Home Computer Weekly 17-23 May 1983
Clash over Micro clubs
Two clubs for owners of the Oric-1 computer are set to clash — even before the new group is launched.
Now Alex Cross, who is setting up the new club, is seeking a meeting with Bob Green, who runs the Tangerine Users’ Group.
Mr Cross, 46, said he had One Products’ consent and ‘expected to have 10,000-15,000 members by the end of the year. He is director of Wembley based Oric dealers Micro Computers Incorporated.
TUG began three-and-a- half years ago and says 40 per cent of its 5,000 members own Orics.
Mr Cross said: “One could say that Mr Green has not got an official club, but everyone sets them up. I want to get in touch with him because obviously there’s conflict here.”
Could he see a clash looming?
He said: “This is one of the reasons why I’m particularly hesitant about saying what we are doing to do as a club.
“It’s ethically better that we get in touch with Mr Green.
We don’t deliberately want to have a conflict of ideas and a conflict of interests.
“I want to see if we can co-operate and if we can draw some parameters so we do not clash.
“What is clear is that there is a grey area here and we want to resolve this before we reach the user.
“The fact that there is a confusion between Tangerine and Oric Products International is something that happened at birth. Tangerine being the designers of the Oric.”
TUG’s assistant managing director Kevin Phillips, 23, said: “It’s the first I’ve heard of it.
He can complain until he’s blue in the face but there’s nothing he can do to stop us. I don’t know how he’s going to get on, but we’ve got the edge on him.
“Every day we get dozens of applications from Oric owners and it’s picking up very quickly.
“I don’t see why we can’t get on side by side, but if he’s out to take our members he’s got a battle on his hands. Good luck to him, as long as he doesn’t start treading on our feet.
“He’s quite welcome to come for a chat, but I don’t think we need to take any action. We already have the foundation. Can he provide what we are able to?”
Mr Cross said his launch date would be in June or July and that, although it would generate “a degree of revenue” for MCI, it would act independently of Oric Products in representing its members.
He planned to hire more staff and to offer membership at £5-£8 through mailing all users on Oric’s list and with leaflets inside Oric packaging. There would be a news sheet, starting as a bi-monthly, and offers like inexpensive software. He was also intending to talk to Paul Kaufman, head of Tansoft and editor of a new magazine called Oric Owner.
TUG was formed by Mr Green for owners of the Microtan. Mr Green was unable to comment as he was on holiday with his wife, Vera, the group’s administrative director. As well as Mr Phillips, there is a fourth staff member, Colin Nowell, who looks after software.
Mr Phillips explained hmn they came to include the Oric “There are machines around but very little available for them — software, add-ons and the rest. As it came from the same stable and there was a demand we decided to include it.
“As to not being official, the only thing in which we are not official is that we are not recognised by the manufacturer — we don’t carry their name. In all other respects there’s nothing to complain about. We do business very fairly.
“If we think anyone has produced a load of rubbish we will say so. If you are an official group you have to be careful because it would be like cutting your own throat.”
His members paid £15 a year and received a 20 to 24 page monthly newsletter, 50 per cent devoted to the Oric, which included programs to type in. Four software packages were on offer at £5.50-£6.50 with another eight to come soon.
A spokesman for Oric Products said there had been no official agreement with Mr Cross and a decision was unlikely before Oric executives returned from a business trip to America.
She said: “They’ve been talking, but nothing’s been signed, sealed and delivered.”
Apart from initial help in setting up the group, Oric did not plan to involve itself — it would be a totally independent group.
Tangering Users’ Group, I Marlborough Drive, Worle, Avon BS22 ODQ
Micro Computers Incorporated, 5 Watford Road, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx
Sound of Software
It looks just like any other 45rpm single and when you play the A side it sounds like one too.
But flip it over and Chris Sievey’s new release is also three programs for the ZX81.
One of them displays the lyrics so fans can sing along with the A side, a pop-rock number called Camouflage.
The other two programs are 16K and 1K versions of a game called Flying Train and almost all of the single was put together by Chris, a 27-year-old part-time petrol pump attendant.
