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THE QL bears little resemblance to the machine launched in January.
It now has an EPROM which contains part of the operating system sticking out of the ROM socket at the back of the computer. The code would not fit into the planned 32K so the designers had to include an extra 16K ROM. Customers who receive the first production machines will not be able to use the ROM socket until they return their machines for an on-board upgrade.
As a result of the upgrade Sinclair has been able to incorporate turtle graphics commands into SuperBASIC. The language also has been changed which means the manuals, currently at the printer, are incorrect. The hardware, too, has been altered. The battery clock will not appear on any model.
Asked whether the machine showed to journalists would be the same in six months a spokesman for Sinclair declined to comment.
The company nevertheless hopes that deliveries of the QL will soon be under control. It has promised that all dates given to customers will be fulfilled but has refused, however, to confirm the dates for deliveries.
The company has stated that it will be including an RS-232 cable in every QL order for customers who have experienced delays and whose money is in a holding account until delivery.
IMAGINE SOFTWARE has increased its prices to £5.50 again in an amazing turnround in marketing strategy. Within two weeks of reducing prices to £3.95, the company was under attack from retailers who would have lost profit. Threats were made not to stock Imagine games.
Now it appears that Imagine has bowed to the pressure and agreed that it is the dealer, and not the customer, who is always right.
Meanwhile Studio Sting, the Imagine advertising agency, has gone into liquidation. The company, in which Imagine directors Mark Butler and David Lawson held shares, was set up to cover art and promotions. Reasons for liquidation include a suggestion by the company that Imagine owes it a substantial amount of money, a claim which Imagine disputes.
The winning answers that prove to be educationalWINNERS of the Micro Master and Sinclair User Competition were A Trowbridge, Dorset; Mrs A Ledger, Birmingham; C Jackson, Liverpool; O Dunn, London; and J Penn, Yorkshire.
The correct answers to the questions were MICrocOMPuteR, siLIcoN cHIp, edUcaTIonaL SofTware, MacHine coDE, CliVe sinClair. The most popular anagram from the word SPECTRUM was CRUMPETS.
Each of the winners will receive £25 worth of educational software from Micro Master.
A NUMBER of points were made to us about 'Thinking of Algernon' in last month's issue.
The corrections to the program listings are:
75 PRINT Q$: IF N<2 THEN GO TO 125 125 LET D=M+N 100 INPUT "Press ENTER for my move"; R$
THE SUCCESS of The Hobbit adventure game for the 48K Spectrum has prompted Melbourne House to publish a book giving a solution to the game called A Guide To Playing The Hobbit.
It is divided into three sections. The first provides general strategies and tactics to be used, the second and third offer detailed solutions. A spokeswoman for the company says:
"The book provides only one solution to The Hobbit so you can play through it and solve it using that guidance. There is, of course, more than one solution so the book does not spoil the game for the player. The user will still be able to explore other ways of completing The Hobbit."
The Guide costs £3.95. More information can be obtained from Melbourne House, Richmond.
PRISM Microproducts has announced a special offer through which Spectrum owners are given a VTX 5000 modem, one year's subscription to Micronet and Prestel, free user-to-user software and quarterly hardware and software discounts - all for £11 a month. In the second year the subscription falls to only £20 a quarter.
The scheme is expected to provide a much-needed boost to Micronet membership as it enables users to join who previously found the cost prohibitive.
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YORKSHIRE Television and a new company, Ventech, have launched into a venture to take interactive computer arcade games to the television screen. The signals from a video game will be merged with studio film and pre-shot locations so that viewers will see a 'believable arcade game' using real characters and backgrounds, which will also have a plot which viewers can follow.
The pilot episode of the new series of television programs was filmed in January and will never be seen by the public. It was called Quest For Abigail, which bore some resemblance to the quest for the Holy Grail, and for which Insight Software prepared an adventure game to fit around the plot.
The shows will feature computer games for which Yorkshire and Ventech are to market the software.
The advent of The Game has set independent television thinking even more seriously about the development of computers on television. One idea is to have a limited version of a multiplayer arcade game where each player has a television set and a control keyboard or joystick with which to play the game from home. The techniques used would follow from those used by Prestel and Micronet 800.
The independent networks are also thinking about having a microcomputer compete with the BBC microcomputer.
Suggestions which have been made are that the companies use either the Wren business system from Prism Business Computers or the Sinclair QL.
Independent television has yet to decide.
SINCLAIR VEHICLES Ltd, the company which is to produce Sir Clive Sinclair's first commercial electric car, has moved to new headquarters at the University of Warwick Science Park.
