Archimedes World June 1991 Nearly Free
Contents
1. AN ARGUS Seay PUBLICATION UNE 1991 2 95 Fiiedes THAT iene FEELING COMBINING SOUND AND VISION ee a S BRUSH STROK f TASTE Sa D DRINK a DISK THEN ASK YOUR NEWSAGENT FOR THE BBC A3000 AND_ ACORN ARCHIMEDES RANGE I I o iN OF COMPUTERS ol j nearlyfree The theme of this month s Archimedes World is everything under a tenner So it s fitting that we take an even closer look the world of public domain software As well as the latest disks from APDL sod Arcaynia we present a roundup of the est programs previously covered in this column To help you get at the mountains Sf PD software we also present a comprehensive list of PD library addres New Stuff Fantasy Pics APDL D010 Along with a demo of the Alerion sboot em up there is a collection of high sslity fantasy pictures They are all hand Sawn with superb use of lighting effect My favourite is a glass full of magica ooking potion Misc Games APDL B047 For would be high flyers there is a stock market simulator Splat is an unusual game where you l gobble dots off the screen with a satisfying burping noise On later levels the tricky devils run away from the pointer Splords is a totally naff wo player space duel TaiPei is a good Gesktop version of the oriental tile game of Mah Jong The graphics are garish but bearable A desktop version of the Yahtzee dice game is also provided to amuse you Sorcerers Dom2. are very realistic StingRay is a poor quality set of sampled sounds and pictures ported from the ST yeuch DDD simply turns all the icons on the desktop into 3D versions Vertical scroll texts and starfields set DreamSide apart from the rest of the crowd ARMageddon s Flip demo shows a flash Ferrari car being uncovered as grey tiles flip over A sound track and a blurred scrolltext finish off this average demo MegaNet has all the usual ingre dients but nothing special apart from flashing keyboard LEDs WOW Pathetic Demos Inc have two offer ings The first is a very smooth but unoriginal demo The second shows the sleeping girl picture being rotated as if on a barrel You can control the speed and direction with the mouse This disk is a must for all demo collectors Ace Demos Arcaynia F47 Balls shows 128 sprites swirling around the screen in a very soothing pattern MyDemo has a great sound track as well as a large logo which wobbles as if in a movie dream sequence A smooth scrolltext rounds off a slick presentation Scroller as the name suggests shows a very colourful back ground scrolling in all directions On this a long wavy scrolltext goes past and a field of tiny balls undulates in 3D wave patterns All this and another good soundtrack are well worth watching for while although the scrolling is not too smooth Starfield has the most scrolling par allax stars I have yet seen TheRing is the best d
3. files of TopCat and Yogi Bear which are well drawn and brightly coloured This library is worthy of close investigation Mr Bee PD 3 Willoughby Lane Widmerpool Notts NG12 SPU Prices start from 1 30 per disk ACME Public Domain 17 May Avenue Wollaton Notting ham NGS 2NE The Datafile PD 22 Duxford Drive Aldergrove Co Antrim N Ireland BT26 Two example disks give you a good idea of the kind of software these guys can provide The first disk has the usual mix of clip art music pictures and desktop toys There is a useful desktop stopwatch with a realistic LED display The second example disk is a real gem Spraycan surprises you when an invisible hand takes over the pointer and scrawls a message across the desktop Scape is an amazing mandelbrot program which not only allows you to generate the set and zoom in but show the zoomed section as a 3D landscape You can rotate it for viewing at any angle and alter para meters such as height and colour scheme These make this disk and the whole library worthy of close investiga tion A clear message to other libraries is to make your example disks very interest ing and unique Telstar PD 40 Alderbrook Close Rolleston On Dove Staffs DE13 8AH Prices start from 2 50 per disk The more disks you buy the less they cost It is worthwhile buying them in large batches rather than just one at a time Anyone sending in new PD software will receive software for
4. GIF and TIFF format B013 Quick Ray Tracer An easy to use image generation system that uses a Ray tracing algorithm for image render ing It comes complete with a user manual on disc and a number of examples BOIS Arctist Plus a 256 colour art package Quite good and a lot cheaper than Artisan etc B018 Calc a shareware version of the commercial spreadsheet of the same name Commands are available through Fkeys and typed commands includes a few example spreadsheets Also an excel lent version of Life with a full tutorial Sizzle a program to flick through various screens using different visual effects It is easily adapted for use with your own screens B026 Hyperbook A desktop hypertext database system by Nick Vaniles B030 Disk utilities Dustbin multi tasking formatter MSDOS disk catalo gue from ADFS QL Disk utilities Desktop Settype and Stamp hard disk backup disk recovery utils DFSread DFSwrite FileTypes Dir Msdosread disk sector editor Pathswitch SysUtil StickyBD and a few disk copiers B031 AppHelp provides a help utility for an application conCLI lets you issue commands from the Icon bar LineEdit for editing CLI commands LoadProgs is for loading rather than running BASIC files from the Desktop Logga logs your time actually spent using the Arc Warfarin emulates the mouse with the cursor keys Also included are a file comparer ShortKeys VDU_Saver ModeExtend displays Hi res modes
