MacFormat 15 Aug. 94 1600x1200 72dpi

RITAIN’S BEST- SELLING MACINTOSH MONTHLY \ > "| () a Lv ISSUE 15 § AUGUST 1994 # £3.95 WITH HD Disk ee Z es - J ‘ a . e ‘J ’ - > € | qo eo ¢ 4 i gS ae 4 = . A . ‘ a ° f = — St ee 5 ‘ y i] ; = + , ji a | , 4 ; | | - : -_= @! ae a Met creative with your Mac! We review the latest art = Mograms, test the top graphics tablets, and show = “ 4 “ - ihe tricks and techniques the professionals use z S = Microsoft Works 4 and Ol al / \’ | "3 ClarisWorks 2.1 — how I / l [ Ck W u 23 do they shape up? Will these be the best graphics ever in a Mac GrayStation Susan ? j ! The perfect image-manipulation Pit your wits against your Mac in game 4 You be the judge! im program for editing greyscale this oddly-named game of skill im PICTs. Complete, fully usable im commercial software Quill | Read any Mac word processor file, VistaPro without the original WP program Generate whole landscapes in glorious detail out of thin air! Full program reviewed inside; AliasZoo m@ Fixicons ml MoonTool this demo requires a 5Mb Mac Escape Dammit @ PhoneLogger See magazine for more details and compatibility information uilure PUBLISHING YOUR GUARANTEE OF VALUE 1°Z SYAOMSINVID Y F SMAOM LAOSONIIPA \. The secrets are no longer in the stars, they’re on your Mac! PL How to connect your Mac to your music kit @ Sisplaying data as you want it in your spreadsheet or database @ Your Mac and Performa problems solved by our experts SWVU90Nd ADO TIOALSY Superior Software, Service and Support Softline Softline Authorised Dealers Bedford Computers Bedford 0234 271113 MacPoint Birmingham 021 333 3448 Logic Computer Solutions Bournemouth 0202 319845 Visual World Bristol 0272 258 823 PC World Bristol 0800 486111 PC World Cardiff 0800 486111 Guernsey Computers Ltd Channel! Islands 0481 728 738 Clwyd Computers Clwyd 0745 814156 PC World Croydon 0800 486111 AppleCentre Croydon Croydon 081 681 0772 Gordon Harwood Computers Derby 0773 836781 AppleCentre Dundee Dundee 0382 561110 AppleCentre Edinburgh Edinburgh 031 557 5995 ApplePoint Farnborough Farnborough 0252 378378 Tower Records Glasgow 041 204 2500 Imago Europe Pic Haslemere 0428 645 225 Tomorrows World Hull 0482 29583 LCS (North West) Ltd Kendal 0539 741 777 Five To Twelve Kingston 081 974 8900 PC World Brentford 0800 486111 Stirling Micro Systems Ltd London NW1 071 935 5262 Chromasonic Computer London NW4 081 203 8989 Tower Records London Piccadilly 071 439 2500 AppleCentre Swanfast London SW6 071 731 0846 Micro Anvika Ltd London W1 071 580 6382 AppleCentre West One London W1 071 631 5305 The Macintosh Centre London W14 071 602 9444 AppleCentre Chiswick London W4 081 994-7424 AppleCentre Kidderminster Kidderminster 0562 822 222 Superplate Computer Leeds 0532 340800 Quodport Limited Manchester 061 274 3797 AppleCentre Norwich Norwich 0603 630252 AppleCentre Oxford Oxford 0865 20 11 00 Absolute Computers Oxford 0865 53072 Mac Collection Oxford 0865 59653 AppleCentre Preston Preston 0772 615 512 CIC Software Redhill 0737 644829 AppleCentre Romford Romford 0708 384 242 ApplePoint Slough Slough 0753 518866 Central Studios Ltd Southport 0704 534534 A.T Computers Tewkesbury 0684 291112 Up To Press Ltd Leeds 0924 420323 PC World Lakeside West Thurrock 0800 486111 MacGold Scarborough 0723 582100 MacLine Carshalton 081 401 1111 The Mac Zone Freephone 0800 393696 KRCS SelectDIRECT Freephone 0800 889944 In Store SofteCD demonstrations available =) Aberdeen,Union St Birmingham, New St Brighton, Western Rd Chester, Foregate St Croydon, North End Edinburgh, Princes St A Glasgow, Union St Leicester, High St Manchester, Market St Oxford St, London Reading, Oxford Rd London, Level One, Oxford Circus Aberdeen 0224 211102 Belfast 0232 314733 Bournemouth 0202 311668 Coventry 0203 256148 Dublin 010 353 1677 3755 Kingston 081 549 8018 Leeds 0532 465320 Liverpool 051 709 7205 Norwich 0603 219221 Barking 081 591 0091 Chingford 081 524 7511 Crawley 0293 541000 Croydon 081 649 7221 Harlow 0279 454375 Nottingham 0602 502662 Northampton 0604 604123 Romford 0708 734803 Plymouth 0752 256922 Poole 0202 666255 Sheffield 0742 569299 Stratford 0789 267736 Woking 0483 768376 New Malden 081 949 3255 London WC1 071 304 4113 Staples Corner 081 450 6100 Stevenage 0438 748583 /? West Thurrock 0708 866699 Product range differs from store tostore. Please check for availability. Prince of Persia 2. The awaited sequel to the award winning Prince of Persia is finally here! This time there’s more scenery, more sce- narios, and more actions to perform —turn into a shadow, even shoot fireballs. The animation is outstanding and gameplay colossal. It’s a must have even if you've never seen the original! SRP £34.03 pfolder_ Popup Folder is the ultimate Finder navigator we=—a- With it you gain instant acc \ popup menus from any folder or drive — icon, even from open and save dialogs, up to 5 levels deep. You can simply drag-and-drop files into these menus. Navigating server volumes has never been so easy! Additionally, Popup Folder will add hierarchical menus to your Apple Menu. SRP £39.00 to ransom by the mad jester, Malcolm. Can you rescue this world and locate the ;: Complete Lemmings is a special value bundle pack containing all the Kryagem, source of all magic? This is a slightly tongue-in-cheek graphi- cal adventure, a whimsical journey through magical lands. CD ROM or Floppy Disc. SRP £42.54 aw ard winning lL emming games. For a limited time this includes the special edition Festive Lemmings too. Never heard of Lemmings before? Get this and you'll understand why it topped the charts worldwide! SRP £ Mac Best Sellers is a collec- tion of three best selling games = in one value bundle box. It includes Helicats, the flight simulator; Super Tetris, sequel to the world beating Tetris and finally the 3D Battle Tank game, Spectre. A great all round games bundle! SRP £39.00 All prices shown are Suggested Retail Prices exclusive of VAT. Softline Distribution, Mill House, Mill Lane, Carshalton, Surrey SM5 2WZ Tel 081 401 1234 Fax 081 401 1235 AppleLink UK0037 CompuServe 100012,21 Return to Zork. An epic adven- ture, underground. Based on the infamous Zork series this out- standing adventure includes fully rendered 3D graphics, original music, over an hour of spoken dialogue and video starring known actors. By combining this with an innovative interface you have one of the most eagerly awaited Mac CD ROMs! SRP £42.54 SignPost is the automatic route planner that will generate maps and instructions on how to get from A to B (via C, if necessary). You can purchase additional coun- try modules to suit your travelling needs, both in Europe and the US. Even plan a route from country to country. SRP £99.00 (includes UK Map) Syndicate. The aim of the game is to spread the dark stain of your syndicate’s colour across the surface of the entire globe. As a young executive you observe the world from a control platform in an airship while commanding your cyborgs via CHIP technology. View the scenes from above in 3D, construct up to 8 company cyborgs using futuristic parts and weaponry. It's strategic, it's unique, it’s atmospheric and it’s violent. SRP £38.29 woddng pure adias ‘areMmyos JoLedns DUIPJJOS — aan Nightmares is a unique strategy orientated _ harrier jump jet simulator. Take control of an entire — ~~ fleet or just pilot a single air- craft throughout the various missions. A ° realistic simulation as well as the first to Cerrig to defeat Tnarom be PowerPC native which ensures the who is threatening to destroy it. flight of your life! SRP £25.52 This can be played on a small or large screen in 16 or 256 colours—the action is relentless and non-stop, including tough end of level guardians. SRP £34.00 Deliverance. Finally a real ‘no-holds barred’ arcade action game for the Mac. Hack your way through the lands of Llyn WizTools a collection of invaluable utilities which wy make using your Mac easier and more enjoyable. ? The set includes backup with synchronisatic facie stroke recorder, worldclock, launcher, finder tools, submenu and much more... SRP £69.00 WizTools PB is a collection for PowerBook users. This one includes Security, Battery management, Remote Access support, Synchronisation and PB Ease, which makes using your PowerBooks’ trackball easier. SRP £69.00 Virex is the fastest and VIREX safest anti-virus soft- : “ware for the Macintosh. It can be set to scan your hard disc on start- up or shut-down and check floppy disks as they are inserted giving you complete security. For ultimate peace of mind you can subscribe to an automatic update service which a ensures that you'll always have the a unique Zk a latest version. SRP £69.99 collection of spe- v r With subscription SRP £149.00 cial effects filters Ii fon see 8 a Adobe Premier (and compatible) programs. This y/ N = set includes additional tran- Le sitions, warps, zooms, film al » “4 , grain, time based zs ae ' distortion, channel ghosting, sepia toning and many more a unique special effects. — In fact 28 all-new additions. e* SRP £95.00 \ CONTENTS AP ACEORMAT elcome to another issue of MACFoRMAT, Britain’s best-selling Macintosh monthly. Whatever you use your Mac for, whether you’re a veteran or a novice, we'll bring you news, reviews, tips and techniques to help you get even more out of your Mac! Editorial enquiries: Macrormat, Future Publishing Ltd, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BAl 2BW Tel: 0225 442244, Fax: 0225 446019 AppleLink: MacFormat E-mail: macformat@cix.compulink.co.uk Advertising enquiries: Mike Hawkins, Tel: 0225 442244 Subscription enquiries: Future Publishing, Freepost (BS4900), Somerton, Somerset TA11 6BR Tel 0225 442244, Fax 0458 274378 A word on prices... We try to ensure that all prices quoted in editorial pages in Macrormat are accurate at the time of going to press, and they are all inclusive of UK Value Added Tax at 17.5%. However, this may not necessarily be the case with prices appearing in advertisements, so we recommend that you always contact advertisers before ordering to confirm prices and availability. See page 109 for some helpful buying advice. Entire contents Copyright © 1994 Future Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. HOw. TO. DO IT ) Illustrating the Point 54 eo) Photographs aren’t always the best illustrations if ae! you're creating a small publication on your Mac... Charting Success 58 Crunching numbers with your spreadsheet is only half the story. After that, you have to think about how best to present your data. 2 r) a | Facing the Interface 60 : te tH —— . ’ . . EE And while we’re talking about presentation, are you happy with the way your database presents data? A Routine Call 68 We take apart the complete HyperCard stack on this issue’s cover disk and explain exactly how it works HH A\ ks AOA FA acca Shatter your Desktop 70 Learn how to use ResEdit to change your Mac’s alert sounds into something more exciting, give your opponents in PGA Golf new names, and more MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15 ¢ AuGusST 1994 4 4 Ly REGULARS What's coming in System 7.5, plus a new colour laser printer and computer specs that could save your eyesight, and more Apple Talk 22 Your views on shareware, MACFoRMAt’s ‘colourist’ policy, and why you can’t trust anyone. Allegedly What’s New 24 Andy Storer surveys the world of multimedia, discovers a novel touch-screen system, and looks back in bemusement Mac Answers 63 Our experts solve your Mac problems, from what happens when you rebuild the desktop to what a ‘Trinitron line’ is Special Offers 85 = * MacrorMat brings you top Mac products from a around the world — books, fonts, software and eH hardware - all at very special prices Subscribe! 