COMPREHENSIVE GRAPHICS AID

The launch of the Spectrum heralded an avalanche of graphics pads and software utilities. The Format 4 kit from Orion Software is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and certainly one of the best.

Housed in a smart black ring binder, the kit consists of two main parts. On the rings are 80 sheets of various-sized grids.

As well as that there is a clear plastic wallet to hold loose pieces of paper, a plastic ruler marked with a pixel scale and a translucent screen for placing over pictures with a full 32*24 grid, each square sub-divided into an 8*8 grid with markings round the sides showing the lines and columns, pixel positions and the memory addresses of each pixel line in hexadecimal.

Inside the front cover are a note pad, seven coloured pens to use on the various sheets, a water-soluble ink pen for use on the translucent screen, a calculator to help calculate the UDGs and a C15 cassette with an optional drawing program.

If you are looking for a serious graphics aid for a Spectrum this kit should be near the top of your list. The only part which is not necessary is the optional program.

The kit costs £16.95 or with the extra program £21.50, plus £2.50 p&p. The cassette is avaiLable separately at £6.50. A pack of refill sheets can be obtained for £3.95. If that is too costly, the SP2 kit consisting of translucent screen, pen and wallet is £3.75.

Orion also produces Teleplan, a 32 x 22 grid on a piece of clear plastic which fixes on to a TV screen and is available for either 14in. or 16in. sets at £1.25 plus 50p p&p. More information from Orion Software Products, Pippbrook Mill, London Road, Dorking, Surrey.

RE-USEABLE GRID SHEETS

Orion has released a re-usable graphics kit which is extremely simple. The Format 4 kit - the SP42 - has four plastic sheets with different sized grids and two water-soluble pens. Once you have perfected one design you simply wipe the plastic with a damp cloth and start on the next one.

The grids are two full-screen grids showing print positions, pixel positions, screen and attribute file addresses, a larger scale quarter screen and one with six, 4x4, enlarged character squares for UDGs. Also included is a pixel ruler.

It is available from Orion Software Products, Pippbrook Mill, Dorking, Surrey, priced £5.99, or the educational suppliers Griffin and George.

For Spectrum owners who like to do a little more with their computers than play games, Orion Software's Format 4 graphics planning system may well prove invaluable, and you get an amazing amount of material in the kit for your money too. The kit was first launched in the Your Computer Christmas Fair held at Wembley and apparently received a very good response, the only critic being games writer Jon Ritman of Artic Computing, who complained that the trace screen was no good to a professional because it lacked the full 24 lines available to machine language. Orion have put this right, and the current kits are now equipped with PROTRACE reusable trace screens catering for all BASIC and machine code input.

The kit comes presented in a custom-built A4 size plastic folder. In the ring binder section there are 80 sheets of 100gsm indexed hard copy plans, comprised of:

20 detailed UDG plans with decimal notations, arranged in 6 groups of 4, plus 15 small rough planners per sheet. Each group - of four character blocks is divided up into the 8 x 8 pixels. There are 20 full screen PLOT DRAW and CIRCLE plans, printed to the same size as the trace screen, and block gridded for use with the scaled pixel.

20 quarter screen plans for larger scale graphics and routines assembly.

And 20 general screen PRINT plans featuring a grid pattern identical to TELEPLAN, an optional extra which gives better visual reference to the actual TV screen.

In addition to the plans there is a translucent trace screen and scale matched pixel rule, matt drawing/backing board of plastic, and a Staedtler fine point pen, the ink of which may be removed with damp tissue. Finally there is one clear plastic storage sleeve.

Microdraw has been devised by Micromania, who have also used this kit to help design graphics for Pengy and Tutankhamun. Microdraw is a menu-driven utility which allows for block and hi-res drawings with very easy access to erase, skip and jump facilities, alterations of BORDER, INK and PAPER colours, printing characters and storing work in the short term or SAVEing completed work.

Used in conjunction with the Format 4 kit plans, it all adds up to an extremely useful graphics designers utility, at what is a very reasonable price.

Format 4 Kit/SP1 (as above with blank cassette) £16.95
Kit supplied with MICRODRAW £21.50
ProtraceKit/SP2 £3.75
MICRODRAW cassette £6.50

Orion Software Products are at Pippbrook Mill, London Road, Dorking, Surrey. 0306 884046

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.

The last year has brought about a vast change in the sort of add-ons available for the Sinclair machines. Many are technically brilliant while some would have made Heath Robinson blush. There are few add-ons still being produced for the ZX81, with even fewer new ones, but there has been an avalanche of Spectrum designs, and the start of what promises to be an interesting range for the QL.

The most popular areas of interest - printers, joysticks and keyboards - are dealt with in separate sections but there have been some very innovative designs produced in other areas.

GRAPHICS PAD

The Format 4 kit from Orion Software is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and certainly one of the best graphic pads available.

Housed in a smart, black, ring hinder the kit consists of two main parts. On the rings are 80 sheets of heavy duty paper, in four groups of 20. In the first group the sheets contain six large grids, each made up of four 8x8 grids and marked from 128 to 1 for easy calculation. Along the bottom are 15 smaller 8x8 grids for use as a scratch pad. The second group of sheets show a normal screen of 22 lines by 32 columns with each character square subdivided into an 8x8 grid. As well as the lines and columns being marked the plot positions are also shown. The third section shows an enlarged l screen, 16x11 character squares, subdivided into 8x8 grids. The last section is a straight forward 32x22 screen grid.

As well as that there is a clear plastic wallet to hold loose bits of paper, a plastic ruler marked with a pixel scale and a translucent screen for placing over pictures with a full 32x24 grid, each square subdivided into an 8x8 grid with markings around the sides showing the lines and columns, pixel positions and the memory addresses of each pixel line in hexadecimal.

Inside the front cover are a note pad, seven coloured pens to use on the various sheets, a water soluble ink pen for use on the translucent screen, a calculator to help calculate the UDGs and lastly a C15 cassette with an optional drawing program. If you are looking for a serious graphics aid for your Spectrum then the kit should be near the top of your list.

Format 4 graphics pad, £16.95 or £21.50 with the drawing program, plus £2.50 p&p, from Orion Software Products, Pippbrook Mill, London Road, Dorking, Surrey.