RAINBOW INTERFACE

A new joystlck interface has been released by Rainbow Electronics. It has a built-in beep amplifier. The interface has one good point in that it can be programmed as a game is running. Other than that not much can be said for it.

To program it, you have to hold down a key, move the joystick, and then release the key. You must do that for each of the normal four positions, then again for the four positions while also holding the fire button and again if you want to move diagonally, a feat which would need at least three hands.

Once programmed, a switch on the front of the interface is moved to the play position; it disables the keyboard. Finally there is no volume control for the sound amplifier.

The interface is also poorly made. The 28-way edge connector normally has a plastic locating blank to line it up. In this case it is merely a blob of solder. The connector, and the joystick socket, are stood off from the interface PCR by about 1in.

The unused pins are left hanging. That is very unstable and could short out. There are also some resistors soldered in mid-air rather than via the PCB.

At £24 plus £1 p&p the interface is competitively priced but could not be recommended. Rainbow Electronics is at Glebe House, South Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire OX8 6XJ.

INDEPENDENT JOYSTICK

Voltmace has launched its new joystick - the Delta 3S. Unlike most joysticks it features two independent fire buttons, one of which can be used by either left- or right- handed players, and rotary switches are used on the stick. Those switches give it a very light action and the stick can be comfortably held in the hand.

Together with the joystick Voltmace is marketing two interfaces. One, made by Rainbow Electronics, is hardware-programmable and the other, from Cambridge Computing, requires software. The Rainbow interface also incorporates a beep amplifier. The stick has a standard nine pin Atari-style plug and so will work on any interface.

Priced at £10.00 the joystick is good value and its solid construction should ensure it outlives most competitors. The Cambridge Computing interface costs £22.95 - £29.95 with joystick - and the Rainbow interface is £29.00 - £37.00 with joystick. All prices include VAT and p&p. They are available by mail order from Voltmace Ltd, Park Drive, Baldock, Herts SG7 6ES.

INTERFACITS - JOYSTICK INTERFACING INVESTIGATED

A comprehensive round up of the units available - checked out by our team of reviewers.

One of the first add-ons that a computer owner may contemplate buying is a joystick of some kind. The increase in control that this provides is of obvious benefit to the dedicated games player. In addition it is becoming increasingly necessary for some of the complex graphics packages that are appearing for the Spectrum. However if you have not yet taken the plunge and are now contemplating the purchase of some form of controller you have a difficult choice ahead of you. In essence, most of the actual joysticks are very similar, and your eventual purchase will be based upon personal preferences for shape, size, ease of use etc., but the biggest decision to make will be that concerning the vital link between your joystick and the computer i.e. the INTERFACE.

Interfaces allow the use of joysticks with compatible software, and although there is a great variety of material available for use with all the more common interfaces no single one will give you control over every game, unless, of course you opt for a PROGRAMMABLE INTERFACE. These claim to give you joystick compatibility with ALL software.

Another interface which never made it to our office in time for this roundup.

The interface includes a built in amp and speaker, the joystick socket and the programming switch are positioned at the front (with all the associated problems).

HARDWARE WORLD

With ever-increasing amounts of peripherals available for Sinclair computers, users are finding it more and more difficult to know what to buy. We present a buyer's guide to joysticks, keyboard and printers and review the best of the rest from the 1984 add-on market.

Joysticks are a popular addition to the Spectrum and many people find it essential for zapping aliens or flying a simulator. In the last year there have been a number of interfaces and joysticks launched, some with more success than others.

Nearly all joysticks have accepted a common standard, that of Atari which was the first company to add joysticks to a computer. The style of the joysticks may vary but the connection to the interface remains the same.

To use a joystick some form of interface is needed. One, or more, of three standards are normally used. 'Cursor', sometimes known as 'Protek', simulates the four cursor keys for the directions with 0 as fire, 'Sinclair' allows for up to two joysticks and simulates keys 1 to 5 and 6 to 0 respectively and 'Kempston' which does not simulate any of the keys but uses a port address. The most common of those is the Kempston but it is by no means universal.

To overcome that a programmable interface can be used which allows you to use any key for any direction or fire. The method of programming varies, some need a tape to be LOADed, while others require you to press a key and then to move the joystick in the direction which that key will simulate; some have physical connections which must be made to signify the key and others simply use a stored memory of which keys are to be used.

GRANT DESIGNS & EEC

Two designs combine the interface and joystick in one. The Grant Designs Spectrum Stick and a similar one from EEC clip to the Spectrum keyboard over the cursor keys and use a mechanical system to press the keys.

Inside the Spectrum Stick there are two frames which move independently up and down, and left and right; to those are attached ramps which push little feet onto the relevant keys.

