-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PCM Online August 1995 - BBSCON Edition REVIEWS Contents: [] Reviews: Seven great programs! They'll have you designing logos, speaking Japanese, finding a job, dressing up Windows 95, mutilating handkerchiefs, and more! [] In the Spotlight: Alpha Five -- Windows database power comes easy [] New Products: Quick looks at new software Entire contents copyright 1995 by Falsoft, Inc. PCM -- The Premier Personal Computer Magazine -- is intended for the private use and pleasure of its subscribers, and reproduction by any means is prohibited. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Reviews ~~~~~~~ >> 1001 Komputer Answers From Kim Komando PC Answers With Attitude >> Aces of the Deep World War II Beneath the Waves >> All-in-One Language Fun For "Pentalingual" Kids >> Arts & Letters Express 5.0 Drawing on the Graphic Artist Inside >> JobHunt 6-in-1 A Resume Program With Employer Database >> Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 (Beta) Tweaking Your Windows 95 Interface >> Secrets of Magic With Dikki Ellis Magicians' Secrets Revealed! -=*=- >>>> 1001 Komputer Answers From Kim Komando <<<< PC Answers With Attitude Review by Ed Ellers If you're looking for a nice, thick reference book with lots of answers to your computer questions, this is probably it. Ms. Komando hosts the "Leave Questions, Get Answers" area on America Online as well as a radio talk show and a syndicated newspaper column, and she has collected questions on just about every PC-related subject. The book follows a question-and-answer format, covering everything from the general to the specific -- including nitty-gritty details on features in programs like WordPerfect and CorelDRAW!. She also covers hardware-related topics and has chapters on shareware, communications, CD-ROMs, Windows tips and one with helpful information about Windows 95. Kim's humorous comments on almost every topic might mildly offend a few people (like postal workers), but they do add a lighter side to a weighty subject. But there's another "lighter side" here -- a CD-ROM is included with a hypertext version of the whole book, so if you have a CD-ROM drive you can search for answers even more quickly than in the 852-page book. Not surprisingly, the CD also includes America Online's access software and a certificate for free sign-up and a 10-hour free trial offer, so -- in the unlikely event you have a question that isn't in the book -- you can ask Kim directly on AOL. All in all, a good value. {1001 Komputer Answers From Kim Komando: IDG Books, 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster City, CA 94404, (800) 762-2974 or (415) 655- 3000.} -=*=- >>>> Aces of the Deep <<<< World War II Beneath the Waves Review by John M. Hebert "Nun was, Herr Oberleutnant?" You let go of the periscope's handles, shrug and reply quietly, "Zerstoerer." All that planning and time spent carefully sliding under the convoy, then coming to periscope depth just after midnight, right in its middle. "Amerikaner?" You take another careful look. "Nein. Englander." "Scheisse." Unteroffizier Bringmann's clenched-teeth exclamation is not unexpected. The British are much more experienced than the Americans. It is, after all, only the 17th of February, 1942. You can try to tough it out, hoping the surface ships around you will confuse the British ASDIC. Or you can dive deeper, turning to present as small a target as possible and hoping to escape his notice. You can feel a small trickle of sweat between your shoulder blades. "Ja, Herr Oberleutnant; nun was?" Don't you just hate that, when a writer throws in a bunch of quotes in a foreign language and then doesn't bother to translate it? Fear not: the first sentence was obviously a question -- what now, Lieutenant? He replied with the information that the object of his observation was a destroyer, always an ugly surprise to a submariner. American? was the hope. But it was not to be: No. English. Non-commissioned officer Bringmann then said "Golly," or something like that. On the other hand, if you understood all of that without much effort, you might want to toggle Dynamix's "Aces of the Deep" so that crew verbal reports are in German. That would lend authenticity to what is already a sometimes gut-wrenching simulation. My den happens to be in a corner of the basement, so I'm already "below sea level" when beginning. A little fine-tuning of the lights and my world consists of the mouse, the keyboard and the screen. In the process of evaluating this simulation, I've learned to hate destroyers. After choosing one of nine historical missions (plus a tutorial), you can then proceed to establish the "reality of the day," several adjustments of parameters such as the type of U-boat, the crew's experience, whether the other side has air cover and/or escorts, etc. Don't like the weather? Change it. That rocking motion when you're on the bridge give you a case of the queasies? Fix it for calm sea. Wouldn't it be nice if you could fiddle with your reality level in daily life? Wow; establish things so the boss will stay away while you're trying to get things done. Adjust meetings so you can't be attacked. Anyway, in addition to the historical missions, you can choose either a convoy or warship encounter -- again with all those variables you can use to alter current reality. One of the most important variables is