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The independent Dragon magazine

March 1988

Contents

Letters

Green on black

What became of the Dragon Professional?

Rights wronged P a m ' s Su rve y

where is the NEC7220? H i Score corner

Dec and Jan crossword solution.

A small hardware modiﬁcation by Paul Reid

to give the Dragon a green on black display,

Editorial

Expert's Arcade Arena 17

Pitt/end, Wizard's Quest and some advice

on maps from his Muchness the Expert.

IF th is Dragon Use r is late, th e n I 'm o n

holiday; if it's on time , then I misse d my

'plane, and if it's very, very late. then I'm in

hospital somewhere in the Alps, hopeful-

ly su ffe rin g n o th in g worse than an over-

dose of spaghetti.

But seriously, there is a degree of con-

trolled la te n e ss h e re i n a n a t t e mp t t o

avoid t h e u n co n tro lle d la te n e ss wh ic h

decended last time the staff took a week

off. Do n 't blame the Postie till March.

The Postie may be to blame for the fact

that we haven't g o t o u r Mise r's Dre a ms

yet. Roy is looking into it.

The Ca rd iff A irp o rt Dra g o n sh o w h a s

been dogged by confusion b u t if today is

earlier than 27th Feb, there's still time to

pack yo u r b a g s a n d g o . Th e e n q u irie s

number is on page 21.

Th is month we have a program to read

PC (MS/DOS) d iscs onto Dragon discs. a

report f ro m th e e th 6809 Show, a hard-

ware inverter, and all the regulars.

Even the Classiﬁ ed ads.

News

Adventure fro m Dragonf ire u p d a t e on

Dragon sh o ws t w o co mp u te r clu b s:

North East England, and Norway.

Down in the Dumps 1 8

A dump for the Seishoka GP100A.

Crystal chandaliers

Dragonsoft

Dragon comms

Ken G. Smith goes to the 6th 6809 Show,

samples the wares and the carpets.

indoor Football fro m Quickbeam, He ir of

Tyos from Simon Hargrave, Zotoka and disc

game selections, both from R & AJ Preston.

An introduction t o t h e Dra g o n 's c o m-

munications by Martin Armitage.

Winners and losers 2 2

Adventure Wail

Gordon Lee ﬁnds that some October con-

testants went to unecessary lengths.

Pete G e rra rd d isp e n se s m o r e h a n d y

adventure hints.

Pamcodes

Crossword

Total proﬁts

READ-PC

Pam D'Arcy continues with the fourth part of

her introduction to machine code.

Last month's winners, this month's contest.

Some advice o n Total Eclipse fo r space

capitalists from Julian Brown.

A p ro g ra m b y Ma rtin V e rme e r t o re a d

MS/DOS PC discs to either DragonDOS or

0 C-9 for the Dragon.

Write: ADVENTURE 2 4

Pete Gerrard turns h is back on ambition

and learns about DROPping it ALL.

Competition

The Answer

Gordon Lee takes something simple like

Gray code (what?) and challenges you to

turn it into binary (how?).

Dragon Answers

Gordon L e e ' s o w n s o lu t io n t o t h e

December competition

STOP PRESS +STOP PRESS +STOP PRESS

Communications

2 7 J u s t in case we're in time t h e Cardiff Airport

Dragon Show really is on February 27th.

You ask the ques t ions , you ans wer.

You ask the questions, we answer: I/O as in-

put, G E T in ve rt e rro r, a d d in g a R A M

extension.

Telephone number

(All departments)

437-4343

Managing Editor

PETER KANE

How to submit articles

The quality of the material we can publish in

Dragon User each month will, to a very great ex-

tent depend on the quality of the discoveries that

you can mak e wit h your Dragon. The Dragon

computer was launched on to the market with a

powerful version of Basic, but wit h very poor

documentation.

Articles which are submitted to Dragon us er

for publication should not be more than 3000

words long. All submissions should be typed.

Please leave wide margins and a double space

between each line. Programs should, whenever

possible. b e c omput er printed on plain whit e

paper and be accompanied by a tape of the

program.

