Producer: New Generation
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £14.95

Similar to many graphic utilities Light Magic consists of two main work areas, the Screen Editor and the UDG Generator. Screen Editor is accessed for screen display generation or amendment, while UDG Designer deals with the creation of up to seven different banks of User Defined Graphic characters. The Main Menu provides access to these two facilities, to the Save and Load routines for storing and retrieving screens or UDGs to and from tape, to the Keys/Joystick selection (Cursor keys, Kempston and Sinclair joystick) and to a routine which writes the Sinclair lower case letters into the first two UDG banks.

SCREEN EDITOR

Five operating modes can be accessed consecutively in Screen Editor by pressing Enter. These are Pen mode for line drawing, Brush mode for brush drawing, Block mode for colour work and macro facilities such as block copy, rotate and mirror and enlarge, Text mode for annotation work and UDG mode for UDG inclusion. The screen contains a cursor circle which can be removed with the command CURSOR (key K). The lower two screen editing lines contain the control panel with display of coordinates, Mode indicator and Band and Over status. The cursor movement is smooth and the speed can be set with keys A and S with an appropriate audio feedback. The general drawing technique is to toggle DRAW (key V) on and off with OVER (key N) set. This is equivalent to pen up and down. If OVER is not set, the cursor will reset pixels and destroy the existing drawing. A special feature is BAND (key B) which enables a line to be stretched from the point BAND was enabled to the current cursor position. Moving the cursor in a wiping action will cause the existing drawing to be wiped out similar to the action of a windscreen wiper. Pressing key B again will freeze the line and disable BAND. Circles may be drawn using the straightforward CIRCLE command (key C) with the radius as a parameter and similarly FILL (key F) will perform an area fill under the current ink colour. PO/NT (key O) provides the usual plot pixel facility, but also acts as the reference point setter for REFERENCE (key RI which will reposition the cursor accurately to the reference point. ENLARGE (key E) will enlarge the quarter of the screen where the cursor is positioned to full screen size for detailed drawing, but care must be taken as single pixel lines may be lost when returning to the original size. Any detail should be drawn two pixels wide! This is rather unsatisfactory and a further snag becomes apparent when the detail to be drawn carries on outside the enlarged screen quarter as no automatic switchover is provided into the neighbouring quarter.

The ink colour is changed with INK (key X) and bright is selected by pressing cap shift and the colour key. CLEAR (key U) clears the screen or quarter screen (if YES is selected), but also changes the entire picture to the current ink and paper colours (if NO is selected). GRID (key G) displays the attribute boundaries for colour. The usual colouring problems exist due to the Spectrums unfortunate character-wide attributes. The best approach is to establish the drawing in black and white considering the colour grid positions. Making sure that OVER is set, TEXT mode can be entered. The required colour is selected using SYMBOL SHIFT/X and each character cell can be OVER printed with a space. Corrections can be made by saving the picture regularly in memory (Cap shift 1), so that if the next move proves to be a disaster, the previous condition can be recalled from memory (Cap shift 2).

BRUSH mode provides very much the same facilities as PEN mode, but hands you a brush (cursor) for screen painting. The brush size may be varied with keys W and Q and ten different brush strokes are available from solid to airbrush style random dot spray. The airbrush facility is extremely practical, as it allows dense areas to be built up by covering the same area several times.

BLOCK mode is used for areas up to 64 character cells to be manipulated. MOVE (key M) repositions a designated area into a new location on the screen. The bottom right corner of the block is located with POINT, the top left corner with MOVE and the block is transported with the cursor movement to its new location and dropped by pressing MOVE again. COPY (key Z) behaves similarly, but leaves the original block position untouched, the block is actually copied. MOVE and COPY can be used with ENLARGE to enlarge or reduce specific drawing items. ROTATE (key 9) and MIRROR (key 0) rotate and mirror the top left 8 x 8 block image. MOVE can be used to locate the detail in question.

TEXT and UDG mode provide the inclusion of text or UDG characters on the screen. By positioning the cursor individual characters may be rotated (key 2), mirrored (key 3) or inverted (key 4). A character may be expanded to double height with CAPSHIFT. In UDG mode one of seven UDG banks can be selected (key 1).

UDG DESIGNER

The UDG DESIGNER provides eight functions. The UDG banks may be viewed and loaded into the working area (key V). An individual UDG character is loaded into the 8 x 8 grid on the left of the screen and similarly filed back into the bank (key Q). Moving the cursor in the grid the individual pixels may be set or reset with key 1 or the joystick fire button. Special functions are again ROTATE (key 2), M/RROR (key 3) and INVERT (key 4). The UDG's created are positioned in memory and their address is listed in the manual. An example program is provided in the manual for inclusion of the UDGs in other programs.