the time of the war. Allied technology and tactics improved steadily. Germany's progress wasn't nearly as great. And of course the Allies had the "Ultra Secret": they had decoded the Germans' Enigma cipher machines. No wonder that by the end of the war the total German U-boat crew losses were 76%. Sixty-nine percent were killed in action. Thus, if you choose a "career" path for a continuing simulation, you had better be good. You had better be careful. Let's face it -- you had better also be lucky. When those Allied destroyers are swooping overhead, with their propellers beating out the words "get you, get you, get you" and the stench of diesel fumes and sweat still hanging in the close air, part of you (see also: pucker factor) may wish you hadn't decided to be so realistic. At least you can save a game when on the career path. The single missions you either complete, get sunk or captured, or abort. Two hints: pay attention to the time-compression ratio. It's handy to avoid that portion of reality, so that you're not spending all night stealthily approaching a convoy, but it can cause you grief if you forget it's been set. A target could whoosh by at apparent warp speed, especially if it's a 30-knot warship. Forget the ratio and you could either end up with a destroyer through your conning tower or wearing a depth-charge like some sort of pendant because you didn't have time to react to the threat. When you start getting serious about it, buy a clear plastic, 360- degree protractor. It's invaluable for plotting interceptions. Believe me, if you get the angles wrong and don't speed up you may very well be outrun by a warship. At best this is embarrassing. At worst, your spouse may have just arrived to see why it is lately you've taken to wearing that old military cap backward and tend to speak with a slight accent. "You let a lucrative target like that just get away?" Nobody needs that much reality in one dose. For the truly dedicated, you can also purchase the Aces of the Deep Expansion Disk. This give you six missions in the Mediterranean Sea, a couple of new gauges and some new torpedoes. Well, there is also the Type XXI submarine, which is much better than anything the Germans had during the war. It can effectively launch torpedoes from greater than periscope depth, has active sonar and some radar. First deployed in April, 1945, the Type XXI was entirely too late to have any effect on the real war. However, you are allowed to use it as early as January 1943 -- provided your career has lasted (see "survived") that long. Dynamix has a good product here, one that people still sailing along with a 386DX-33 with a 3.5-inch floppy drive can use. Also, Herr Oberleutnant, nun was? {Aces of the Deep: Dynamix, dist. by Sierra On-Line, Inc., 3380 146th Place S.E., Suite 300, Bellevue, WA 98007, (800) 757-7707 or (206) 649- 9800; $54.95 on CD or floppy disk. REQUIRES: a 386SX or better system with hard drive and VGA.} -=*=- >>>> All-in-One Language Fun <<<< For "Pentalingual" Kids Everybody wants their children to do well in school and get a headstart on all the other kids. Those feelings are natural. As a parent, wouldn't you like to say, "Well, MY 3-year-old can speak in FIVE languages!" Sure you would. And for this to happen you don't even have to enroll your 3-year-old in one of those preschools with five-year waiting lists. What you need is All-in-One Language Fun, a Windows multimedia program that plays dozens of games with your kids to introduce them to words in foreign languages. It's designed for kids ages 3 to 12. All-in-One teaches more than 200 words and phrases in each of these five languages: English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese. It does this by masking the lessons inside multimedia versions of name games, jigsaw puzzles, Simon Says, bingo and other games. It's easy -- no reading, writing or keyboard skills needed -- and it's fun! (I miss the target age range by about 20 years, and even I thought it was fun!) The only interface requirement is a mouse to point and click. When the game loads, click the name of the language you want to practice. Up pops a screen with nine squares. Each square represents a game or naming activity. (There are two more similar screens, for a total of 27 different activities.) You want to learn what farm animals are called in French? That's easy -- point at the square with the farm scene. Then the screen shows six new squares, each filled with a different animal. Point at the cow to hear the native speaker say, "La vache." Press the green button to continue, and the speaker will show all the animals in a pastoral setting, asking you to pick out each animal as he or she names it. Similar naming games introduce kids to the words for foods, school items, vehicles, articles of clothing, bathroom fixtures, parts of the face, important verbs (from a child's perspective) and more. The naming games are the simplest, but they're stepping stones to the more advanced memory games. In the memory games, the native speakers will ask you to point out, for example, the sink, the bathtub and the shower, in that order. Simon Says and other games are variations on the naming theme. *All* instructions are spoken in the native language. It may take kids a couple of minutes to catch on, but they will. ("Oh! She wants me to click the *cow*!") As the meaning of the instructions sink in, kids may even