We cannot guarantee to return every submit-

ted article or program, so please keep a copy. If

you want to have your program returned you must

include a stamped addressed envelope.

Publishing Director

JENNY IRELAND

Subs c ript ions

UK E14 for 12 issues

Overseas (surface) E20 for 12 issues

ISSN 0265-177. Telex: 296275

Dragon User, 12/13 Little Newport Street,

London WC2H 7PP

US address: cto Business Press International,

205 East 42nd St. New York. NY 10017

Published by Sunshine Publications 1988

Sunshine Publications 1988

Typesetting and Production by Artset Limited,

London NW1.

Printed by Headley Brothers Ltd. Ashford. Kent

Registered at the Post Ofﬁce as a newspaper.

Dragon and its logo are trademarks of

Eurohard Ltd.

Editor

HELEN ARMSTRONG

Production Editor

DRAGON EDITORIAL

Administration

CAROL FRITH

Advertisement Manager

DRAGON EDITORIAL

Marketing Manager

HELEN PERRY

L e t t e r s

T h i s

CONTRARY to popular belief.

the 1.3 version of Total Echbse

is farfrom bug-free. Those who

have got stuck with the game

can contact m e a n ytime o n

Great Mi s s e n

e n (0 2 4 0 6 )

2532. T h e ﬁ rst ze ro i s n o t

necessary when calling from

overseas. There is an answer-

ing machine at my end so just

hang on.

Julian Brown

Lavender Cottages

Salmons Lane

Prestwood

Bucks

HP16 OPY

M st ill interested i n p ro -

ducing software for the Dragon

but am unsure as to what direc-

tion t o take. A re there ma n y

more D r a g o n 3 2 / ca sse t t e

usgrs t h a n d is c u se rs? A re

there m a n y m o r e mu lt ip le

drive rather than sin g le d isc

drive users? There a re often

requests fo r mo re u se to b e

made o f t h e 6 4 ' s g re a t e r

memory, but how many 64 vs.

32 u se rs a re there? Dragon

User has never carried out the

user s u r v e y s t h a t o t h e r

magazines feature from time

to time. If readers would caret°

drop me a line detailing their

current co n ﬁ g u ra tio n s a n d

software usage/wants, not only

will it help me enormously in

my continuing support of the

Dragon, but I will summarise

the results (even if o n ly one

person replies!) for readers. It

would a lso b e o f interest t o

know how many Dragon users

who d o n o t su b scrib e t o

Dragon Userthat readers know

of.

Pam DArcy

21 Wycombe Lane

Woobum Green

High Wycombe

Bucks

HP10 OHO

Dragon User March 1988

Space

buggy

Every month we will be s helling out a game or two,

c ourtes y of our s upplies , to the r eader

who send the most interesting or

entertaining letters. So send

us y our hints and y our opinions ,

send us your hi-scores and

s ugges tions . Send us your

Where's

the chip?

IN the October 1987 edition of

DU there was an article called

Better video. This talked about

the Out of date MC6845, and

the up to date NEC7220, which

would give us better graphics

and unlimited colours.

What it didn't say was where

you can get the NEC7220 chip

from, and when you have, how

to instal it in the Dragon.

Duncan Chambers

30 Park Avenue

South Shields

Tyne and Wear

NE34 8 0 E

best Dragon stories. What

d'y ou think we are,

mind readers?!

Professional advice

THROUGH the pages of DU, I know that quite a few of you are in-

terested in the Dragon Professional computer. Well, quite recent-

ly, I wrote to GEC to ﬁnd out more about the Professional, and here

is a reproduction of the letter they wrote back

Dear Mr. Linsley,

'Thank you for your letter regarding Dragon computers.'

'Unfortunately, we cannot help you with any information of the

Dragon Professional, as we have only distributed the Dragon 32

and 64 models. We have not heard of the Professional version,

and therefore we can only suggest that you contact Dragon User

to investigate whether any of its readers have encountered this

model. We can only assume that the model may have been made

in small numbers as an unmarket prototype just before Dragon

Data ceased trading.'