The EEC joystick is more substantial. The casing is a one-piece moulding which fits snugly onto the Spectrum case. Inside that the stick is securely joined to a shaped plate which presses on one or more levers which in turn depress the key.

Both are priced at £9.95 and are far cheaper than anything else on the market. Provided they are used with restraint they are better than nothing.

RAM TURBO INTERFACE

The RAM Turbo interface from Fleet Electronics is what the Sinclair Interface 2 should have been and was not. As well as having two joystick ports, it has a ROM cartridge slot. Moreover, one of the joystick ports can be used for Kempston compatible games and the other can be used as a Protek compatible port.

It is similar in size to the Interface 2 but the rear connector is full Spectrum-size as opposed to the Interface 2 ZX-81 size. The area surrounding the joystick port is large enough to take a standard joystick connector. Users who have either built their own joystick or use the Flight Link joystick will have found problems with Interface 2 as the left-hand, most commonly used, port is too near the raised ROM slot.

In order to prevent users fitting the interface with the power on (the surest way to blow up your Spectrum) it incorporates a 'Spectrum Protect Adapter', a loop of plastic which covers the power socket on the Spectrum so that the lead must be removed before fitting.

If you are considering the Interface 2 then think again; the RAM Turbo interface is better designed and better value for money, costing £22.95.

PROTEK INTERFACE

The new switchable interface from Protek can be configured for all three of the standards by using a switch on the back. The interface is dead-ended, so it must be the last add-on fitted. As with the Turbo interface, it is liable to crash if used with a twin fire button joystick. Its main drawback is that in the Protek position the top row of keys is disabled, while in the Sinclair position only the 6,7,8,9 and 0 keys are disabled, which could make some games difficult to play. The switch would have to be moved, the key pressed, and the switch returned to its original position.

Despite the above problems, which should not affect most users, the interface is easy to use and covers most games on the market. It is priced at £19.95.

ELR INTERFACE

The programmable interface from East London Robotics for the Spectrum has the distinction of being the cheapest on the market at only £10.00, if bought together with a Trickstick.

The interface, as ELR would be the first to admit, was designed to be 'cheap and cheerful' and it is, even to the extent of being uncased. In order to program it small metal clips are used to connect pins which represent the various rows and columns of the keys on the keyboard. That is fiddly and time consuming if you need to reprogram it, but has the advantage that once programmed it is usable from power up. If the interface is purchased separately its price is £15.00.

COMCON INTERFACE

Frel Ltd market the ComCon programmable interface. Any key on the keyboard can be programmed and there is provision for two fire buttons. To match the interface Frel also markets two compatible joysticks.

The interface is of simple design and to program it you have to plug the relevant lead into the pin you want. That can be done with a program running and the keyboard is not disabled. Any joystick with a standard plug can be used and if that has only one fire button then the F1 lead is used. To allow for other add-ons there is an extender card which rises vertically from the front of the board.

The two joysticks which Frel markets are the Flightlink and the Quickshot II which has been adapted to have the independent fire buttons, F1 on the trigger and F2 on top.

At £19.95 the interface is one of the least expensive and the ease of programming should ensure steady sales. The two joysticks are £10.50 for the Flightlink and £13.95 for the Quickshot, both less £2.00 if ordered with the interface.

CCI INTERFACE

The interface from Custom Cable International needs a software tape to program it. It can accept any standard joystick; there is no extender card, so it must be the last add-on plugged in.

Programming the interface is straightforward. In all, only 10 keypresses are needed plus two to confirm everything is order. The program is written entirely in BASIC which makes it very easy to customise.

This is a good interface and competitively priced at £15.00, but it could have been even better if the instructions had been more detailed.

PAGE & RAINBOW

The Page and Rainbow interfaces are of the kind where you must push a key, move the joystick, release the joystick again for the four positions plus fire, again for the diagonals, again for the diagonals plus fire and finally the fire button on its own. All of that can be done with the game running as the keyboard can still be used. Some people will find that time consuming and fiddly.

The one really useful feature of the Page interface is a rapid fire switch. When that is in the up position it simulates the fire button being held down, very handy for the 'zap everything in sight' type of game. The Rainbow interface includes a beep amplifier.

With the Rainbow interface at £24.00 and the Page one at £26.00, they deserve consideration provided you do not mind the time and hassle of programming them.

FOX ELECTRONICS

The programmable interface from Fox Electronics, on the other hand, is probably the easiest of all to program. You only have to flick a switch once you have told it which keys to use.

When the switch is up a menu is displayed on the screen. You have the option of creating a new key set, from any of the forty keys or selecting, with a single keystroke, one of the sixteen sets already created. Pressing the E key exits to Basic to load the game and programs the joystick. If necessary the key sets can be saved on tape. Leaving the switch down enables the Spectrum to ignore interface.