pick up some intuitive feel for the syntax of the language. The lack of a "host" language may trouble parents more than kids, but it provides a more "immersed" learning experience. Also, it makes the program equally appealing to native-speaking parents of all five languages. One thing kids will pick up on is that words in different languages often sound alike. The German "coo" sounds a lot like the English "cow," for example. And the French "la vache" sounds similar to the Spanish "la vacka." According to my high-school biology teacher, who was full of interesting facts, the brain best performs the act of learning in children under 5 years of age. That's when your brain is busily building infrastructure for all the information you'll cram in there for the rest of your life. Specific pieces of information, like language skills, can become deeply entrenched parts of the infrastructure if they get in there before the cement hardens. (You ever notice that adults and even older children usually never attain accent-free fluency when learning a second language -- but tots absorb it like sponges?) So do your kids a favor -- help them build language skill "six-lane highways" today with All-in-One Language Fun. When they ace their foreign-language requirements in college -- and know how to order in exotic restaurants -- you'll be glad you did. {All-in-One Language Fun: Syracuse Language Systems, 719 E. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13210, (315) 478-6729; $39.95. REQUIRES: an MPC system with 386SX+ CPU, 4MB RAM, sound card and CD-ROM drive. A Mac version is also included on the disc.} -=*=- >>>> Arts & Letters Express 5.0 <<<< Drawing on the Graphic Artist Inside Arts & Letters Express 5.0, from Computer Support Corporation, likes to brag about how easy it is to use. A European magazine ranked it above CorelDRAW in ease of use and performance. Well, the program is pretty powerful. You can use it to create professional logos, brochures, and complex artwork. As for easy to use, I disagree. Sure, after spending an hour or so with it, I became familiar with the basic controls and where they were. It doesn't take that long to learn how to do things -- but the interface still feels inconsistent and nonintuitive, and I'll get to why a little later. Now let's talk about the program and the neat things it can do. Arts & Letters Express, first of all, is a *vector*-based drawing program that goes head-to-head with CorelDRAW and Micrografx Designer. With it you can *draw* objects out of lines and curves (vectors) instead of *painting* with dabs of pixels (as you find in *bitmap* images). Editing bitmap images sometimes really is like working with real paint. If you want to change paint after you've slapped it down, you either have to remove it or paint over it. Vector-based images are much more flexible. Think of them as sets of stakes and strings, instead of paint droplets -- stakes and strings that mark off an image. It's easy to pick up stakes and move them around; and you have the bonus of *elastic* strings that can hold any shape. Vector-based images allow you to group their many parts together for across-the-board actions. You can also split apart a grouped vector image so that some part can be tweaked. Vector-based graphics editors are a boon to graphic artists, because vector images can be scaled up or down to any size, without incurring the dreaded jaggies or losing detail. (Try to scale up a bitmap image and you get the jaggies; scale it down and you lose detail.) This makes vector programs great for creating logos and other highly transportable artwork. Vector programs also are good for special effects, like "extruding" objects (a "3-D-izer" to give objects depth) and fitting text to a path. Arts & Letters Express has other special-effects features in its arsenal. It can do polymorphic tweening (generating in-between shapes) and warps (fitting text and images to any shape "envelope"). With warps, you can make the word "WAVE" curvy like a wave. Graphic artists will appreciate the ease with which they can draw using the line and Bezier curve drawing tools. The "snap to" feature makes it easy to connect new lines and curves to ones you've drawn previously; this allows you to construct complex drawings with the most simplicity! (I know, that sounds weird.) In a vector drawing, you want as few points (stakes) to define a shape as possible. It looks cleaner and is easier to manage that way. Graphic artists and casual users alike will enjoy the clip-art collection. The CD includes about 10,000 clip-art images. There's no book of thumbnails to flip through -- but the program offers thumbnail views of each and every image, broken down by categories such as Transportation and Animals. Cartoon images, holiday drawings, battleships, athletes and businesspeople are all present and accounted for, and most in color. You'll probably find what you're looking for. Some of the clip-art images are in a unique category called "Flex Art." They're built modularly so you can adjust them. A ferocious tyrannosaur image, for example, has a hinged jaw -- so you can open his mouth really wide, or make him clamp down on, say, a politician-type person from over in the business group. The color controls let you fiddle with your image like you do with your TV screen. You can adjust brightness, contrast and color, and replace hues. You can even generate