P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:04/31 20/20 WRJTJNG FOR NEXT If you are planning to submit an item on papjt, do bear in mind the limitations of the teletext page. * Lines up to 35 characters long. * Up to 18 lines on a page - 17 iu preferred, to allow room for cross-referencing. T T Short paragraphs of jour or five lines each. * A single blank line between pbragraphs. Address in a moment... P701 CJJFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:05/15 1/20 23 THE PAGE FOR ' Rjvjews......702 MICRO USERS Diary........703 Edited bz Martin Cooper $elesoftware.710 Contact us: PRFSTEL - 219999677 (ELECOM GOLD - 72:MAG1049v POST - "NEXT", Room 7059, BBC TV Cjntte, London W22 7RJP701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:X5/37 ]] 2/20 THIS WEEK BUYING A P5RNTJR Advice from an expert... BBC BLUES Alan Giles explains exactly {hz there are so few BBC games NEWV * New package for OPs * Music of the Spheres * Computer Games Champion THE BIG BANG The City goer electronic , QL WRINKLE Tidy thwsj Microdrivj directories REVIEWS ON 702 P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:16/22 3/20 BUYING A PRINTER Tim Powys-Lzbbj Most of us buy a printer with one or more of three purposes in mind: word processing, listing programs and printing graphics. There are jour main types of printer to consider for these three uses. The table below shows how suitable they are. Scores are 3=Good, 2=Average, 1=Weak, 0=Unsuitable. WP Lists Graphics Daisy wheel 3 1 0 NLQ Matrix 2 3 3 Matrix 1 3 2 Ink Jet 1 3 3P701 CEEFA( 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:18/46 4/20 BUYING A PRINTER ] Tim Powys-LzRbj A Daisy Wheel printer strikes the letters in the traditional way with a letter shape, like a typewriter. But they are not cheap, especially the fast ones. Prices range from £200 to £600. Matrix printers make up the letters out of dots, so the result doesn't look as good as daisy wheel print. But the dots mean that they can ruproduce graphics well, giving a fair copy of the display on your screen. T NLQ printers next P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:14/50 5/20 BUYIVG A PRIVTER Tim Powys-Lzb"j NLQ (Near Letter Quality* matrix printers form letters with dots but the style is near the styli of proper printn They are good for average correspondence, and prices range from £160 to £400. Ordinary matrix printers are well suited for listing out programs, but letters may bj less presentable. Graphics printing is usually acceptable and the price is cheap - up to £200 is enough. Ink-jet printers next P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:05/34 6/20 BUYING A PRJVTER Tim Powys-Lybbj Ink-Jet printers have the bliusfuj asset of being quiet, and the colour ones can do superb graphics. Price: from £100 for black ink only, to over £400 for multi-colour. On average you should expect to pay as much for a printer as for your computer. When you choose, make sure you know @ what you are going to use it for. Check the printer in action before you buy, and be sure to compare several models. Guidelines when buying next P701 CJEFA( 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:15/58 7/20 BUYING A PRIVTER Tim Powys-Lzbbe Guidelines when buying: , * Speed: Text printing should take no longer than a page per two minutes at the quality you require. A picture sjvjn inches square should not take more than four minutes to print. * Quality: Graphics should not have o"vious horizontal lines between each pass of the print headW Make sure that big dark patches are T uniformly dark. ) Make sure that circles conj out as circles, not as ovals.P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:19/47 8/20 BUYIVG A P ENTER Tim Powys-Lz"bj Before you buy, make sure: - * The printer is testud with your precise make of computer. * You can buy the connecting cabti used for the test , * You can "uy more ribbons or ink, and any special paper. ] * For graphics, make sure you can get a good program to dump screens with colour shadings to your printer. Tim Powys-Lzbbj is author of Beebug's Dumpmastir ROM P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:07/10 9/20 MATTERS ARISING The editor of Machine, the Atari newsletter, says that as a reszlt of an accident, his files of names and addresses of correspondents have been destroyed. Hj apologisjs to anyone who is waiting to hear from him. Cassettes etc. were not harmed. ) : T BBC Blues (agbin* next P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:08/21 ] 11/20 BBC BLUES (AGAIV) Alan Giles If a software house converts a