5. Library Addresses APDL 96 Lanehouse Road Thornaby Cleve land TS17 8EA Disks prefixed B cost 2 50 and disks prefixed D are 1 75 each Each disk is crammed full of software often with the help of the Spark file archive utility If you buy 6 disks or more you get 10 off and 20 off 10 disks or more There is also a disk subscription service which is good value Diamond Public Domain 86 Meadowbank Moor Lane Holy way Holywell CLYWYD CH8 7EF Prices start from 1 50 per disk All proceeds from this library are donated to charity Skyfall Public Dom 93 Jayshaw Avenue Birmingham B43 SRX Prices start from 1 50 per disk Arcaynia PO Box 1927 Sutton Coldfield B74 3QZ Prices start from 1 50 per disk The Data Stream 32 Hollinwell Avenue Wollaton Nottingham NG8 1JZ Prices start from 1 00 per disk All the proceeds from this library are donated to Macedon House which provides acco madation for the homeless This is a very worthy cause and by buying your PD here you will be helping people iess fortunate than yourself The first sample disk they provided was crammed full of interesting software Two very practical utilities are ARCOutlin which is an ideas planner and NewChars2 which displays the full character set in a desktop window including any outline font selected The second disk contains their exclusive play able demo see above and various other items The example clipart is two Draw
6. be played and manipu lated through DSEdit B042 Three expression evaluators measurement and currency convertors two cassette inlay printers Cassette and Inlay Prnt this one can be output as a Draw file VideoBase which handles real time tape counters Pipedream to Impres sion data transfer util OZap desktop disassembler and PrintSet allows selec tion of printer facilities from the desktop PrBuffer a desktop printer buffer con troller B043 Atiribute allows view setting of file attributes Find looks for files Keys allows the Fkeys to issue commands to the OS while operating within RISC OS MakeApp converts BASIC files into applications RMA_Man ModeUtil Mouse speed controller NewBar places the icon bar within a moveable window new pointers teletext screen to sprite convertor an outline to bitmap font convertor and StartTask B046 Graph Creator allows data to be entered in a RISC OS compatible appli cation and saved as Draw or data files Bar charts normal and 3D scatter grams line and pie charts are available SlideBase a slide database allowing slide data to be entered and modified searched and printed out Many features included Boxes codes and bits that can be set to show that a slide contains a certain item Also two outline fonts FontDraw a number of Draw files and a Citizen 120D text printer driver D023 Underground The 1990 London Underground map contained in one very larg
7. ensure that you always know what date it will be next wednes g day CDindex is a custom database which makes keep Dindex ing track of a large CD collection easy There are three character definers provided the best of which is Designer A chart drawer produces a saved screen which can be loaded into a DTP package It can produce various diagrams including a pie chart or bar graph Compile is a handy desktop front end for a C or Pascal compiler simply drag source files to the icon and it does the rest Convert is a utility for converting Interword docu ments to pure ASCII Compare checks if two files are the same or not Compact is a fast and efficient ADFS disk compacter and two DFS disk filers called IDFS and DFSRead are supplied for those wanting to access DFS disks Diary is a very useful program for storing notes and memos about future events Notes can be attached to any date in the calendar They can then be saved to disk and printed out if required There are some more utilities on the disk which make it very good value German Neighbours Arcaynia B49 A badly sampled theme tune taken from what seems to be the German version of the Neighbours soap Avoid this at all costs Big Films Arcaynia A49 This application is simply a collection of poor quality digitized stills taken from some big films such as Running Man Nightmare on Elm St and others The whole thing is not very impressive and qu
8. free The catalogue disk has an easy reference guide to what is in the library Also on the disk are example utilities clip art sound tracks Maestro files and the raytraced hangman game Westbourne Services Westbourne House 34 Bradley Street Wotton under Edge Glos GL12 7AR Prices start from 1 50 per disk Buy 5 disks and you get one free Royalties can be payed to authors who send in their software but this will probably be very small A catalogue and sample disk can be had for just 1 00 This disk contains the excellent Flump1 and Zombiesoft demos as well as the Bogie and Olaf animated films RML Public Domain Library 24 Penryn Close Norwich Norfolk NR4 ILY Prices start from 2 00 per disk A sample disk can be yours for 1 20 The first sample disk I looked at has the very entertaining Demo_A on it It also contains some reasonable digitized pic tures and a handy icon bar clock module Two of the best desktop toys is the classic deskduck which is very well animated and a rotating raytraced A on the task manager icon The second disk has some good quality Atari ST pictures the best of which is The Joker opposite A very playable desktop dominoes game called Dominoes is provided along with DSEdit and some Star Trek samples Archimedes World June 1991