94 If you’ve been having trouble finding MAcFormat recently, here’s the best way to make sure you get every issue Free Reader Ads 106 Got something to sell? Looking for a Mac bargain? Want to make contact with other Mac enthusiasts? This is the place! Buying Advice 109 Whether you're buying by mail or in person, it helps to know your rights and what to do if it all goes wrong Sa) Back Issues 112 Oiscover what it bs. If you’re missing an issue of MAcFormMar, better act soon 5 — they’re selling out as fast as a very fast-selling thing Next Month 113 No need to turn to the stars to learn the future! You just need to turn to page 113! (© 1994, Appalling Jokes Ltd) Two fabulous competitions this month! MACFORMAT brings you the chance to win... Calcomp DrawingSlate 52 Home Publisher 114 pt ee 39-9 . | CONTENTS 42 A ~*~ lie LP ‘dl i a : - G A ’ 4 CO AEE WS 7 Puanhin Nataile Graphic Details 36 ) Datintedby the vast range of graphics programs available “for your Mac? We'll guide you through the maze GR on ne . = . = he Graphics Tablets 40 is €asy as drawing on paper? We test the top tablets Wacom, CalComp and Summagraphics Dabbler 46 "Exactly how good is Fractal Design’s new ‘entry- You can get creative with your Mac! In this huge 19-page special feature, we show you ing done by Mae artists, guide you I ie range Of graphics programs available, r ela Tl programs and test the top graphics tablets (details at left). Plus: we show you how to get a watercolour effect and give you the chance to win one of three £580 graphics tablets from CalComp! 48 ie Mictosoit’s art package for 8 to 14 year olds — paint, draw, oY "create a slide show, add sounds. Should keep ‘em quiet... Vistapro 90 Zz @angerine trees? Marmalade skies? Easy. This remarkable ; " program can generate whole new worlds for you Wily ei m em eae wUSIC 72 Mle TE Take a step beyond its internal sounds Mm gsr ayimeos | and connect your Mac up with MIDI Patri Spe 32.1 76 The popular integrated package has been upgraded twice in a year. If you have an earlier version, should you upgrade? gn i Voarke An i ay ty AD Si And now Microsoft rises to the Works challenge. How does this new version measure up against Claris? Graphics of a different sort! This sequel to the adventure game 1 8 4 7th Guest promises some of © the best graphics ever in a Mac game. Judge for your- " self in our sneak preview i O ar arLexpert Brian Larkman shows - fi ‘eware Heaven 89 4d Ay yu how partie e 4 natural-looking = CGWaiG IiCGayGi ; val Paes effect in your art program, . 4 We trawl the Internet to find the latest share- # Ho matter which one it may be! ware — a recipe book, a poetry creator, a utility that hides the screen when the boss walks in... Thinkin? Thinne Ihinkin’ Things 45 What ‘essential learning skills’ will your children glean from Oranga Banga or the Fripple Shop? Just take a look! = a ee arn al we Games Reviews Adventure games with dazzling graphics! Flight simulators! Even a paint-ball game! We review them all... Prince of Persia 2 98 < COVER DISKS-- Splat’ers 100 : Cae SimCity Scenarios 1 102 Your Cover Disk 6 Za .\¥ The Legend of Kyrandia 103 ber a incsnialinag on ‘ ully-working image-editing program for Fokker Triplane Flight Simulator 104 greyscale PICT images, a demo of Vistapro, a P51 Mustang Flight Simulator 104 complete mental game, handy utilities and even more, all crammed on to this DenEilac month’s MAcFormat cover disk rroriies Forget the Finder’s awful Find function. Replace it with -Anm RAR ProFiles and get file management and compression to boot pur GU-RUM g If you have the CD-ROM edition of this PopupFol der 109 issue, you have everything on the disk Put an end to searching through folders! Try adding pop-up plus a demo of the award winning Redshift menus to all your folders, and to Open and Save dialogues and much more — too much even to list! 4 — a ty ‘ Yep, there are Mac programs that will cast horoscopes for you and reveal all about Arnie and Madonna’s sex lives... MACFORMAT °« ISSUE 15 ° AUGUST 1994 5 MACFORMAT COVER DISKS tar of both the floppy disk and CD is GrayStation from LePixel. GrayStation is a greyscale image editing program, perfect for enhancing PICTs ready for inclusion in word processed or desktop pub- lished documents. Our cover disk program is — START HERE Seer” ‘ is A high density floppy disk can contain about 1.4 megabytes of software, but we want to bring you as much as possible every month. Therefore, we use compres- sion programs to reduce the files in size so we can fit more on — about 3 megabytes- worth, in fact. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use the programs straight off the disk; you must install them on to your hard disk first. Doing this is very simple. Just double click on the floppy disk icon, then double click on the MAcForRMAT August icon. A copyright message appears — click Con- tinue. A box appears which asks you where you want to save the contents of the disk. Choose the place on your hard disk where you want everything stored and click Save. After a minute or so, the files will be installed on your hard disk. Some of the programs require further installation before they will work; check the ReadMe files for each program. Before installing the cover disk we recommend that you back up your hard disk. This sensible precaution will avoid problems should any software not be compatible with your set-up. We make every effort to check our software for compatibility and viruses, but the info here is intended as a guide only and Mac- FORMAT cannot be held responsible for any damage to data or consequential losses. So please, back up first. brings you the ultimate value in cover disks, with a choice of a packed HD floppy or a huge CD-ROM! not a demo, all features including Save are en- abled and there’s no time restriction — the only limit is on image size, but this shouldn’t affect most users. Another fascinating fully working demo is Vistapro from Virtual Reality Labs. Vistapro is a three-dimensional fractal landscape generator. You take a map — either a pre-prepared or a ran- domly created one — and position yourself on it; Vistapro will then draw the view as you see it, complete with clouds, trees, rivers — the lot! If you have the CD-ROM edition of this issue, you can see for yourself the fascinating Redshift, a multimedia astronomy program. If you’re even vaguely interested in space, Red- shift is an eye-opener. One national newspaper called it the best CD-ROM ever made! PowerMac owners (lucky so-and-so’s) will find a selection of shareware and program up- daters on the CD — every program we could find from all over the US, in fact. And of course, there is a tonne of shareware, both on the floppy disk and on the CD-ROM. In fact, the CD has something like 6,000 files on it! It should keep you quiet for a while! GrayStation 1 = Greyscale image editing Gal program For: disk and CD-ROM GrayStation™ ? Runs on: any Mac Requires: monitor displaying at least 16 greys or colours Memory needed: 650K GrayStation is a kind of mini-Photoshop for — greyscale images. For the majority of us, greyscale images are what we use most, for in- — clusion in newsletters, reports or just the stan- — dard letters we print. GrayStation enables you to — take the original image — provided it is in PICT format — and edit it, altering brightness and contrast and using the program’s own unique HQP (High Quality Print) system to create im- ages which print much better than ordinary scans — even on cheap printers. These HQP im- ages can be saved out and used in other docu- ments without loss of quality. You can use GrayStation to tidy up PICTs by removing blemishes, increasing contrast for better printing, and so on. You can also use its powerful editing tools to manipulate images, or even to create new ones from scratch. GrayStation is easy to use, but in case of any difficulty it has balloon help to show you what — all the various controls do. We’ve provided an image to work on if you don’t have one handy, so have fun! The version of GrayStation 1 on this disk is not a demo; all the features work including Save and there is no time limit on it. The sole Ba cK if WP Before you do anything else, you should make a backup of the MAcFoRMAT cover disk and work only with the backup, just in case anything goes wrong. Make sure the original cover disk is write-protected (move the tab so that you can see through the hole) — now nothing can be written to the disk. Then follow these simple steps: 1. Insert the MAcForMart cover disk. 2. Highlight the disk icon (but don’t double-click on it) and drag it over your hard disk’s icon. The contents of the cover disk will be copied into a new folder on your hard disk called ‘MacrorMatT August cover disk’ (but not decompressed, so you still can’t run anything directly). 3. When the copying finishes, drag the cover disk icon into the Wastebasket to eject it. 4. Insert a blank high-density disk. Check that it’s not write-protected, and, if need be, format it, naming it ‘MACFORMAT August backup’. 5. Drag the ‘MAcForMaT August cover disk’ folder from your hard disk on to the new floppy disk’s icon. When it has finished copying, your backup is complete. 6. You can now delete the ‘MACFORMAT August cover disk’ folder from your hard disk by dragging it to the Wastebasket, and then selecting Empty Wastebasket. MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15° AuGUST 1994 6 Model @ Natural sproy CO Reguier Spray GrayStation enables you to jazz up your scans to your heart's content — and offers quality printing on cheap printers. restrictions are that only PICT images (the most common type, supported by all scanners) can be imported, the HQP system only operates with non-PostScript printers such as the StyleWriter and DeskJet, and the maximum image size is 12cm by 12cm. Larger images will be resized, but 12cm by 12cm is perfectly ade- quate for most uses of greyscale images, being over half a page of A4 wide. LePixel, the French maker of GrayStation, has produced an improved version, GrayStation 2, and if you like version one, MACFORMAT can offer you an upgrade to version two at an ex- clusive low price. Extra features in GrayStation 2 include: B Opens a variety of formats including TIFF & Allows resizing @ Full printer calibration @ Special photocopyable output @ PostScript compatibility Macrormat is very happy to be able to offer you this powerful program for just £39.95 in- cluding VAT and delivery — a third off its nor- mal retail price. While we were talking to LePixel, securing this exclusive price for you, we were also able to negotiate a special deal on the full colour image editing program ColorStation 2. In June’s Macrormat, Gordon Druce reviewed the origi- nal version, saying, ‘It’s hard to fault Color- tock e Ctock¥ Clock 2 Poy CO) Exageration (shad Vistapro offers an incredible variety of options — all of which work in this demo. We're too good to you, we really are. Station’ and rating it at 90%, based on its nor- mal price of £67. We can only guess at what mark he would have given it if he’d known that we could offer it exclusively to MACFORMAT readers for just £49.95! To get hold of a copy of either of these excel- lent image editing programs, ring our Mac- FORMAT promotions hotline on 0225 822511, or fill out the coupon below and return it to Mac- FORMAT promotions, Future Publishing, FREE- POST (BS4900), Somerton, Somerset TAI1 6BR. These offers are open only while our stocks last, so if you want a full feature image editing program for less than what Arthur Daley would undoubtedly call a monkey, you had better move fast! Vistapro Fractal landscape generator demo Ed For: disk and CD-ROM Runs on: any Mac VistaPro Requires: monitor displaying at least 256 colours Memory needed: 4,000K Now, the potential uses of a three-dimensional fractal landscape generator may not occur to you all at once, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play with! See our review on page 50 for more MACFORMAT COVER DISKS And here’s a mountain | prepared earlier! You'll have to be prepared to wait a while for detailed renders like this. details on what the program can do, but above all just try it out — it’s fascinating. To get started, click on the rendering options icon and select Excellent from the Quality menu, then click on Gouraud Shading. Click OK to confirm this and select Render from the Landscape menu, then sit back and wait for a wonderful view across a valley. The ‘fractal’ bit, by the way, refers to the method the program uses for including realistic random detail in the images, and comes from the once trendy chaos theories of mathematics. Just thought Id clear that up for you. If you decide that creating these virtual worlds is really rather good, you can upgrade to the complete version of Vistapro for £89.95. Either call our MacrorMaT promotions hotline or use the form. Redshift Multimedia astronomy demo eB For: CD-ROM only Runs on: any Mac with CD drive Redshift Requires: monitor displaying at least 256 colours Memory needed: 1,025K This demo runs through the critically acclaimed