COMPSCREEN

COMPSCREEN is a utility for compressing screen data and is loaded separate to the main graphics program. The amount of memory it will save depends on the screen content. The more detail in the picture, the smaller the saving. The data is compressed and saved with a short machine code routine that reconstructs the data. A screen is loaded using option 1. Once the screen is compressed, the start address and the length of the data is displayed. Further screens may be compressed by answering YES. Option 4 will display the start address of the compressed data and the reconstruction routine together with the required RAMTOP value. To use the screens, ramtop has to be initially set with a CLEAR command and the screens loaded. A picture can be displayed with a RANDOMISE USER call and data instruction of screen start.

NEW MAGIC?

LIGHTMAGIC is a nicely balanced graphics utility which requires little time for familiarisation. Its most outstanding aspect is the novel BRUSH technique which can provide a lot of entertainment and can be a very useful tool for professional creations. It is a pity that the ENLARGE facility has not been thought out more carefully, but this is probably made up for by the powerful BLOCK MOVE and COPY commands. The manual includes a working example to familiarise the user with the required work technique and all functions are clearly described. Several new graphic utilities are about to appear and it will be interesting to see how LIGHTMAGIC will compare with the competition.

PAINTING BY NUMBERS

Forget the pens and paintbrushes - how about painting with pixels? Penny Page has taken a peek at four new graphics packages and Peter Shaw completes the picture.

First off, the sixty-four thousand pixel question - why do you want to draw pretty pictures on the screen? Of course, there's always the art for art's sake answer. After all, why do artists draw pictures anyway? The average artist can fork out quite large portions of his pocket-money on pens and paintbrushes, but at least you won't have to keep replacing your software. But if you're not that arty-farty how does the idea of making money grab you? Thought so. Well , I know of people who have sold their computer masterpieces to software houses who've used them as tide screens for games. You don't have to be a poor artist! But the best reason of all is that drawing with your Speccy can be real fun. And if you don't rate yourself as much of an artist, you'll still be able to knock up some professional looking graphics with your Speccy's help. Beats staring at a blank sheet of paper any day!

ART WORK

Every art form has its limitations and computer art's no exception. Your Speccy hasn't got an infinite number of pixels to draw with and your colour palette's pretty small. You can always mix a hue on screen with the aid of a grid pattern and clever use of colours but this only highlights the problem of the low-resolution attribute grid. All sounds a bit grim, doesn't it? But don't despair, 'cos a quick butchers at Pete's piccies will show you what's possible.

All of the packages Peter picked to produce his piccies (OK, you can untwist your tongues now! Ed.) are new to the market, though Paintplus has arisen from the ashes of P'n'P's previous package, Paintbox. All the software we looked at offers improvements on previous graphics programs but none of them has got it completely right yet. They're either too complicated or they miss out on one important feature or another. Take for an example, the idea of adding colour. A painter would usually draw a rough sketch on the canvas first and then slap on the colour afterwards. But with three of these packages you've got to choose your colours and put them on without any previous drawing. Only The Artist has got it right.

DRAWING THE LINE

One of the major problems about creating pictures on the Speccy is the distance between the screen where the pic appears and the keyboard that creates it. This is pretty unusual - just think, if you're painting, the brushes are at least in direct contact with the canvas and a sculptor chisels and chips at his chunk of rock. Of course, a light pen seems the obvious way round but none of these packages has that facility. And have you ever tried to draw with one of them on the Spectrum - they wouldn't have persuaded Picasso to pack in his painting!

All the programs include a User-Defined Graphics editor and positioner - very useful if you want to store away complex pictures in twenty-one graphics symbols but I find this option a bit of a waste of space. Still, that's only me and if I was asked to pin down the best program on its UDG handling alone, I'd plump for The Artist.

Well, now for the moment you've all been waiting for - which one of the four packages would I go for on overall picture creating ability. As you probably expected I'm going to hedge my bets. My choice lies somewhere between The Artist, PaintPlus and Lightmagic in that order. Leonardo just didn't come into the running. But before you make up your mind, have a look at what Peter made of the packages and see which one would most suit your artistic temperament.