Staff at the new centre will concentrate on the development and marketing of a family of vehicles which, Sinclair says, is due for introduction in the next three to five years.
The first of the new electric vehicles will be for low-cost town and commuter use and will be ready in late 1984 or early 1985. Assembly will be sub-contracted to Hoover plc at Merthyr Tydfil. Barry Wills, managing director of Sinclair Vehicles Lid, says:
"The Science Park is an ideal location for the various research and development facilities in the Midlands. It also enables us at the same time to draw on university expertise in manufacturing, automotive engineering and electric traction."
The company has also been attracted by the expansion potential of the Science Park and expects to move into one of the larger technology units. Science Park director David Rowe says:
"I can think of no better project for the Warwick Science Park. The university has an outstanding history of involvement in the automotive industry and the Sinclair style of operation makes it eminently suitable for the Science Park."
HOME COMPUTER ownership has more than doubled in Britain in the last year and looks set for more growth in 1984, according to a survey published by Gowling Marketing Services of Liverpool.
More than one home in 10 had a computer last January, which is more than 11 percent compared to 4.9 at the same time last year.
The report states that last year market growth exceeded all projection but the signs are that after 1984 the hardware market will enter a maturity stage and growth will begin to slow.
Sinclair Research and Commodore dominate the hardware market and the top six models account for 87 percent of computers in use. The report states that it is difficult to see any long-term future for less popular models or for new entrants unless they can offer some important advantage.
Despite the gloom on the hardware front, prospects are bright for software. The industry looks set for its best year ever, with arcade and adventure games likely to take 70 percent of total sales.
More information about the survey can be obtained from Gowling Marketing Services Ltd, Liverpool.
NO SOONER has Imagine announced that it cannot drop its software prices after all, than two new companies launch a number of cut-price games cassettes effectively turning the software market on its head.
From the beginning of April, Pulsonic has been selling its Spectrum games for only £2.95, while Mastertronic has released an extensive range of titles for the Spectrum and the Commodore computers at an unprecedented £1.99 each.
In the past software houses have claimed that prices cannot be lowered if reasonable profits are to be maintained. Frank Herman of Mastertronic disagrees, and says the secret of low pricing lies in direct mass marketing. Mastertronic took more than 100,000 orders in the first week of operation from outlets which included the small independent retailers as well as W H Smith and other major chains.
What is the reaction of the major software houses to this strategy? Herman sums it up precisely: "They hate us."
AN ATTEMPT to set a world record for non-stop playing of computer games was linked to a medical research of the craze at a recent computer exhibition. Derek Creasey, a 14-year-old schoolboy from Stockport, aimed to play arcade games for 24 hours while hooked-up to medical equipment which would measure body functions. Mick Cowley, a spokesman for the organiser, Database Publications, says:
"Children all over the country are now playing these games for hours and some people have suggested that it might be creating medical problems for them.
"At the end of 24 hours, we will have a full read-out ready for analysis and will be able to establish whether or not the current craze is potentially dangerous as some people suggest."
Unfortunately Creasey did not fulfil his ambition to set the 24-hour non-stop record. He fell asleep at the computer 55 minutes before the record would have been set.
THE VTX-5000, the Spectrum modem link to Micronet 800, won the Peripheral of the Year prize in the British Microcomputing Awards.
The modem enables Spectrum users to download software from Micronet via the telephone, and was developed by Prism Microproducts. A short time ago the VTX won a RITA Award at the Which Computer? Show.
SINCLAIR RESEARCH is to change the ROM in the Spectrum Interface One. According to the company there would be no side effects as a result of the switch. Software which has already been produced to use the interface should not be affected by the change so long as the recommended machine code hook points are followed.
Late last year a change in the Spectrum ULA caused difficulties for some software manufacturers when users found that they could not use certain products with mark three machines.
Sinclair Research anticipates no such difficulties with the modification of the Interface One ROM.
WEBSTERS SOFTWARE has been appointed non-exclusive U.K. wholesale distributor of software for the ZX-81 and Spectrum by Sinclair Research. The deal will provide a merchandising service to chain stores and computer shops and the first shipments were made at the beginning of April. Anton Boyes, Sinclair retail sales manager, says:
"We wanted to improve the availability of our own-brand software and to give retailers a choice of distributors.
"Software represents an increasingly significant proportion of our business - around eight percent against two percent two years ago - and we aim to increase our share of the Spectrum software market considerably during the next year."
Websters Software Ltd is part of the Websters group, which also includes Felix Learning Systems and Websters book shops.