'I am sorry we cannot be of more assistance in this matter:

'Yours sincerely. S. McManua, Service Technical Department:

Well, GE C weren't very helpful, but how come GEC haven't

heard of the Professional, when a few years back DU printed a pic-

ture of the Professional which had the GEC logo on the top of the

machine?

David Linsley, 12 Glenn Ban: South Pelaw,

Chester le Street, Co. Durham DH2 2JN

Write

to Pam

Routine

righted

THANK you f o r p rin tin g m y

letter a n d p ro g ra m i n t h e

January 1988 issu e (Ra n g e

right routine). However, during

the p rin tin g p ro ce ss s o m e

errors have been introduced.

An a p o stro p h e i s mi s s i n g

before RIGHT in line 100. Line

160 sh o u ld re a d I F P ( –L

THEN T h e variable is PASS

in line 210. An open bracket is

missing after MIDS in line 230.

Line 2 6 0 sh o u ld r e a d I F

PASS< =MS THE N B $ = B $ +

STRINGS.„In line 270 the word

should of course be STRINGS

and the GOTO 280 should in

fact be a GOTO 220. Well, that's

ALL tru e , a ll true. B y th e same token o n e mig h t wonder: if

Dragon Use r p u b lish e d th a t p ictu re , h o w co me they d o n 't

kn o w about the Dragon Professional? But we don't. We have

tried to get in fo rma tio n before. I think that GEC are right, and

that so me b o d y wo rke d o n th e Professional sh o rt ly before

Dragon Data packed up. If someone had not told me. two years

ago, t h a t t h e y h a d se e n a Pro fe ssio n a l ru n n in g , I wo u ld

suspect the picture was of an advance prototype, ie a mo ck-

up. It may have been so. It looks as though somebody at GEC

did lo o k into this, but once a project has been shelved and a

few staff changes have taken place. it is almost imp o ssib le to

ﬁnd people who know what happened.

One thing is certain: there is no Dragon Professional on the

market. But many thanks to Mr. Linsley for his effort.

the lot. How is it that so many

mistakes can appear in such a

small program? Oh yes! One

ﬁnal t h in g p e r h a p s y o u

could h a v e a p p e n d e d m y

name if not for self satisfaction

then s o th a t readers wo u ld

know who to complain to.

Happy New Year.

Nigel Mason

31 Sidaway Close

Rowley Regis

Watley,

W. Midlands 865 9SJ

MISSING ) s and ( s u su a lly

mean so me b o d y l o s t t h e

ori§inal le tte r before p ro o f -

reading s t a g e . M i s s i n g

names tend to co n ﬁ rm t h is

deduction. The fact that we

can't ﬁnd the letter just about

su ms it up. — Sherlock Sub.

THERE a re ma n y re a so n s

why Dragon User has not run

a s u rv e y i n re c e n t ye a rs,

most of th e m to do with the

only s o u r c e o f e d i t o r i a l

co p ywritin g ru sh e d o f f h e r

feet, but some to do with the

ofﬁce a d min ist ra t o r b e in g

rushed off her feet. Plus the

fact that we get lots of opin-

ionated le t t e rs (ke e p t h e m

coming). But since Pam has

not o n ly suggested one but

offered t o

a d min i-

strate it — we su g g e st yo u

write to Pam and tell her your

thoughts. S h e is a p rima ry

source of Dragon software.

I have seen th e Hig h Sco re

corner in two issues of DU, so

here are some of mine:

Shaolin Master — 100,200

Chuckie Egg — 193,040 —

level 19

Speed Racer — 10 rules,

86.720

Shocktrooper — 52,250

I've been reading DU fo r two

years, keep up the good work.

Nick Cutts

88 Hale Lane

Mill Hill, London NW7 3RT

UH oh. We just opened the

can of worms again

I w a s re a d in g Se p te mb e r's

high scores fo r Chuckle Egg

and none of them are as high

as t h e s c o r e m y b ro t h e r

reached a couple of years ago.

I d o n 't re me mb e r t h e e xa ct

score. but it was just short of

750,000 on I think level 40.