Lightmagic is aimed at the less talented artist. It's got a lot of good, easy-to-use features but they're not really cut out for 'real' drawing. Sure, you can create abstract pictures with ease but that's not what we're after here. It will handle the basic framework quite well but it comes a cropper on the old attributes. Not one for the experienced graphic designer.

Picture Completion Time 3.5 hours. Rating: 3.5/5

Publisher: New Generation
Memory: 48K
Price: £14.95

There have been graphics designer programs before - notably Melbourne Draw. Lightmagic takes ease of use a step further and provides a comprehensive package for would-be screen designers.

The program can operate using a joystick or cursor keys. The menus are exceptionally clear and easy to toggle through. There are five modes.

Pen mode allows you to draw on screen as if you were using a pencil, with the added advantage of a rubber band feature for odd angles.

Circle and Fill commands are also available, although the Fill command can cause weird results due to the Spectrum attributes. To overcome that there is a Grid command which produces a grid of 8 x 8 squares on the screen, avoiding colour clashes.

In Brush mode there are 10 types of brushes which range from solid to airbrush; spectacular results can be obtained with these, especially as brush size can be altered.

Block mode can be used to move, mirror and rotate blocks of the screen and Text mode allows the addition of text. There is also a UDG designer which makes graphic designing easy.

As if all that were not enough, there is an enlargement feature. A section of the screen can be magnified four times - useful for fine tuning. Adding and changing colour is done by pressing X and choosing another colour.

The facilities offered are impressive and it can be recommended without reservations.

Spectrum 48K
Price: £14.95

New Generation Software have, in my opinion, come up with a winner in this delightful package.

The main menu is clear and concise giving easy instructions with a screen editing panel letting the user have fast drawing. A y/n response to most editing commands is a great help in failsafe design.

Two cursor designs give maximum visibility to complex screens, and the use of an x/y line to give cursor location is simple to understand and accurate.

Another feature I found a dead cert for the maze designer is the thick 3-D brush stroke, giving a various shaded wall effect at a 45-degree angle (see illustration).

The greatest thing about Lightmagic, though, is the user ready icons - everything from helicopters to tanks, boats and bricks. Just take your pick, move it around with the cursor and bingo! Instant games! This was what I was looking for in all these games - user friendly with instant results and no complex programming.

LIGHTMAGIC GRAPHICS DESIGNER

The shape of things to come from New Generation Software? Colin Christmas puts you in the picture

Over the last year or so, I have had the pleasure of being able to review most of the great Graphics Utilities which have been produced for the Spectrum. I say pleasure, because this is the field which really excites me. Games, I confess, I can usually take or leave. But a good Graphics program will keep me in front of the screen for hours.

I am by nature, a Doodler. So that even without a particular assignment I will play with shapes, lines and colours just for the fun of it. Any graphics utility which gives me that facility is for me immediately impressive, but I also believe that this facility is important from a user's point of view.

My next criterion is always the utilities potential. just how far can you go beyond the important stage of Doodling? Can you develop ideas and designs? How easy it is to scrap one screen and start another with the same idea? And can you go on building from one idea more line, shape, and colour?

This is not just a question of value for money. New graphics programs have got to be able to extend and develop our creative abilities. They have to take our micros to new and exciting places in visual terms, to raise our horizons and our expectations of the micro as a creative tool.

Personally, I believe that such programs have to have what can only be described here in very general terms as 'Educational Application'. As many schools buy computers, more parents want their children to be familiar with them, so the software produced for them must have the same appeal amd value that educators would expect from a new textbook or series for schools on Television.

Such a philosophical introduction has been quite deliberate. LIGHTMAGIC by Nigel Hicken from New Generation Software has had me hooked from the first time I loaded into my 48K Spectrum.

MAGIC

The Cursor, a small circle on the screen, can be moved either by using the Cursor keys, or by Kempston or Sinclair Joysticks. Having made this selection, the Main Menu is displayed and it becomes immediately obvious that this utility, like others of the kind, offers two main options. The first, called SCREEN EDITOR is for the creation of art work. The second, called UDG DESIGNER speaks for itself.

Screen Editor offers five modes. Mode status is displayed along with cursor coordinates, and two other operational states, in boxes using the bottom two lines of the screen. Within each mode various other facilities are available.

For example, in PEN mode you are given a fairly straightforward doodle pad facility. Apart from line drawing using the cursor, being able to construct circles around the cursor position, fill areas with current ink colour, change ink colour, move over any part of your artwork with the cursor 'up' as it were or erasing any lines it travels over, you can also speed up or slow down cursor movement, check positioning of objects on the screen by superimposing a grid corresponding to the character cells on the screen, enlarge the quarter of the screen in which the cursor is positioned, place single pixels on the screen and, using this as a reference point reposition the cursor accurately on the screen.

