TRANSATLANTIC BBS
The Birmingham User Group claim a first for a
British Atari BBS by going Transatlantic! Messages may be sent to or
received from Canada at no extra cost to the user.
Outgoing messages are stored as received and once
a week are transferred to a bulletin board in Canada called TASK
FORCE. Messages from TASK FORCE BBS are also transferred to CBABBS
and the transfer takes place every Saturday morning. There are a
number of messages in the Canadian message base from computer fans
in Canada, and they would like to get in touch with users in the
U.K. Anyone who logs on to CBABBS may reply to these messages, once
they have been registered as a user. The telephone number of CBABBS
is 021 430 3761.
NEW EPYX JOYSTICK
Software producers Epyx have launched into the
peripherals market with the new revolutionary style joystick
pictured here. They claim that the stick will increase any gamesters
high score and have launched a world wide search amongst users
groups to find out how well the stick performs. It is certainly very
positive and outperforms any other joystick tried at PAGE 6. Main
drawback for some is that it is for right handed players only.
Unfortunately we don't know the UK availability or price, but pester
your retailer and he should be able to find out.
PAPERCLIP EXPOSED!
If you recall our review of Paperclip in issue 22
you may remember a comment that the review copy did not have the
'special' files on the disk. It seems that it was not the only copy!
Ariolasoft have admitted that the 'Special
Version' including various printer was never actually on the disk.
James Poole, Technical Consultant for Ariolasoft explains "Due
to an error at the duplication stage of this program, the special
version was omitted. We apologise for this and ask anyone who has
purchased this version to return it to us for immediate
replacement."
If you have recently purchased PaperClip and find
that programs mentioned in the manual are not on the disk, return it
to Ariolasoft, 68, Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, WC2 9JH and
they will do the decent thing!
_______________
Looking hard and long, Les Ellingham really did
find Atari software at the PCW Show
It has to be said that the PCW Show 1986 was a
great disappointment for 8-bit owners. The Atari 'village' was
dominated by the ST and Atari themselves showed little interest in
the 8-bit models, devoting more space in fact to the 2600 VCS games
machine! Still they did have the long promised 80 column
card/printer interface on show and very good it looked too. No
price or availability though. That really was the highlight as far
as Atari themselves were concerned.
AROUND THE ATARI VILLAGE
A round up of the Atari village is easy. Only Red
Rat Software and 2 Bit Systems were predominantly supporting the
8-bit machines. Red Rat in particular deserve your praise and
support for coming into and trying to expand a market that the likes
of English Software have deserted. On show were Technicolour
Dream, Panic Express, Screaming Wings, A Day At
The Races, Freaky Factory, Rocket Repairman and War
Copter many of which are in the arcade vein. Prices start at
£2.99 on cassette and £4.99 on disk. Their forthcoming schedule of
releases include Astro Droid a space arcade game, a frantic
car racing game called Demolition Derby, Escape from
Planet X which is three arcade games in one, a multi screen
arcade adventure called Treasure Island and two more arcade
games, Dragon's Breath and Domain of the Undead.
Clearly Red Rat are now the most predominant Atari 8-bit software
house in the U.K.
2 Bit Systems had Replay and Digidrum
on show which were reviewed last issue together with Midi Master
for any 48k Atari. Featuring an 8 track sequencer and Music Player
for AMS files it retails at just £27.50. Also shown was Percussion
Master a digital drum machine featuring actual digitised sounds
to enable you to create your own songs. This retails at £29.95.
LET'S LOOK ELSEWHERE
It was not all gloom and despair outside the Atari
village though. In fact there was more 8-bit support outside the
Atari area than in, although you had to look hard to find it.
Several companies with established 8-bit products
were present such as Activision, Ariolasoft and Llamasoft but
amongst the myriad stands were one or two that will be supporting
Atari for the first time.
Bubble Bus Software, a long established company
for other micros will shortly produce their first Atari title with Starquake
an arcade adventure on disk or cassette at £12.95 and £7.95
respectively.
Gremlin Graphics had an excellent looking Marble
Madness type game entitled Trailblazer which should be out
soon together with Footballer of The Year in which you play
an up and coming professional footballer fighting your way to the
top. Both are £9.95.
Mastertronic have a couple of new £1.99 titles
under their Entertainment USA banner called Bump, Set, Spike
and Vegas Poker whilst Firebird had another budget title
called War Hawk which one avid arcade freak told me had the
best music he had ever heard!
Rainbird are now bringing adventure lovers
something they have been crying out for for years, Level 9
adventures on disk! Already available is Jewels of Darkness
and coming along is Silicon Dreams both of which are three
adventure compilations of existing Level 9 adventures. Also expect
soon the 8-bit version of the much acclaimed ST adventure, The
Pawn.
Anco Software are marketing Voice Master in
this country. A speech synthesiser, voice recognition and voice harp
hardware add-on that sells for £59.95. Reviews on other machines
have been excellent, let's hope that the Atari version lives up.
Tynesoft have now acquired the rights to some of
the Scott Adams adventures and will be re-releasing these soon. Savage
Island I & II are already available. They are also one of
the few converting established Commodore titles to the Atari with Jet
Set Willy I & II already available. Camelot is a
multi-level arcade game and Drawmaster is another 'ultimate
Artist package' for budding Atari artists to look out for. More
Atari titles are promised.
From Infocom look out for Moonmist an
interactive fiction adventure and Leather Goddesses of Phobos,
the first in a new Comedy adventure line. Only one new title is due
from Ariolasoft which is Touchdown Football and Mirrorsoft
are due to release a new flight simulator, Spitfire 40. Blue
Ribbon Software are to expand their range of budget titles with Astro
Plumber, Diamond Mine II, Bar Billiards, Condition
Red, Joey and M-Droid.
Budget software is all the range and Prism Leisure
Corporation seem to specialise in buying out old or deleted titles
for budget release. Their trade catalogue features no less than 67
Atari titles!! Some is pretty obscure but many are up to date. If
your dealer tells you there is no 8-bit software around, don't
believe him.
Finally I picked up an Ocean/Imagine autumn/winter
release schedule - not an Atari title in sight!
There will be a decent amount of software
around in the coming months but I suspect that your retailer will
need pestering. Pester him!
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