Jeff Brook

46 Camroyd Street,

Dewsbury

West Yorks WF13 1PE

Hi-score corner again

I a m fe d u p with lo o kin g a t

those pathetic high scores for

Chuckle Egg, I a m the cham-

pion, and that is ﬁnal, I enclose

a photograph o f m y second

highest score of 919,470. I once

topped my million, but had no

ﬁlm in my camera at the time.

I am a 39 year old mother of a

Dragon user who has now con-

ﬁscated Chuckle Egg from me,

so that I have more time fo r

cooking, cleaning etc.

Mrs. Sheila Stubbs (Basso)

Hill Cottage

30 Oakley Lane

Wimborne

Dorset

BH21 3AB

Don't l e t the m turn Ba s s o

back into Brass°. Buy the kid

a cookbook a nd yourself a

copy o f Total Eclip se . A n d

now, for the entertainment of

champions everywhere

I think I can claim to be Chuckle

Egg master! I have had many

times well over a million points

— my record being just under

1.400.000 (level 79). As anyone

else who may have got this far

will know, this score is,really

irrelevant as I could easily beat

it if I had enough time. After

level 32, the game loops back

to wh a t wa s called le ve l 2 5

(only it is now level 33). So it is

possible to play for hours. My

longest game lasted about 2)

hours.But boredom takes over

after the ﬁrst couple of hours!

Andrew Lamb

2 Mars ham Road

Hazel Grove

Stockport

Cheshire SK7 5J8

PS Are there any 6809 shows

planned f o r a ro u n d M a n -

chester in the future?

THE last 6809 Show we heard

of is being arranged in Car-

diff for April 1988,

NEW H I G H - S C O R E O N

CHUCKIE E G G ! 2 .2 1 6 ,3 6 0

LEVEL 119 9TH AUGUST 1987

BY M A R K A N D J A S O N

HENEGAN G A ME LASTING

ABOUT 2.45 HOURS..

THIS has been a public ser-

vice announcement

FOR fear of strangulation from

Ms, McCullough (September

letters) I put forward my claim

for the highest score ever on

Chuckle E g g . I s c o r e d

4,081,790 on 24.10.84 and have

rarely p la ye d i t s i n c e ( n o

wonder). A f t e r le ve l 99, t h e

numbers change to eggs and

various o t h e r p a rt s o f t h e

graphics of the game. I reckon

I reached around level 232.

Even though fo lk ma y n o t

believe me, this was deﬁnitely

not poke aided and was on my

trusty o l d Dra g o n 3 2 . T h e

game st o p s g e ttin g h a rd e r

afte r about level 32 and stays at

the same speed for inﬁnity. so I

could have scored an awful lot

more, but after 8 hours almost

continuous play I simp ly got

fed u p a n d we n t t o b e d ! I f

anyone has beaten this score

I'd very much like to see it.

N J MacArthur

Middlteon PO

Isle of Tiree

Argyll

Scotland

PA77 6XH

Noblesse oblige

•

I wa s ve ry humoured a t th e

high scores people send into

high score corner. Paul's sister

will h a v e t o st ra n g le m e

because I got 6,750,000 and I

had to kill all my lives because

it wa s getting late, t h e level

numbers changed into funny

shapes a n d everything went

really faster. The levels which

got really hard were level 7 and

level 8.

Lee Kalyan

19 Ampthill Road

Bedford

MK42 9JP

DOES this mean there's even

less to do in Bedford of an

evening tha n i n the Isle of

Tiree? Perhaps you ne e d a

foreign break. But

TO end all speculations about

the highest score on Chuckle

Egg: I d o h a v e i t ! I t ' s

15,094,650II T h i s s e e m s

unbelievable, but is easy to ex-

plain: from about 450,000 the

speed of the ducks stays cons-

tant. so you only have to train to

get more bonus-men than you

lose. I h a d enough after 3 2

hours, a n d in te rru p te d t h e

game in level 819.

With b e s t wis h e s t o a l l

British Dragon users.

Andreas Verweyen

Rathenaustr 9

0-8520 Erlangen

West Germany

WHAT we ne e d is a totally

new approach to this game...

REFERENCE hi score corner,

you lot make me so envious

with your multi-000s scores.

I h a ve never g o t past th e

level which has three ladders

at the top of the screen, each

with an egg at the top.