Three other facilities in Pen Mode deserve special mention.

BAND enables a line to be drawn from the point where this facility is selected, to the current cursor position. As the cursor is then moved, this line is stretched. Its suggested use for producing angled lines is very effective and time saving. It can also be used to Erase sweeps of the artwork rather like a windscreen wiper.

CLEAR can be used either to erase the entire screen, or a quarter screen if it is enlarged. But it can also be used to set the entire screen to ink and paper colour.

SAVE PICTURE IN MEMORY amd RECALL PICTURE FROM MEMORY are especially useful options which, hopefully speak tor themselves.

PLUS!!

The most creative facilities this program offers, are yet to come. If you select BRUSH MODE, then as well as still being able to use most of the options offered in Pen Mode, you can draw using 'brush' strokes. The effect is sensational, and has to be seen to be believed. The width and pattern of stroke can be altered from an italic nib type effect to a spray dot effect, not unlike a slow motion air brush. Each effect can be startlingly enhanced by going over areas a number of times with the 'brush'. Density and shading can be controlled very effectively in this manner. And some very beautiful freehand work achieved if the straight and accurate lines of Pen Mode seem a little too mechanistic and cold for your style.

BLOCK MODE allows blocks of up to 64 character cells to be repositioned on the screen, or copied to another part of the screen. A square of 8x8 characters is available for rotating objects and also to mirror them.

TEXT MODE and UDG MODE allow text and a selection of UDG characters to be positioned on the screen. They are 'picked up' from the banks displayed and can be doubled in height, rotated, reversed or inverted before being displayed on the screen wherever you position them using the cursor.

LIGHTMAGIC also offers two other familiar options. The UDG DESIGNER and the COMPSCREEN. Both are, by now, essential tools of the Graphics utility and are, in this instance, very easy to use. The first is self explanatory to graphics addicts and the second enables the user to compress and save data read into the Spectrum. COMPSCREEN is on the cassette after LIGHTMAGIC and is loaded separately. The amount of memory saved will of course depend on the amount of information in the screen you wish to compress. Once compressed, the start addresses of the screens are listed with the start addresses of the reconstruction routine and the RAMTOP value that will have to be set. The screens are then saved to tape. To retrieve the screens for use in your own program, a CLEAR command is used to set RAM- TOP, the screens LOADed and a RANDOMISE USER call is then necessary together with the DATA screen start call, to display each picture. All screens and UDGs can be saved and loaded to and from tape of course, whether compressed or not.

NOT FORGETTING...

The manual accompanying LIGHTMAGIC gets full marks for clarity and ease of use. An example program for using UDGs in your own program is included along with comprehensive hints on Erasing, Enlarging and Reducing, with fully worked examples for using Pen and Brush Modes, although in fact I have not tried these yet. There are layouts for both the Spectrum 48K and the Spectrum+ printed on the back cover so that you can produce your own overlays with all the commands for LIGHTMAGIC at your fingertips. If you did not wish to go this far, the commands for Screen Editor are Tabulated at the end of the manual for quick reference along with a clear and accurate index.

All in all, LIGHTMAGIC has an exceptionally well produced manual and a powerful and impressive piece of software from New Generation. One can only hope that this Utility will find a place with all the other software being used in Schools and at home.

GRAPHICS '85

A comprehensive review of the state of the art by Colin Christmas.

As we see this old year out and welcome the new one in, it's a better time than most to stand back and take stock. Looking back (and leaving the prophecies and predictions to others) it must surely be agreed that for Spectrum users with an eye on Graphics it has been a most exciting year. I can't speak for other departments but for me, it has been Christmas every issue.

In this issue I want to do something special take a look at the goodies that have come our way. Our way? Who are We? We are the Graphics Grabbers, Artwork Addicts, Design Doodlers. For us the screen is a window on a world of colour, images, line, shape, pattern, design, texture, light and shade. And like a window it opens out into an exciting new visual world. For business, for profit, for learning for discovering or for pleasure. From the weekend dabbler or doodler to the serious professional, from the games enthusiast to the educational user, from beginner to experienced programmer and right across the age range, you will find Spectrum owners who are hooked on graphics.

It's fairly formidable task - covering the range of Graphics Hardware and Software now available to Spectrum owners but let's get started.

