MI3 RGB Monitor Interface

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

EXTRA BITS Two things which make a micro are hardware and software. Software is the part you can't see - the program, recorded on tape or disk. Hardware is that part that you can see - the computer itself, disk drives, the cassette recorder, a printer. Anything which you plug into your micro to add certain facilities or functions is called a peripheral. In February's C&VG we decided that it was about time we looked at some of the hardware which might interest the games-playing micro-owner. Since then, a lot more add-ons have been released, so we've decided to make Extra Bits a regular feature. You'll find all the latest hardware releases in these pages every three months. Just to prove that we know there's more to the hobby than software. So if there's anything that you think deserves a mention and perhaps a review on these pages, then drop me a line with some details. If you're already in with the communications revolution then you may be a member of Micronet. If so, write to me via Mailbox. My account number is 012 786 556. NOT THE ZX83 A lot has happened for the games player since February. One of the most interesting and closely-watched launches was Sinclair's new micro - the QL. The initials stand for Quantum Leap which sounds like it should mean enormous but, in fact, means quite the reverse. A quantum leap is the smallest possible. Maybe Clive doesn't mean it's a giant leap forward at all. Perhaps he thinks it's only a small step down from, say, an IBM PC which costs many times more. Indeed the free software which comes on microdrive cartridge with the QL will soon be made available to IBM owners, at a cost of around £800. Although Nigel Searle, Sinclair's Managing Director, said at the QL's launch that the machine was aimed at small businesses and not at the games market, many software houses are realising how good a machine the QL will be for writing games on. Its very fast. It has 128K of RAM; enough to store a very large arcade game, and for adventure freaks, the 800k of space available on microdrives could bring some of the traditional adventures out from the massive mainframe computers and onto a home micro for the first time. SPECTRUM INTO QL WILL GO Software house Joe the Lion is currently working on a Spectrum emulator for the QL. This, we're promised, will allow you to load and run Spectrum games on your new QL. The adaptor to handle the cassette input (the QL works only on microdrives) plus the software will cost around £25. MONITOR YOUR SPECTRUM Spectrum owners unhappy with the quality of the display which the machine produces on a normal television can now use a professional monitor, but luxury comes at a price. There are two ways of linking a Spectrum to a monitor. Microvitec, well known maker of display monitors and given much publicity on the BBC's Computer Programme, now has a monitor especially for the Spectrum. And if you think you may ever outgrow your trusty little micro with rubber keyboard, then it'll also fit a QL. It's a standard monitor in a black case to match Sinclair's fairly uninteresting colour scheme. As well as having standard connections for a BBC and QL (which has normal RGB output to drive standard monitors), it is also the first to have the added circuitry inside to accept a connection straight from the Spectrum's edge connector. Although a video signal is available from this connector, it is not in the correct form to be used by a monitor and until now no-one has converted it. The Microvitec product in question is the 1431 and it costs £286, which is around £35 on top of the basic Beeb-only model. This covers the extra chips and things to handle the Spectrum. IT'S A MIRACLE If £35 for a few chips sounds a little expensive to you, then you obviously haven't heard of the Miracle Systems MI3 interface. Its a fairly large black box which you plug into the back of the Spectrum. It then has a socket on the outside to allow a normal RGB monitor to connect to the machine in the same way as the BBC. In effect, this machine has the same circuit as the special Microvitec monitor but fits on the Spectrum directly instead. As an added extra, it also contains a sound amplifier. A volume knob on top is provided to keep the neighbours happy and the box takes all its Power and signals from the edge connector. And so it should - at a cost of just over £70. It's better value to buy the Microvitec monitor and put your ear closer to the machine. Unless of course you already have a monitor. And talking of TVs, the new Sinclair flat screen TV is now available, but still only through mail order. It costs £79 and is a true pocket television. You can run it from a mains adaptor or a special battery. There's no connection for linking it to a computer, although such a facility would be impractical anyway and rather difficult to read. RISING THERMALS Until recently the only printer which would connect straight to a ZX81 or Spectrum without extra hardware was the official Sinclair electrostatic printer. Currently priced at £39, it's still pretty good as value goes. Problem is that it doesn't go very far where print quality is concerned. The paper's also quite expensive and is difficult to write on. Without opting for the expense of a professional dot matrix or daisywheel printer, there is still a happy medium to be found (Russell Grant take note) in thermal printers. These use special paper, but it's treated in a different way. It's a lot thinner, and you can write on it too. Rolls of this thermal paper cost around £l each and, because it's thinner, you get a lot more on a roll. There are two thermal models, distributed by Dean Electronics. Called the Alphacom 42 and 32. they cost £99.95 and £59.95 respectively. The 32 will plug straight into a Spectrum or ZX81 and print the full graphics of the machine. As