Redshift astronomy program, showing you its EL Ee eS LS LSS LL, LN Se NN DS ee eee ee a ee ee ee, ee Please send me: |__| of £39.95 (Code: MFGRAY) of £49.95 (Code: MFCOLS) \__| (Code: MFVIST) (Code: MFREDS) Please debit my gx Visa | | Mastercard Sterling drawn on a UK bank account) ee 2 eee See copies of GrayStation 2 at the MacrorMat exclusive price copies of Vistapro at our MACFOoRMAT price of £89.95 BENCIOSE A CHEQUE OL Liscsscccsecsssesscssssstsses (Cheques should be made payable to Future Publishing Ltd, and be in copies of ColorStation 2 at the MACFoRMAT exclusive price copies of Redshift at our MAcrormat price of £59.95 POStCOGE?. cosecssonctsaccereaed MACFORMAT DISK PROMOTIONS Prrreerrrrrrrirerrerreett teri r irri rire rere rire tre eee ret theteeeeeereeeeee Overseas customers: an additional shipping fee may be chargeable — please call our hotline on +44 225 822511 for pricing. Return this coupon to the address below. No postage is required if you're posting from within the UK. Return to: MACFORMAT promotions, Future Publishing, FREEPOST (BS4900), Somerton, Somerset TA11 6BR. MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15° AuGUST 1994 7 De ORaE COVER DISKS REDSHIFT MULTIMEDIA ASTRONOMY The massive Redshift database contains surface maps of the Earth and other planets. It won't help you navigate the terrors of Spaghetti Junction, though. depth of information and innovative interactive interface (try saying that when you’ve had one too many). The demo program explains itself better than I can, so run it and see! Two versions are pro- vided; the one recommended for Macs with single-speed CD drives lacks sound, but is otherwise the same. If you like what you see in the demo and fancy buying yourself the full CD-ROM, you'll be pleased to learn that it costs just £59.95 if you buy it through Macrormart. Once again, you can obtain more details about the package and order your copy by calling the hotline (tel: 0225 822511) or by filling out the coupon on the previous page. There are hundreds of NASA-supplied images included in the full version of Redshift. Here we have a view of our Ed’s birth place — if you look carefully you can see his Mum’s house. ore colors Previous] Next J Return One of the most famous shots of modern times: the great red spot of Jupiter. Rumour has it the next probe will contain a concentrated dose of Biactol and a bloody big Kleenex. If the covermounted high density disk or CD-ROM you have is defective, return it to us and we will replace it. Please be sure that it is a physical problem with the disk, however, or the replacement will just be the same! Return HD disks to: Discopy Labs PO Box 21 Daventry NN11 5BU Return CD-ROMs to: MACFORMAT CD returns Future Publishing FREEPOST (BS4900) Somerton Somerset TA11 6BR Enclose a self addressed envelope with the disk or CD, and a description of the fault. Please do not re.urn disks or CDs to the editorial office; we don’t hold stocks of them and can only refer you to one of the addresses above. SHAREWARE ON THE HD DISK Quill Text file reader For: disk and CD-ROM Freeware Runs on: any Mac Memory needed: 320K Quill is an essential utility; it can read files created by virtually any Mac word processor. If you have ever been sent a disk with an un- readable document on it, you’ll know how essential this is! Sart ———— ttockirite 11 HHord tox, 3.20 rilicrosoft rit pir itetiow tox, 2.00 £ 3.0 Hfisus (Mo pictures, sorry!) HiordPerfect 2.1 Ulewer er & Infottcker | also: ICT Format Oocusents hk ICT's in the resource fork 4.0 © 5.0 (even in ‘fost save’ format!> Tab: 4 | info Parry thanks to Giovanns, who urged me te write Quill [This software i FREE tut MOT in the public domain, If gou Mike it, then please send me a postoard, or yell loud! ‘Sergio Villene ~ Via Baltimora 122 ~ Terine, ITALY i) Word Wrap C) No Pictur Find... Ma Open, Now, thanks to Macrormat and Quill, you need never be stuck with an unreadable word processor file again. Susan Mental game For: disk and CD-ROM Freeware Runs on: any Mac Memory needed: 640K Susan is a strangely-named mental board game in the backgammon mould. It’s pretty ® SUSAN - Block's Tur Pit your wits soiiest erm, Bina This mental board game will have you gnashing teeth with the best of ‘em. taxing on the brain cells, but each game lasts only a few minutes, so it’s ideal for those cof- fee breaks! AliasZoo Alias manager For: disk and CD-ROM Shareware, $15 Runs on: any Mac Requires: System 7 Memory needed: 450K If your aliases are running riot, losing their links to the original files or cluttering your desktop in their hundreds, AliasZoo will sort them out! Also on the disk: MoonTool, a program that, omni = Moon Tool ee | Moon Phases - - Moon Age Last New Moon: 08:27 9 June 1994 Ons: 3 } First Quarter: 19:56 16 June 1994 Hours: 5 Full Moca; 11:32 23 June 1994 Minutes: 37 Last Quarter: 19:32 30 June 1994 i \ Next New Moon: 21:38 8 July 1994 Jutian Date —] Current Lunation: 885 2449516. serad Distance Subtends | Moon: 386650 Kilometres 60.6 Earth Radi Moon: 0.5151° Sun: 151924326 Kilometres 10%S Astronomical Units Sun: 0.5250° | ~ L 4 Universal: 14:05:36 12 June 1994 ad MoonToot. all you ever wanted to know about the Moon — except how to get there, that is. among other things, can tell you how far away the moon is at any given time (ideal for all those unexpected Lunar excursions); PhoneLogger, a HyperCard stack which, funnily enough, enables you to log phone calls; Fix- Icons, a utility which makes your icons look the way they should; and Escape Dammit, an- other utility, which enables you to use stan- dard keystroke shortcuts for things like ‘cancel’ dialogue boxes. Compact Pre shes Squasting rtutl Applications Apple Mare Roms System Felder Werk Hur grat Compact Pre ahaa Downloade Werk Karate Control Panels: Agpte ima Rema = System Felder : Work Har donsh™ Cuter 1 4 shas -ernat° Apple Hers ems "Systems Feler * ure Hardbish™ ] Fetch 2.1.5 sas mternat Apple Mere Moms System Felder Work Hirai | FindPre 181.05 ; Apple Peru Moms (cabled): System Felder : Wark HareDisk™ ‘Finger ater : internet « Apple Mone Meme | Syrten Felder Work Marden ana: hapa Her Hea | Syston Felder | Var Hark Near has :Dewnlands | Werk Marae Near has Utes Applications: Work Mar dona k Nair alae: Squaching ptwll | Appleutions «Apple Menu Meme | Syrtem Felder : Werk HardDick™ beret Desktop Felder - Work armen Iter. Setup alas: nternet | Apple Mate Nem System Fader Work Hardbrck™ eta 1-2-5 shes : Appheotiond Apple Hone Heme : System Feber : Wark Mareik™ Hacde ‘Downloads: Work Hardomeh HacGe ahs: Werfet :Appheations : Vark Hareik™ MeeGeip sles |. Squsshing shut Appliestion: - Aggie Menw Items : System Folder Werk Hardbisk™ ‘Meresett Word sthes Applications « Apple Mens Meme - System Falter Work Mardek™ Herese"\ ard aad: Apple Mir Nome (@ibied): Syrter Felder : Wark Hardie NCBA Hesate 10.3 alas: Mlernet : Apple Mew Rema = System Felder | Work Hart Proteshap® 2.0.1 slat . Applicutions - Apple Mens Meme — System Felder Work Harari ® Take control of your aliases now! Although in my case, | think | may have left it just a little too late... MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15 ¢ AuGusT 1994 SS. oe. Black-capped Chickadee Mourning Do Tufted Titmouse American Robin White-breasted Nuthatch Cerolins Chickedee Blue Jey Red-winged Blackbird Northern Cardinal So, erm, heave-ho, me hearties! Pirates Gold demo: the old Sid Meier ] Classic game of swashbuckling strategy has now been updated and coloured in! @ File Edit Fractal Size Special Windows Mandelbrot! House Finch » American Goldfinch Carolina Wren House Wren Northern Mockingbird Song Sparrow White-throsted Sparrow 5ee and hear some common and not-so-common US birds with this unusual but fascinating program, Bird Songs. Dawn choruses will never be the same. Clik on arrows to control . * =Vawawerre" Flying Nightmares demo: the latest flight Re imulator takes you on board a Harrier jump jet, { and adds elements of strategy too. Total Weight: 357 ky Map Digited watch (om wrist) vocation demo: an Italian idventure set in a mysterious Stately home, complete with an Oracle of the gods... Walther P4 Magazine (x8) Sunday, 0613 (613 AM [PAP (SEAR | PesT cover geet Series, Incorporates J You range Slee rane PATTI RUCHED walther P Magazine taken @ File Edit Palette: ——— = © Macformat August | ree 2 View Label Archive Translate Function: Window Size: Monitor Setting Generation Depth: ol Mandel brot QuickTime Medium h: 320 v: 240 8 bits/pixel 8 bits/pixel Rainbow Palette Create gorgeous fractal graphics with Colour Fractal Generator — or a shapeless ink blot, if you're particularly crap... 8 titers “MacFormat August ” is 1,407K 7 443K free on “Work HardDisk™” Date | Name Kind Expanded Stuffed Saved _ (2) GrayStation 1 2 items 8/6/94 S06K 277K 45% > Bai vist: deeno Folder 2 items 8/6/94 648K 308K 52% ics AliasZo0 2.0.4 folder 4 tterns 8/6/94 316K 146K S48 (2) Escape Damenit v0.4 f 2 items 8/6/94 4K 35K 29% (2 Fixtoons Folder 2 items 8/6/94 37K 1%K S3% (2 Moon Toot f 1 item 8/6/94 138K 60K S7% (2 oin22 5 items 8/6/94 170K 81K 52% ie | SUSAN™ 2.5 7 items 8/6/94 700K 462K WHE & Self-Extracting Pathways into Darkness demo: the 3D rendered dungeon adventure now PowerMac compatible and runs at a blistering speed! IS Chirat a puzzle game based on fitting molecules together from the excellent Ambrosia. 1,388K 46% /8) Stuffit Lite: simply the best program for compressing files to save space on your hard disk or fit more on a floppy. Asterax. a challenger to topple Maelstrom as the best shareware game ever? Play it and find out just what makes this game so darn good. 9 MACFORMAT ° ISSUE 15° AuGusT 1994 ABBLER Is THE IDEAL SoFTWare for aspiring artists of all ages. | Dabbler includes all your favourite artist’s materials such as You can draw and paint realistically with a wide variety of chalks, charcoals, water colours, oils, pens and even the brush tools on incredibly realistic papers in up to 16.7 million colours. If strokes of Seurat and Van Gogh—you can even import » you get stuck, Dabbler will show you how to draw professionally a photograph and turn it into a beautiful portrait! @ using interactive pre-recorded sessions—then you can try it for Dabbler runs on any 386, 486 or Pentium pc with ate yourself. Dabbler features capabilities similar to far more Windows 3.1 or later and any Macintosh (except se, id expensive paint programs yet is designed with a simple Plus, Powerbook 100 or Classic) or Power Macintosh machine. @ P paint prog) y 8 Pp Ad - interface for the beginner. * — It'll run with just 4Mbytes of ram although we recommend SG, e Dabbler ships with a How-to-Draw 8Mbytes. © manual from Walter Foster® which WIN! FREE Fonts for first 100 replies @ a has eee ee aes ng For more information about Dabbler fill in the coupon and “a a a 5 7 ee h e post it to The Dabbler, Letraset Software Products, on ane ee ae 195-203 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8XJ. The first 100 NY ’ ihc een names will win a set of Letraset Fontek fonts for your pc. “ @ teacher by your e . Lng @ side! © Cerporaton Macatosh ss rgteredraemort of Apple Corporation Oster sa acema of facta Design Corporation. Walter Foster is a registered trademark of Walter Foster Publishing. Inc. All other ° product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders Details of new features in System 7.5 revealed QuickTime 2.0 too late for System 7.5 ystem 7.5 will be released in the late summer and will include a sweeping range of exciting new features but only the current version of QuickTime (v1.6.2), not the ground-breaking v2.0 as hoped. Ironically, QuickTime 2.0 will probably be available separately at the release date, but was not completed in time to be included. QuickTime 2 promised full-screen video and support for MIDI music (see MACFoRMAT 12) and was eagerly awaited. However, System 7.5 will still include the new QuickDraw GX graph- ics handling system (see ‘Quicker on the Draw’ box), the new AppleGuide help system, and AppleScript, Apple’s macro language which en- ables you to automate many functions in any ‘AppleScript-aware’ program. The Finder itself will for the first time be fully scriptable. Other new features in System 7.5: § PowerTalk, an electronic mail extension that enables you to mail a document by simply drag- ging it on to an icon on your desktop represent- ing the destination. @ Sub-menus in