9. on non Hi res monitor and an ARM3 cache switcher B032 RISC OS 2 00 Extras disc Updates to the two applications discs including a new 65Host Modules System and Printer drivers B033 Draw gt an improved Share ware version of Draw with some of the bugs of Acorn s version eliminated and a few bells and whistles added Complete with a 45K text file and a few demo Draw files DrwCgm a utility for converting Acorn Draw files to CGM format for use with PCs DrawLink for linking ASCII text files into a format suitable for inclusion in Draw Draw11 gt as a text area Also StrongED an alternative to IEdit uses less memory and scrolls a lot faster taliciser italicises Draw files B038 Dimension A strange 3D land scape is being overrun by metallic balls Asa sliding red tile your task is to collect all of the yellow tiles some of which are locked behind orange doors A RISC OS compatible editor is also included so you can design your own screens There are eight demo screens supplied B039 AMFsoft PD disk 2 There is a utility to change the form of sprites CMOS RAM editor desktop notepad front end for BASIC Editor mouse speed definer a directory manager a desktop stopwatch and a desktop version of Life B040 Games disk 3 GNU Chess Ladybird a Pacman type game an Icon bar bat n ball game and more B041 DSEdit a raw digitised sound editor with a number of example digitised sounds that can
10. ain APDL B048 ea to redefine the whole game from sprites to the layout of levels The editors are extremely easy to operate due to the RISC OS window system The game itself is great fun to play It starts off simple but soon becomes very challenging The graphics are well designed and animated If they re not good enough for you then you ean edit them You can even edit the way the game works For lasting interest this game cannot be beaten it has everything that arcade adventure fans could ask for An arcade adventure game which provides a suite of desktop editors allowing you More Misc Games APDL B049 ArcAnnoy is a naff bat and blocks game Daleks may not look too good but it plays quite well You guide Dr Who among a screen full of Daleks whose touch is lethal The object is to cause the Daleks to crash into zach other and the burning pyres that they leave behind Once all the Daleks ave been cleared on a level even more pear to replace them Watch simulated life forms fight for survival in Microcosm Patience is a very good implementation of the classic card game with very good graphics and sound Pong is a simple two bats and a ball game with lovely presentation You have more control over your bat resulting in quite an enjoyable game Rubik is a cube simulator which enables you to solve the puzzle Solitaire is a very well presented desktop puzzle It has smart graphics and helpfu
11. e sprite file D044 Miscellaneous demos 2 Over 1200K of demos BallsDemo and Arcangels by Arc Angel Armaniac2 TCD Demol by The Chip Duo and Arctic Software s PDemo D045 Two demos from Network XXIII Demol and Demo2 otherwise known as Granny Chow and Wibble D048 Four demos from Archima Pisoft based in Belgium some very nice effects Archima Automate Demolition and Wierd D052 Seven demos Demo_A IPV_DEMO Ripoff MEDWAY1 IDEMO Bouncy bar demo Flunp and BLOB Zombiesoft demo 6 D053 SEM Pics 1 Some amazing pictures taken on a Scanning Electron Microscope and converted into Sprite files Four pictures on this disc one of some strands of cotton and three close ups of flies 50x and 100x magnification D055 MegaDemo by Armaxess a truly mega demo in six parts Also Aquarium an animated backdrop replacing the dull grey desktop It shows a picture of an aquarium with as many or few fish as you like and a realistic bubbling sound Overscan by Medway 256 and Arabelal also included D057 Three cartoon demos from German group Software Evolutions Lucky Luke Cubitus and Disc Run Amusing and definitely different to any other Arc demos to date 000 Soundtracker utilities Including TrackCtrl which resides on the Desktop and allows control of the four sound channels pause tunes and internal speaker on off Restore breaks up modules into seperate instruments Plus various other utils and a few tunes