well as being easier to read than the output from Sinclair's device, it also prints faster. The model 42 comes complete with an interface to link the printer to an Atari, Vic, 64, Dragon or BBC and prints all the graphics. Further interfaces can be plugged in and they cost £25 each. So if you've got a Beeb and a Dragon, you can link them both to the printer for a total of under £125. The Commodore version works with both the Vic and the 64, and even prints cursor control characters properly. A couple more Commodore add-ons have arrived recently. Protek has brought out an interface which will allow you to use any tape recorder with your Vic or 64 - you won't have to fork out for the overpriced Commodore version. This box of tricks cost £9.95, and Protek is based in Edinburgh. TRUE MAGIC Facing imminent launch from Commodore itself is Magic Voice, a speech synthesiser for the 64. It comes as a cartridge but has the expansion slot duplicated on the back, in true Sinclair style, so that you can also plug games in. Some speech systems work on allophone systems. This splits the words up into syllables so that you can produce any word. The Commodore unit only stores whole words, and can hold 235 of them. You can change this list of words if you can digitise your own voice. Commodore will be launching such a system in the summer, called Voicelab, which will let you do just this. No price has been announced for this, but Magic Voice itself costs £49.95. No doubt other software companies will produce games with built -in speech, but Commodore has started the ball rolling with 'Wizard of Wor'. MICRONET HITS 64 Also due out soon for the 64 is a Micronet modem to allow you to link up to the Micronet service. Launch date for the system is mid May, and until then they'll all be hard at work preparing the Commodore 64 database of news, reviews and software. DISK OR MICRODRIVE? Since the launch of the Byte Drive 500 from ITL, you can now buy a true 5.25in floppy disk drive from your local Spectrum dealer. Based around a Shugart drive, the package includes all the necessary interfaces to link to your Spectrum and costs £245. The interface alone, which allows you to use the drive of your choice, costs around £90. However there are a couple of problems with the device. A couple of people have told me that it's rather difficult to use and that the commands are rather complicated - especially in machine code. Slightly more serious is the almost total lack of software released on disk for the Spectrum. This makes the system an ideal buy for a programmer, but not such a bargain for the games player - unless software companies will provide ways of backing up cassette games to disk which is very unlikely in view of recent events. DRIVE WITH CLIVE If exercise is the name of the game, then these two new Spectrum add-ons will interest you. A driving module is now available for the Spectrum, similar in function to the add-on for the ColecoVision. It's a steering wheel contraption which plugs into the Spectrum to add reality to those road race games. The device is produced by Spirit Software which is based in London. I can't tell you anymore about the company as they don't have a phone number at the moment. But if we hear any more news about this product, then you'll be the first to know. Also recently announced is an exercise bike complete with computer interface. The idea seems to be that you use it like a joystick. In your attempts to out-run a Pac-Man, the faster you pedal, the faster you move on screen. Sounds quite clever, really, but rather tiring. After 20 screens of action, your legs'll probably feel a little worse for wear. If you'd like to try your own hand (leg?), then details are from Micro Scope in Maidenhead. HEARING VOICES AGAIN Latest in the line of speech synthesisers to land on my desk is an offering from Cheetah, which comes as a little black box (don't they all) and sits on the user port at the back of a Spectrum. Unlike the Commodore Magic Voice cartridge, this one uses a system of allophones. This means that instead of storing whole words, it stores syllables which you can link together to produce absolutely any word in any language. Although this is harder to program, it is far more versatile and well worth the extra effort. You won't need any software to run the package - it's all on a ROM, so there're no tapes to load. It does come with a cassette demo, though, complete with sample speech in foreign languages, including German and French. And the Scottish one's pretty funny too. Sweet Talker, from Cheetah, costs £29.75. MORE MODEMS Latest news on the modem front is that Minor Miracles has brought out its world standard modem. Although still awaiting approval from British Telecom, the company told me this afternoon that, if the customer wants one, they'll be more than happy to supply it. And at a starting price of around £118, I'm not surprised. But rest assured that the product is well worth the money. It's beautifully made in real plastic, and features all the different baud rate settings. As well as allowing you to link up to Micronet, you can also dial up the various 300 baud bulletin board services which are run in this country. And, if your 'phone bill can stand the pace you can try some of the foreign ones too, The modem will handle all the different rates, leaving you to worry how you're ever going to pay for all those international calls.

Billed as the world's smallest TV, the new Sinclair device features a 1.5 inch screen. Power is from either a mains adaptor or special battery. Picture quality is excellent, although sound is rather distorted at louder levels. Available through mail order the set costs £79.95. Power adaptor and batteries are extra. This new screen technology has still to be used as the display for a computer. Until the size of the screen can be increased, this will be impractical.