THE PLUS 3 DISC SOLUTION

Solving the 128K +3's software shortage. Is Romantic Robot's Multiface 3 the essential Plus 3 add-on? Rupert Goodwins gives his verdict...

In the beginning there was the Spectrum. Lots of people bought one. Lots of other people wrote games for the Spectrum, and lots of people bought those as well.

But there was a snag - everything used cassette tapes, which were fine for Depeche Mode but not for so hot for computer software. Slow, unreliable and frustrating were some of the kinder terms used for the medium.

Then came the Microdrive, Wafadrive and (for the fortunate few) disc drives. Wonderful things all - fast, reliable and capacious. Just the thing. Except for the one anchovy in the pizza - how do you get all the games from tape to their new home? Cue Multiface from Romantic Robot.

Multiface was revolutionary. With the press of a button, anything could be dumped to Microdrive or disc. And as the Spectrum evolved from 48K chocolate bar to 128K Amstrad, new versions of Multiface were produced.

Now there's the 128K +3, a games machine that has all its software on tape and built in disc drive... Guess what Romantic Robot has produced?

Multiface 3, that's what. Plug it into your 128K +3, and load a game from tape. Press the red button and you can port it on to disc at any stage, yours to load in a trice at a whim's notice. Multiface works by waiting for the program to load and run. Then it takes a copy, and as the program was running at the time, it will run when the copy is loaded back later.

Software houses are stuffy about this - they can see games being copied and distributed by pirates (but not of course by any reader) with a consequent impoverishment of the programmers.

Romatic Robot is sensitive to this, and claims that any program saved using a Multiface 3 will only load back with the machine attached.

That said, if you're a Plus 3 owner the only way you'll get your software on disc is via the Multiface.

The tape to disc function of the Multiface 3 would be enough to recommend it to anyone. But there's more. When the red button is pressed, a whole range of functions appears. You can look through the 128K+3's memory, altering it at will. High scores have never been so easy to obtain. Memory can be displayed as hexadecimal, decimal or text. All of the 128K +3's 128K of Ram can be fiddled with, not just the 48K's worth that Basic has access to.

You can also print out areas of memory and screens in a variety of different forms. The Multiface 3 can do the same types of graphics dumps as its brother Multiprint, straight text, Spectrum-style Copy and a couple of shaded screen dumps. It can't do much more than 128K + 3 Basic does, but it does it in the middle of programs.

The main purpose of the Multiface is to get things on to disc. As well as the simple Save and Load, it's got a few other tricks up its interface. You can, for example, use the disc from 48K mode. Lots of people get excited by this. Unlike the Spectrum 128K and 128K +2, the 128K +3 allows you to go into 48K mode without fatally locking out all of the new features. You do this by typing SPECTRUM in Plus 3 Basic, and you have a 48K Spectrum that, with Multiface, can use the disc drive.

Other things that the Multiface can do is allow you to erase a file to make room on a disc, in case you need to save something in mid-game and can't get to Basic to do the deed. You can't Format a disc from the Multiface, alas.

Multiface also compresses stuff automatically, and doesn't Save empty areas of memory. These two features mean that you can get (for example) more than three games on the 170-odd K allowed you per disc side. But you can turn those features off, if need be.

Everything is accessed by the traditional one-or two-line menu and single keypresses. Multiface 3 is very careful about invalid inputs, and didn't crash or otherwise misbehave at all. And I did try to confuse it.

I didn't like the manual much; eight half-size pages of dot-matrix isn't enough. All the major subjects are covered, though: the way in which the 128K +3 manages its memory and the ways in which you can use the Multiface 3 for multi-part games are mentioned. It's all a bit terse and dense. If the Multiface wasn't so easy to use the manual might have been a problem, but it is, so it isn't.

More than that, what can I say? I enjoy a good rant, most reviewers do, but the Multiface 3 seems set on continuing the Romantic Robot tradition of doing the job reliably. I can't even complain a little.

Any 128K +3 owner will find it a wonderful device, indispensable even - I'm not giving mine back without a fight. I expect to see the usual extra programs appear for the best in due course (Genie et al), whereupon not owning a Multiface 3 will brand one a complete loser.

Price: £49.95

RAGE HARD!

You wanna know what's hardest in hardware? Once again YS whips out the magic screwdriver in our first hardware round up of '88.

It's been ages since we did a really ripping hardware spread, so we thought it was about time. After a bit of barking at Phil Snout to get his screwdriver out and look at these beasts, we've pulled together a positive cornucopia of hoopy hardware and super software, to turn even the most soft-boiled trainspotter into a hard-boiled egghead.

