nMIDI INTERFACE\r\nCheetah Marketing £49.95\r\nWith this interface box and accompanying software you can control any MIDI instrument via the Spectrum. It's superb for people who can write music but can't play - just enter the notes and the computer plays the instrument. Or do it the other way round: you play the music and the computer puts it into musical notation. Including a MIDI lead for connecting the interface to your instrument, the MIDI interface was reviewed in issue 40.\r\n\r\nMK5II KEYBOARD\r\nCheetah Marketing £199.95\r\nThis 61-key fully polyphonic board with foot switch and MIDI output ports comes packed in a rugged steel case. It's an ideal accessory to Cheetah's MIDI interface.\r\n\r\nMUSIC MACHINE\r\nRam Electronics £49.95\r\n'One of the best all round music add-ons for the Spectrum' - Jon Bates, Issue 34. A sound sampler, sequencer, editor, drum machine and composer all in one little black interface, the popular Music Machine is supported by a wide range of software. Recent additions include Quasar Software's Sample Editor (reviewed last issue) and Tectrics's chord construction kit Compuchord (Issue 45).\r\n\r\nSPECDRUM\r\nCheetah Marketing £29.95\r\nNow the standard drum add-on for the Spectrum, the SpecDrum comes complete with eight samples of real drum sounds. Extra drum sounds can be loaded in from tape: the Electro Kit and Afro Kit both retail at £4.99 and the older Latin Kit at £3.99, and all come complete with their own editors. The SpecDrum plugs into most hi-fis via a connecting phone lead. Jon Bates enthused over it in Issue 27.\r\n\r\nMUSIC TYPEWRITER\r\nRomantic Robot £7.95\r\nComing complete with keyboard overlays (48/+), this clever piece of software is a sophisticated tool for music on the Spectrum. Music written on Music Typewriter is displayed onscreen using realistic graphics which can be dumped to most dot-matrix printers, so you can print your own music.\r\n\r\nAnd your compositions aren't limited to Music Typewriter - all your tunes can be converted to machine code for use in your own programs. Jon Bates went sharpening and flattening on Music Typewriter in Issue 16.\r\n\r\nPRINTING\r\n\r\nMULTIPRINT\r\nRomantic Robot £39.95\r\nA printer interface with all the options, the Multiprint can dump any Spectrum screen to an Epson-compatible printer in three different densities - it's handy for listings, too. There's more info in Issue 43.\r\n\r\nRAM PRINT\r\nRam Electronics £34.95\r\nNot only does this little black box drive your printer using a very easy menu-driven system (all stored on a ROM chip), it's also useful for those apres-Christmas 'thank you' letters because it comes with a built-in word processor, accessible from BASIC at any time and also on ROM.\r\n\r\nAnd if you ever get bored of all those line feeds and ESCape codes you can always plug your joystick in the built-in Kempston port and bash away at a game. See the details in issue 35.\r\n\r\nFOR THE ARTIST\r\n\r\nTHE OCP ART STUDIO\r\nTHE ADVANCED OCP ART STUDIO\r\nRainbird £14.95, £24.95\r\n'Probably the best art utility on the Spectrum' - Mike Dunn (On The Screen Editor). Need we say more? Several versions of the mouse- and joystick- compatible Art Studio utility are available for different Spectrum setups; The Advanced OCP Art Studio, which really needs an Interface One and microdrive to use its full potential, is much more powerful than the original. It has a Scrapbook library facility so you can combine and paste together pictures. Issues 24 and 40 have reviews of The OCP Art Studio and The Advanced OCP Art Studio respectively.\r\n\r\nVIDEO DIGITISER\r\nSunset £128.00\r\nEver wanted to change Prince Charles's ears, or rub out out that blot on Gorbachov's forehead? You can do this and more, provided you've a video recorder, with the Sunset Video Digitiser. This little black box has all the connections for grabbing TV pictures from the video and then using them anywhere you want - even in games. Sadly, there's no printer ribbon that will put them onto T-shirts. Franco Frey got frame-grabbing in issue 31.\r\n\r\nVIDEOFACE DIGITISER\r\nRomantic Robot £69.00 plus £1.00 postage and packing\r\nThe Videoface Digitiser is amazingly cheap and fast - it's all here. You can grab and scan three pictures a second, and then produce a very realistic animation sequence using up to six screens. At about hall the price of the Sunset Video Digitiser, this represents unbelievable value for money.\r\n\r\nNOT A CREATURE IS STIRRING, EXCEPT FOR A MOUSE\r\n\r\nKEMPSTON MOUSE\r\nKempston Data £49.95\r\nThere's no WIMPing out with Kempston's version of the yuppie controller, with button eyes and connecting tail. Don't forget to lock up your cheeseboard and keep the cats indoors. Kempston is still bundling Rainbird's OCP Art Studio with this rodent at £69.95. Or those with a Spectrum +3 you can get Kempston's new Desktop utility package for +3 DOS and the mouse for exactly the same price.\r\n\r\nCOMCON\r\nFrei £17.95 (single port), £19.95 (twin port)\r\nThis is guaranteed to work with any product that uses the Spectrum keyboard. By connecting the six plugs to the miniature keyboard add-on you can have eight directions and TWO independent fire buttons (provided you have the correct joystick - also available from Frei). A twin-port version is also available for complex games. Lloyd reviewed the single-port version way back in Issue Eight.\r\n\r\nAND...\r\n\r\nMULTIFACE ONE, MULTIFACE 128, MULTIFACE 3\r\nRomantic Robot £39.95, £44.95, £44.95\r\n'One of the most versatile and user-friendly units on the market' - CRASH Issue 29 - Romantic Robot's Multifaces are ideal for the serious gameplayer or utility user with a fast storage device: they can put cassette games on Beta, Opus and Kempston disks.\r\n\r\nThe Multiface 3 (pictured) can transfer cassette programs for the Spectrum and 128 to the - +3's Amstrad disks. It was welcomed in Issue 45 as a good reason to buy the +3, though Sixword's Swift Disc and Rockfort Product's Disciple are also worthwhile disk systems.\r\n\r\nThe Multifaces have other uses: most POKEs can be entered using the ROM-based toolkit. And printer-owners are also catered tor with a COPY command, ideal for dumping your greatest high scores! All these options are available at any time at the press of a little red button. CRASH first saw the Multiface One in Issue 26.\r\n\r\nPLUS D\r\nMiles Gordon Technology £49.95 (£129.95 with 3.5-inch 780K-capacity disk drive)\r\nThe Plus D is a new disk and printer interface from the designers of Rockfort Product's Disciple. Its Snapshot button will save all 48K and 128K cassette programs to disk, it's claimed, and the interface can make single and double-size screen dumps to a printer. The Plus D is also available in a package with a disk drive.\r\n\r\nGAMMA-STRIKE\r\nGamesware £24.95\r\nGamesware's Gamma-Strike target-shooting system is a novel combination of hardware and software - you plug a target into the Spectrum, shoot at it with a model gun and watch the computer monitor your score! It's all done with the latest signal-detection techniques, and Gamesware promises more 'plug-in games' including darts and snooker soon... look out for the CRASH review.\r\n\r\nThank you Santa, lots of luv Ben and Dom xxxxx","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"114,117,118","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Dominic Handy","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Ben Stone","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]