color separations, which is necessary if a commercial printer is to print your creation in full color. The variety of ways in which you can fill enclosed objects will gladden your heart. Solid colors, gradients (many flavors) and patterns can be used as fills. The charting feature is easy to use to create charts and graphs. You can even put pictures in them (making pictograms). Just enter your numbers using a spreadsheet-style window. One of my favorite Arts & Letters Express features is the bundled booklet called "Logo Designer: User's Guide." It's all you'd expect, with advice on fonts, graphics and even trademark rights. What fonts would be most appropriate? What type of paper would work best with your design? (E.g., if your design has fine detail, avoid textured paper.) How do you design a logo so that it looks good whether blown up large or reduced very small? This booklet is a must-read for novice graphic designers. Arts & Letters Express's text-handling features are on a par with CorelDRAW's. It's easy to type, align and generally transform text. I don't like the interface controls for text handling, but I'll get to that. On the box it says you get 1000 fonts on the CD-ROM. That's true, but the "rub" is that the CD-ROM disc with the fonts isn't included in the package! You must register to get the fonts. But registering is easy, because the Computer Support people include a floppy disk with a survey-like registration program. Just run the program, answer the questions, mail in the floppy disk, and you'll get your fonts disc. >>[ The Interface ]<< Now, why I think the interface is nonintuitive. Computer Support, I think, tried to simplify Arts & Letters for the average user. You know, that person who's interested in experimenting with graphics to see what he can turn out for the church newsletter. Express is supposed to be the friendly Arts & Letters. The best thing about the interface -- and this is friendly, I admit -- is the live help line at the bottom of the screen, which defines whatever your mouse cursor is currently pointing to. This helps when you're trying to make sense of the buttons and their myriad fly-out options. But if the people at Computer Support Corporation had really wanted to make Arts & Letters Express friendly, they would have reduced the number of steps it takes to do things. Hole-cutting, for example. Hole cutting is a neat special-effects feature, and it's one of the reasons I picked Arts & Letters Express to review. Hole cutting lets you "make hollow" something on top so that something on the bottom can show through. For example, say you've got a rectangle that's filled with a pink pattern. On top of that, there's a green rectangle. On top of that you've typed the letters PCM. You want the letters PCM to have the funky pink pattern of the first layer. That would look pretty cool. In order to make this happen, you must "convert to freeform" both the letters and the green rectangle underneath. (Select each object, then select "Convert to Freeform" from the Draw menu.) Then you must select each object again and choose Merge from the Effects menu. Merge pops up a dialog box with only two options: Cutout (hole) and Clipping path (mask). Now, why, I ask you, is there even an option called Merge, a general-sounding option, when it only leads to two esoteric functions? Why not give cutouts and masking their own menu options? (And if you didn't know otherwise, wouldn't you assume "Merge" meant to merge different pieces of the image together? Nope, that's Group, from the Arrange menu.) A really friendly program would let the user block-select the two upper layers and then click on a Cutout menu option; the program would be friendly enough to do behind the scenes whatever "converting to freeform" and other chores are required. When things don't work as they are described in the manual, I get mad. I confess -- software can make me frustrated, angry and emotional. I feel like kicking something. The thing that made me want to drop kick everything in sight was that the hole-cutting procedure, as described in the manual, didn't work for my test text, "PCM." I followed the steps exactly and kept getting the message, "All selected objects must be closed freeform shapes." This after I'd done the "convert to freeform" bit; and I couldn't do it again because the option had become grayed out, signaling I'd already done it! I found the procedure will work with letters like T and I, but not P, A or O. Ironically they aren't considered "closed" freeform shapes, even though they have an enclosed area. The manual is no help at all here. Neither is the online help. I'm sure it's possible to make cutouts for letters with enclosed areas, but it probably involves a lot of extra steps, and the doc writers wanted to keep the manual *simple*. Arrrgh. And what's with the fonts dialogs? You click on the fonts button once and you get a list of fixed-size fonts, with no WYSIWYG examples. Click on the Custom button, however, and you get a second dialog box holding scalable fonts with WYSIWYG examples, spacing options, bold/italic settings, etc. Why two sets of fonts? Why the embedded dialog? Why not have the second, larger and more useful dialog be the only dialog? And why are there two pointer tools? Most every other graphics program lets you block select with the arrow-pointer tool. Not this one! You have to click on the *finger*-pointing