SHE LOOKED
DEEP INTO HIS SULTRY BLUE EYES...
Infocom are a strange company aren't
they? Following hot on the heels of The Lurking Horror, complete
with slimy 'thing' in the box, comes Plundered Hearts a story of
'romance and adventure' which they claim is aimed specifically at
the female market. Unfortunately, this means that they will sell
about six copies so they have cleverly designed the game to be
appealing to men as well and the pre-release testers (mostly men)
have pronounced it quite acceptable.
Plundered Hearts is an adventure which
'provides the salt air, steamy tropical nights and treacherous
characters essential to a heart-pounding adventure on the high seas.
Little do you know that your innocent journey will soon turn to
dangerous adventure. Explosives, rocky reefs and the vicious
crocodiles are obstacles which you must overcome. True, it's not
easy but at least you can control your fate. What you cannot control
is much more dangerous, your passion for Nicholas Jamison, the
handsome pirate captain. When you are in his arms you are apt to
forget your mission'. Yuck! I hope they give you a sick bag in the
box. Now where did I put that horrible slimy thing from the last
one?
Plundered Hearts is available on the XL/XE
for £24.99 and the ST for £29.99.
SORRY, JEFFREY, NOT A PENNY MORE ...
'If we can't get into movies with James Bond, let's
chat up some bloke with influence in case he might make a movie of
his latest book'. Remember those two guys from last issue posing as
James Bonds? Well, now they have this crazy idea of producing a
graphic adventure about a guy called Stephen Bradley who loses a
small fortune by investing in a fraudulent oil company set up by
multi millionaire Harvey Metcalfe. They are going to call this
unlikely computer game Not a Penny More Not a Penny Less. Haven't I
heard that somewhere before?
Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley of Domark are seen
here discussing the fine details with the chap who is going to
design the packaging, or is it the guy who wrote the book? Anyway
the ST version of the game was demonstrated at the PCW Show and
there will, hopefully, be an 8-bit version later in the year.
PCW STOP PRESS
The PCW Show occurred just as we went to press so we
are unable to bring you a full report. Atari 8-bit software was thin
on the ground but it was there with several re-releases on budget
labels and a number of new titles. STARS OF THE SHOW – both
for the ST. WORD PERFECT is 'four to six weeks away' and
really is THE word processor all serious ST users have been waiting
for. Complete with 115,000 word UK dictionary and thesaurus at £199.
Expensive but worth it! OMIKRON BASIC is the first Basic for
the ST that retains the 'feel' of Atari 8-bit Basic but with some
incredibly powerful programming and editing features and a 'library'
of routines similar to C. A full review of this one will be included
as soon as possible.
NEW FRONTIERS
Excellent news for Atari 8-bit owners comes from
Frontier Software who have recently signed a sole distributor
agreement with ICD of Illinois, U.S.A. In case you don't know, ICD
are responsible for Spartados and the U.S. Doubler among many other
fine products.
The US Doubler Chip is a simply installed two
chip upgrade for the 1050 disk drive giving true double density and
an accelerated I/O rate designed to triple the speed of disk
operations. It will cost just £29.95. Ideal for use with the US
Doubler, but also a stand alone program is Spartados, widely
acclaimed as the best DOS for the 8-bit Atari. Spartados supports
everything from 810 to double density, 1050 to RAM disks and Hard
Disks. A special menu allows rapid transfer, erasure or locking of
files using only the Space Bar, Option, Start and Select keys. There
are several bonus features including a 32 character keyboard buffer,
intelligent switching between drive densities, a binary file game
menu, subdirectories and time and date stamping. Spartados also
costs £29.95 or you can get a special double package with the US
Doubler included for £49.95. Following the distribution agreement,
Spartados will now come as standard on all Supra 8-bit Hard Disk
drives.
Another product from ICD is P:R: Connection which is an interface
unit designed to replace the elusive 850 interface. The unit
includes a Centronics parallel port and two RS232 ports enabling the
device to be used with any Centronics printer and modems. Price is
£69.95.
These
products should be at your local dealer now and more of ICD's range
will be available shortly.
USER GROUPS GET TOGETHER
Ken Ward, long time champion of Atari and leading
light behind the Norwich User Group has finally got together The
Association of Atari User Groups which is a body whose aims are to
represent Atari Users in consultation and discussion with software
houses and Atari themselves. Ken has always been outspoken in his
support for Atari Users and now with the backing of the Association
we may well see more benefits for Atari Users in the U.K.
Already 17 Users Groups have become affiliated and
the first newsletter has been produced but the Association wants to
ensure that as many Atari owners as possible are represented so
other Groups who have not yet affiliated are urged to get in touch
with the AAUG as soon as possible. If you run a User Group, and you
are serious about it, it will be in your interest and, more
importantly, in the interest of your members to contact
SOFTWARE SHORTS
Mastertronic and its associated labels keep
the budget titles coming with September releases of Flash Gordon at
£2.99 and Panther at £1.99 on the MAD label. On Bulldog at
£1.99 comes Storm, an arcade adventure of sword and sorcery, magic
and mayhem, Feud which features a magical encounter between two
wizards and Revenge at Rigel which is a 'thrilling text adventure
with inter-active graphics'. This last one was voted a C&VG Hit. Is
that good or bad?
Rainbird have now released Guild of Thieves,
the follow up to The Pawn, on the Atari 8-bit. There are many clever
puzzles and surprises and 29 atmospheric scene setting illustrations
on the two-disk set which retails at £19.95.
No more, everybody's keeping quiet until the PCW Show
which is yet to come but will be gone by the time you read this, if
you get the meaning!
ATARI CHRISTMAS SHOW
After weeks of speculation, Database have announced
that there will be an Atari Christmas Show this year to be held on
November 20th to 22nd at The Novotel Hotel, Hammersmith, London,
scene of this year's previous Atari show. There was speculation that
the show would be held in October but many exhibitors would still be
trying to recover from the PCW Show and probably wouldn't have
turned up! There was also speculation that this show would be for ST
only but, thankfully, this is not the case. Whilst there may not be
anywhere as near as much support for the 8-bit machines at these
shows, it does represent one of the few opportunities for some 8-bit
owners to see software that they cannot get locally. PAGE 6 will be
there and will welcome 8-bit owners with open arms!
All that it needs now is for Database to organise a
show in the North for all those users who can't afford to travel
down to London twice a year. How about it?
MICROPROSE GUNSHIP FINALLY HERE!
Here is the ultimate in computer flight simulators
from Microprose, a complete AH-64 Apache Gunship helicopter
simulator on disk for your Atari with all manuals and associated
hardware in the box. It is incredible value at around £19.95 but
because of problems with carrying it home from your local shop (it
weighs over 1.5 tonnes) you will have to pay a delivery
charge of around 2 million dollars!
Seriously though, this is what Microprose had at the
PCW Show to promote Gunship and it is a genuine helicopter flight
simulator specially adapted to work with Microprose's Gunship
program. Now that just has to be the ultimate in inter-active
computer simulations!
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