the Apple menu, including = File Edit Special identify or How do | display colors or grays? Do This Click the number of colors or shades of gray you want to display. Do this step, then you're done. Balloon Help has been burst - the much more friendly Apple- Guide leads you by the hand, highlighting which menus and buttons you need to use. Developers will be able to use this to create interactive manuals for their own programs. automatically-created ‘aliases’ for launching re- cently-used documents and applications. @ A ‘Window Shade’ system that enables you to leave windows and applications open but ‘roll up’ the windows to leave just the title bar visi- ble — one click and it opens again. & SimpleText, a more advanced text editor that allows for much larger documents than Teach- Text, which it replaces. @ Simplified printing. Selecting Print brings up a simpler dialogue box with a pop-up menu of all the printers available — no need to use the Chooser to change printers. There is also a series of icons representing your printers on the Desk- top — to print a document, just drop it on to your chosen icon. Double-clicking a printer icon brings up its print queue - a more sophisticated version of PrintMonitor, where you can drag doc- uments up or down the queue, on to another printer or into the Wastebasket. @ A Universal Enabler, making it easy to create an emergency System disk for different Macs. & Also incorporated are several features previ- ously available through shareware utilities, such as date and time display in the menu bar, ‘sticky memos’, and default saving to a ‘Documents’ folder on the Desktop, so you know where to look first if you’ve just hit Save. The Find File accessory from System 6 returns, replacing Sys- tem 7’s widely-derided Find function. @ You'll now be able to re-size the Scrapbook, change monitor resolution ‘on the fly’ and pro- gram your Mac to shut down automatically after a set time. Also included are a new im- proved CD-ROM player, System and application locking, and the DigiSign system, which enables you to ‘sign’ any data from a single cell ina spreadsheet to a complete document, as well as verify other signatures and determine if a docu- ment has been altered. Apple says the new System 7.5 runs faster than previous versions, but you'll need at least a Mac Plus with 4Mb of RAM to use it, and 8Mb minimum on a PowerMac (though it will at File Edit Label About This Macintosh... Special E Calculator &% Chooser ® Control Panels & Find in Catalog fH Jigsaw Puzzie (3 Note Pad (CQ Personal Catalog Oe Recent Applications © Recent Documents © Recent Servers (® ScrapBook (Useful Scripts &) © Shut Down ClarisWorks FileMaker Pro HyperCard Microsoft Word SimpleText System 7.5 offers BeHierarchic-style sub-menus in the Apple menu, including Recent Applications and Recent Documents — no more searching through level after level of folders to find that document you were working on yesterday! least run ‘native’). No price has been an- nounced, but System 7.1 was under £50, and if you buy a new Mac from late summer 7.5 will be bundled free as normal. For more infor- mation contact Apple on 0800 127753. Quicker on the Draw QuickDraw GX is the new version of Apple's own system for handling both screen rendering and printing. Programs will need to be rewritten to fully utilise its features, but it will run alongside existing printing software and many of its more useful functions will be available immediately. These include drag-and-drop printing and Apple’s ColorSync system, which promises to match screen and printout colours much more closely. Anew GX version of Adobe Type Manager is included to optimise screen display. Many text functions will be handled at the System level, meaning that any program can have proper kerning and justification. There will be a new file format called Portable Digital Documents, which retains all the graphic and typographic information of the original document. Any Mac with QuickDraw GX will be able to open, view and print PDD documents, irrespective of whether it has the same application or fonts. DOS IS DEAD, SO HOUDINI FAILS TO ESCAPE THE AXE System 7.5 includes PC Exchange 2.0, Mac Easy Open and Mac TCP, in line with Apple’s policy of making it easier for Macs to connect to PCs. But at the same time, Apple has ended production of its ‘DOS-compatible’ Quadra, codenamed ‘Houdini’. The machine contained a 25MHz Intel 486SX processor, so in effect it gave you two com- puters in one, a Mac and PC (both at once, if you want- ed), though it lacked networking or advanced sound support. If you need to run PC software on a Mac, your only option now is an emulator program such as SoftPC. @ The PC operating system has, however, had a body blow. A judge in America has ordered Microsoft to withdraw the current version of MS-DOS. The decision comes after a four-week court battle by Stac Electronics, the company responsible for the disk space optimising program Stacker. The court upheld Stac’s claim that its patents have been infringed by Microsoft’s ‘Double- Space’ technology included with MS-DOS 6 and 6.2. The court issued a permanent injunction ordering Microsoft to cease making, using and selling these versions of MS-DOS and any other product containing DoubleSpace, and recall or destroy all unsold copies. @ If you now want to get rid of your old PC, the good news is that Apple will take it in part exchange for a PowerMac - if you’re an ‘education user’, that is. Apple is offering several discounts, depending on the age and condition of the personal computer you exchange and the Power Mac you buy: an unworking PC will save you £150 on a Power Mac 6100, and as much as £400 on an 8100. Call Apple on 0800 127753 for details. MACFORMAT °¢ ISSUE 15 ° AUGUST 1994 11 It’s the return of SuperCard A new version of HyperCard’s rival Super- Card has just been released by Allegiant Technologies in the US. SuperCard (originally from Aldus) offers an alternative, powerful multimedia authoring and application development environment for the Mac. The new version 1.7 includes built-in support for QuickTime, new sound and animation features, and support for Hypertext (the system that enables you to ‘link’ text in one place with related text elsewhere). Allegiant is also working on a native PowerMac version of SuperCard and a Windows player. The upgrade is $89 (plus shipping) to registered owners of any earlier version of SuperCard. The rest of us can buy SuperCard 1.7 for $495 — or you can trade in your copy of HyperCard 2.x or Macromedia Direc- tor (any version) for $99 before 31 July. For more information, contact Allegiant direct in the US on 0101 619 587 0500 (or fax 587 1314). Linotype fonts for new QuickDraw 35 standard fonts included with Apple printers in QuickDraw GX format for £58. Although existing fonts will work as normal with the new version of QuickDraw installed, fonts need to be converted to make full use of its advanced typo- graphical features. These new ‘super fonts’ offer refined kerning and tracking, producing more easily readable text, and automatic ligatures (where charac- ter pairs such as fi and f/ are replaced by a single character that blends the two together, making text more attractive). Existing fonts allow for a maximum of 224 characters, but QuickDraw GX fonts allow for 800 per font, making it possible for Linotype-Hell to include such characters as ornaments and small caps (like ‘MACFoRMaT’). QuickDraw GX also features opti- cal alignment. This is where a round letter such as ‘O’ at the left margin of a line of text actually juts out a little further to the left, past the margin, by compari- T op font producer Linotype-Hell is releasing the son with an ‘M’ or ‘B’ — which paradoxically makes the margin line seem straighter. The major disadvantage will be speed. PostScript printers come with some fonts in their own memory, making them faster to print, but Apple has yet to an- nounce a printer with QuickDraw fonts built in, so they will take longer to output. The process of converting fonts from PostScript to QuickDraw is costly as it involves adding more data and characters, so font producers will look very care- fully at how these first fonts sell. If font manufactur- ers do not support QuickDraw GxX it will be a devas- tating blow for Apple and QuickDraw. Apple will not be including any QuickDraw GX fonts with System 7.5, so if you want to benefit from these exciting new features, you'll need to buy the font pack from Linotype-Hell. It will cost £58 and will be launched at the same time as System 7.5. Linotype-Hell can be contacted on 0242 222333. ‘Screen’ your eyes It's official: health experts in the US and elsewhere say that working at a monitor for any length of time is bad for your eyes. What you need is some sort of eye protection, like the Computer Optics spectacles by Gepro. The light- weight, 23% blue-tinted, polarised spectacles offer protection against all ultra-violet and electromagnetic radiation from 20kHz to 200MHz at wavelengths of 200nm to 700nm (it says here), which means they absorb reflective glare, soften the light from the screen and help reduce eye-strain and drowsiness. They cost a mere £32.99 (not a lot to pay to save your eyesight, really), or there's a clip-on version for £29.99. Allow a further £1.99 for postage and packing in both cases. For more details contact Gepro on 0689 851 206. ‘Power PowerBooks’ delayed Apple’s plans for a new range of portable PowerMacs have been thwarted by problems with the PowerPC 603 chip which was destined to go inside them. The existing range of Power Macintosh desktop machines uses the PowerPC 601 chip, which consumes too much power to be used in battery-based portable machines. Apple has dropped the more compact, less thirsty 603 chip altogether after very disappointing speed tests, and has asked its partners in the PowerPC project, IBM and Motorola, to come up with a faster chip. The added development costs must mean that the new portable machines will be pricier, and will almost certainly delay them for at least six months until mid 1995. But Apple couldn’t risk the embarrassment of producing a slower portable than PC-compatible notebooks using Intel's new portable Pentium chips. Aldus passes powerful program ports Aldus has begun porting its range of respected programs will be welcomed. software to the Power Macintosh, FreeHand 4 tor Power Macintosh starting with versions of FreeHand 4 and costs £528.75, or you can upgrade your PageMaker 5. FreeHandis claimed to run = Mac version 4 to PowerMac for £88.13; up to eight times faster than its equiva- users of older versions can upgrade for lent running on the fastest Quadra, while £229.13. PageMaker 5 for Power PageMaker runs between two and four Macintosh costs £816.63; upgrading times faster. from a Mac version 5 costs £146.88, or Some publishers have seemed slow to £229.13 to upgrade from earlier support the PowerMac, so these versions. Aldus is on 081 568 8868. Upgrades for Norton Utilities and SAM Following its purchase of rival Fifth Generation’s Public Utilities, Syman- tec is releasing an upgrade to Norton Utilities that incorporates the best bits of its competitor. One improvement: Norton will be able to check your hard drive during idle time to find problems as soon as they occur, rather than waiting for symptoms to appear. Symantec is also releasing Norton DiskDoubler Pro, which is a re- badged version of Fifth Generation’s SuperDoubler bundle including AutoDoubler, DiskDoubler and CopyDoubler. To complement this, the new version of Symantec’s AntiVirus for Mac (SAM) will have the new ability to detect viruses in compressed files. We'll be reviewing Norton Utilities 3.0 in MACFORMAT as soon as it is released; meanwhile Symantec UK can be contacted on 0628 776343. Xerox’s dazzling colour laser Rank Xerox has just released the 4900 colour laser printer, offering PostScript level 2 output of stun- ning quality at 1,200 x 300 dpi. One of the main advantages of colour lasers over other printing technologies is speed, and with performance of up to three pages per minute in full colour the 4900 — will make colour inkjet users very jealous. And you don’t even need ~ your Mac: save your work to flop- py disk, just pop the disk into the drive in the front of the printer, and it will print out directly! All this doesn’t come cheap, though, at £10,500. Out of reach for most of us at the moment, maybe, but print bureaus are sure to snap them up — and in the longer term, prices for colour lasers will almost certainly begin to drop in the same way that black and white lasers did several years ago. For more information contact Rank Xerox on 0895 251133. MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15 * AuGusT 1994 12 "et oe os ie ol 7, ne ee eee ae ae SYNDICATE From Bullfrog Productions Ltd Syndicate™ Hi-tech cyberpunk action in Bullfrog’s dark vision of a violent future. Global domination is the goal and the cities of tomorrow your battleground. Tool up your cyborg agents and spread the dark stain of your Syndicate from the barrel of a gun. “Syndicate is a stonking game with a very tight plot, superb graphics and sound, and lashings of futuristic violence” 92%, MacFormat, June 1994, P)ERMONG PowerMonger™ Rampage through uncharted lands and swell your ranks with recruits from conquered villages. Only the PowerMonger decides when to make peace, and when to hack his enemies into pieces. Theme Park™ Designer Series™ It’s about thrills, spills and paying the bills as you design, build and run the world’s ultimate tourist attraction. Construct rides, respond to the whims of your customers, and fend off unfriendly takeover bids as you fight for R supremacy against 40 rival | Theme Parks. CREATED GOD. From Bullfrog, the originators of the God Sim, a range of titles designed to perfectly complement your AppleMac’s abilities. Acknowledged as classics across multiple formats, now it’s your turn to play God, dominate the world and shape the lives of multitudes. Populouse The original God Sim pits good against evil, with you as Supreme Being raining disasters down upon your enemies. Once you've played God for a day, you won't want to stop. With games like these, you’ll discover the true meaning of control. ™ The Bufifrog Mac range of products in duerbuced in Europe by Electronic Arts, 90 Heron Orive, Langley, Berkshire SL3 EXP. Tet 0753 546 465 * Populous is a registered trademark of Electronic Arts Lid. + PowerMonger and Syndicate are wrademarks of Blectromic Arts Lid. + Theene Pari, Designer Series and Bustrog are sradernarks of Butrog Prockctions Lod. BULLEROG 7 PROOUCTIONS LTD |) A small, soft office SoftKey is releasing six low-cost titles for the Mac, including a word processor retailing at £49.99. WriteNow 4 is a modular- based word processor, incorpo- rating style sheets and mail merge. It takes up relatively little disk space or RAM, and has been optimised for PowerBook usage. The other five titles are all on CD-ROM. PC Paintbrush ClipArt Library contains 3,003 colour im- ages and costs £39.99. PC Paint- brush PhotoLibrary is a double-CD collection of 2,500 photographic images in both TIFF and BMP formats, many of which are roy- alty-free and in 24-bit quality, and costs £39.99. American Heritage Talking Dictio- nary contains meanings for more than 200,000 words and will pro- nounce 72,000 of them (in American?). It comes with Roget’s 2 Electronic Thesaurus, containing 500,000 synonyms, and costs £39.99. If you're more interested in fonts, there’s Key Fonts Pro, with 1,200 TrueType and Post- Script scalable fonts, including legal and scientific symbols, dis- play fonts and decorative ding- bats. The collection costs £46.95. Finally, there’s Key CAD Com- plete, an entry-level Computer Aided Design package with a range of drawing tools including line, rectangle, circle, arc, arrow, polygon, Bezier curves and splines. Measurements can be specified in metric or imperial units. The package is just £46.95. For more details, contact Soft- Key on 081 789 2000. ducational templates for ClarisWorks have been released by Claris, Aztec Associates and CollinsEducational. The templates can be used by secondary school teachers to provide computer-assisted learning with easy access to information and skeleton structures that can be adapted for specific teaching materials. The templates from Aztec include: MapMaker, a 1:50,000 scale map drawing utility, including Ord- nance Survey symbols; Travaillons!, for teaching French; and Image Factory, which provides shortcut tool palettes for graphics work. All three cost £29.95 Comin’ at ya! Remember the old text-based adventure games? Well, Activision is just about to release an updated version of one of the classics, Zork. Not impressed? You should be. Return to Zork (shown at right) comes on CD-ROM, and it’s no longer text-based. There's a wide range of digitised settings and characters whose facial expressions change in reaction to your input, which you generate by clicking on icons representing attitudes such as ‘secretive’, ‘apologetic’ and ‘aggressive’. The plot is complicated, sudden death lurks around every corner, and the point-and-click adventure should be available any day now for about £50. Watch for the full review in Macrormat next month. For more details contact Activision on 081 742 9400. remote cam 06: 10:03:55 @ Also due soon: Wrath of the Gods from Maxis, the people who brought you SimCity 2000, Lost in Time and Gobliins plus Gobliins 2 from Sierra; Hell Cab from Tengen; and /n Search of the Fabulous Funbox from MacPlay. Watch for more details and full reviews in Macrormar. A little further down the track (scheduled for October) is the Mac CD-ROM version of Lawnmower Man, the ‘virtual reality’ film that showcased state-of-the-art graphics technology. (Check the game pics below.) The British Science Museum is playing host to a special version of Maxis’ SimCity 2000. With the program, called Scienceville, museum visitors are able to take control of a city for seven minutes and see how their decisions affect the city’s future. The program has had its toolbar enlarged and re-worked, * and can be played via both the mouse and a touch-screen. It is on display as part of the Science Museum's City Limits? exhibition, which is running until September. The British Science Museum is on 071 938 8000; Maxis is on 071 490 2333. ClarisWorks for education for a single-user licence. Aztec also produces the EasyWorks template, which, for £24.95, provides a simple word processor as well as newspaper and database modules. CollinsEducational’s offering is Science Activities, which includes 15 science-related templates for teaching up to GCSE or Standard Grade level. It costs £35.24 for a single user. Claris itself also produces templates for Secondary students at £35.19 each. (There are discounts on all these prices for multiple users.) All templates are available from TAG Developments on 0800 591262. Fancy a CD-ROM with 450Mb of sample source code to help you with your Mac programming? Then you'll be interested in Apprentice from the Celestin Company. It contains source code (most in C, C++ and Pascal) from such diverse programs as appli- cations, games, Control Panels, Ex- tensions and utilities. In addition, programming utilities are also provid- ed on the disc. Apprentice costs £25 and is available in the UK from Net- work Analysis on 0203 419996. Looking for a chance to show off your animations? The London Effects & Animation Festival is inviting en- tries for its annual competition. The entries will be judged by a panel from the media, professional animators and potential clients, with ‘specially commissioned awards’ being present- ed to the winners. The categories are: art, broadcast graphics, commercials, education and training, feature films, games/interactive entertainment, music videos, research, short films, simulation, and student work. Entry forms are available from Alison Nolan on 081 995 3632. The closing date for entries is Wednesday 7 September. MiniCad 5, an industry-standard Com- puter Aided Design application, has been released for both the Mac and PowerMac (which is at its best with precisely this sort of maths-intensive program). The new version features an Overlay Edit utility that enables tool palettes and menus to be com- pletely customised, and different combinations can be saved to suit dif- ferent tasks or people. The price for MiniCad 5 is £700, or you can upgrade for £135. For more details contact Gomark on 071 7317930, a4 David Fairhead, a TV producer, came out victorious at the first Hellcats Championship, hosted by MacUniver- sity and sponsored by Hellcats maker Parsoft and Macrormat. Bob Hall won second place, with Joe Makkerh third. Everyone who attended agreed that the day was a great success — one dedicated Hellcats fan travelled all the way from Madrid! If you only need a greyscale scanner then check out Microtek’s new low- cost 8-bit scanner called ScanMaker IIG. It has a physical resolution of 300 x 600 dpi, which can be increased to 1,200 x 1,200 using software interpo- lation. It comes with Caere’s Omni- Scan software, providing optical char- acter recognition, image processing and fax software in one bundle. All this costs just £580. For more infor- mation contact Computers Unlimited on 081 2008282. MACFORMAT ° ISSUE 15 * AuGusT 1994 14 THE MULTIMEDIA PLANETARIUM REDSHIFT Se: =. ‘ecliptic The mean plane of the Earth's ort name anses because ectpses of the Sun or when the Moon passes through thes plane From the point of ww of an observer on E: iadaen fea Sash sod en cisnont We og ba en ee Seting sound the Earth once a year The Sun's path on the colestal aphere traces out the echptc plane, and is atten marked 9 the echptic on celestial chants Since the ects ofthe ether planete wo incines to the ecipsic RedShin ; Equatorial View “EGH Display Controls jatormation Events Pancis Available from all good software outlets To order, call (071) 488 3029 £79 Available on CD-ROM for MARIS Maris Multimedia ll Street, London E1 BAX Tt Exploring the MacRainForest Education software house Sher- ston, well known for its Acorn education programs, has released its first Mac titles. Crystal Rain Forest won the Gold British Edu- cational Technology Award for the best piece of primary soft- ware. You travel to the planet Oglo, where the inhabitants have serious eco problems. I’m not sure why Sherston had to look so far afield, but children between the ages of 8 and 11 must save the rain forest by completing a number of LOGO related tasks — maths and a touch of green poli- tics for the sum of £47. Animated Numbers is aimed at the younger age range of 3 to 6 years and helps them with their first number work. After using this program, the child may begin to grasp the concept of £27, the cost of this program. For more details contact Sher- ston Software on 0666 840433. mel UCU re Earls Court 2 Entertainment Show et out your diary and make sure you are free between Wednesday 26 and Sunday 30 October for the Future Entertainment Show ‘94 hosted by Future Publishing, the company behind MacForMat. Games and interactive entertainment for all platforms will be on show, with computer specific demonstrations and workshops hosted by some of Future’s own editors. You can also enjoy the demonstrations for the home office and education sectors, along with a whole village dedicated to MIDI and desktop music. Once you have seen something that takes your fancy, there are plenty of opportunities to buy from eager dealers. You can buy tickets on the door for £7, but if you book in advance you can get £1 off — and what's more, all visitors purchasing a ticket before Sunday 31 July via the Show Hotline will be eligible to enter the Silica Early Bird competition. Just answer a simple question, and the first five correct entries drawn on Monday 1 August will be sent a £100 voucher with their ticket! The question: ‘In which city is this magazine written?’ To order your ticket and enter this free compo, phone the Future Enter- tainment Show Hotline on 0369 4235. National Games Championship Future Zone, the specialist computer and video games store, is sponsoring the National Games Championship in association with the Future Enter- tainment Show ’94. The Championship is open to all games players in Britain and will start on Monday 1 August, with the preliminary rounds being staged at Future Zone’s national chain of high street stores. The two games selected for the championship are Virtua Racing on the Sega Mega Drive and Super Metroid on the SNES (something to do with the wonderful Austin Metro?). Each player will pay a 50p entry fee, which will go to the charity Baby Life Support Systems. Future Zone will then hold a September Road Show to stage four regional semi-finals, consisting of the best six players from each region. Winners each receive a Philips CDi sys- tem, while the five runners-up will receive a £50 store voucher. All semi- = is Professor Roberts’ laboratory. It seems that the solutions to the world’s (or in this case, other planets’) eco-crises could lie in labs like this... All a matter of solving some maths questions, apparently. finalists also receive a free annual subscription to their favourite Future Publishing magazine. The final will be held on Saturday 29 October at the Future Entertain- ment Show, with the winner receiving a high-spec PC, five CD-ROMs and a trophy. The runner-up will receive lots of goodies from Future Zone Stores. To find out where your nearest store is, phone 0891 332288 (calls are charged at 39p a minute cheap rate, 49p all other times). The simple pleasures... So you’ve customised your Mac and personalised your workspace, but is your mouse-mat letting you down? The Data Business, based in Oxford, has the solution with its range of fun mouse-mats. The Mat Label range are made from top quality material and have a hard etched PVC top for good traction, with a variety of entertaining designs, from a pig, a frog or an owl to an apple (well, naturally), a spilled coffee cup, a female torso or (for the sake of equal opportunity) a male Chippen- dale torso. Since no self-respecting, fun-loving mouse should be without one, MAcrormat has no less than 20 Mat Label mats to give away, generously donated by the nice people at The Data Busi- ness. To win one, just tell = us how many buttons a normal Mac mouse has. Send your answer, along with your name and address on a postcard or the outside of a stuck-down envelope to ‘Mat Label’, MACFORMAT, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BAI 2BW. The first 20 cards pulled out of the box will each receive a mat, but if you don’t win one you can buy Mat Label mouse-mats from retailers for £8.20. For more details contact The Data Business Limited on 0865 842224. Solomon mines for data If your hard disk dies, you can usual- ly kiss goodbye to your data. Or you can try Dr Solomon’s Data Recovery Service, which aims to recover lost data from floppy, hard and optical disks as well as CD-ROMs within 48 hours. If it can’t do the job within that time, it will reduce your fee by 20% — and if it fails to recover your data at all, there’s no charge. Dr Solomon’s is now on 0296 318700. In emergencies, you can call the free hotline number 0800 581263. Stop thieves How can you keep your Mac safe from thieves? Well, you can always lock it in a big steel box — the Rolsafe from Security Window Shutters. By day the Rolsafe box will accommo- date your computer and monitor while you work, just like a more con- ventional computer desk. However, it has a lockable shutter that can be rolled down when you've powered down. Prices vary depending on size, but start at £810.75. Contact Security Window Shutters on 0524 33986. Stronger Persuasion Aldus is now shipping version 3 of Persuasion, the program for creating and managing slides, overheads and on-screen presentations. Persuasion 3 has a new interface, with floating toolbox and palettes, and a new charting module which offers a selec- tion of 84 chart types. There are also improved drawing tools in a floating palette, offering custom line weights, arrowheads and line endings. You can view and print greyscale repre- sentations of elements, and even edit the monochrome elements without disrupting their colour counterparts. The package costs £411.25. Regis- tered users can upgrade for £111.63. Aldus is on 081 568 8868. Even better dye-sub colour Fargo Electronics has announced the PrimeraPro, bigger brother to the Primera colour printer (rated 88% in Macrormat 13). The PrimeraPro will print in both dye-sublimation and wax thermal transfer modes, at a res- olution of either 300 x 300 or 600 x 300 dots per inch. It can output full A4-size images in 24-bit colour. It connects to your Mac via Local- Talk, and is available with optional PostScript Level 2 support for an extra £264.38. The basic cost of the printer is £1,937.58. UK distributor Bannerbridge is on 0268 419101. Astronomy is better than sex Redshift Multimedia Astronomy recently won the BIMA Gold Award in the In- formation category, beating The Joy of Sex into second place. Great news for people who prefer going out into the garden at night instead of staying in- side... For more information, contact Maris Multimedia on 071 488 1566. MACFORMAT *¢ ISSUE 15 * AuGuST 1994 16 I All Here’s the gunte t ou coming back ant Ca illh ac, and yes deedy, back again,” Formot classic award - 95%, Mac Format, Feb ‘94 _ . succeed in creating a scr " | form of interactivity, where you feel + you are part of the action.” ag 5/5, CD-ROM Magazine, ; “This is a Stunning introduction to the kind of fantastic journey that the world of CD-ROM makes possible.” The Surrealistic Adventure That Will Become Your World Haunted houses, malevolent ghouls and exploding heads. Andy Hutchinson has a sneaky peek at the follow-up to 7th Guest. rilobyte is a US software company with a knack for producing high profile, mass-consumer games. Its horror-ad- venture cum puzzle game, 7th Guest, has just clocked up its millionth sale, and so it came as no surprise to anyone when The 11th Hour was announced earlier this year. The game is set in the same haunted house as the original. You play a reporter, called Carl Denning, who’s searching for Robin, the pro- ducer of his TV show. Robin has disappeared inside a haunted house called the Stauff Man- sion. The idea of the game is to outwit the MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15 * AuGuUST 1994 18 house’s evil soul by beat- ing all its puzzles and thereby freeing Robin. As with the original game, there’s a consider- able amount of full mo- tion video in The 11th Hour; there is, in fact, 64 minutes of original footage. The screenshots on these pages are a taster of what you can expect. The footage was shot by a director called David Wheeler, the chap who was responsible for the Hollywood Babylon series. His film is a surreal cross between a celluloid creation by David ‘Twin Peaks’ Lynch and a Hammer House of Hor- © ror flick. Then there’s the mansion’s fully ren- dered rooms which contain all the puzzles. So what can you expect from The 11th Hour? Well, for starters, there are puzzles — and lots of ‘em. There are 40 treasure hunts, 13 ordinary puzzles and 6 artificially intelligent puzzles. One of the puzzles involves a broach. This consists of six jewel clusters. Each cluster possesses six facets and each facet is a different colour. The object of the puzzle is to swap and/or rotate these clusters so that wherever | | } : t two colours touch, they match. The program- mer of this particular mind-bender informs me that there are 44 million different permuta- tions, but adds that there are at least two solu- tions. So that’s all right then. The game, complete with its schlocky video sequences (certificate 15), is designed for those who don’t have the least desire to shoot any alien spacecraft out of the cosmos. Graham Devine, the founder of the company, feels that everyone should have the opportunity to play games. ‘Those people,’ he said, ‘who want hard games should stick to them. We don’t make games for that small section of the market who love to whip themselves.’ I don’t think he means S & M fans, but rather the hardcore gamers who don’t think a game’s a game unless it’s got platforms, aliens, plasma weapons and power-ups. The Trilobyte team reckon that The IIth Hour should be finished in time for the autumn. Crossword fans, lateral thinkers and demi-gods should love it. Personally, I’m going to wait until it’s out on video. Andy Hutchinson PREVIEW MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15° AUGUST 1994 19 DIRECT Personal LaserWriter 320 Colour StyleWriter Pr Apple PowerBooks ’ ae fi 464 * M » colour ility ata . ir ine Love: ? J enerev-<efficient Superior quality 360dpi ink-jet require colour capability at a Affordable PostScript Level 2 Fast, quiet and energy-efficient Model Config. Speed Screen Modem Code Printer, Provides both colour realistic price printer. 300 DPI, 4 pages per this printer is ideal for home and : and monochrome output minute RISC processing business use. PBK 520 4/160 50/25Mhz 16 Greys M259 Ideal for business, education Advanced print capabilities with PBK 52% 50/25Mh 5 \ 5 ; . a apa Code (M2788) Bk 520c 4/160 50/25Mhz 256 Colours (M1845) and home office users who Code (M3138) £530 built-in LocalTalk interface oak £599 s 5 PBK 540) 4240 6633Mhz 16 Greys Yes (M2807) PBK 540 12240 6633Mhz 16Greys Yes (M2808) exclusive offers and more... pea PBk 540c 4320 6633Mhz 32,768 Colours M2809) ©@ ORDERING BY TELEPHONE PB $40c 12320 6633Mhz 327 M2811 Call FREEFONE 0800 88 99 44 between 9am and 6pm, PBK 5#0c 12320 6633Mhz 32,768 Colours Yes (M2310) 5 days a week. Please have your credit card and order details Automatic Digital Camera for Duo 280 4200 6633Mhz 16 Greys M3110) ready. You can also place orders with our 24 hour answering Macintosh. Built-in memory stores service. Simply call 0800 88 99 44 outside normal office hours, 29 fy : Duo 280 12/200 6633Mhz 16 Greys Yes (M3111) otha Dicasbintat cximabec Ab? FO! up to 32 full-colour images. Gone Pe ! er Transfer images directly to your Duo 280c 4320 6633Mhz 42,768 Colours (M2329) «= ©PRE SALES TECHNICAL ENQUIRIES Mac. Uses Three AA lithium bat- Duo 280c 12320 6633Mhz 32.768 Colours Yes (M2332 teries. Includes built-in flash, bat- tery pack, case, power adaptor In order to provide accurate, precise and up to date information regarding the prod- ucts available from SelectDIRECT we have set up a special hotline on 0602 864654 to handle your enquiries. Once your questions have been answered by our team of specialists your call can be transferred to our order desk or you can call back on our freefone number to place your order ins Connector Kit for Macintosh £41 QuickTake for Macintosh £505 PowerPC Upgrade Low Cost Power Macintosh 601 Upgrade Card. Suitable for 68040 Macintosh Computers with (PDS) Processor Direct Shot Code (M1644) Code (M1646) @VAT & DELIVERY Ail prices exclude delivery ($4.95) and VAT. © SelectDIRECT ‘Peace of Mind’ GUARANTEE Every piece of hardware we sell comes with a 12 month guarantee and every soft- ware package has a 120 day guarantee. If your purchase is defective in any way, call us to obtain a Returns Authorisation Number. Defective software will be replaced immediately. Defective hardware will be repaired or replaced at our discretion. Full Logic Board Upgrades qualified our Apple engineers are akoa . Best Value Portable CD-ROM Unless otherwise stated all guarantees are on a return to SelectDirect basis, All soft- ware supplied by SelectDIRECT will be the latest UK available version at the time of shipment. Our guarantee is, of course, in addition to your statutory rights as a cus- plays music CDs in the car or at home, plays Kodak PhotoCDs on Simple DIY installation. Code (M2813) £625 Call SelectDIRECT Enquiries on 0602 84 for further details tomer. your TV, plays CD-ROM disks on your Mac © E&EO Please call us for latest prices and information. All tradenames, product names and trademarks are acknowledged and recognised. Q uadra 840AvV SelectDIRECT is a trading name of KRCS Group Pie. ©1994 PowerCD Business Pack . £161 ages of best barga » (H0021) A SA Bat QUADRA 840AV 8500 CD mca ‘| 8Mb RAM, 500Mb Hard Dene. bat a a 8 =<, aa : (40Mhz 68040), 66Mhz AT&T Aahorised Reseller Digital Signal Processor, Mout £161 Code (H0022) a — oe oe oe oe oe Ethernet, CD-ROM Drive = — Code (M9029) £2,9@ —) 5 : = aes wee Adobe Illustrator + Streamline 000 = a z QUADRA 840AV 16/1000 CD ie = 22] 16Mb RAM, 1Gb Hard Drive ‘ Fe (40Mhz 68040) 66Mhz AT&T ie 1 3&3 i] Digital Signal Processor, Me — | |= 53 | Ethernet, CD-ROM Drive I => S31 Code (M1838) £3, zg Recommended Retail Price £480, i | = gzl O 1 bundl ° aan Ss Our special bundle price re) | < va - a { ne © sdodeStreamine 30 Code (SADIOM) £295 —_ is Sin sil Be w 3 al | 2 © #81 2 q it BZ gi Cd He * MacTools 3.0 1 a S = 2 a | repair that’s so pe We ss advanced 1 a Q o& E3i advanced, its 2s r= 4 a ~ fflt Deluxe | 8s & a &: I Z winning Ga | © | 1 K N —— I J sion software le EO 231 : : de = = z UnderWare - ie 1 4] - 