How do you get the two eggs

at the left hand ladders?

Anybody help me to get on

and b e a t t h o s e m a s s i v e

scores!

H. Jones

54 Albion Street

Castleton

Rochdale

Lancs

0 0 1 2UL

No, No,H, !think you havethe

germ of a new concept here!

All it needs now is somebody

to work out a way of playing

Chuckie Egg for 40 hours at

a s tr e tc h w i thout ge tti ng

beyond level one.

March 1988 Dragon User 3

We haven't printed the solutions to the

Dragon crosswords yet, so here

2 U T

0••

N D

LII Fl

10 5

13 G H O I S I T R

The Dec ember 1987 crossword solution.

I I

0 0

I -

Y A

001

The January 1988 crossword solution.

EIMUINI12

IRF

MBA

NEU

News desk

If you have any new products for the Dragon — software or hardware —

ring the News Desk on 01-4374343

New adventure 6 8 0 9 show

from Dragonﬁre Dates mixed up

DRAGONFIRE Services have

announced th e ir ﬁ rst adven-

ture f o r t h e Dra g o n , P y r -

adventure. Peradventure yo u

were to enter the lost tomb of

King Tutankhamun's fa th e r,

you mig h t ﬁ n d t h e a n cie n t

Amenophis i l l ' s g o ld d e a t h

mask a n d h i s f a b u l o u s

treasures. B u t will you co me

forth alive?

Pyradvenuture features real

speech, freeze and save game

facilities. " A real humdinger"

say Dragonﬁre. The price is E.3,

plus 50p post and packing in

the UK, £1.25 post and packing

overseas. Overseas payment

in p o u n d s ste rlin g b y in te r-

national money order, please.

Dragonﬁre h a v e s e v e ra l

other titles in the pipeline, in-

cluding Decathlon. Mazerace

and Spellbox, Dragon Mu sic

(series) a n d Un d e rlin g s o f

Croth• Send an SAE for a full

price list. Dragonf ire are also

interested in looking a t soft-

ware f o r p ro sp e ctive p u b li-

cation.

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Jo h n

and Helen Penn apologise for

getting the dates muddled on

their Show ad. in last month's

issue, a n d plead a local 'ﬂ u

epidemic and Benylin extract in

mitigation.

The REAL dates of the up-

coming sh o ws a re Saturday

30th April at Ossett Town Hall,

one o f t h e Dra g o n wo rld ' s

favourite venues. and Saturday

27th FE B RUA RY a t Ca rd if f

Wales Airport. For further infor-

mation, contact John Penn Soft-

ware on (04203) 5970.

WP waits for words

F Sibthorpe of Surrey has pro-

duced a new word processor to

meet h is requirements, a n d

would lik e t o kn o w i t o th e r

readers a re interested in h is

program.

The v i t a l c ri t e ri a a r e a

64-character WY S I WI NY NG

(what you see is nearly what you

get) h i re s screen display, all

necessary instructions for use

displayed on the screen during

run time, easy to use facilities for

redeﬁning printer codes for any

connected printer and amend

the dispslay of printer codes for

easy comprehension, as well as

user d e ﬁ n a b le a u to -re p e a t

keys, user deﬁnable line end

bell, auto word wrap, alterable

line feed pitch, load/save to disc,

on s c re e n re p o sitio n in g o f

blocks or windows, display with

or without feint lines on screen,

and, wit h t h e Epson FX100

printer, 32 font styles and sizes,

fully mixable.

Anybody wa n t in g f u rt h e r

details ca n contact Mr. S ib -

thorpe at High Gren, The Drive,

Belmont. Surrey SM2 7DH, It is

not clear whether or not he is of-

fering the package for sale

we get the impression that he is

waiting to see if there is any

interest.

North East

User's club

THE North East Dragon Users

Club h a s 1 4 me mb e rs a n d

meets every Wednesday at 8pm

in th e Etterick lounge o f th e

Grindon Mill. Chester Road,

Sunderland. Anyone who is in-

terested is invited to go along, or

contact t h e organiser, Ch ris

Jobson, 23, Walsingham, Bid-

dick Village, Washington. Tyne

and Wear NE38 7H F.

