A new Spectrum with 128K memory was launched in Barcelona at the
end of September. The machine is the result of months of collaboration between
Sinclair Research and Investronica, the Spanish firm which has
the exclusive distribution rights to the Spectrum in Spain. Apparently,
development work on the new machine was funded entirely by Sinclair’s partner
in the venture.
Rumours have surrounded the 128K Spectrum for some time, and the appearance
of a 128K machine on Investronica’s stand at a foreign computer show has not
put paid to speculation. Full technical details of the Spanish machine have not
been released by Sinclair or Investronica, leaving room for continued gossip on
the form that such a machine will take when it appears in this country.
It seems that Sinclair is aiming for a low profile in the UK for the Spanish
machine — the hardware is apparently not being made available for review. “We
don’t feel it’s appropriate to talk about it in Britain,” commented a
spokesperson for for Sinclair Research who would only intimate that a new
Spectrum might be launched in the UK this spring.
As we went to press, a company called Zeta Services was considering
the possibility of importing modified versions of the Spanish Spectrum to
gazump Sinclair’s official UK launch. It appears, however, that apart from
conversion costs, the possibility of having to pay extensive import duties on
the machines as well as running the risk of copyright infringment — all for a
very low margin — might make the whole proposition unviable.
SINCLAIR SPECTRUM SALES SOAR
“...and only short way into selling season...” says spokesperson
Sinclair’s share of the British home computer market rose by
nearly 20% during the four weeks ending 7th of September. While the QL has made
major gains owing to the price cut, the Spectrum Plus now accounts for more
than half the home computers sold in this country.
The survey was carried out by Audits of Great Britain — an independent
market research company of repute — and Sinclair Research is understandably
pleased with the outcome. “... as always, Sinclair holds the key to volume
sales this Christmas,” commented Alison Maguire, Marketing Manager for the
company.
BACK TO SKOOL
The sequel to Skooldaze is finally here. Indeed, it
arrived in the office about five minutes ago! In Back to Skool you have
the opportunity to get up to even more mischief in the new school term — and
you can even visit your new girlfriend, Haley, who’s at the girls’ school
opposite yours. (What if you’re not a chap, eh? — ED.) Since the game
arrived too late for review, and Lloyd had scampered back to his cottage for a
couple of days off, here’s a quick run down on what it’s all about:
You have to get your (stolen) report back into the headmaster’s safe.
Unfortunately, the key to the safe is around the headmistress’ neck! This leads
to a variety of complicated, funny but necessary nasty deeds on your part,
which include letting mice loose, stealing sherry, getting a frog to attack the
headmistress, hassling the caretaker... basically, all the things that go on
every day in all good schools! (Don’t you dare use the ‘Approved School’
joke here — ED.)
There’s even a bijou love-affaire-ette! As you may have guessed, every time
you get caught doing something naughty, you are given lines. Collect ten
thousand of those and you’re expelled.
There’s quite a bit more to this sequel than there was in Skooldaze,
and the graphics have been considerably improved. Again, by the time you read
this, the game should be in the shops.
WORDPRO COMP ON CARDS
Oxford Computer Publishing (OCP) are well pleased by
their new wordprocessor for the Spectrum, which goes by the name of Word
Manager. From what we’ve heard so far, Word Manager outperforms
Tasword II on ten fronts — sounds impressive, and all for
£12.95.
A certain Mr Bruce Everiss is working for OCP on the promotion front, Our
Competition Minion Writes amongst other things, and he has been in touch
with a proposal for a competition. Sounds great, we say — especially when we
hear the first prizes are to be Wafadrives (reviewed in the Niche, this issue).
Ten runners up will also receive a set of OCP’s complete works on the Spectrum,
which represents around £130 of software.
Full details of the competition and a detailed review of Word Manager
should appear next issue.
HOPPING MAD?
Virgin Games have acquired the Rabbit Software
name and intend to use the label to sell mid-priced titles on the a range of
machines, including the Spectrum. This prompted the Virgin team to dress up in
bunny suits, dash off to the local park and hug a tree while trying to look
cute and endearing.
Nick Alexander, Big Bunny on the Virgin team (in the black cossie), sees the
label supplying good, unusual software at a price people will be willing to
pay: £3.99. The first of these games, The Great Fire of London is
reviewed in this issue’s Frontline.
Steve Turner and alien friend discuss ASTROCLONE
CLONE’S THE WORD
...As regular readers of my ramblings will know, I like Hewson’s
launches. Not only the food and drink, either. They actually have new products
to show — not just the promise of, ‘one day soon ...’
When I spoke to Steve Turner at the last but one of these, (a rambling or
a launch? — ED.) he let on that his next ‘adventure movie’ would take the
techniques seen in Dragontorc into space. What he failed to mention was
that Astroclone would see the return of the Seiddabs, those backwards
baddies from Hewson’s history, who were never restrained in coming forward —
and blasting you.
Nor did he reveal that the game would have three distinct parts. Closest to
Dragontorc is the ground combat phase, where you move your warrior
around enemy bases, but with more complex commands and animation than in the
Maroc games. Then there’s a Defender style, space shoot ’em up and an
overall strategic phase when you deploy your forces to best effect.
Nine months of hard work later and once again, out rolls that good ol’
Hewson hospitality as Steve proves that old maxim; you’re never alone with a
clone. And by the look of Astroclone, you’ll never be lost for things to do —
it’s more packed than the bar was.