5 5 1 CT desk pictures U £ se dynamic desktop I zal Be mo fF 3 Keep your Macintosh in perfect | eo ec es | condition with these leading Ld as 1 (2) > o Q@od 25] diagnostic tools: MacTools, = 5 4 GO &Es g Snooper and Alert in one great ds i] o a v 2 VE 2 ] software bundle ca c= S Of lg es 5 3 | 8 9S ezl iS) a §s he coe su FAX 0602 866449 You Won't Buy Better Cheaper! Power Macintosh 6100 + Macintosh LCII 4/80 Standard Keyboard and Mouse — a (Price excludes monitor) Config Speed CD Windows ~ Code Price Code (M1312) £555 810 = Mhz (M21) £1,195 110 Mhz - Yes (BDI219%9) £1,699 8250 WMhz Yes (Mis7s) £1,549 16250 Mhz Yes Yes (BDLIS78) £1,995 Price excludes monitor and keyboard Amazing Power Mac Bundles r st ¢ 7100/66 8/250 CD with | Ilustrator 5.5 icp £2843 — fot (BD71ILL) £2,2 52 PowerMac 7100/66 8/250 CD with gldus PageMaker 5.0 & Freehand 4.0 ‘sir £3,505 Code caoviewr & 2,683 eee Adobe iustrator 50 Macintosh LC 475 4/80 and Mouse WPowerMac 810080 16/1Gb CD with ’ Adobe Illustrator 5.5. Cc J | Code £5,657 psill) £4,165 PowerMac 810080 16/1Gb CD with Aldus PageMaker 5.0 & Freehand 4.0 \Skr £5,722 ‘Code (posieMr) £4,586 (MISI8 Macintosh LC 475 4/80 14” Performa Plus Monitor Standard Keyboard and Mouse — | Code (BDLI | | Performa 450 4/120 (25Mhz 68030) 14" Performa Plus Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse Code (BDL3iM) £68 5 al Fre m Performa 475 4/160 (25Mhz Sagi REEHAND 681.C040) 14” Performa Plus NOEM Ay Monitor, Keyboard & Mouse Power-Hundles exclude monitor and keyboard. Offer ends July 28th 1994 Code (BDL sm £799 WordPerfect Owerful word processor with — Special Price DIP facilities. Features auto- Code (SWPOSM) itic installation of standard icintosh or NATIVE PC version £99 £119 Normal Price £99 Code (SD106M) Code (SWPOIM) Macintosh LCIII Macintosh LC 475 / peer £595 m £789 Macintosh Performa Systems Call FREEFONE 0800 88 99 44 DIRECT Macintosh LCI 4/80 14” Performa Plus Monitor Standard Keyboard and Mouse £599 Code (BDL33M y FY 66 88 0080 YO LOAAIGV29S TTPO Macintosh LC 475 8/16 £745 Macintosh LC 475 8/160 14” Performa Plus Monitor Standard Keyboard and Mouse £899 and Mouse Code (MI8I9 q 1S9q soy Code (BDLI3M ‘SUIRSIL Includes: System 7. 1p At Ease v1.0, PC Exchange v1.0, ClarisWorks v1.0 Apple Backup Utility Launcher, 12 Demo Games Plus, One year's FREE tele phone support and One year’s On-Site Warranty Home Publisher Includes: * 100 Clip Art Images ¢ 12 Extra True Type Fonts * Over 50 Auto-Create Templates * 100,000 word Spell Checker * 660,000 word Thesaurus Code (sHOoIM) £59 Revolutionary database software combines ease-of-use with high performance and enormous capacity for growth. Relates and yur data *"QJOU PUL SJOFJO IATSNOXI co-ordinates y This outstand package includes templates for acty-tO-use ging invoices expenses, customers, mailing lists and more! LETTERS Incredible but true: every letter published wins a MAcrormat T-shirt! Write to ‘Apple Talk’, MACFoRMaT, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW. trange facts of our time, number 43: Stuart the Publisher, whose grip on the purse-strings used to be legendary, has once again al- lowed us to give away an exclusive Macrormat T-shirt for every letter published this month! How much longer can we keep him too busy to do his sums? Write right now! Second-rate? Loved the article about the huge range of cheap software and share- ware available [MAcFoRMAT issue 12]. But as you noted, although basic spreadsheets and databases are available, there is a real short- age of cheap word processors out there. So it seems a bit churlish to actually point this out, but, er, why bother with any of it? I mean, with ClarisWorks bundled free with a lot of new machines, or otherwise available at a street price of under 40 quid (if you know where to look), what's the point of flogging away with a ‘text editor’ package, or a spreadsheet which doesn’t support multiple fonts or column widths? Sorry, folks, but the game’s changed, and poverty alone is no longer a good enough excuse for using (or recommending) second-rate software. Paul Mason London W10 We're the first to acknowledge the mer- its of integrated ‘Works’ packages, but even they don’t do everything. Share- ware really comes into its own when you need a specialist application, or a utility to perform some specific function, or even something with no frills that you can run without having to get a RAM upgrade first. Anybody else think shareware is just second-rate stuff? Why not? Why not have a section which would help people who are having trouble in computer games? Other readers could send in solutions. (I am stuck on level 10 of Prince of Persia —1 don’t know what to do after I have united with my mirror image. There is nowhere to go. Could you help me?) Second, why not ask readers to send in the names of the best shareware they come across, apart from what is already in Mac- FORMAT, so that you can check them out and add them to the CD? Here’s my list: Games: Quagmire, Frac, Kye, Cyclone, This issue’s News pages bring you some early details of what System 8 is likely to include. But what exactly would you like to see featured in it, when it finally arrives? Regular MACFORMAT correspondent ST Dobbs of Mar- ket Harborough in Leicestershire suggests: ® Lockable files and/or docu- ments with password protection written into the System (similar to protection over a network). ® The ability to set the print time of a document before the Dreamlight Vertice 1.0, Silly Slithers, Click Here!, Space Junkie 1.1, Star- Runner 1.2. Graphics: Studio Craft Utilities: Living Desktop, Audio Clock. Belal Ahmed Newcastle-upon-Tyne We'll be happy to include a ‘help need- ed’ column in MACFORMAT'S Game- busters section (which will return as space permits, promise!) As for favourite shareware lists: yes please! But instead of just a list, how about sending us the programs themselves, so we can add them to our cover CDs? ‘Colourist’ policy Am Ia second-class citizen? Am I the only person in the world with a black and white display who would like to be able to use the full con- tents of your cover disk but cannot because of your ‘colourist’ policy? I subscribed to MACFoRMAT because it avoided cramming its pages with products too expensive for the majority of Mac owners, yet you persist in providing demo versions of games that run in colour only. I appreciate that most of the new games available do only run on 256-colour monitors, but please do not make life any more miserable for those of us who were only able to afford a PowerBook 145b. Elizabeth Kane Leeds Anybody else? Wrong! In Macrormat in April you wrote that the demo of Firefall Arcade on the cover disk needed System 7, 2.8Mb RAM free, and a 256-colour display. Excellent, I said to myself, my trusty old LC has all the neces- sary requirements. Wrong! Please, please could you state in all re- WISH LIST Print Monitor is launched — at present you have to ‘catch’ the Print Monitor before it prints a document in order to set the print time. ® System Extensions converted into System-Mini-Applications which can be switched on or off without restarting (a big wish for most people, I would have thought, but hard to implement). Anyone else got any views about what they’d like to see in System 8 when it appears? Write to ‘Wish List’ at the above address. FA/18 was another covermounted colour-only demo, but are we neglecting mono Macs? views etc not only required pixel depth (for example 256-colours) but also the required pixel resolu- tion (in this case 640 x 480). The LC is one of the biggest selling Macs ever, so I assume that there must also be many 12-inch moni- tors around. Derek Anderson St Andrews, Fife Sorry I asked. But your point is well taken. Programmers and software houses naturally tend to want to exploit state-of-the-art systems, but inevitably many people will have more modest set- ups. We'll keep your needs in mind. Less than optimal So ‘at last HyperCard was going to get colour..., AppleScript..., and at long, long last the ability to turn stacks into stand-alone applica- tions.’ Rather than calling this ‘unique piece of software’ Hyper- Card 2.2 we could call it SuperCard. But hang on a minute, that would mean people would confuse it with THE SuperCard. You know — the HyperCard-like application with full colour support, stand-alone appli- cation creation, AppleScript, etc, and the ability to convert Hyper- Card stacks. I moved to SuperCard in 1989. At that time v1.0 had variable win- dow sizes, full Mac interface sup- port, draw tools and, of course, PrintMonitor fm MF ISLETIERS ten Alex @ Mac Format iaser; Set Print Time: @ | 15:47:33 22/ 6/94 © Postpone Indefinitety Pages To Print: 2 a status: processing job; source: EtherTalk Wouldn't it be nice to be able to set the print time when you choose Print to begin with? (Or how about an option that really does set the printing time — as in, ‘Look, if this is going to take longer than half an hour, just don’t bother.’) MACFORMAT ° ISSUE 15 * AUGUST 1994 22 | This month’s selection of keystroke shortcuts, tips and discoveries... a Rich Green of Birkenhead has discovered that there is more to the Clean Up Window option in System 7’s Special menu than he thought. If you select a view for a window from the View menu, such as View by Date, then select View by Icon again, and then hold down the [option] key _and go to the Special menu, Clean Up Window has changed to Clean Up by Date. This en- ables you to keep windows tidy by sorting them not only by Name but also by Date, Label, Kind or Size! Rich says that like most things on his Mac, he dis- covered this totally by accident. I know the feeling well... ® Guy Sansom asked in April’s Macrormat if there was any colour. It has taken HyperCard a long time to catch up. I could understand the Mac press pushing HyperCard when it was bundled free with Macs, but this hasn’t been the case for some time. A more balanced reviewing policy is called for —- you wouldn’t review QuarkXPress without refer- ring to PageMaker, for example. The HyperCard tutorials could refer to SuperCard from time to time (the languages are virtually the same anyway). Finally, the solution to the HyperCard timer-updating problem in issue 11 is to look at a watch or clock if you want to know the time. This saves you having to use HyperCard at all. Anything else is less than optimal. Peter Baker Whitehaven, Cumbria HyperCard is inevitably much more widely used, but now that it’s no longer bundled free and there's a new im- proved version of SuperCard (see News pages this issue) this could start to change. We're happy to cover Super- Card if there’s a demand (and we can Biplane may be lovely 'n’ cheap, but how can you ensure the copy you download is ‘clean’? find an expert to write about it). CRUISING THEKEYS program that could decompact the MAcForMat cover disk pro- grams singly, because he didn’t have enough hard disk space to dearchive them all in one go. David Everitt of Melton Mow- bray was the first to reply that Stuffit Lite will open the self-ex- tracting archives on MACFORMAT cover disks. But, he adds, you'll have to clear enough space on your hard disk to install it. Any- way, really full hard disks run slower. Thanks heaps, David. ®@ Ruud Boer of Leiden in Hol- land has a solution to ‘the flash- ing question-mark disaster’ (when you start up and your Mac displays a picture of a disk with a question-mark, instead of the familiar ‘smiley’ Mac). What you need to do is reset your PRAM (parameter RAM - it keeps track of the time, various Paranoid? After reading your shareware feature in MACFoRMAT 12, Iam convinced that Biplane is the spreadsheet of my dreams. But where can I get hold of it safely? If you think for one second I’m plug- ging into any network, you’re out of your mind. And how can I trust the disks from magazines? Mine is a working machine, not a toy. I feel comparatively safe loading the expensive software from big name companies, but I don’t want my Mac to get even a slight snuffle, let alone a full-blown virus. I could try ‘safer loading’, but I don’t think the disks would work too well if they’re wrapped in a condom. OK, there’s Disinfectant and other such programs, but... sorry to get paranoid, what if that is the virus carrier? It’s hardly going to point an accusing pixel at itself, is it? Martyn King Reading Viruses are nowhere near as common on the Mac as some people fear, but it is wise not to be complacent. The major virus-killing programs are updated reg- ularly to cope with new viruses as they appear, and you really can’t do better than make sure you're running an up- to-date version of one of them — obtained from a reputable source, of course. MACFoRMAT brings you new ver- sions of Disinfectant as they are re- leased, and we download them direct from the respected University of Michi- gan archive site. Our cover disks are Control Panel settings and what’s connected to the printer and modem ports). You do this by restarting while holding down [command] [option] PR all at the same time. Most of the time, Ruud says, this solves the problem. (In Systems before Sys- tem 7, you zap the PRAM by going to the Apple menu and selecting Control Panel while holding down [command] [shift] [option].) ® Ruud also asks: ‘What is the [full stop] button that I read about in your magazine?’ Small problem of translation, I’m afraid, Ruud. You might refer to it as a ‘period’ or ‘point’ or maybe ‘full point’. It’s the key next to the comma, anyway. It’s just that it might be even more confusing if we simply put [.]. (See what I mean?) subjected to rigorous virus-checking, by ourselves and our disk duplicators, and are guaranteed virus-free. (A few readers have complained that there was a virus on MACFoRMAT'S Feb- ruary cover disk, but there wasn’t. The problem was actually a batch of defec- tive disks which caused Macs to crash. If you were running the SAM virus in- Ae woh, it keeps the wolf F= Ty from the door.” a t 4 Od ¢ uss Gf : a WOLF Two more MacForMaT T-shirt winners: B Snaith of Wakefield, West Yorks (above), and James Turnbull of Edinburgh. Re- member, you could win a T-shirt if your postcard catches our eye. So when- ever you write or enter a competition, think eyecatching! > : r ta a \ a tis na epee “te : kg LETTERS | terceptor at that moment, the crash caused the program to generate a false report of a ‘Trojan Horse’ virus. So our virus-checking was OK, but our disk duplicators’ quality control wasn't. Apologies for any problems caused.) SuperDoubler From: Alan Coul, Amtech International, Christchurch, Dorset The article entitled ‘Memory Magic’ in the June edition of Mac- FORMAT caught my eye and I would like to make a couple of obser- vations about SuperDoubler: 1. With the advent of SuperDoubler, AutoDoubler and CopyDoubler are no longer available as stand-alone products. 2. DiskDoubler (not AutoDoubler) is available as a stand-alone product. In addition, your reviewer omit- ted to cover the safety aspects of file compression. In this respect the Doubler products are second to none. DiskDoubler and AutoDoubler write a temporary file to disk, veri- fy the data’s integrity and then conclude the compression opera- tion. Any marginal speed degra- dation is more than compensated for by the built-in safety features of the software. We're happy to set the record straight. How about... You asked for Mac-related ‘typing exercises’ to replace ‘the quick brown fox’. How about these? Macintosh quiz proved ex-wife Eve big killjoy. Or even: Very few judged pizza box Macintosh quickly. Philip Noble Prestwick, Ayrshire Not bad. A few too many Es though. Any other suggestions out there? Got something to say? Write to Macrormat at the address on the opposite page. MACFORMAT ¢ ISSUE 15° AuGusT 1994 23 THIS MONTH What’ Andy Storer reflects on multimedia’s mainstream Status, discovers an amazing CD-ROM title and ponders on the benefits of hindsight... et’s hope there’s some enterprising young shareware author out there reading this, because I’ve just thought of a neat commission he might like to undertake. Let’s give the little Apple Menu util- ity I have in mind a name — let’s call it Benefit of Hindsight. It’s simple really: all it asks is for you to input the cost of a Mac model you wish to buy; then it tells you just how long you'll have to wait to buy it at less than half that amount. Benefit of Hindsight would be easy to program because there’d only be one result. Six months. Ask any Centris 610, LC Ill or LC 475 owner. Then ask someone who’s bought a 660AV a year ago what they think of prices now as low as £899 for their prime purchase. You see, there’s an old adage in computing which goes something along the lines of ‘don’t put off buying tomorrow what you can make money from today’. It gets dressed up a little with references to words like ‘depreciation’, ‘return’ and ‘investment’, but basically the message is the same: buy the best you Owector 4.0 Score better one just around the corner. Luckily, these days it’s not that cut and dried any more. There’s always the upgrade path to fall back on; and in most cases this works fine since the biggest investment anyone’s likely to make is in software — and if you add the costs of that to those of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and printer that'll all work with any Mac, you're just left with replacing your logic board or adding an upgrade card. Still, when I see Quadra 660AVs on sale for £899, I begin to wonder why on earth I ever bothered buying an LC 475 for £799 in March. It’s as if I already need to upgrade to Benefit of Hindsight v2.0 — Result: 3 months, with optional day-by-day depreciation countdown on my plummetting investment. Yep, one can only be philosophical in these matters and conclude it’s just as well that Apple doesn’t manufacture cars, hi-fi and houses. Anyway, this is all a round about way of say- ing I’m selling the 475 and looking into leasing an 840AV in the next couple of months. can afford right now, be- cause there will always be a This machine just has to be a bargain, because it’s going to be ditched soon, when the Power- Mac AVs come on line. As such, it'll be discounted to around £2,000 or less, which over three years works out at around £70 a month. Now, I've just got to be able to make £70 a month back from it — and even if I don’t, it’s fully tax deductible, so what's the difference? OK, so it'll be worth sod-all in three years, but by then Benefit of Hindsight v3.0 will include ‘Smug mode’ with ‘Told you so’ overlays and ‘Jeez, Just Look At How You ReDeployed That Capital Outlay, Andy’ templates for ex- port to Excel. And I'll have bought a 150MHz PowerPC 620 logic board upgrade by then, anyhow. Benefit of Foresight, Here’s Macromedia's Director 4.0 in action as part of the score for the 3D action adventure game /ron Helix. Now that Director is available for Windows, surely we can expect more and more multimedia games for the Mac — after all, now that it’s binary compatible, conversion to Mac format is only a mouse click away. more like. Which was something dis- tinctly lacking from this year’s Multimedia Show at Earls CLD -. Fancy ditching your mouse and using your fingers instead? Or how about drawing directly on to your Mac’s screen? Well, now it's possible with TouchMate — an ingenious little unit which sits under your monitor and turns it into a touch sensitive display without the need for an overlay. But how does it work? Well now, that'd be telling, wouldn't it? Court, which came too late to get a mention in last month’s multimedia special issue. I’ve been going to this event since 1989, when Multime- dia was the big M-word which no one would use for fear of being laughed at. Now, it’s as if everyone really always believed in it all along and ‘Told You So’ overlays colour every pub conversation about computing everywhere. Mainstream multimedia It’s ironic, then, that this whole multimedia thing seems to have passed right by the UK’s premiere dedicated event. That’s because the M thing is fully mainstream now — every market research company worldwide is producing fig- ures to show that by the end of 95, 80% of all PCs shipping will include CD-ROMs and AV capabilities. So that’s why there were only 70 exhibitor stands at the show, and a glaring absence of anyone actually pushing the frontiers in this area. No sign of Apple, IBM, Microsoft or Philips. Multimedia simply doesn’t need its own show, and especially not at £10 a throw. Nuff said. But tucked away from the main event was, for me at any rate, the star of the show, Macro- media’s Director 4.0 for Windows. Now before you start thinking ‘Why is he going to talk about the dreaded W word in Macrormat?’, let me explain that this is good news for Mac own- ers. Up to a point. The reason being that the MACFORMAT * ISSUE 15 * AuGusT 1994 24 THIS MONTH launch of Director for Windows means that on the one hand the leading multimedia authoring application is now fully cross-platform, which means that applications and games designed on a PC using Director are now binary compatible. So multimedia titles developed on a PC can be easily ported to the Mac without much more effort than it takes to click a button. On the other hand, there’s a certain double- edge to this convergence. The launch of D4w also heralds the last of the great Mac applica- tions to migrate to Windows - all, that is, ex- cept for HyperCard. And while there'll always be a number of reasons why the Mac will remain the best, state of the art software will no longer be one of them. Funny really, how Apple has always been at the forefront of multimedia, yet has failed to capitalise on it. Maybe it should have licensed System 7 to the Taiwanese clone manufacturers years ago. Maybe it should have licensed Intel chips for use in Macintoshes. Maybe it should have dumped its NuBus archi- tecture and switched to a PC standard bus. Benefit of hindsight again, because at this year’s Multimedia show there was hardly a Mac in evidence. What was in abundance, though, were hordes of MPEG cards for PCs. MPEG, a digital video compression standard agreed by the multinational, multicorporate Motion Picture Experts Group, is the key to the kind of real multimedia we all want on our machines. In a nutshell, something approaching interactive television. What MPEG brings is the technology to squeeze full motion, full video sequences down to as much as a 120th of their original storage requirement. Then decompress it, and pump it back to your Mac’s screen in real time. I'm sure you don’t need me to tell you what this implies; suffice to say, I’m looking forward to Terminator 3 Interactive on my Mac in the next couple of years. One company making serious inroads into this territory is FAST, purveyor of the Movie Machine board, a video digitiser and TV tuner. FAST, on 071 221 8024, is now offering its M- JPEG option add-on board which enables users to capture full screen full motion video at 25 It may have arrived too late to make it into last month's round-up of top ten multimedia titles, but The Residents Freak Show would probably have made number one. It’s a seriously strange trip into the darker corners of post-acid psychedelia, but should nevertheless be heralded as the best Mac CD-ROM to date. frames a second direct to hard disk. Sequences are displayed in real time, and in true colour, in scalable windows. The price? - a mere £399, and that includes Adobe Premiere! Only one problem though: no Mac version is planned — the equivalent on our platform would knock you back £4,500. In this area at least, all those ‘Maybes’ above about Apple are beginning to sound like ‘If Onlys’. At least there will be MPEG boards for Macs later this year, though — Radius is readying one — but you can bet they won't come in at under £400. Still, I don’t want to give you the impression that the Mac’s being dumped - far from it. One of the best items I came across at the show was TouchMate from Ellinor on 0734 311066 - a product that’s hitherto only been available on PC. This is a force sensing platform which sits under any Mac monitor up to 21 inches in size, and enables you to drive applications simply by touching the screen with your finger. Inge- niously, you don’t need any screen overlay to achieve this, so how on earth does it work? Well, magic may be the best explanation, but Ellinor’s engineers assure me that the unit can detect extremely minor Movie Studio © //FAST Electronic GmbH variations in the pitch, yaw and roll move- ments of the monitor positioned above, so it can work out precisely where you're applying RASPUTIN.FLM Trorep pressure. If this weren’t enough, it can even be | [Dauer Datename set up to emulate a (el ] aoe en _ A OK, OK, | admit it's in German and it’s a Windows screenshot,