Super Media Manager

ZX Computing

Brian Beckett

QL COLUMN Brian Beckett reviews Super Media Manager. I hate to say "I told you so" (but I did) and all is still quiet on the Amstrad Front despite last month's flurry of excitement over a quick deal with the newly-formed QL Suppliers Group. Avid Beckett (the other one) readers will also be glad to know that Godot would seem to be alive and well and working for Amstrad's PR firm as I'm still waiting for him to "check with the client and get back to me" regarding last month's quest for a quote on the QL's future (or lack of it) so I could pass it on to an information-starved public. This may actually be a rare case of "no news" indeed being "good news", there's little doubt that Amstrad would like to see the QL quietly sink into oblivion but so far its supporters have kept it afloat by steadfastly refusing to accept defeat. Software houses and peripheral manufacturers have invested too much money in QL products to simply give up without a fight and the computer's 100,000 plus owners are just about enough of a market to make the fight worthwhile in terms at the balance sheet. US interests have joined in the effort to acquire rights to Sir Clive's brainchild and - as long as the talking goes on - there is a very real possibility of some sort of agreement soon that will keep it alive in spite of everything. Which ever way things go, however, I can look forward to a quote from Amstrad's PR man - thereby successfully ending an epic adventure that is beginning to rival Galahad's search or the Grail. MANAGING MEDIA As promised, my Super Media Manager from Digital Precision arrived a couple at weeks ago and looks to be just about everything that the company claims for it. The talks at Digital have many virtues but understating things is not one of them so when one at their packages matches all the superlatives (and the ones I've played with do) you know that you've got your hands on a winner. It also sells for £39.95 which - if not actually cheap - is commendably reasonable considering what you're getting for the money and it you're feeling a bit flush you can save a few bob by buying Supercharge (£59.95) at the same time and get Super Media Manager (I do wish Digital would dig up a different superlative and do style conscious writers a good turn) for a tenner less. Super Media Manager comes on either a single disc or four microdrives and is accompanied by a well-presented manual which is both informative and deliberately humorous. Generally the program allows you to do just about anything you might wish with microdrive or disc files and to copy between them with more flexibility than I've seen in competing products (at which there aren't all that many anyway). The program is extensively menu driven, screen displays are good and the commands are generally easy to follow and operate. Facilities exist for extensive sector editing and copying (disc and microdrive) and for recovering lost or damaged tiles as long as there is something there for the Manager to locate. We used it to recover some stuff on dodgy microdrives (so far my disc package has behaved decently enough) and was most impressed with the results. The stuff I went after wasn't important but the facility to get "lost" data back again is almost a prime directive - especially it you're solely dependent upon microdrives which, if they aren't nearly as unreliable as their critics claim, are temperamental to say the very least. The Manager's most impressive lecture is probably its ability to read and copy data from non-QL discs and, in particular, from the IBM and IBM-compatible MS-DOS system. I really haven't had a chance to explore the full range of possibilities opened up by this option but a couple of quick test runs lived up to Digital's promise without fault. BBC and CP/M systems may also be read or copied. I don't think I need to dwell on all the implications offered by this facility and the benefits arising but suffice it to say that it gives the QL a powerful boost and goes a long way towards bringing the QL into the mainstream micro club. The Manager will not be fully compatible with all QL disc interfaces (those which have not been manufactured to include all the facilities of the QL's disc operating ROM) and Digital suggest that - it there are any doubts - that would-be buyers check up on their systems beforehand. For what it's worth, the Manager is not protected by the Lenslok security system (unlike Supercharge) which I find a blessing and I hope that Digital is rewarded with sufficient profits to compensate for any successful piracy that might arise. QL BARGAINS By the time you read this, the POW Show will have come and gone and we will probably know whether or not the QL is to survive in anything like its present form. We should also have a pretty good idea if any of the various "sons-of-QL" schemes being bandied about are going to get all the ground. Either way you - unless you've decided to consign your beloved QL to the outer darkness and are busy looking at IBM clones - should keep a sharp eye out for peripheral bargains. A lot of companies have invested in QL-specific peripherals and a lot at them won't survive the competition even if the computer lives on. The most obvious is memory expansion cards, modules combined RAM/disc interfaces and so on. Just about everybody involved in the QL business has some sort of memory add-an available and - taking Darwin to heart - a lot of them wouldn't make it even in a healthy market. This is not a criticism of the various products (although there are a lot at criticisms one could make in some cases) but just a recognition of economic reality. But the market isn't all that healthy and there's a lot of excess competition in a few areas so, if you're in the mood for a bit at expansion, shop around for a good deal because you will probably find it. Sadly (from the buyer's point of view) this doesn't yet apply to software but - if the QL does go the way of all flesh - the time will certainly come. To close on a positive note, Saga Systems is releasing a QL version of its remote control 2001 keyboard for the Spectrum. It's about time somebody gave us an attractive, alternate keyboard but (damn it) it doesn't match my disc interface. If it accommodates yours without a hassle, I'd have a good look as Saga's Spectrum keyboards are very good.