Club in Norway

The Dragon Computerklubb of

Norway has written to say that

they will send a copy of their 24

page monthly magazine (AS,

duplicated b o t h s i d e s , i n

No rwe ig a n ) D K C -N e w s t o

anybody w h o e n q u i r e s .

Dragon Co mp u te rklu b b h a s

been running for three years.

and can organise orders of soft-

ware from England for Scan-

dinavian members. Enquiries to

Ola Eldoy. Stokken, N-5410

Sagvag, Norway.

68 Microcosm this month

THE December 1987 issue of 68

Microcosm. the journal of the 68

micro group, includes 0S988K

on the Atari ST, the Transputer,

a Flex disc formatter program,

an introduction to the Data Pro-

tection Act, pick of topics from

Tom Goodfellow's Mola bulletin

board, small ads, lots of letters

and the offer of a Cardﬁle pro-

gram. Also a review of the 6th

6809 Colour Show. According to

the membership sec., the last

4 Dragon User March 1988

address DU printed was entire-

lywrong. What he means is that

there was a typesetting mistake

in the silly word in the middle, As

this is no more ambiguous than

the average person's handwrit-

ing. I imagine enquiries will still

reach their destination. The en-

tirely rig h t address is Mr. K .

Barnes, 174 Glen-Albyn Road.

Wimbledon, L o n d o n S W1 9

SHG.

WOUL D a n yo n e w h o p u r-

chased a copy of Computa —

Text from Dragonﬁ re Services at

the 6 8 0 9 Co lo u r S h o w i n

De ce mb e r p le a s e c o n t a c t

Dragonﬁ re a t t h e a d d re ss

Text call

below, sending their names and

addresses, as the instructions

are now ready.

Dragonﬁre Services, 13 Parry

Jones Close, B la in e G we n t

NP3 3N H.

In the land of the

crystal chandaliers

Ken G. Smith returns from the 6th 6809 Show with his impressions

WHEN I saw there was going to be another

6809 Show in London. I didn't believe it.

When I got to the Connaught Rooms, I

believed it even less. Crystal chandeliers?

CARPETS?? And casual seating — this

was some venue for a Dragon Show. The

Grand Hall seemed much larger than the

Old Horticultural Hall. The exhibitors, who

obviously felt safer with their backs to the

wall, we re spread around the perimeter.

The new venue made this a very comfor-

table sh o w t o attend. T h e attendance

ﬁgures seemed to me to be more in the

hundreds than thousands and the size of

the hall seemed to emphasize this.

The Dragon market is now so small that

.4 is a pleasant surprise when new software

is released. Well, just to prove that they can

still su rp rise us, t wo suppliers chose to

unveil new games at the show. The ﬁrst of

these, Ouickbeam, put on their

with s a l

- u allutheir current range w sale plus the

s h o on

new o n e , I n d o o r Fo o tb a ll. T r u l y a

fascinating program with crowd noise and

action replays, it is almost as much fun to

watch as it is to play and it kept the younger

show goers amused for hours. The second

came f ro m Pamcomms. No t previously

noted for her games, Pam D'Arcy has come

up with a real winner for her ﬁrst try. Called

Grand Prix, it is a split screen moter race

game featuring se ve ra l different tra cks

and the abilityto race against thecomputer

or another player. Available o n d isc o r

cassette, it provides real competition for

Speed Racer, 'Well done, Pam' is all I can

say.

has it . H e i s a ls o d istrib u tin g Da v id

Maken's excellent Picture Maker. Da vid

was at the show demonstrating his wares

and I m u s t s a y t h e re s u lt s w e r e

remarkable.

it is well worth

it to meet old

friends, make new

ones, and talk about

the machine to

which we are all

committed,

Bus Extension

Harry Wh it e h o u se , w h o y o u w i l l

remember used to trade as Peaksoft, was

there with h is usual supply of joysticks,

those wonderful power supplies and some

new keyboards. This time Harry, who joint-

ly promoted the show with John Penn, was

also offering his 'New Era' RS232 Interface

which seems to be bringing a lot of Dragon

32 users on line. Offering a rom socket and

a bus extention, is can be used in conjunc-

tion with a disc drive. However, it must be

said, you will end up with a rather long car-

tridge. Although he is one of the few that

will have to be told when to stop producing

goodies for us. Ha rry is getting involved

with o t h e r machines a n d was, i n fact,

knocking out Speckies at forty ﬁve pounds

each.

