ST New Products

SSI HITS--NEW FOR THE ST

Strategic Simulations Inc. has created Atari ST versions of three of its most popular games, Wizard's Crown, Rings of Zilfin and Colonial Conquest.

In Wizard's Crown, a fantasy adventure game, you'll have to survive detailed treks and travails in dungeons and castles to retrieve a magic crown. (And keep your eyes peeled for high-resolution games-within- games.) Wizard's Crown has five levels and over 80 hours of play for intermediate role-playing gamers.

Rings of Zilfin uses strong, vividly animated window graphics as you seek the missing rings that will release the land of Batiniq from the cruel Lord Dragos. You'll go into buildings by using a new kind of animation that provides screen insets, zooms into room interiors and provides scrolling landscapes keyed to a strategic map and flashing character locator.

Colonial Conquest lets players relive the time when Great Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and Japan each pursued dreams of dominance through colonial expansion. Bleed the people dry: tax them for espionage money or funds for subversion of minor powers or buying armies and navies. Conquer as many minor nations as possible. A great game for the Machiavellian!

$39.95 each. Strategic Simulations Inc, 1046 North Rengstorff Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043. (415) 964-1353. PRESS.

MINIGOLF AND BRIDGE

Minigolf ($19.85) places you on one of three tough miniature golf courses, each of which places various obstacles in your path. The game tracks up to four players and includes an editor to create or modify your own courses. Courses are designed to conform to professional and tournament standards.

The bidding in Bridge 5.0 ($34.95) is improved over its predecessor, Bridge 4.0, and the program stores interesting hands on disk for replay and gives you the option of choosing the number of high-card points to be dealt. You can also let the computer bid or play for you.

Artworx Software Company, Inc., 1844 Penfield Road, Penfield, NY 18526. (800) 828- 6573. PRESS.

MASTERPLAN

Many commands in this powerful GEM-based spreadsheet are identical to those in Lotus 1-2-3 (version 1A)--but the program's easy to use. MasterPlan reads and writes Lotus and VIP Professional data files while making great use of the ST's graphics capabilities. Features include use of icons for easier executions, multiple windows, color business presentation graphics and hard disk support.

$129.95. ISD Marketing, Inc., 2651 John Street, Unit 3, Markham, ON L3R 2W5. (416) 479-1880. FINAL.

AND EVEN MORE FROM MICHTRON

It's the 1990s, and a new breed of shuttle has been introduced with simplified controls and the ability to land at several locations. In Shuttle II ($39.95) you wear the hats of mission control officer and flight commander as you repair a disabled communications satellite.

In Perfect Match ($39.95), 12 questions and 12 answers are dealt face down on your screen. Each player picks a card and tries to match it with its respective question or answer. Questions cover World War II, science, United States presients, the Bible, sports, etc.

With GFA Draft ($99.95), a two-dimensional drawing program, you can design circuits, architectural plans, technical designs--or you can just doodle. Drawings can be manipulated with window functions, changed and then changed back without destroying the original conception, and they can be printed on any printer or plotter to scale and in color. GFA Draft allows drawings of up to 255 layers, 10 of which can be shown at once.

SuperConductor ($79.95), a 16-track MIDI sequencing package, lets you filter, transpose, edit, mix and quantize music played through a synthesizer attached to the ST MIDI ports. Its editing process is so simple that you can make edits with a word processor in the "Systems Exclusive" mode. SuperConductor can accomodate any number of tempo changes in a piece, and you can compose entire pieces without having to enter notes on the keyboard.

MichTron, 576 South Telegraph, Pontiac, MI 48053. (313) 334-5700. PRESS.

MUSIC TO COMPUTE BY

The Copyist ($195), a transcription and scoring program, reads and writes Dr. T's KCS and MRS files, allowing for a truly interactive method of composition. The 4-Op Deluxe patch editor/librarian ($99) includes editors for all four-operator Yamaha synthesizers, including the TX-81Z, FB01, DX100, DX27 and DX21. Also included is a program which converts DX100 voices to FB01. Similar versions are available for the Yamaha DX7/TX7, Casio CZ series, Kawai K3/K3M and Lexicon PCM-70.

Dr. T's Music Software, Inc., 220 Boylston Street, Suite 306, Chestnut Hill, MA 02167. (617) 244-6954. PRESS.

NEW MULTI-FORTH PRICE

Now $89, Multi-Forth is an interactive programming environment specifically designed for the ST. GEM and TOS are included as well as multi-tasking, text editing and runtime application development capabilities.

Creative Solutions Inc. 4701 Randolph Road, Suite 12, Rockville, MD 20852. (301) 984-0262.

GAMES FROM THE ATARI PSYG

In Barbarian, an animated fantasy adventure, you are Hegor the Barbarian-- walking death to dragons and monsters. Your task is to enter the underground world of Durgan, which resides under the evil thumb of Necron, whose lair must be destroyed. Terrorpods, a strategy arcade game, pits you against the invading Tripod forces on a 3-D playfield with perspective scrolling.

$39.95. Psygnosis Limited, First Floor, Port of Liverpool Building, Pier Head, Liverpool L3 1BY, United Kingdom. 051-236 8818. PRESS.

BASICALLY TRUE,VERSION 2

True BASIC, version 2.0, offers modules and graphics support that truly takes advantage of the ST's graphics capabilities, and, because it's a compiler, it's much faster than ST BASIC.