By using a studio’s multi-track recording machine, he plays eight acoustic guitars, four electric guitars, two base guitars and a grand piano as well as singing.
The two other vocalists are his wife Paula, 28, and their babysitter, 22-year-old Winifred Stack, who looks after Stirling, 4 1/2, and 3 1/2-year-old Asher and a friend, Mike Doherty, plays the drums.
Chris said the idea of using the B side for programs came to him after he bought a ZX8I two months ago planning to use it to put titles on a video tape of a group called Freshics.
He said: “I used the B side because they are disposable — people are sold on the A side of a record.”
In fact, he says this is his 15th single since he started recording in 1976. Just three had crept into the botton of the top 100, inlcuding his personal best-seller, which sold 40,000, called I’m in Love with the Girl on the Manchester Virgin Megastore Check-Out Desk.
He said he was having 2,000 copies of Camouflage pressed, under his own Random records label, to start with.
After leaving school, said Chris, he went to art college to study film making — for three days. He said: “I arrived on my first day with all my scripts and I found it was going to be 18 months before they put a camera in my hand. I couldn’t wait.”
Since then he reckons he has had 20 jobs, mostly sweeping up, packing, serving in shops and working as a silk screen printer.
After 14 records wasn’t it time he gave up?
Chris said: “I’m not deterred. I love doing it. And I think with software on one side it has increased the chances because there are two markets. But if it flops I’ll move onto the next one.
“But obviously I want to develop it so I’m thinking of doing something for the Spectrum next.”
He said that to use the single, due out on Friday at £11.15, the B side had to be loaded into the computer from a record player’s headphone socket or copied onto tape and then loaded.
And he said a major distributor was interested in marketing the record.
Random Records, 3 Moorside House, Oakleigh Court, Timperley, Cheshire WA 15 6UG
Honestly, officer
You can break most known driving laws with Hazard Run, a new Atari game from Allrian. It allows you to smash through brush, leap ponds and drive on two wheels. Price for the cassette is £21.50.
Allrian, 1000A Uxbridge Road, Hayes, Middx UB4 ORL
Eugene’s driving ambition
Teenage programmer Eugene Evans is in line for a £6,000 company car — providing he passes his driving test.
Imagine Software has just bought Escort XRIs for four staff, but Eugene, just 17, will have to wait. He takes his test next month.
New general manager Bruce Everiss said that if it was not for his age Eugene, who heads Imagine’s team of programmers, could have had a more expensive BMW.
Mr Everiss said: “We would but him something a lot better, but insurance would cost a lot more. Our insurance broker said it just wasn’t viable.”
One of the partners in Liverpool based Imagine, Dave Lawson, takes delivery of a Ferrari Mondiale, worth around £34,000 with the extras, in August.
The other partner, Mark Butler, drives a BMW 735i Special Equipment and Mr Everiss has a Ferrari 308 GTS.
Explaining the choice of cars, Mr Everiss said: “We are a dynamic industry so we all drive dynamic cars. And we like to look after people.”
Imagine Software, 28 Exchange Street East, Liverpool 2
Same printer, different name
Oric’s printer will almost certainly be the £149 Tandy colour printer/plotter with a different name on the front.
After looking at several models, Oric Products is believed to have settled on the one marketed by Tandy and made in Singapore. And the price may well be less than Tandy charges.
The printer uses six special ballpoint pens — three black and one each of red, blue and green — at £1.69 for three, and 4 1/2in wide plain paper, costing £3.99 for three rolls.
It will print at up to 80 characters per line.
Oric Products International, Co worth Park, London Road, Ascot, Berks SL5 7SE
Recorder for computers
New from Ferguson is a computer-compatible cassette recorder, the 3T27, which will be on sale from this month for around £25.
It runs on batteries or mains, and features automatic recording level control, a tape counter, built-in microphone, auto-stop and pause control.