SOFTWARE

PRINT N'PLOTTER Products have given us two thoroughbreds in graphics packages, stablemates in fact. Both are already household names in the world of Spectrum Graphics. Paintbox, redesigned and renamed Paintplus since first reviewed, and Screen Machine.

Paintplus now has over twenty new features added to the original. It is Microdrive and Grafpad compatible, and offers cursor control from either keyboard or joystick, swift and smooth or slow and smooth. You have a choice here too. Power to program up to eighty four user definable characters in the UDG Editor, experimenting all the time with the Sketch Pad Facility before deciding to use them in screen graphics or programs. Also on the Menu, Precision Plotter enabling high resolution screen graphics work to be attempted and then combined with your already designed UDGs and stored in four UDG banks.

Multiple screen files can be achieved by working your way through the twenty eight page manual which accompanies the software cassette. The new features are found here in Precision Plotter, Screen Planner and Organiser. They include a mode called Paperwash, a facility for Grabbing from Screens, Box Draw, Enlarge, Edit modes and many more. One side of the cassette has demonstration programs to inspire the fainthearted.

This toolkit needs patient and diligent effort put into it before those efforts are really rewarded. It is not for those who want an 'instant meal' to be taken on the move so to speak. It's not for doodlers either. Members of either group will enjoy the heart of the product only. To get the most out of it you need some application skills.

If Paintplus were an O' Level, then Screen Machine would be an 'A' Level. By that I mean that success with the one will probably lead to moving up to the other. It is capable, of lifting earlier work done say on Paintplus, to new and more professional heights.

The demo programs on the cassette are not only inspiring, as was the case with Paintplus, but in the case of Screen Machine are also meant to be instructive. The program for the example of Flip Screen Animation can, like the others, be broken into, so that you can see, or begin to see how this impressive feat was achieved. The manual explains too, how it was done, and with this and its other detailed explanations, instructions and suggestions, gives a clear indication right from the start of how powerful a utility Screen Machine really is.

It should be said that a good working knowledge of BASIC and of the Spectrum Manual itself is essential before trying to get to grips with this tool. One of its most innovative and useful facilities is that of enabling programmers to save time and memory space by having access to instant Machine Code routines for Compressing Screen displays, saved normally as 6912 Bytes, but now being stored as only 247 5 bytes. There are sections too, in the manual, with instructions for adapting Screen Machine to microdrive, for a wide range of screen modifications and for text compilation into machine code.

These two from Print N' Plotter, then, a invaluable twosome, especially when teamed up together. They will not suit every style or requirement, so read on.

From NEW GENERATION SOFTWARE came Lightmagic. And that might just suit some. It is easier to use, or rather to get straight into and, in the true sense of the word it is fun. If all you want to do to start off with is to make pictures, play with UDGs and so on, in a light hearted way that will be entertaining and will not tax your concentration too greatly at first, then Lightmagic is the friendly tool for the job. It is therefore a good starter pack in my opinion and I have observed its magnetic attraction inaction with children aged eight to sixteen with only keyboard familiarity on the Spectrum.

The manual gets full marks from me. Clear, easy to read, well planned and with information, instructions, index, tips and summaries all included in such a way as to show that a great deal of thought went into its organisation and production. Text Mode and UDG Mode are fascinating and easy to work with. Text and characters appear at the bottom of the screen and can then be 'picked up' and positioned anywhere you want them in your picture or design.

Then, just when you will probably be ready to move on to more ambitious projects, graphically, Lightmagic proves its magic again. The program also offers a facility called UDG Designer for the creation and editing of your own graphics characters which you can then use in your own pictures and programs. The facility for Com Dressing pictures and saving memory is offered in the COMPSCREEN option. This is loaded separately from the cassette. It's there in other words, when you need it. Later rather than sooner probably.

Alongside Lightmagic, not for comparison, but because for me they have the same feel about them, might come Leonard, from CREATIVE SPARKS. Again, full marks for the manual. Manuals ought to be user friendly as the software I think and in the case of Leonardo both are in fact true. I don't hesitate to recommend it as an excellent starter pack which is then capable of extending your own abilities as you learn to use it. A preliminary review of Leonardo appeared in the last issue of ZXC.

This is a good place to suggest that anyone who is into graphics or who wants to get started should get out and about into the shops to make their own evaluations. Failing that use the information in this article to put pen to paper and write off and ask for details of packages from the manufacturers.

USER-DEFINED POSSIBILITIES

John Gilbert says: Why not stop playing games and do something useful instead?