$99.95. True BASIC Inc., 39 South Main Street, Hanover, NH 03755. (603) 643-3882. PRESS.

BECKEMEYER MULTITASKING

The five packages in Beckemeyer Development Tools' point-of-sale software, Advanced Business System (ABS), range from accounting software to bar code readers. ABS100 ($2,495) includes an electronic cash register, inventory control, and customer and vendor files. ABS101, General Ledger Accounting Software ($395), features profit/loss statements, Balance sheets, check writing and automatic double-entry accounting.

No keyboard is needed with ABS102, the Color Touch Screen Workstation ($2,995)--just touch the screen. The all-steel cash drawer (ABS103, $295) opens only when the computer tells it to, and ABS104. the bar code reader ($635) scans the bar codes on merchandise to input the correct item number.

Beckemeyer Development Tools, 478 Santa Clara Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. (415) 452-1129. PRESS.

NO MORE "GUNS OF NAVARONE" PUNS

The ST Toolbox uses files created by the Navarone ST Sound Digitizer and plays them back through the sound chip in your ST--you no longer need an external speaker. Several development tools let you incorporate digitized sounds into your own programs, and the (Megamax) C source code is provided.

$39.95. Navarone Industries, Inc., 21109 Longeway Road, Suite C, Sonora, CA 95370. (209) 533-8349. PRESS.

A PARTNER FOR PUBLISHING PARTNER

The Font Factory's four Clip Art disks for Soft Logik's Publishing Partner contain both medium-and high-resolution DEGAS-compatible files with more than 100 pictures and a short documentation file. Disk 1 ranges from desk and office paraphernalia to school-related graphics. Disk 2 has religious, sports and small business graphics. Disk 3 has vehicles, medical, patriotic, clothing-related and musical graphics. Disk 4 features animals, food-oriented graphics borders and Western-style graphics.

$19.95 each. The Font Factory, Pb Bor 1117422, Phoenix, AZ 85011. PRESS.

K-ROGET

This GEM-based online thesaurus operates as a desk accessory so you can use it with and word processor. K-Roget includes over 150,000 words and phrases, traps phonetic misspellings, amd its Backtrack facility lets you retrace previous selections.

About $85 (U.S.). Kuma Software, 12 Horseshoe Park Pangbourne, Berkshire RG8 7JW England. 07352-4335. PRESS.

GAMBLE AWAY YOUR ENCODED FILE

Big Mike's Slot Machine Parlor not only keeps you in front of a one--armed bandid for hours but also lures you to the blackjack tables and draw or stud poker machines. Pull-down menus make it easy to switch games, and a loan shark hangs around the casino in case you're suddenly gripped with the urge to have your kneecaps removed.

Filesafe asks you to enter a private password to encrypt or decrypt your private files--ideal where the same computer or disks are used by several people. The batch file feature allows fast processing of up to 12 files at once.

$29.95 each. Michael Nowicki, P.O. Box 4775, Son Jose, CA 95150. (408) 286-0379. PRESS.

REALLY BASIC

Real BASIC executes BASIC code 20-100 times faster than ST BASIC, while maintaining full compatibility. An in-line Motorolacompatible assembler lets you switch to assembly language without leaving the interpreted BASIC environment. Real BASIC features an integrated, powerful full-screen editor and extended graphics instruction.

$69.95. Computer Crossware Labs, Inc., 516 Fifth Avenue, Suite 507, New York, NY 10036. (212) 644-2591. PRESS.

SHUT UP AND DEAL

Home Casino Poker features video draw poker and a lightning-fast stud poker game for one to four players each. In stud, choose from any of six computer- controlled opponents. Home Casino Poker works with keyboard and/or joystick.

$34.95. Dubl Dubl Funware, P.O. Box 06401, Portland, OR 97206. (503) 771-7833. PRESS.

BORROWED TIME

Someone wants you dead in this adventure game from Activision. As if that's not enough, you must find your would-be murderer in less than a day but the longer you look, the better a target you become, as you try to live on Borrowed Time.

$49.95. Activision Inc., P.O. Box 7826, Mountain View, CA 94039. (415) 960-0410. PRESS.

ST GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

My Letters, Numbers and Words, designed to encourage children aged 2-6 to learn their ABCs, numbers 1-10 and the concept of words, is featured in MGM's "Walk Like a Man" starring Howie Mandel as a man who must learn to read and write after spending 25 years in the wilderness. (He's using the Apple II version, by the way.) My Ietters, Numbers and Words has three multi-level activities, special audio and animated graphics.

$39.95, Stone and Associates, 7910 Ivanhoe Avenue, Suite 319, La Jolla, CA 92037. (619) 459-9173. PRESS.

THREE FROM REEVE

The ASCII- and DEGAS-compatible News Station ST ($34.95) features text entry and graphics modes, clip art, an undo command and adjustable margins and line spacing. Disk Master ($29.95) features a powerful sector editor, backup utility, custom formatter and a graphics display that shows you exactly what your disk drive sees. Finally, colorful graphics and realistic action on a 3-D ice rink is what you can expect in World Class Hockey ($29.95).

Reeve Software, 29W150 Old Farm Lane, Warrenville, IL 60555. (312) 393-2317. PRESS.

New ST product notices are compiled from information provided by the products' manufacturers. Antic assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of these notices or the performance of the product. Each mention is followed by a code word indicating that, at press time, Antic had seen a FINAL marketable version, near-final BETA, earlier ALPHA, incomplete DEMO, or PRESS release.