Inside the interface is a RAM chip and a small ni-cad battery, and on power down it retains the information in its memory for a minimum of six months.

When switched on the interface pages the Spectrum ROM and jumps to the program held in its RAM. The program then transfers itself into the Spectrum RAM, pages the ROM back in and puts the menu on the screen. On pressing the E key the program transfers itself back into its own RAM, sets up the joystick and clears the Spectrum memory. Any new key sets created are therefore saved in the process.

All that sounds clever but it also has two beneficial side-effects. When the switch is down, the interface causes a hardware reset; in other words, if you have a game running you can jump out of it without pulling the plug - a saving on plug wear.

Secondly, details are available from Fox for a machine code programmer to adapt the interface as a pseudo ROM. Often used routines such as toolkits, printer driver programs or complete character sets could then be loaded at the flick of a switch. At £28.95 the interface is excellent value.

TRICKSTICK

One of the more unusual joystick devices launched in 1984 was the long awaited Trickstick from East London Robotics. In fact, to describe it as a joystick is misleading. It is a 7in long black cylinder with six touch sensitive pads which simulate the four joystick movements, plus two fire buttons.

The Trickstick comes with an interface, up to eight of which can be plugged in at any one time, and has the option to give proportional movement on specially written games. It simulates the Kempston joystick so there are many games available on which it can be used.

The touch pads use your body as an aerial to pick up mains hum. That is converted by the electronics to simulate the key press. As some people are better aerials than others the sensitivity of the stick can be altered by a small screw near the top. A minor fault is that the lead from the interface to the stick fouls the power lead.

It takes some getting used to unlike a joystick, but once mastered is just as useful. As it has no moving parts it should stand up to wear and tear and it is quicker than most others. It costs £34.50.

Nineteen eighty-four has been a quiet year for standard joysticks with only two given much publicity.

DELTA 3S

The Delta 38 from Voltmace has two independent fire buttons, one of which is doubled up for left or right handed players, and rotary switches are used on it. Those switches give it a light action and it can be comfortably held in the hand. At £10.00 the joystick is good value, its solid construction should ensure long life.

SUPER CHAMP

The Super Champ, currently marketed by Dean Electronics, is unusual in that the cable is held in the base. For use the cable is pulled out and, when you have finished, rotating the stick winds the cable inside.

The stick is very long and thin and has two fire buttons, one on top and one in the trigger position; those both operate the same switch. The base is, as expected, larger than usual and has four rubber suckers underneath.

Because the stick rotates there has to be a certain amount of play in the pivot. That makes precise control difficult unless you hold down the centre. Despite that the joystick works tolerably and the convenience of not having the wire lying around almost makes up for it. The Super Champ is priced at £12.95.

RAT

Finally, if the advertising is to be believed, the age of conventional joysticks is past and the future belongs to the RAT and its offspring. The RAT (Remote Action Transmitter) operates in a similar fashion to TV remote control handsets; you simply wave it in the general direction of the screen and press the touch-sensitive movement and fire buttons.

It is sold with a receiving unit that connects to the Spectrum and is compatible with most popular Spectrum software. The RAT is powered by a normal PP3 battery which fits into the underbelly of the handset.

The first of its kind, the RAT suffers minor teething problems and can cause excessive handache but, like the Trickstick, you will soon grow fond of it. The price is £29.95 from Cheetah Marketing and high street stores.

Grant Designs, Bank House, Reepham, Norwich, Norfolk NR10 4JJ. Tel: (0603) 870852.

EEC, 1 Whitehouse Close, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire SL9 0DA.

RAM Electronics (Fleet) Ltd, 106 Fleet Road, Fleet, Hampshire GU13 8PA.

Protek, 1A Young Square, Brucefield Industrial Park, Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland.

East London Robotics Ltd, Gate 1, Royal Albert Docks, London E11. Tel: (01) 474 4430.

Frel Ltd, Hockeys Mill, Temeside, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1PD.

Custom Cables International Ltd, Units 3 & 4, Shire Hill Industrial Estate, Saffron Walden. Essex.

Page Computing, 28 Burwood Grove, Hayling Island, Hampshire PO11 9DS.

Rainbow Electronics, Glebe House, South Leigh, Witney, Oxfordshire OX8 6XJ.

Fox Electronics, 141 Abbey Road, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 9ED. Tel: (0256) 20671.

Voltmace Ltd, Park Drive, Baldock, Hampshire S67 6ES.

Dean Electronics Ltd, Glendale Park, Fernbank Road, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 8JB.

Cheetah Marketing Ltd, 24 Ray Street, London EC1R 3DJ. Tel: (01) 833 4909.