The star of our show is Miles Gordon Technology's Plus D disk interface, the only real alternative for tape users to upgrade to a +3, from the designers of the Disciple. Check out the review further on.

Other contenders for the hardware crown are the Multiface family from Romantic Robot, the plastic pal who's fun to be with; a couple of wacky Multiplugs for those of you who work all your household appliances from one socket; an aerial switch so you can plug all your computers, game consoles and videos into your telly at the same time; and Computer Cupboard's nifty little Trojan Light Pen for you to scribble on your screen. Worra lorra lorra stuff.

As well as all this hardware, we've got a brain-boggling selection of the most fascinating hardware-based software. So, let's cut the babbling and launch into the reviews.

1. Multiface +3
Romantic Robot
£39.95

Probably top of this list of things YS couldn't do without is the Multiface family of gadgets from Romantic Robot. The most recent of these of course is the Multiface +3. Without this box there would be no screenshots in YS, or if there were, they would be fuzzy photos rather than the technically perfect inkjet dumps we use today. How is this done? Well, having fastened a Multiface to your computer you simply blip the red button on the top of the machine, and follow the menus to save the screen, which is then done automatically. There's a toolkit feature built into the unit, not unlike the previous Multifaces for 48 and 128K, which enables you to POKE numbers into addresses in hex or ASCII formats. The unit can also send shaded print dumps out through the printer port on the back of the +3. So if you've got a printer connected, the picture on screen comes out on the page. If you haven't, the bits just spill out over your desk (that's a joke, by the way!).

In summing up, it's nice to see so many good British products in this hardware lineup. There's not many computers you could say that of, and fewer that could match the quality and design of the peripherals represented here.

WIRED

YS presents a handy-dandy guide to having fun with your peripherals. And who better to lead us down the hardware path than JON PILLAR? Quite a lot of people to be honest, but they were all at lunch.

There's more to life than playing Speccy games. Using Speccy hardware is also to be recommended. Over the years a huge number of little black boxes have appeared for plugging into the back of everyone's favourite, um, little black box. Sadly, a lot of these have now gone forever. The Specdrum, the Slomo, the Music Machine... where are they now? Actually, they're still around, you just have to look rather hard for 'em. For those of you who can't be bothered looking rather hard, there are still plenty of goodies to be collected.

MULTIFACE +3
Romantic Robot/£29.95

We here at YS swear by the Multiface. Yes, many a time you'll find us standing next to the little black box, hitting it and swearing. It's an indispensable programming aid, stopping any Speccy program in its tracks and allowing you to recover from total system crashes with just the press of a button. And then the press of a few more buttons. And then a few more.

As well as saving the ears of nearby grandmothers should the worst happen, the Multiface enables you to save out screens or programs to about every storage device imaginable. (How else do you think we get those lovely Speccy screenshots in the mag?) Not only that, but by loading up the Genie disassembler, you can trip merrily through any game you darn well like, ripping off, er, picking up on the techniques of the professionals. A fabulous bit o' kit, and now that Romantic Robot are selling 'em off cheap, a fabulous bargain as well.

IT'S ALL GOING HORRIBLY WRONG DEPARTMENT

Speccies are like mushrooms. If you keep them warm and nurtured, they flourish. But if you trample them into the ground or allow your dog to eat them while walking in the woods, they tend to fall over. Furthermore, I wouldn't recommend that you put them in a pan and cook them with a nice free-range egg in an attempt to make a mushroom omelette, because it won't work. Um, actually, Speccies aren't like mushrooms at all. Forget I said that bit.

Anyway. The point I'm failing quite spectacularly to make is that Speccies are temperamental beasties. Inevitably, they'll break down. And while the most sensible course of action is to take your ill machine along to an authorised repair centre, you can fix some things in the comfort of your own home. But be sure to have a responsible adult on hand. They will then say, "I told you that you should have gone to an authorised repair centre," in a patronising tone of voice when you bodge the job and wreck your Spec. If you feel up to the task though, quite a few companies offer Speccy spares - everything from new ROM chips to new +3 disk drives. WAVE are particularly well-endowed with small bits of Speccies. Their catalogue has just about everything you need to build your own machine! Buy the spares direct, put them aside for that fateful day, and it'll be cheaper to repair your Speccy yourself. Or else get your local soldering iron whizz to do it for you. Just don't say we didn't warn you if things go even more horribly wrong.

Well, that's it. Hopefully this little trip through hardware land has been useful and informative. If not, why should I care? I'm off to digitise the climax of The Terminator and save it out to disk as an animated sequence. Just don't tell anyone, or they'll all be at it…