Faulty Spectrums errors corrected

YOUR ARTICLE in the September issue concerning returns of Spectrum Plusses, quoting a spokesman from Boots, unfortunately contains three errors which I would like to correct.

Concerning power supplies, Timex does not supply any power supplies to Sinclair Research. All computers are supplied in bulk to Sinclair's distributor who procures power supplies, cables, software and instruction manuals and does the final packing. We have no influence over the procurement of the power supplies which are used with our computers.

Secondly, the comment that Timex only carries out spot checks ... Every computer manufactured by Timex has to undergo rigorous quality checks at various stages in the manufacture, and no computer leaves the plant without passing all these tests.

Thirdly, production of the Spectrum Plusses is not being switched from Timex to AB. Both Timex and AB manufacture Spectrum Plusses and continue to supply Sinclair Research.

We can assure the readers of your informative magazine that we at Timex put quality first in all our products to ensure customer satisfaction.

B F Lawson, Managing Director, Timex Corporation, Dundee

Immature nonentities

Torus : load of bull

I WAS MOST concerned by the attitude taken by the group calling themselves Torus, whom you interviewed in the Hit Squad section of September's issue.

Although I found their smug behaviour rather pathetic, it is not of this that I write - it has to be tolerated from immature little nonentities just making the 'big time'.

What really angered me was their rather cutting remark about David Webb's masterpiece Starion being 'junk' on the grounds of originality, or lack of it. Despite being grossly inaccurate, it also seems to me to be something hypocritical with regard to their offering of Gyron - hardly the first maze game available from the Spectrum, albeit a laborious, second rate one.

Torus, don't even try and compete with D Webb's mastery of the Z80 and Spectrum ROM - he's in a different league.

N A Foster

The morality of piracy

HI! I've read the 'The Spanish Connection' in the news section of the August issue. If you publish such junk in your magazine you have not even seen piracy yet.

I, for instance, swap programs with people from Holland, Yugoslavia, Canada, France, S Africa etc - and Israel of course - and I have not come across a Spectrum owner who hasn't got at least 300 programs.

You reported on a tape magazine, well, I can report on at least 10 of that kind. There is a special section in Israel's best selling computer magazine especially for piracy where one can send a free ad in. There are also hundreds, if not thousands, of home made copying machines. I usually get all games about 1.5 months before even get even reviewed in magazines such as yours.

Piracy is due to the price which we pay for software here in Israel. A typical program can cost $20 to $30 and so-called budget software about $8.00. Secondly we have to wait about a month from when software is launched in Britain to when it is imported here.

If software houses would agree to post games overseas and accept international money, and not ask for ridiculous p&p charges, that would help. Any company willing to sell overseas should state that on their adverts.

P D, Israel

Another self-righteous pirate who wishes to remain anonymous. I think I'll leave it up to the following letter to state the obvious ...

I HAVE READ with interest Martin Scholes letter in your March issue concerning software piracy, and would like to ask him a question.

If I want a given game, and know no one who has a copy I could pirate from, is it moral to steal one from the shelf of the shop?

Or, to give my question a wider phrasing, if I cannot afford what I want, is it moral to steal it?

R Olgiati

Garbage in, garbage out

I HAVE read your reviews of Action Biker in September's issue and I think you are totally out of line. What you said about it was pathetic and I think you have a cheek saying that it is garbage because it is only £1.99. To sum up, I think you are garbage.

A M Whitlock

Garbage replies: You're entitled to your misguided and idiosyncratic opinion but that doesn't alter the fact that there's a whole lot of software out there infinitely more entertaining than Action Biker, even in the budget software price range. Still, if you've pocket money to burn and like KP Scraps or whatever they're called, then obviously it's a winner.

Praise for budget games

REFERRING to Clare Edgeley's article Programs for Profit, in the August issue. Distributors seem to take a percentage profit from the selling price of a program which bears little relation to the amount of effort that they put into making a program a success.

While ensuring that programs which are not top ten chart material are consigned to the classified ads at the back of magazines, they are creaming off an enormous profit merely for providing a warehouse and a telephone.

Budget software, while initially of low quality, is now starting to catch up with a lot of software sold at full price. The reason for this success is that the customer is much more likely to splash out £2-£3 on a game than he or she is to waste £6-£10 on a program which is just as likely to be worthless.

David May

Too true. Let's hear it for Action Biker!