Thorn EMI Ferguso, Cambridge House, Great Cambridge Road, Enfield, Middlesex EN! I UL
Microfair moves to Ally Pally
Visitors to the June 4 ZX Microfair will find the conditions a lot less cramped than last time.
The fair is to be held at London’s Alexandra Palace — the’city’s third largest exhibition hall, with over twice the space of the previous site.
Organizer Mike Johnston is however hoping the extra room will be filled up with larger crowds — there were over 8,000 people at the last Microfair — and move stands.
Once again, the show will feature a computer chess tournament.
ZX Microfair, 71 Park Lane, Tottenham, London N17 OHG
2,000 sales ‘In one day’
Add-on makers Cheetah Marketing says it sold 2,000 32K RAM packs for the 16K Spectrum — on the day it was launched.
Designed to avoid wobble and priced at £39.95, the company says it is the only one available and that it is fully compatible with all other Spectrum accessories.
Cheetah, which claims to beat any price, says the new RAM pack will soon be on sale in shops. Until then sales are by mail order only.
Cheetah Marketing, 359 The Strand, London WC2R 9HS
Salamander spreads its wings
Salamander Software, best known for its Dragon 32 programs, has announced that it is branching out into software for other machines. At the same time, it is bringing out a range of new programs for the Dragon — and selling them further afield.
Five of Salamander’s established Dragon range — Dragon Trek, Wizard War, Grand Prix, Vulcan Noughts and Crosses and Games Compendium DI — are on sale in Boots now.
And the company is hoping that Boots will take the four new programs — Star Jammer, Salamander Graphics, Night Flight and Superskill Hangman — before too long.
On a more exotic note, Salamander’s games will soon be sold in France, Italy and Israel. The original Dragon games have already been translated into Spanish.
The complete Salamander range of ten programs are all available now for the 32K Tandy Colour Computer. But the company has bought out two completely new games for the Oric-1: Trek, and a four game compendium, which were launched at the Midland Computer Fair last week. The games were produced in conjunction with Oric Products, and will be marketed jointly.
Salamander Software, 27 Ditchling Rise, Brighton, Sussex BNI 4QL
Now for the BBC
Well known for its Spectrum and ZX81 best sellers, Psion has produced its first two cassettes for the BBC micro.
They are Vu-Calc and Vu-file, at £14.95 each mail order, which are already available for the Spectrum.
Psion, 2 Iluntsworth Mews, Gloucester Place, London NWI 6DD
Micros for all
Introducing Computers, a new book by computer journalist Malcom Peltu, is designed for anyone — from child to pensioner — who wants to know about computing, says the National Computing Centre, which is publishing it at £5.50.
National Coinmiting Centre, Oxford Road, Manchester MI 7ED
Sound of the Dragon’s roar
Dragons can now blow raspberries and sound like a piano, says J .C.B. (Microsystems) which has brought out a plug-in Sound Extension Module costing £34.95.
Sounds can be created either through a new BASIC command called MUSIC or by using preprogrammed effects, like explosion, gunshot, machine gun, car horn, ping and waves.
Other effects include siren, laser, falling bomb, photon torpedo, American siren, birds, cars starting, cars passing, crash, munch and raspberry.
J.C.B. says that setting up a three-note chord needs just one MUSIC command and that up to 28 separate POKEs would be required to do the same without the new module.
Sound can accompany graphics without slowing down the screen display.
The module includes two eight-bit input/output ports, accessed by the new command, which can control other devices.
J.C.B. says the manual also shows how users can program their own sound effects, useful for those with knowledge of machine code.
J.C.B. (Microsystems), 29 Southborne Road, Bournemouth BH6 5AE
Game for a bet
Five software titles for the Spectrum have been launched by Micromega at £4.95 each.
Two of them have two games on the same cassette and one also includes a version for the I6K ZX81.
The titles are Roulette, Dominoes, and Blackjack and Craps on a tape called Monte Carlo, Brainstorm, which includes Puzzler, and Spectrum and ZX81 versions of Gulpman.
Micromega, 230-236 Lavender Hill, London SWII ILE