A newcomer to our shows, Bill McGowan

demonstrated how to use his Printer Con-

trol as a desk top publishing system. Also

on show were the results of Bill's Colour-

print program which converts the four col-

ours of P mode 3 into different densities of

print. The end result is a black and white

picture o f amazing quality. McGowan's

software has reached the stage where it

outstrips anything of a similar nature and

the best advice you can give to anyone who

has just bought a printer is 'Chat to Bill

McGowan'. Bob Harris. who also markets

McGowan software, wa s demonstrating

his own KLIK utility. This gives the humble

Dragon 64 something of the environment

of the Apple Macintosh and runs u n d e r

BASIC42 operating system. Bob's is one of

theefew software houses that is actually in-

"Stirring" Smith

creasing their range of Dragon products.

They even offer an upgrade service where

Now, to stir things up bit. I have decided

for thirty ﬁve pounds they will boost your

to make the following nominations for an

old 32 to a full 6 4 K making it capable of

imaginery show award called the Golden

running BASIC42, FLEX and 0S9_

Digit. 1 . B e s t n e w h a rd wa re . H a r r y

H C Andersen's a rriva l p ro ve d th a t

Whitehouse f o r h i s ' N e w E r a

stories o f h is fa iry tale exsistence were

RS232/Modem driver.

nothing more than a Grimm rumour. The

2. Best new software. I have to share this

big blonde Dane was knocking out games

one between Pa mco mms for Grand Prix

at a pound each and OS-9 at under eighty

and Ciuickbeam for Indoor Football.

pounds, complete with both manuals. He

3_ Best show idea. Dragon's Roar for their

certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. I

live Micronet link up.

only h o p e h e f o u n d i t a re wa rd in g

4. B e st bargain. National Dragon Us e r

experience.

Group for their thirty ﬁve pound Mo d e m

With mountains of suplus software slow-

package.

ly shrinking away John Penn has shifted

5. Ma n t Wo ma n o f t h e s h o w. H a n s

his emphasis away from selling off surplus

Andersen for his enthusiasm and the effort

stock a t d isco u n t p rice s a n d i s n o w

he put in just to get there_

distributing mo re cu rre n t software. F o r

6. Wooden Raspberry. Compusense fo r

those of you who like me were wondering

being the only people offering less than

what has happend to the ﬁnal bug free ver-

ever. Will they even turn up when they have

sion of Total Eclipse I can tell you that John

sold all their 'Plus' boards?

March 1988 Dragon User 5

All t h e u su a l u s e r g ro u p s attended

plus one new one dedicated to Delta Dos

users_ (DUDE). They had one of the new

Tandy 1 2 8 K C o C o s w i t h e n h a n ce d

graphics o n show. Ru mo u rs we re rif e

about this machine, mainly as to whether

production was on or off_ The performance

looked quite good b u t whether it could

stand against competition from the likes of

Atari is another matter. DUDE were up on

the balcony a lo n g wit h th e b o ys f ro m

'Dragon's Roar' magazine. Their supply of

free copies soon ran out and Simon Jones

was taking orders. I have now received my

copy and have to say that it is very profes-

sionally presented and caters for a wide

variety of readers. Also up on the balcony,

I had a very interesting chat to Ted Bac-

carelli o f 68 Microcosom. I f a n y o f you

wants to run hard discs on a Dragon then

Ted is your man. He can probably even

supply the parts.

Well, as usual. I enjoyed my time at this

year's London show. However, the falling

attendances make me wonder how much

longer such an event can continue in its

present form. As long as it does, I, for one,

will gladly pay for my ticket. It is worth it to

meet old friends, make new ones and talk

about the machine to which we are ail com-

mitted (o r f o r wh ich w e should a ll b e

committed.)

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