R OLGIATI - letters, November - deliberately ignored what I said in my letter. I wrote: "If it is wrong for children to pirate games can the often extortionate prices charged by some software houses be morally justified?" Well, can they?

A trade ad quoted computer tapes at 15 pence each, less in bulk. So something costing 15 pence is put in a fancy box and sold at maybe up to £15 plus. Nice mark up, eh? There's nothing wrong with profit, but profiteering is a different matter?

If we teach children that it's wrong to steal, shouldn't we also teach them that it's wrong to hoodwink people into paying vastly inflated prices? Let me ask a question. If there's no difference between someone pirating a game and stealing a copy, isn't it wrong for software houses to pirate board games, the programs of other houses, and to steal ideas?

I fear that unscrupulous firms and individuals in software are teaching children, by example, that lying, cheating, stealing and profiteering are OK, even honourable. Letters such as R Olgiati's which miss the main issues, and put a smokescreen around important, moral issues, don't help.

Martin Scholes

Nobody's going to be impressed with arguments which compare the price of a blank C15 cassette with the price of finished, packaged software - sometimes the result of a year's work. Talk about smokescreens - yours must be the thickest around. Ed.

DESPITE the sceptics I believe in the C5, and have just started a unique mobile sandwich board service in the Greater Manchester area using my unique customized C5 Sputnik 1.

If this venture continues to be successful I hope to open the first specialist C5 shop, personalizing CSs to provide a unique low cost fun buggy. I also hope to form a national C5 owners' club.

Nev Fadrious

This man is clearly dangerous. Readers, be warned.

IN THE October issue I saw myself referred to as 'Five Best-Shaw.' Gordo, obviously, misread my name. The 5 he read was my S. I do not think EMAP should employ illiterate employees - especially as Adventure Helpline columnists.

On a lighter note - bring back the Gilbert factor; have sensible covers - no Arfur Daley, Roland Rat et al; have more pokes and hints etc, and easier competitions. Otherwise you are a good mag.

Samuel Best-Shaw

On the whole I think I prefer Five ... Anyway, we consider ourselves lucky that Gordo can read at all, let alone scrawl those hieroglyphics on the revolting goat skins which clog up our letter box each month.

ANY YEAR since Tasword II's vintage has been a bad year for Spectrum word processors: a fact which makes Mike Wright's cosmetic review of OCP's Word Manager - November - funny rather than seriously misleading.

The first delight to typists new to WP on any machine is the function which most processors call word-wrap; it eliminates manual return of the carriage and ends the debate which follows the sound of the bell - "Will the rest of this word, or a new word fit the line? Can I split it with a hyphen?" Word-wrap does it automatically.

Mike Wright says that I will be surprised to find that this function "does not make the slightest difference when you are entering text."

I will be surprised, Mike, I really will! I'd also like to know when you use word-wrap when you are not entering text!

With friends such as this reviewer, OCP could do with a blind bank manager. Fancy baring that semi-literate adipose menu in public! Two key presses to get you a capital 'S', "to show script on screen". (Where else?). This definition of function contains one flagrant misuse of language and is about 15 bytes overweight. The next item on the menu is called by a capital 'B' which should be defined as 'Delete text' but which actually uses 94 bytes of inaccuracy and confusion.

I spare you the rest of the menu which uses exotica like 'jd*c?' carries 43 bytes too many and plants a few more knives in the back of the Queen's English. Word processor? Shall I ever forget DEJUSTIFY? Just give me the chance!

Gordon West

Well, yes. I quite agree. Couldn't have put it better myself.

IN YOUR review of our Micro Office business pack for the 48K Spectrum, in December's Sinclair User, your reviewer made a monumental error. He stated that our stock control program can only handle ten lines. That is a ridiculous claim since this program has a maximum capacity of 500 lines of stock!

We supply the program with a sample file of ten records, simply to demonstrate its use. The user can then create his own file of up to 500 records, to suit his stock.

If Mr Wright had read just the very first paragraph of the program manual - or used the 'New File' option in the main menu, then this fact would have been obvious.

I regard this as an inexplicable oversight on the part of an experienced reviewer. It ruined what was an otherwise favourable review and gave the misleading impression that our package lacks the power for real applications.

We believe that Micro Office, which at £14.95 includes sales/purchase ledgers plus mailing list and stock control, offers genuine value to the small trader.

Steve Denson, S D Micro-Systems

Both the program and manual make it very dear that the maximum number of stock lines is 500. That obviously affects my comments on stock control and networking. Micro Office is much more powerful than I gave it credit for, and a revised star rating of four stars has been awarded. My sincerest apologies to Steve Denson and SD Micro Systems. Mike Wright.

A FRIEND recently spent £15 on the so-called mega-game Elite. The other night, when three grown men decided to have a go at the game, they were reduced to tears.

The problem is the adventure you have to go through with that damn Lenslok thing to get the game going. It took us about one hour.

Someone at Firebird should realise the damage that could be done to youngsters' eyes from concentrating on a TV screen from such a short distance for what can be a long time before you finally get the code right. Is Firebird in league with opticians all over the land?

The game is a pleasure to play when you eventually get it going.

My friend was so annoyed that he phoned up BT to complain, but unfortunately the operator couldn't help him.

Gerry Hunt

Firebird admits that the Lenslok instructions are less than helpful, and has improved them. See news story.

I WAS disgusted and repulsed to read N A Foster's letter concerning Gyron and the amazing programmers from Torus. Starion does show great technical brilliance in graphics, but the plot is dull and tacky compared with Gyron, which has a superb and intense atmosphere.

Concerning Torus, if using alternate screens to avoid colour clash and speeding up the Spectrum drawing routine isn't masterful, I don't know what is.

Christopher Smith

Advantage Torus.

I WAS just about to finish Starion, heading for the last time zone in the last grid of the third block when the program went haywire. Instead of picking up letters for the last zone, it zapped back to a time zone in the first or second block.

It is now four months since I wrote to Melbourne House and still not even a note to say they were looking into it. Seeing as how you have to pay £12 to £14 for games over here you would at least expect to be able to finish them.

As for comments on Starion and Gyron in recent issues, I'd say one was as equally boring as the other, and we'd have bought neither if we'd had ten minutes to try them out first.

Patricia Deane

Deuce.

I READ with disgust A M Whitlock's opinion - Letters, November - of your review of Action Biker.

Obviously he is so blinkered in his thinking that he does not realise that if software companies make a profit from inferior games of this kind, they will not produce anything better. This standard of software was only acceptable when the Spectrum was released.

A J Lucas

So true, so true.