tool first. Why fight people's expectations? I've griped and carped enough. I don't want to leave the impression that I dislike the program. I really do like Arts & Letters Express. The drawing, extrude and text-to-path features kick butt. Blame my vinegar on the heat wave that's blanketing the Midwest -- and my stupid air conditioner, which has gone on the fritz. A *free* test-drive version of Arts & Letters Express 5.0 is available on a CD-ROM disc. If you want it, just call (214) 661-8960 and ask; or, fax your request to (214) 661-5429. Along with the test drive of 5.0, you'll receive a fully functional copy of Arts & Letters 3.0. If you decide to order 5.0 after receiving the test-drive disc, you get a $100 discount; your purchase price will be $99 instead of $199. {Arts & Letters Express: Computer Support Corp., 15926 Midway Road, Dallas, TX 75244, (214) 661-8960; $199. REQUIRES: 386SX+ CPU, 4MB RAM (8MB recommended), Windows 3.1, CD-ROM drive.} -=*=- >>>> JobHunt 6-in-1 <<<< A Resume Program With Employer Database How would you like to save over $2500? You can when you buy JobHunt, a $29.95 program -- according to the people at Scope International. Their program contains a database of 10,000 top U.S. companies, and the reasoning is that if you had purchased a mailing list of the companies, at $0.25 per record, it would've cost you over $2500. JobHunt 6-in-1 is a Windows program with a mission -- to land you a job. The database is a big part of that. So are the other five components: a resume builder, a word processor, a set of "PowerTips" (advice on how to behave during an interview), a label/envelope printer, and a phone dialer. The database is the powerful core of the program. It provides full contact information on 10,000 companies: contact names, addresses, phone/fax numbers, an estimate of the number of people employed there, and an estimate of the company's annual sales. On the main screen are two large scrolling windows: "State" and "Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)." To get at the companies in your areas of interest -- in your desired areas of the country -- you click. Namely, you click to tag the states in which you'd consider taking a job, then you tag the work areas you're interested in. (Construction, Petroleum Refining, Food Stores, Insurance Carriers, Security/Commodity Brokers, Hotels, Real Estate, Administration and Communication are just a few of the dozens of specific categories listed.) When you've selected your states and categories, click on the View Data button to let the database churn out a sorted list of potential employers you can scroll through. Wouldn't it be nice if you could zip out custom-printed letters to those potential employers -- with just a few keystrokes? Well, you can! (You knew that was coming, didn't you?) A bundled word processor works hand-in-hand with the database to print not only prospective employment letters, but also matching envelopes (or labels). The program includes a variety of prewritten letters, with employer name/address/etc. field codes already plugged in; you can easily customize these letters with your name and address and the position you're seeking. If you want to start a letter from scratch, that's cool too. It's easy to add field codes -- just point at what you want in the Format/Insert Fields menu. You can use any Windows-supported font in your document, plus apply bold/italic/underline attributes. If you have a good color printer, you may want to highlight parts of your letter with color. The word processor, with its handy toolbar and WYSIWYG editing screen, is quite serviceable -- but if offers no spelling checker. You can block-copy the letter to the clipboard for pasting into your regular Windows word processor and do a spelling check there, if you like. You can also export the data to a delimited ASCII file for import into another database if you'd rather work with your regular database and mail-merge setup. It's easy to complete a resume in JobHunt. The program merely asks you to fill in the blanks with your name, address, education, experience and other qualifications. When you're finished, print! JobHunt supports color as well as black-and-white printers, so you can splash on the color if you think that will help your resume stand out in the pile. Unfortunately, the resume part of the program is the weakest. It's very basic, workmanlike and rigid. It uses the plain-vanilla block format with headings for objective, education, experience and "professional and computer skills." (The headings go at the left, your answers appear aligned to the right.) You're limited to a certain amount of space and no more to fill in your experience and professional/ computer skills info. The resume's text-entry scheme is disappointing. It's basically line editing -- no word wrap. When the line ends, it ends, so you must back up and plan your word breaks accordingly before pressing ENTER to get to the next line. You're given no hints on how to write the information or what to incldue. There are no style selections to choose (except to pick a font and an optional border). I must admit, the layout does look good. It works, but it won't suit everybody. If you need something a little spiffier, type the info into your word processor or desktop-publishing program. The PowerTips offer common-sense advice on how to act in an interview and what to wear (hint: it's better to dress more conservatively than the interviewers; you never want to appear under-dressed in comparison). Another interesting piece of advice is to make sure your critically important first utterances are of a positive nature (don't complain about weather or traffic). Also hidden in this section are tips on ways to improve your resume (use action verbs with quantitative descriptions; e.g., "Accomplished a 50% increase in sales by ..."). JobHunt is a boon to those looking for jobs or to shift careers. It'll let you print hundreds of custom employment letters in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom. The hardest, most time-consuming part will be to sign the letters and lick the envelopes. But think of how you'll increase your odds by mass-mailing! JobHunt is an interesting package. It comes in a big, glossy box -- which holds three floppy disks, a brochure and a typed instruction sheet (no manual). The installation status display gives away the fact that JobHunt is written in Visual BASIC 3, but don't let that keep you away. {Scope Intl., P.O. Box 25252, Charlotte, NC 28229-5252, sales (800) 843- 5627, voice (704) 535-0614, BBS (704) 535-0610; $29.95. REQUIRES: Windows 3.1, 4MB RAM, hard disk.} -=*=- >>>> Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 (Beta) <<<< Tweaking Your Windows 95 Interface Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 is a good add-on pack to buy, whether your are into changing your working environment or need/want a little help in keeping things up to date in your computer. The Plus! Pack lets you customize your Windows environment as never before. Instead of just changing your wallpaper, you can go for the theme approach: with sounds, cursors and icons that match the background image. The aesthetics first: there are some really neat setups in the pack. From an "Inside Your Computer," which looks remarkably like one of those Intel TV ads, to the "60's," with a revolving peace sign, and a whole bunch of things in between, these scenarios are fun to look at, manipulate and put into effect. There is at least one, and possibly two or three, for just about any taste. But what is even better is that you can take the elements of these scenarios and mix and match them to your heart's content. If you like an animated cursor from one area, the Windows flag waving in the cyberbreeze to replace your hourglass and a recycle bin that grows flowers when something is waiting to be dumped, you can do all of that. Each cursor is customizable in Win95 itself, and the base program offers a lot of options, but those options become more colorful and fun with the Plus! pack. The Plus! pack even adds some very nifty screen savers. I particularly like one that makes a sort of "bubble" that travels around the screen. That gives some interesting effects when you have photographs as your wallpaper. Too, an option that keeps the contents of the window visible as you move and size it is, at best, nifty. I don't know why, but it seems this single option makes the whole program seem more "together." There is also an option to smooth the edges of fonts. It seems to work fairly well, but played havoc with PageMaker 5.0, which I happen to run without actual fonts visible whenever possible. This option turned the fonts gray and made it difficult to see them at small (2 to 4 point) sizes. Since I use PageMaker quite often, I turned this option off in the Plus! pack. If all of that were all there was to the Plus Pack, it would be quite an offering at the price. Actually, there is a lot more as well, but the remainder of the features are more "housekeeping" chores than pretty stuff. We all defragment our disks a couple of times a week, don't we? Well, I know I should. But I don't. Now I do. Plus! pack includes a neat scheduling function that allows for defragmenting in the background and will do it at specific times of the day. Since there are various options for this (and other) functions, you can set a full defrag for once a week and a simple compact on a daily basis. By the way, if your computer is turned off when this is supposed to happen, the Plus! pack's scheduler nags you later on. The package also includes options to scan the disk for errors on a scheduled basis and will also check for low disk space. The latter proved to be a lifesaver for me (I have it check hourly, I don't even know it is doing it) after I went on a major search and destroy mission to clean out the disk and forgot to empty the recycle bin. I was fooling around with some very large graphic files, and this warning came at a very good time. Finally, the Plus! pack shows what 32-bit programs can do. With all sorts of software houses rushing to get 32-bit Win95 packages out the door, this is one view of the future as we will soon know it. We've seen several 32-bit beta copies of software here at PCM, and I can tell you that you will be amazed at some of the things some of this stuff does. {Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95: Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, (800) 426-9400 or (206) 882-8080. REQUIRES: Windows 95.