Precision
Software recently launched what they claim is 'a revolutionary
database' for the ST. Superbase Personal is a fully
relational database that places no limits on the number of fields or
size of record. All the expected facilities of a relational database
are included but what makes the package 'revolutionary' is the
simplicity of its visual interface which uses 'controls' similar to
a video or cassette recorder with which everyone is familiar.
Another unique facility is the ability to catalogue pictures or
documents produced on the ST and to call up the actual picture
alongside the record! Price is £99.95 inclusive.
Robtek have an impressive range of products
recently released or on their way including software, hardware and
accessories. Much of the software is on their new Diamond Games
label at budget prices. You can pick up ST
POOL/SHUFFLEBOARD, a two game compilation for £19.95, GOLD
DIGGER, which is similar to Boulderdash, for £19.95, a four game
compilation called GAMBLER at £19.95, a mono/colour chess
program, CHECKMATE, at just £14.95 and, finally on the
software side, a GAMES COMPENDIUM with 10 board/arcade games
at just £14.95! Hardware wise there is the McEMULATOR INTERFACE
allowing direct reading of Macintosh disks, an MS DOZ HARDWARE
EMULATOR giving 4 times the speed of the PC (99.9% compatible?)
and, on its way, a SCANNER/VIDEO DIGITIZER. Accessories
include a MOUSE PAD at £7.95, a CARTRIDGE EXPANDER
with 3 slots and, something everybody must have been waiting for,
the MAGIC MONITOR INTERFACE allowing you to connect both mono
and colour monitors without re-booting.
Two new titles from Psygnosis look to be very
impressive from pre-release graphics and come with the usual Roger
Dean designed accompaniments. Barbarian is an animated
fantasy graphic adventure in which the player becomes a
'dragon-slaying, monster-mangling Barbarian'. They say you need
humour, adventure and dexterity to achieve your goal. The other one
is Terrorpods, a strategy arcade game in which you must
defeat invading Tripod forces. A 'three dimensional playing field
with perspective scrolling' sounds to be quite impressive. Both are
£24.95 and that includes all those superb Roger Dean designs.
Infogrames are a French based company with
U.K. offices that have just started producing titles for the ST
including Prohibition which may well turn into one of those
classics –simple in concept but so addictive! The company has been
producing titles for other machines – notably Amstrad – for 4 years
and its first ST releases are mainly Amstrad conversions, however UK
spokesman David Crossweller told us that they will now be
concentrating on programs written specifically for the ST to use its
full power. Between 12 and 15 titles are to be released in the
coming year mainly on the games side.
Mirrorsoft have signed a new distribution
agreement with the American company Mindscape who have
achieved a top reputation for their Cinemaware range on the Amiga.
Titles in the Cinemaware range to be available for the ST include
DEFENDER OF THE CROWN, KING OF CHICAGO and SINBAD.
Already available is SDI. There is also a Deja Vu
series which will include the titles DEJA VU, SHADOWGATE
and UNINVITED. Further details and release schedules will be
reported as soon as known.
Kuma's latest is K-ROGET, a GEM based
thesaurus based on the internationally acclaimed Longmans Pocket
Rogets Thesaurus with over 150,000 words and phrases. Release is in
June at a price of £49.95.
Metacomco has now released version 3.04 of the
famous Lattice C compiler which they say is 'a superlative C
compiler of which we are rightly proud'. The revision includes
faster maths routines and a new link/loader called Debug+ which is
claimed to produce programs 'blazingly fast'. A Resource
Construction Editor which allows easy construction of icons, menus,
dialog boxes and the like. There is lots more (a three page press
release!) included for just £99.95.
Software Express have recently signed a
distribution agreement with Austrian based company Vogler
Software who produce some top quality business and professional
programs for the ST. Top of the range is Merkant, a modular
expandable business program for stock control, invoicing and basic
accounting. The program features a huge variety of functions
including the unique ability to leave the program to run a word
processor like 1st Word and then return to where you left off! Other
products include JackSpell, a background spelling checker
that looks like giving Thunder a run for its money. Features include
64,000 root words and up to 32 endings for every word giving a
staggering 2 million word capacity! ShortCut is a simple but
useful program to allow you to define your own keyboard 'macros' for
use in other programs. Jackfont is a font editor for system
fonts and VDI metafile fonts which can be used with Easydraw, DEGAS
Elite and other similar programs. Most of the software has been
under development in Austria since the ST was first released and
promises to be of high quality. Prices and release schedules should
now be available from Software Express.
Towards the end of May Software Express rush
released The Election Program in time for the General
Election on June 11th but it is a program that can still be used to
do 'what if' exercises and for future by-elections. Basically a huge
database of Election results, the program can predict the result of
swings for future elections, analyse by-election results, show the
details of any constituency in the UK and much, much more. Most of
the information is represented using maps of the various regions of
the UK and you can watch the results coming in depending on the
selections chosen. A full update of the 1987 General Election will
be available shortly or there is a facility to add results yourself.
A super program, whether you are interested in politics or not.
Perhaps the most original program yet for the ST. Price is £29.95.
Can anyone keep up with Microdeal? Now
licensing products from the U.K. as well as the States, latest
releases include ST REPLAY, a sound digitiser which has had
some high recommendations from those who have used it. This comes as
a cartridge and software for £79.95. Also licensed from 2 Bit
Systems is ST DIGIDRUM which has many sampled sounds to
enable you to set up your own drum machine for £24.95. Also
available, at £14.95, is DIGIDRUM SAMPLE DISK 1 with 41
samples that can be loaded into the original program. If you are
into MIDI then SUPER CONDUCTOR might be the sequencing
package you are looking for at a reasonable price. Lots of features
for mixing, transposing, editing and more in sixteen tracks. For
£49.95 that might be just what owners of a Casio or similar are
looking for.
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