Making the Most of Your Spectrum Micro Drives

Personal Computer News

John Lettice

'Making the most of your Spectrum Microdrives' by Richard G Hurley, published by Micro Press at £5.95 (paperback, 152 pages). 'Making the most of...' is something of a misnomer here, depending on your view of 'most'. If what you're looking for is a more in-depth guide to the Microdrives than the Sinclair manual provides you'll be disappointed - though some of the explanations are a shade clearer here, that isn't really what this book's about. What Mr Hurley does do is provide applications and games programs that use the Microdrives, starting with files and data processing in chapter three - surely enough to kill the book stone dead on the bookstands - and producing an address book and an electronic diary in fairly short order. The program notes are sketchier than I'd have liked, but at least the book is providing much needed software for the drives. After the filing section, the programs become endearingly whimsical. I'm not sure of the utility of the English/French translator, but just as soon as I've rounded up 63 people and 63 Interface 1s I'll get cracking on the Adventure program. That's right, Mr Hurley has produced a networked adventure game for up to 63 players. The Slide Show program is also a handy idea, and shows what the Microdrives are capable of. The fast loading time means you can store a number of screens on cartridge and call them up when you need them. The book winds up with a quick look at Interface 2, complete with a Very Long Arcade Game.