game to run on the BBC micro, then it will do it from a Spectrum or Commodore 64 version. This means that over 16k of memory is lost, since the BBC screen has a large appetite, as do its system vbriables. T The company will end up losing graphics jrom its adventures, or $ producing inferior gamer in some other way. It is much more profitable to devote one's energies to producing another Spectrum or C64 title. MoreP701 EJJFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:09/P7 12/20 BBC BLUES (AGAIN) Alan Giles A software house may try to use evjty b t it can think of in converting a game for the BBC micro. $ But it will soon run into comparability problems with the Electron, the B+, odd TOMs, Masters, different DFSs, Econet, etc, etc... The BBC micro series iu the most frustratingly self-incompatible set of computers there is. It costs so much in time and uffout to handle everything from development to returns due to incompatabilities that it is hardly worth producing anything for @ the mbchinj at all.P701 EJEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:22/57 13/20 JJ NEWS Wj may soon "j hearing the rial music of the spheres, with the help of an instrument called a Lasjrharp, djvjlopjd bz French inventor Philippe Gujrri. T A laser and mirror system provides the "strings", which the musician "plucks" bz "rearing individual beams with his hands. A micro uses data from a "artery of photo-electric sensors to turn the light signals into sound. Gujrre wants to install Lasjtharp software in a satellite, so that it can use light from the stars to play melodies.P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 2):10/19 THE BIG BANG Miles Potwell The biggest revolution the City of London has ever seen took place today - the introduction of computerisjd trading on the stock exchange, the "Big Bang". The 62 companies which are allowed to buy and sell shares are each said to have invested up to £20 million on new hardwaru. In a few years, the Stock Exchange market floor could disappear, to be replaced by a network of dealers working from monitor-laden "desks" wiich will make the bridge of the Starship Enterprise look like a pocket calculator. MoreP701 CJEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:1Q/06 15/20 U THE BIG BANG Miles Potwell The system at the heart of the City's "Big Bang" is SEAQ (Stock Exchbnge Automated Quotations*. It has been developed "y the Stock Exchange itself, but is based on software already in use on Wall St. It runs on DEC Vax 8600 equipment at two separate locations, each one able to take over from the other in an jmjrgjncy. - $ Prices kjyjd on djalirsW terminals (@ should be flashed throughout the system in about two seconds - most business will then bj done on the telephone rather than face-to-face on the Stock Exchange jloor.P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:14/14 16/20 THE BIG BANG Miles Potwell A vbriety of subsidiary systems are hooked into SEAQ, the new Stock Exchange computer network. TOPIC is a viiwdata service providing share prices and company news to investors and others (including CEEFAX*. More than 10,000 termjnbls are expected to be in use bz the end of the year. City firms can kit faster access to SEAQ data with their own computers. There are plans for an automatic buzjng service, in which the computer will match orders with the best prices available.P701 EJJFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:12/55 17/20 THE BIG BANG Miles Potwell Not everything went smwothly at a try-out for the Stock Exchange'u new computer network last week. Dealers reported dela|s of several minutes in getting precis into the system. These were put down to dealers thjmsjlvjs being unfamiliar with the equipmunt. One insisted on entering all his quotes twice, and @ was promptly shut dowo bz the computer's security routines. More on the "Big Bang" BBC2 228/BBC2 254P701 CEEFAX 701 Mon 27 Oct 21:13/22 18/20 QL W"JNKLE L.Privets writes that directories on microdrivjs and discs can easily become cluttered. He suggests using dummy filinamju as separators to make a directory easier to read: T NEW SAVE MDV1-GAMES-II $ Spaces and other characters can bj used if they are enclosed in quotes - SAVE "MDV1-**## GAMES II ##**" (For "-" read underscore) This week's reviews nextP701 CJEFA( 701 Mon 27 Oct 41:01/08 19/20 REVIEWS Reviews on 702 this week: AMSTRAD Virgin Atlantic Challenge Virgin Games ATARR Quest for Eternity Bug-Byte BBC Street Patrollir Central Computing COMMODORE Jeep Command ^ Bug-Byte SPECTRUM Kai Temple Firebird Strike Force Cobra Piranha