The definition of a utility in computer parlance has widened in the past year. In the early days of the industry it meant a program which aided the machine code programmer to accomplish a task. Now it can have five meanings.

The first category takes in the graphics and sound toolkits. Those expand the Basic command set, adding instructions which create shapes, fill them in, and save pictures to tape or microdrive. The sound generators sometimes included within those packages can make music or even create a voice for your computer.

Machine code utilities include assemblers, disassemblers and monitors, all of which are designed to help you write your own machine code routines. If you are not up to that sort of exercise you may like to acquire a new operating system or high level language such as Pascal, Forth or C.

General utilities which will teach you the highway code, help you with car maintenance or show you how to diet efficiently are also available.

Graphics packages have the most visible effect on a Spectrum or QL, and they have proved popular this year even with people who would not normally program a computer. Light Magic, from New Generation, started the interest in all things graphical during 1985. It carried on where Melbourne Draw, from Melbourne House, and Paintbox, from Print 'n' Plotter, left off.

The program is totally menu driven and can be operated either under keyboard or joystick control. There are five modes of display. The first is pen mode in which, you can draw on the screen using an electronic nib.

Circle and Fill mode will allow you to produce circles and arcs which can then be filled in with colour. Brush mode is similar to Pen mode but you can use 10 types of brush.

The block mode operates in parts, or blocks, of the screen. It allows you to rotate and mirror blocks on pictures, saving time if you need to draw an object which is symmetrical.

Finally, the Text mode enables you to write on the screen. User-defined graphics can also be produced as a UDG generator is included in the package.

If Light Magic does not impress you then The Artist, from Softechnics surely will. It is one of the most powerful packages on the market.

The Artist can be used to take one section of a picture and reproduce it on another part of the screen, where it can be enlarged or reduced. The package will also allow you to produce UDGs and a animator utility is included within the program. Not satisfied with that the author has also included a simple routine which will take a screen display and reduce the number of RAM bytes required to store it.

Art Studio, from OCP outperforms The Artist in almost every way. It has superior speed to the Softechnics package and the pull down menus are easy to use. It can be used with disc, tape or microdrive and contains a printer driver which handles most Spectrum compatible printers. It should be of use to professional artists and designers as well as to the home user.

A similar package came onto the market for the QL. GraphiQL marked the entry of quality software house Talent onto the QL scene. Not only can the package produce every conceivable type of line, circle, are and angle, but it can also be used to define textures, using form and colour. Those can then be used with Fill routines.

The program allows you to enlarge shapes on the screen. That facility enables you to ensure that Fill texture does not leak out of a shape which has a hole in its border.

QL Art, from Eidersoft, has the same sort of facilities as GraphiQL but does not have the same professional edge to it. Unlike the Talent package it is fully menu driven. One of the faults with GraphiQL is that you must rely on the instruction manual or special help option for information about user commands.

Illustrator, from Gilsoft, is the long awaited adventure graphics designer for the Spectrum. It is no ordinary package as it produces graphic screens which can be put into adventures designed by Gilsoft's adventure design program The Quill. Although the routine can only produce static screen pictures it brightens up the adventures written by its sister program and gives adventure programmers more scope for invention.

White Lightning, from Ocean, is one of the most exciting advances in graphics design packages for the Spectrum that I have seen in the last year. Its aim is to allow you to produce high standard arcade game graphics and, in order to do that, you must use its special Forth-type language. The package combines a sprite generator with a screen layout designer. It is great fun to use and its limitations are only in the mind of the beholder.

A similar package has been produced for the QL, although Super Sprite Generator, from Digital Integration, will produce and animate only sprites and not full screen game backdrops.

The program adds extensions to SuperBasic and is run in two parts. The first is the generator and the second the animation routine. It is an excellent package which has been used by professional programmers to produce arcade games. Night Nurse from Shadow Games is one example of its use.

Only one good example of a sound toolkit came onto the market last year. Varitalk produces speech through the Spectrum Beep unit. Its performance can be enhanced using a loudspeaker or by putting the sound through a tape recorded output channel.

A large number of phonetic sounds are included in the package. Those can be accessed by using a code made up of the first letter of the type of sound required and the number of that sound from a list which has been provided on the cassette inlay. There are no parameters within the program to allow you to set emotion or inflection into the speech. You cannot even get the package to ask a question properly.

Machine code utilities may only appeal to assembly language programmers but that audience has grown larger during the past year, especially within the ranks of those who own a QL.

