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ISSUE 3 •
SEPTEMBER 1988 • C2-50
(
nuRMAT
The c o m p l e t e p a c k a g e for Atari S T and C o m m o d o r e A m i g a o w n e r s
PP
•
• 'fOk
goof
a
How the ST
and Amiga are
tooling up for the future
PERFECT
PROGRAMMING
Whirligig heads the month's
best games
• 1,TARI'S CD
Definitive review of the Big Disk
• DELUXE PHOTOLAB
The best ever Amiga paint program?
•
! C
MA$ 'ERS
N e w versions of C, Pascal
and BASIC to motivate
your micro •
Get more from your synthesizer
with sound editors
• HINTS, TIPS 81 TRICKS
What the manuals tried to hide!
ST A M I G A
F O R M AT
ISSUE 3
SEPTEMBER 1988
PUBLISHED BY
FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD
4 QUEEN STREET
BATH
AVON BA1 1 EJ
Phone: 0225 446034
Fax: 0225 446019
T h e c o m p l e t e p a c k a g e for Atari ST and C o m m o d o r e A m i g a owners
CO-EDITORS
Ben Taylor
Somon Williams
TECHNICAL
EDITOR
Richard Monteiro
GAMES REVIEWS
Andy Storer
DISK
C O - O R D I N AT O R
Jason Holborn
ART EDITOR
Gordon Druce
ADDITIONAL
DESIGN
Dean Wrison
Angela Neal
ADVERTISING
MANAGER
Nora Lawton
NEWS
Price cuts on the ST lead in the Christmas push
lalreade2). plus reports of hot new products
from Ami-Expo '88 and the British Music Fair.
GOLD DUST
88
89
94
98
GAMES
Steve Gold goes on-line for Format readers
again with news of the 68030 ST, Deluxe Paint
on the Amiga, and all the glitzlest gossip.
OFFERS
P I : 41 S P E C I A L
More under the counter deals from the Format
corner shop. Save pounds by shopping from
these pages.
LETTERS
061-474 7333
PUBLISHER
Chris Anderson
SUBSCRIPTIONS'
MAIL ORDER
Future Publishing Ltd,
The Old Barn. Somerton
Somerset TA1 1 7PY
0458 74011
PHOTOGRAPHY
Ashton James,4 Saw
Close. Bath
PRINTERS
Chase Web Offset
R O B O T S
Widely used in
industry, and now
under control of your
friendly ST and
Amiga, robots are not
quite what they're
made out to be in the
movies_
The agony and the ecstasy of fife with a
computer. Your questions answered and your
moans soothed by the Format team.
ESC
ESCAPE
SEQUENCE
The rear end of the month, in more ways than
one. All the news that wasn't fit to print printed
to fit, and, of course, Superheroes.
PD
71
Plymouth
DISTRIBUTORS
SM Distnbution. 6
Find out what you can do with your ST without
spending a bomb. The best public domain
software named.
PLAE
SCRY EN
4 5
Leigham Court Rd.
Streatham sw16 2PG
,s'D Future Publishing
Ltd 1988
ST/Amiga Format is an
independent publication
and has no links
whatsoever with Alan or
Commodore.
We welcome unsolicited
contributions from
readers. Please enclose
an SAE with material if
you want it returned
Payment for accepted
items is made 4 weeks
after publication,
No part of this magazine
may be reproduced in
any form without
permission.
DISK EXTRA
Test the best! Space racer Powerdome (ST) and
word warrior Kind Words (Amiga) head up this
month's disk, plus a plethora of programs from the
people who really count - you!
The games are really flooding
in this month: Format Golds go
to Space Harrier and Whirligig,
plus first look at Mirrorsoft's
new lmageworks label - Sky
Chase on the Amiga.
GAME
BUSTERS
7 4
You thought Amiga games
couldn't be poked? Wrong!!
Ingenuous ingenuity on
Stargtider, plus tons of tips for
Hight Sim Il, Leathernecks,
Xenon and loads more.
2 • FORMAT
.1111.01t It AND
P L AY
M A S T E R
OF
LIGHT
Nigel Browniohn -
celebrated creator
of the graphics on
Metrocross and
Verminator -
explains how he
Puts his
masterpieces
together,
REVIEWS
ATARI
CD
R O M
i
3
Benchtest of the long-awaited CD ROM drive
from Atari.