Eventually, as the party dispersed, I cornered the talented Mr Turner and
asked, ‘What next?’ The answer could be a wargame, as he’s become increasingly
interested in the strategy aspects of gaming. Whatever it does have, I bet
there won’t be a single grid reference in sight...
Not to be left out from a good
in-house launch, SOUTHERN BELLE programmer Mike Male took a break from
converting his train simulation for the C64 to show his face
Andrew Braybrook throws down a
joystick challenge to JR and anyone else in the vicinity — it’s amazing what
you can get people to do for the camera!
THE END OF AN ERA? OR JUST A LITTLE CULT?
Automata have released details about the solution to one
of the longest running and best known computer quizzes in the UK —
Pimania. After many years of puzzling by dedicated Pimaniacs, the game
has finally been solved — having been cited in a divorce case and caused mental
anguish across the globe.
Winners of the now fabled Golden Sundial were Sue Cooper and Lizi Newman who
finally made the crucial connections which led to the reward. For Pimaniacs
everywhere who nearly made it, the answer lay in the fact that just as the
constellation of Pegasus was near the ‘Seven Sisters’ of the Plough, so the
correct ‘White Horse’ is near the ‘Seven Sisters’ chalk cliffs in Sussex. To
open the Ultimate Gate of Pi, you stood in the Horse’s Mouth (that being the
21st location), had the seven objects sacrificed beneath the Gate and entered
the final key — 22. Pi (22 over seven) was a clue right from the word go! The
sundial was found at noon on the 22nd of July.
The partners of Pimaniacs currently contemplating petitioning for divorce
may find it cheaper to invest in a copy of the complete solution, available
from Automata UK. But it’s not over folks! The little cult is not yet dead,
according to Christian Penfold of Automata, but is alive, kicking and releasing
a Ten Pack.
ALPHABATIM IS BORN
Visitors to Crash Towers this month included Chris Urquart, Mike
Smith and Mike Baxter, who together have formed Alphabatim, a new
software company. They came to show us how work was progressing on Robot
Messiah their new game.
Having sorted out the
preview which appears elsewhere this issue, they were treated to the now
traditional CRASH hospitality — including several pints of Old Flatulence
Bitter. They were so impressed by Ludlow’s charms that they stopped the night
and had their first board meeting the next day!
TRIP TO GRAX
In which John Minson is invited to see
something interesting...
As I left The Edge after my sneak preview of
Fairlight, author Bo Jangeborg made me an offer I couldn’t
refuse: Would I like to see Grax some time?
Now what, I hear you asking, is Grax? Some sort of obscure fish dish from
Bo’s native Sweden? A roaming monster from Fairlight’s dungeons?
Neither — Grax is the programming utility at the heart of the Worldmaker
technique which gives Fairlight its realistic solidity.
Bo Jangeborg gets his head down to
some serious work with GRAX — the utility that helped make FAIRLIGHT
possible
Those of you who’ve used The Artist, would feel at home with Grax.
Using a variety of graphics techniques, such as advanced rubber banding, where
a line can be moved and stretched from a point, and a total of 26 different
fill patterns, it’s comparatively simple to create an overhead perspective view
of a room.
Once you have the layout in place you position pre-drawn features such as
windows and doors where you want them. First comes the basic picture, which
can be manipulated, reversed and generally fiddled around with. Then it’s put
into position in the picture — and the system allows floors to continue through
openings.
Apart from being very simple to use, the system is very compact. Bo has
found a way of reducing all these room details to a minimum of code. While Grax
was originally developed to produce half screen illustrations for
Quilled adventures, it’s now a fully-fledged graphics mini-language with
developments in the pipeline which will take it much further. You should be
able to include figures in pictures, for instance...
So why’s this all so important? Bo’s returning to Sweden and his own
company, Xcellent Software but he’s leaving Grax behind. It should form
the basis for a series of diverse adventures from The Edge. Perhaps more
importantly, it will eventually be possible to buy Grax as a utility — perhaps
in a form for illustrating adventures to begin with, but one day you might be
able to create your own Fairlight type adventure as easily as you can
write a text adventure with The Quill today.
MELBOURNE MUSIC
With the launch of Melbourne House’s eagerly awaited Lord of
the Rings coming ever nearer, news has come in (to this poor minion’s desk)
about their other impending releases. Big Daddy’s Wrestling is the
latest game from the team responsible for The Way of the Exploding Fist.
Gyroscope which has been worked on by various teams at Melbourne House,
is a weird arcade game where you have to control a... guess what? The catch is,
some of the terrain is very tricky indeed!
Finally, there is the Wham! music program which our very own Maestro,
John Bates has already had a peek at and seems quite impressed with. Full
review next ish.
BEST EVER PCW SHOW
According to the organisers, this year’s PCW show, held at
Olympia in September, was an astounding success, despite the supposedly poor
state of the market. Over 63,000 people visited the show over a five day
period. Including people coming back into the show, more than 70,000 people
crossed the threshold, making it the largest computer show ever held in the
UK.
AN END TO THE WAITING
Digital Integration, the people who created the
phenomenally successful Fighter Pilot have announced their latest
creation. Tomahawk is ready at last and will be previewed on Wednesday
October 16th, which means it should be in the shops as you read this.
Tomahawk is based on similar principles to Fighter Pilot but
this time, you’re controlling a Hughes Apache attack helicopter, flying over
advanced 3D graphic terrain.