} -=*=- >>>> Secrets of Magic With Dikki Ellis <<<< Magicians' Secrets Revealed! Review by John M. Hebert First of all, I am not going to show this CD-ROM to Katherine, one of our granddaughters -- at least, not right away. You see, she still believes the things her grandmother and I assist her in doing now and then is real magic, not just a trick. She even has a "magic wand" made of a Lincoln-log roof piece with attached sleighbells that she "charges up with magic" on various household items before using it on coins, supposedly empty hands and such. So why disillusion her at the age of 7? She already knows that her magic works better in our house than it does at home. Even though this CD-ROM program, Secrets of Magic With Dikki Ellis, is supposedly designed for children 6 and up, I wonder if a parent or grandparent shouldn't wait just a little longer. However, buy it now; don't let it get away. This is a jewel. To begin with, after installation there is a built-in test of your audio and video drivers so you can adjust/recover from possible difficulties. Aside from the fact that occasionally the audio wasn't exactly in sync with the video, it ran fine on my machine. Besides, you're supposed to be paying attention to the material, not trying to imitate C.B. DeMille. There are two magic rooms, each loaded with props (normally a common household item or one easily constructed). Clicking on a prop brings up a short video of how to use it to produce a magical effect. This makes a total of more than a dozen instructional videos. In addition, the Encyclopedia of Magic (available through either magic room) contains 10 diagrammed table tricks and 10 "standup magic" (parlor) tricks. It also has a very short history of magic and some general performance hints. Magician Dikki Ellis also provides some of his philosophy of magic, stating that presentation is the key ingredient. Without that -- according to what I call the Gene Burger School of Magic Philosophy -- you have nothing more than a collection of puzzles, which is not very entertaining. Ellis stresses the importance of practice (the movements), followed by rehearsal (the movements and what you'll say) and finally by trying it out on close friends who can provide constructive criticism. He adds 10 handy tips, which are good practical advice for a magician of any age. This is not magic of the level of Harry Blackstone and David Copperfield. There are no appearing doves or wandering elephants; if you think feeding a cat or dog is expensive, try supporting an elephant. Neither is it designed to turn people into close-up magic wizards like Paul Harris, Frank Garcia or Mike Powers. This is good, practical beginning magic done with things you just might find in the middle drawer of the desk, either at home or at work. It's not just for kids, either. An adult just starting out in magic could benefit from this as well. In the process of learning and performing the many effects (some magicians object vehemently to the word "trick"), you just might discover the kind of things you like to do and avoid spending a small prince's ransom for things that are good but don't fit your style. Lord knows there are a few drawers of magic apparatus and tricks (there, I said it!) in my den that could be better used by somebody else. That comes from visiting regular magic shops and attending magic conventions, where the temptations to buy are extreme (editor: insert acquisitive, maniacal laughter here). Included is a 30-minute videocassette, which covers several of the illustrated effects shown on the CD-ROM. The videocassette in itself might be worth the purchase price for somebody who wants to help a child (or himself/herself) start out in magic. Dikki Ellis mentions more of his magic philosophy and discusses presentation and misdirection as part of the instruction. If a person had to rate this on a scale of 1 to 10 , this person would give it a 10. And I can barely wait to show it to Katherine. She's gonna love it. {Secrets of Magic With Dikki Ellis: Villa Crespo, 1725 McGovern St., Highland Park, IL 60035, (800) 521-3963 or (708) 433-0500; $49.95. REQUIRES: MPC Level 2 system with a 486 or better CPU.} -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- In the Spotlight: Alpha Five ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "A popular DOS database spins off a Windows database" ALPHA FIVE: WINDOWS DATABASE POWER COMES EASY Review by Lauren Willoughby Alpha Five makes a fine Windows successor to the DOS-based Alpha Four. Both are dBASE-compatible, relational databases, and both are popular for the same reason -- ease of use. They let ordinary PC users build powerful, custom database applications without having to know anything about programming or reading the manual. Accounting applications, contact managers, mailing-list managers and simple videotape libraries can all be created with relative ease. I've been a fan of Alpha Four, through its various incarnations, for a couple of years. One reason I like it is because it gives helpful prompts at the bottom of the screen, so even novice database users can navigate without having the manual attached at the hip. But that's just a small reason why I like Alpha Four. Here are more: [] It lets you reconfigure databases on the fly. (I've added and deleted fields as needed -- and adjusted field sizes -- for a database of 3000+ records.) [] Its form painter lets you color-code fields as you like, and also set the order in which you enter data in fields. You can add lines, borders and other visual elements to the onscreen form. Designing custom reports in the banded report writer is just as easy and fast. [] Relational lookups are easy