P A N G U A G E SI N G
L R O G R A M M
,
4 7
I
Now that we've reached the grand
old age of three (months, that is),
we're getting a good mixed bag of
post e a c h morning. O f a l l t h e
suggestions f o r improving t h e
magazine, the two most common are
la) drop all the boring business and
programming stuff and just cover the
games, o r (b) drop all the kiddy
games stuff a n d just cover t h e
business and programming.
In a way, we half expected this.
After all, the ST and the Amiga are
the f i r s t t r u e all-round h o m e
computers: they've both got brilliant
graphics a n d stunning sound f o r
games, a n d they've g o t massive
memories and high quality screens
for the most demanding of business
applications. There will always b e
people w h o d o n ' t realise h o w
powerful t h e other h a l f o f t h e
machine they own really is.
In the old days, you might have
had an IBM PC to work on, alongside
a Speccy for a 'quick zap when you
felt the need for light relief. Now one
machine does the lot.
The v a s t m a j o r i t y o f
correspondents a r e delighted with
the mix of serious and entertainment
software i n Format. People w h o
bought their ST or Amiga purely to
play games on are discovering how
to t a p its underlying power, a n d
people w h o bought o n e a s a
specialist workstation - graphics,
music or business - are discovering
the joy of playing the best games
written b y t o p programmers t h e
world over.
We've got a suggestion to solve
the arms race in one fell swoop It's
simple really: give all leaders of the
world governments an ST and Amiga
each, a n d they'll b e s o b u s y
swapping t i p s o n t h e i r n e w
discoveries they'll be too busy to do
any h a r m . Brilliant! W h y hasn't
anybody thought of that before?
What do you need to get the ultimate speed
from your micro? We check out new versions of
Lattice C, Pascal 2 and GFA BASIC.
MUSIC
S O U N D
SHAPERS
28
Have synth will compose - but a little help doesn't
go amiss, Chris Jenkins goes into the world of
patch editors and how they link to a synthesizer.
TECHNOPHILE
LEARN
BASIC
7
6
Part 2 of our teach-yourself series covers loops
and conditions. Get stuck into Amiga BASIC or
ST Power BASIC from last month's cover disk.
DELL,
PHOT
26
32
60
-rEctolEs'
•
CORNER
79
83
8
6
Electronic Arts' answer to Photon Paint - could
this be the best Amiga art package yet? Read
our review and find out.
HOME
ACCOUNTS
Kuma's K-Gadget, Hisoft's WERCS and other new
programmers' tools come under the micro-
scope, plus a selection of new books for
assembler, C and BASIC fans.
DESKTOP
Digita's new ST package promises to save you
its asking price - can it deliver?
TRIP-A-TRON
Turn your computer inside out with these two
pages devoted to helping ST owners.
W O R K B E N C H
Jeff Minter comes up with his long-promised
'light synthesizer' for the ST. Give your mind a
psychedelic experience it'll never forget.
A pot pourri of tips and tricks to squeeze the
most out of your Amiga,
FORMAT
3
AL
ATARI
THE LEADING NORTH WEST
SPECIALIST ATARI DEALER
lOMPUTING
eADBROKE
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
33 Omsk irk Road,
Preston, Lancs. PRI 2QP.
Tel: (0772) 21474 (1 line)
1177..2) 203166(5 lines)
BultBoard (0772) 27236
DEALER
ENQUIRIES
WELCOME
H A R D WA R E
ISINESS SYSTEMS
SOFTWARE
SPELL AND ADD W I T H OSCAR 1 2 . 9 9
EACH
Spell IcaLto-,s Keyboalu : , p , a o n g and motor cots dind
11034
MEGA ST 2
11379.99
MEGA ST 4
DIP SYSTEM 1 12874.99
DTP SYSTEM 2 13449.99
1689.99
PC2 SD
11092.49
PC2 H D
1747_49
PC3 D D
s20 STEM's Summer- Pack
S20 S I 1 M
M g intiznai
drive+ joystick over /400
of latest release software
/399
for only
/480
1040 STE%
While stocks last.
External Modulators for
e 1040 STF's / 5 4 . 9 9
124 Mono mon 1139
1224 colour 1 3 7 5
alips 8883 colour
nitor 1 2 9 9
's and others p h o n e
y of above bought with a
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UMANA I M G DRIVES
tly pay a aLIASC
can supply you with a
t r i o r second drive when
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1109.