12. emo of the bunch After a long wait you see a starfield zoom from the centre of the screen Now comes a shape made up of raytraced balls The balls enlarge and reduce in perspective producing a most convincing 3D effect A series of different shapes zoom out rotate for while and then zoom away again Again this disk is not to be missed FlumpSoft amp Bogey Westbourne Services sample disk The Flump demo has a colourful logo shown against a fast moving starfield The most impressive part of the demo is the rotating ball in the centre of the screen This actually has the flump sprite mapped onto it in realtime Zombiesoft Demo6 shows a very wavy scrolltext going over a large spaceship scrolling vertically in the background It would make an excellent backdrop for a shoot em up so how about it guys The text is quite witty and contains some amusing observations on life Bogey is a detailed animation made with Ace Computing s Euclid suite of software It is the best Euclid film I have ever seen It displays a caricatured head of Humphrey Bogart watching the letter E float past Bogey then says Here s looking at Euclid It is amazing to watch Balls FlunpL Archimedes World June 1991 as the expression on his face changes and his eyes pop out of their sockets Demo_A RML Sample disk 1 This is one of the most enter taining demos available Loads of shaded balls turn into various rotating and bouncing
13. ite boring Demos QRT Demo1 APDL D061 A series of none too interest MAT ing animations generated JORT Deno Diary Filas using the QRT PD raytra cing package The music is repetitive and the scrolling text long and drawn out Overall the whole thing is just too slow moving QRT Demo2 APDL D062 A cute spherical character MAT called blibbles has an ad venture in a raytraced JORT Demo world He bounces around and finds true love The animation is quite entertaining but still a bit slow moving Bananaland APDL D063 Ba is a preview of a megademo currently being written by Dublin based Ba SICK A squidgy text which resembles a ribbon blowing in the wind floats past against a starfield backdrop Two more scrolltexts smoothly flow past It is impossible t read all three at once After the squidgy text spuon dancing balls flow in cyclical patterns This is followed promptly by an amazing sequence showing two globes bouncing around in 3D with the spheres enlarging and reducing as they get nearer and further away The demo ends with a long list of film style credits scrolling up the screen Look out for the skull and cross bones in the static at the end Froggy is a superb animation of a frog playing on a swing hanging from a Archimedes World June 1991 nearlyfree The Joker can be found on the RML Public Domain library sample disk 2 tree branch The movement and lighting
14. l messages appear if you do things wrong Wordwiz is like mastermind but with letters instead of coloured pegs Accounts APDL B050 CAST Cash Book is a share ware cash transaction recor Fp der It is menu controlled and CRST CB provides many options It takes a while to learn how to use as it is not very intuitive CAST Stock Controller provides full facilities for recording quantities value supplier de tails etc Two bank account databases are provided one takes over the whole display while the other is a RISC OS desktop application Together they offer all you need to keep a record of your bank accounts The Extras directory contains SciCale which is a full imple mentation of a scientific calculator for use on the desktop Fonts Arcaynia H05 A collection of high quality low cost outline fonts This disk contains an ornate capitals only headline font called Algerian a script font called Brushscript for handwriting style lettering Barcode provides the full set of characters required to put together a product barcode like the one on the front of this mag plus Buckingham Revue and Swz This disk costs just 1 50 and is superb value for money There are five other disks avail able full of outline fonts at the same low price and are highly recommended Utils Arcaynia E20 Calc is a desktop calculator with three displays for entering expressions A very neat desktop calendar with a print option will
15. shapes A good soundtrack provides the backing music and an interesting scrolltext narrates the action The shapes include a man who likes leaping for joy a helicopter that crashes an adrenelin molecule and some wiggly worms DataDemoll DataStream Example disk 2 Written exclusively for the DataStream PD library this is a reasonable quality demo The best part is the partially playable game which is built in You Deno control a spaceship which has to fly past some very nasty ice floats The passages get extremely tight in places It is a preview of a full feature shoot em up which is currently under development You can get the source code for this demo for just 6 The Best PD The following disks are all available from APDL and have been covered in previous Nearly Free columns BOOS Dungeon Quest a Gauntlet type game for 1 or 4 players B010 Fish a memory game for two players and Arcade Hangman There is also a rotating skull demo containing nearly 200K of sprites and a gallery of seven compacted Mode 15 pictures There is also a set of excellent wierd sprites including eyeballs and monsters BOIL Yet Another Invaders Game by Bjorn Flotten a very addictive version of the classic arcade game B012 Translator by John Kortink Converts pictures from ST Amiga Mac and GIF format to Arc sprites Some demo screens are included Also supplied are MakeGIF and MakeTIFF These applications convert Arc sprites to
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