No less than four QL assemblers arrived on the market during 1985. The most powerful was from Metacomco. The QL Assembler Development Kit comprises a full screen editor, together with a three-pass compiler.

The editor can input ASCII code files and so can be used with code Basic programs and even word processor files. Once your assembly code listing has been entered you must save it to microdrive, or disc, and then load it into the assembler program. The package takes approximately two minutes - and three code overlays - to convert the code file into a machine code format.

Also included with the assembler is a library of QDOS calls. Those can be named within you programs. A linker was put into the second version of the assembler package at which time Metacomco dropped the price.

Computer One was also quick to produce an assembler for the QL. The difference between it and the Metacomco program is that it can be loaded into the machine complete with the source editor. You can, therefore, write your assembly program and then convert it to machine code without having to load any overlays from microdrive.

The Sinclair Research assembler is similar to that from Metacomco, but it is not as powerful. Incidentally, the full screen editor in the package was written for Metacomco. GST, the company which wrote the Sinclair assembler, just does not seem to have the knack of producing editors.

Adder Publishing was not as quick to produce an assembler package as Metacomco and Computer One but it did release one after the launch of its classic QL Advanced User Guide.

The program was similar in structure to the other products on the market but adheres closely to the notation in the User Guide Book.

It was some time before anyone realised that what the QL market was missing was a debugging tool such as a monitor or disassembler. That was soon put right, however, as four companies put monitors onto the market almost simultaneously.

The first program came from Digita1 Integration. QL Super Monitor is an economical package, put out in a cassette format box. It performs its task well and allows to view and alter code in a hexadecimal format.

Computer One was again quick on the scene with a monitor which followed, and was compatible with, its assembler package.

Not to be outdone Hi-Soft also decided that it should bring out a token QL product and opted for Andrew Pennel's QL MON. Unlike the Computer One program it is not automatically invoked when the machine is powered-up. Pennel's monitor is a QDOS job and can be called simply by typing a new SuperBasic command, MON. As it is easy to break out of the package back into SuperBasic the monitor can reside in RAM, be called at any time, and not disrupt any of the other tasks being performed by the QL.

The same technique is used in Tony Tebby's QL Monitor which is produced by Sinclair Research. The package has all the usual debugging facilities, a one line disassembler, and routines which displays the values of the registers or a block of memory in hexadecimal.

Another good feature of the package is that you can set it to run on any channel or in any window. That means that you could set up several versions of the program within the machine, each of which work on different sections of code.

You may prefer, however, not to get tangled up in the web of machine code. That does not mean, however, that you have to stick to SuperBasic, or to buying packages off the shelf. You can still experiment with QDOS and machine code by buying one of the toolkits or SuperBasic extension packages which have just become available.

The most famous toolkit, of course, was written by Tony Tebby and can be obtained for the QL from Sinclair Research. It provides a whole spectrum of new SuperBasic commands and run-alone programs which show the power of the QL multi-tasking operating system.

The main body of QL Toolkit comprises SuperBasic extensions which control jobs, allocate or clear memory, and display the status of the system.

A series of separate programs, some in SuperBasic, some machine code, are also included in the package. They provide a user-defined graphics generator, an exceptionally fast back-up utility, and a multi-tasked digital clock which can be run while the package is in operation.

One task which the toolkit will not do is to check microdrives for errors or repair files which have become corrupt. Those sort of occurrences may be well known to you. They are unfortunate but fairly regular and if you do not have a back-up copy of a file you will usually be in trouble.

The Cartridge Doctor, from Talent, does away with many of the problems posed by the microdrives. It checks every sector on a cartridge to see it any errors have occurred and informs you if files have been corrupted.

Once you know about an error you can set up the Cartridge Doctor to deal with it. The most usual way is to read the file in and display it in ASCII format. A cursor is then provided by the program and you can rewrite any parts of the file which have been damaged. You can even repair the headers of files if necessary.

Machine code is a low level language because you cannot understand it but the computer finds it easy to understand. A high level language, such as Basic, is easy to understand from your point of view - as a user - but needs some translation before the computer can understand it. There are several types of high level language for both the Spectrum and QL.

Although Sinclair Basic, for the Spectrum, is highly respected it does have some faults and one software house, Betasoft has brought out a new version of structured Basic. Many of the additions provided by Beta Basic can also be found on machines such as the BBC Microcomputer, Amstrad and QL. They include WHEN and WHILE loops, a real time clock, new graphics commands and instructions to make Interface 1 and microdrives easier to use.