PERIPHERALS
L.iILi I L 11 t a . L
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1-7
PRINTERS
Star LCIO 1 2 2 5
Star LCIO Colour 1 2 7 5
Citizen LPIO / 1 9 9
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Epson LQ500 1 3 7 5
Star LCI0/24 P h o n e
Epson LQ800 P h o n e
Gachen 1 1 9 9
SLM804 Laser /1350
The Atari SEM 804 In-
cludes a 90 day Warranty.
All Printers Come Com-
plete With Cables ETC.
Interfaces Are Separate.
lion while Add teaches addition, subtraction,multiplication
IlrfC 1 1ST PI US b j ASTFRM A 5 - 6 99
Directory Database Compiler with customised format
and copy protect orog on same disk.
Animated Graphies 'tool for the ST. Supports GFA
and FAST Basics. Coinpatible with DEGAS
and NEOCHROME files. Full Facilities such as Draw,
Fill, Grid Copy etc. Includes FREE basic routines
,toil &int) progs
Full screen picture manipulator. Supports (WA, FAST
and ST BASICS. Compatible with DEGAS,
NEOCHROME and AB ANIMATOR. Grab all or part of a
nicture in :1resol,,*;•,-,
M AGNET1C MEDIA
5.25" I D / D 96 TPI
10+box 100+hox
100+box
10 1 0 + b o x
16.50 1 8 . 0 0 1 7 0
/140
114 / 1 5 . 5 0
High Quality VHS Video Tapes.
Each
/ 1 9 9
F o r 4 / 11 . 4 0
For 2 1 5 . 8 0
F o r 10 126.00
All Disks arc Top Quality SONY products and are covered
by an unconditional lifetime guarantee_
We also stock a full-range of quality P/D ST Software at
13.99 per Disk(discounis for Software clot) members).
Send SA F f o r eatalopue
Atari1 1 3 LI 911111
7 5 - -
20mg / 5
Supra 2 0 m g 1 5 7 5
Triangle 2 0 m g 1 4 9 9
Triangle 4 0 m g 1 6 9 9
UPGRADES
2.5 and 4Mg Upgrades are
available to fit the old 520
STEM boards only.
Upgrade boards 1 1 3 5
Boards + DRAM phone
I Mg S I M (fitted) 1105
1 Mg STFM (kit) / 9 0
STEM Upgrade fitting
service. 1 1 5
If any of thc above Up-
grades are purchased with
Hardware then deduct 15
from total. Prices will be
held as long as
Atari trained engineers
will repair all hardware in
inimum time at competi-
-ve rates.
DUST COVERS
/3.99
Computers
/4.99
Monitors
12.99
Disk Drives
14.99
Hard Disks
17.99
Printers
•ro Draw Tablet p h o n t
!nage Scanner / 8 9
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For an annual membership fee of just 110 we will
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and of any special offers, up to 30% reductions, in the
future.
Phone for Atm-die:Ilion form or write to address below,
/399
MI1S1 •
e stock Music Softwari
and Hardware for the Srl
including a range of AKA]
samplers and synths. Snit
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Come in for a demo of th
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T O O R D E R Simply send, or phone your order, stating full name, address, VISA or
ACCESS No's, Cheque or Money Order.
Make payable to :
LADBROKE COMPUTING INTERNATIONAL. SEND SAE FOR FULL, CATOLOGUE.
Our mail order dept. gives the same excellent service to our customers as our premises at
the above acldrcss has done for the past 8 years. All Software/Hardware has been tested
prior to delivery thus ensureing that customers receive working items and the frustration of
returning faulty goods is now a thing of the past.
This kind of quality service does cost a little more but in the long run it is far cheaper.
All prices fully inclusive of VAT, Delivery, there are NO hidden extras.WYSIWYG.
For next day delivery add 13. Prices correct at time of going to press and are subject to
change without prior notice.
PRICE WAR
LEADS AUTUMN
16-BIT PUSH
Making a song
and d a n c e
'STOS — The Games Creator is
a new BASIC-like ST program-
ming language, specifically
designed for producing graph-
ics action games with. Written
by French software house Jawx
International, the European
rights have been picked up by
Mandarin Software of glam-
orous Macclesfield.
Unusually for a games cre-
ation program, it seems that
the major programming hous-
es are very interested in using
it. In the past, companies have
scorned adventure creators
like GAC and PAW, claiming
they only produce very limited
and similar games. In this case
though, French software house
Ubi Soft have already written
their latest game Skate Bat!
with STOS, and are reportedly
very pleased.
Among STOS's reported
features are: moving up to 15
sprites o n screen a t once;
adding a n interrupt driven
music backing track; inserting
pre-defined s o u n d effects;
compressing D e g a s o r
Neochrome graphics screens;
generating pull-down menus:
and scrolling up to 16 different
scren areas independently.
The S T O S p a c k a g e
includes three sample games
written with STOS for you to
examine, an icon editor, a
sprite editor, a character set
editor, music editor and room
designer. Spreading over three
disks, it comes in at /29.95.
• Mandarin Software, Europa
House, A d l i n g t o n P a r k ,
Adlington, Macclesfield SK 10
5NP (0625 878888)
It now seems almost certain that
the price of the basic 52051 will
drop to /299 in the Autumn, re-
establishing its price differential
over the Amiga. Paul Welsh,
Atari's UK Marketing Manager,
confirmed t h a t details w e r e
being finalised o n a follow-up
promotion t o t h e successful
Summer Games pack, which
offered 1400 worth of high-quali-
ty games in the 1399 ST price.
As of September 2nd 1988,
Atari dealers will be offering two
packages: a basic 520ST a t
/299, or a bundled deal again of
ST plus around /400-worth o f
games software at /399. Welsh
commented, "We haven't tied up
all the games yet, but I expect
them to be of the same standard
as the Summer Pack, which
went very well." In other words,
they will be repackaged recent
full price releases, not budget
games.
Welsh added that Atari have
earmarked 11.2 million for TV
campaigns and advertising in the
pre-Christmas period, and h e
expects t o shift 70,000 STs,
Official Atari figures say there
are around 150,000 STs in the
UK already. but independent esti-
mates would put it at not much
higher than 100,000.
widely credited w i t h turning
round the fortunes of the compa-
ny. Commodore may well b e
hoping for a repeat of 'the Apple
effect' by pitching its high-end
A2000 r a n g e machines a t
specific vertical markets rather
than a s general all-purpose
micros. I t ' s n o secret t h a t
Commodore are putting together
a desktop publishing package
based a r o u n d t h e A m i g a ,
although as yet the components
haven't been named. A suitable
minimum configuration system
would b e a twin disk drive
A2000 running Professional
Page, maybe with a high resolu-
tion monitor, a t around 11500
excluding any printer.
• Welsh: looking to self 70,000
STs in the pre-Christmas period.
Amiga assault
Commodore are responding by
setting out their plans for a mas-
sive advertising campaign lead-
ing up to Christmas. Following
the recent price cut to /399, the
so-called 'Cheese advert' is run-
ning in the quality dailies for the
late summer extolling the virtues
of the A500. A four-week TV
campaign is earmarked for the
last two weeks in November and
first two in December_
Dean Barrett, Welsh's coun-
terpart in Commodore, was opti-
mistic about the Amiga's autumn
prospects. "I've got no control
over Atari's pricing policy, but
we're putting our biggest ever
push into this year," he said.
"Last year we only spent a mil-
lion or so, this year we'll be at
least treble that with the bulk of
the spend in the pre-Christmas
period." The theme of the TV ads
hasn't been finalised yet, but
Barrett added sardonically, 'They
won't be featuring the Chelsea
football team."
The advertising campaign
begun two years ago by Apple to
push its Macintosh as a special-
ist DIP system rather than a
general-purpose computer i s
Svi>PoSED r o e I T
euSWESC• A I D FoQ
6E-rnri4C, O v r P l e • c e '
cii / M o v o - o r I WAG
Enabling word processing
Arnor h a v e released a n
updated version o f t h e i r
Protext word processor, v3.6,
for the ST with several novel
features. One which could be
a life-saver for disabled users
is a new way o f using the
[Shift], [ C o n t r o l ] a n d
[Alternate] k e y s . Ty p i n g
[Control% can be impossible
if you don't have full use of
both hands, so now you can
press [Control] first and then
K. for example.
Other n e w f e a t u r e s
include the ability to redefine
any c h a r a c t e r ' s s c r e e n
appearance, and for the first
time you can run GEM desk-
top accessories from within
Protext. You can convert First
Word files into Protext for-
mat, retaining all the embold-
ening codes a n d s o o n .
Perhaps most useful is the
'Phrase/macro record' mode
— you can record any series
of keystrokes a n d 'replay'
them later on. Ideal for those
repetitive editing chores.
Protext costs £79.95, or
£15 i f you a r e upgrading
from a previous version.
• A r n o r, Protext House,
Wainman R d , Peterborough
PE2 OBU (0733 239011)
FORMAT
5
• The sprite designer in STOS

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