The Betasoft version of Basic is one of the best on the market for any machine. It has undergone several transformations during its relatively short three-year life span.

Pascal is another popular language and can often be found in schools. Indeed it is on the curriculum of some O and A level examination boards.

The first company onto the market with a full version of the language was Hi-Soft. Although it does not have an ISO standard of certification, which most full versions of the language have, it does run many times faster than Sinclair Basic and includes Logo turtle graphics.

The big Pascal launch of the year, however, was for the QL, from Metacomco. The QL Pascal Development Kit did receive ISO standard certification - an award which is to Pascal what a BSA certificate is to car safety seats.

The Metacomco package provides a full version of the language with extensions for QL graphics and sound. The source code is taken from a full screen editor and compiled into true 68000 code.

It was the first QL product to receive a Sinclair User Classic and, indeed, it was the first utility to receive that award for software excellence.

Computer One brought out a version of Pascal which while not up to the standard of the compiler from Metacomco comes a very close second. The first version of the package compiles the source into P-code which, although faster than SuperBasic, requires the Pascal operating system to be in memory. Computer One later amended the program so that code could either be translated into P-code or compiled to form a job which would run without the operating system being present.

The compiler is more user friendly than the Metacomco package - all sections of the screen editor and compiler can be accessed through a menu based program - but the QL Pascal Development Kit wins hands down in the features race.

Metacomco and Computer One both brought out versions of the popular artificial intelligence list processing language LISP. The Computer One program is less expensive than the one from Metacomco. Both versions can deal with the QL graphics commands and both are interpreted.

The medium level language C also proved popular with QL software houses during 1985. The first company to bring out a version was GST, which is famous for the 68K/OS alternative QL operating system. Unfortunately the product is a version of public domain RATC, a scaled down version of the original with additions to allow the use of QL graphics and QDOS traps. It is, of course, a compiler but the source must first be typed into a screen editor, run through a compiler which produces assembly language source, and put through an assembler to produce 68008 code. It is an unnecessarily complex operation and the code could be compiled in one go if GST had produced a machine code compiler.

GST also ranks among the companies which brought out QL operating systems in 1985. Its 68K/OS was originally intended to be the QL operating system. The package consists of as ROM board, slotted into the expansion slot at the side of the QL, and several microdrive cartridges.

As operating systems are usually judged on the amount of software available for them 68K/OS is a dismal failure. So far GST has only produced an assembler and word processor for its baby. One wonders what would have happened if Sir Clive had decided to use the GST operating system.

The C/PM-68K operating system from disc drive manufacturer Quest Automation did little better than the GST product. A few business packages are available for it but, despite the fact that it uses discs or microdrives, few software houses have taken up the challenge to produce anything of note for it.

A large variety of DIY utilities came onto the market in 1985. They teach everything from garden design to touch typing and computer athletics.

Sinclair Research wins our first Most Useless Utility Award for 1985 with QL Gardener. While it is obvious to see the benefits of a plant dictionary and garden design package for those who like gardening, and own a QL, with the dearth of QL software the company must be green behind the ears to bring out such a product. Where are all the fantastic business and educational programs which will show off the true power of the 16-bit - or is it 32-bit - machine?

Our second MUU of 1985 award goes to Car Cure, a program which aims to diagnose the problems which you may encounter with your car. All you have to do is type in the symptoms of your vehicle's illness and the program will come up with an answer to your problems - maybe. Most of the time it just recommends that you contact a qualified mechanic immediately.

Another car-orientated program which is marginally more useful than Car Cure is Highway Code. Through a series of multi-choice questions it will teach you about the signs and situations which you may encounter on the road. The graphics are simple, but effective, and the program has been checked by a qualified driving instructor.

If you want to stay fit then Microfitness from VO2 is for you. It will take you through a series of carefully graded exercises culminating in - I hope for your sake - physical fitness. When it was reviewed early in 1985 our own Clare Edgeley found out how unfit she was!

Finally, touch typing programs for beginners came from QL software houses during the past year. Two were produced, one from Computer One and the other four months later, from Sinclair Research. Touch 'n' Go from Sinclair Research provides more in the way of graded exercises and a more complex results table.

The utility market is the area in which the QL has done best. There are many languages available for it and a host of machine code utilities which allow the use of the power of the 68008 processor and QDOS.

It is a pity that the same cannot be said of the Spectrum. Very few utilities were produced for the machine and most software houses have moved to other machines. That is unfortunate as the Spectrum still has a lot of power within it which lies untapped because people like you cannot get at it.