to set up, and they can save lots of typing. (A relational lookup could, for example, enter the city and state automatically when you enter the ZIP code in the ZIP code field of your contact database -- providing, of course, you've set your contact database to do a lookup on a city/state/ZIP-code database.) [] You can have many databases open at the same time. [] It lets you quickly flit back and forth between form and browse views. (Form view has one record onscreen at a time; the browse view is a spreadsheet-like view that can show many records at once in a scrollable table.) [] Indexes! Whenever you need a new index, just create it. The program prompts you for the sort order of the fields. You can't miss. [] Field rules! Field rules make data entry soooo easy. Plus, they increase accuracy of data entry, and they give you control over what goes in the field. You can set up a mask for phone numbers that accepts only numbers, no alpha characters. Field rules can force data automatically into all uppercase, all lowercase or initial uppercase. You can use field rules to define lookup tables: for example, if you're designing a sales order system, field rules can trigger an automatic popup dialog box that lets you tap one key to tell the database if payment is by cash, check or charge (and for charges, you can set up a branch that lets you specify Visa, MasterCard or Discover Card). A field rule can be set to turn a field into an automatic counter. A field rule can automatically post data to other programs (decreasing inventory when a sale is made, for example). Defining field rules is a menu-driven process -- a snap. Wait a minute, you're saying -- this is supposed to be a review of Alpha *Five*! It is! Take everything above about Alpha Four and apply it to Alpha Five, but add a graphical interface and the ability to plant graphics on forms, use TrueType/PostScript fonts in reports (and forms), and embed Windows multimedia objects in fields via OLE. And though Alpha Five makes life easy for nonprogrammers, there is also Xbasic, an included programming language for power-hungry, technical- minded users. >>[ The Windows Advantage ]<< Being a Windows program, Alpha Five sports features impossible in Alpha Four. Like support for fancy TrueType fonts in forms and reports. And it of course supports the Windows Clipboard to cut and paste information with other Windows programs! (This is handier than you can imagine.) Reports can be designed in snaking multicolumns, almost like you're using a desktop-publishing program. Other neat things you can do is use check boxes and radio buttons to enter data on the forms. (You can also put browse tables on the forms -- yippee!) Another great feature is bubble help, which pops up a balloon explaining each button. Query-by-Example lets you zero in on the specific records you need by clicking around in the Query Table. You can link related database files together into a relational set using the graphical set editor. And you can enjoy a memo field with unlimited capacity. dBASE-compatible databases usually limit the memo field to 5000 characters. (If you export Alpha Five databases to standard dBASE format, it converts the memo fields back to the usual .DBT, truncating characters beyond 5000.) Fortunately Alpha Five keeps many of the speed keystrokes from Alpha Four, like F for find, C to change the current record, and E to enter a new record. You can click speedbar buttons at the top of the screen to do these things, but old hands will prefer the keystrokes. Alpha Five's interface bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Microsoft Access. Both have a tabbed control panel from which you can select views, reports, applications, etc. The palette window in Alpha Four's forms editor looks very much like Access's. Alpha Five is friendlier than Access (but not as much as Alpha Software may think). I tried Access for a while; I balked at Paradox for Windows. Alpha Five is definitely the nicest to beginners, nonprogrammers and "I-don't-do- manuals" people. Access has wizards to guide you through certain tasks. Alpha Five has three Genies: the Create Database Genie, the Query Genie and the Report Genie. Don't have a clue how to set up an inventory file? Relax, the Database Creation Genie has it covered. How about a "Rolodex" database, or an invoice line-item database, or a CD/tape database? The Database Creation Genie has templates for 16 specific types of databases, including those just mentioned. (It adds appropriate fields; you can delete and add fields to suit your situation.) The Genie can also hold your hand in setting up new, custom databases. When you're finished with the Genie, you've created a database! Each Genie delivers you to your destination, and you learn by doing. The default forms look boring, but you can click on the forms- designer speedbar button to dress them up -- or create new forms. You can drag and drop from the "Drag and Drop" list to place fields on the screen. You can also create "command" buttons by dragging from the list (put a "Print Report" button right there on the form). A right click on a field or label item brings up the Object Properties box, in which you can specify fonts, borders and colors. Alpha Five sports neat new field rules! The case-convert exceptions are particularly cool. When you want to enter data as quickly as possible, you don't want to worry about the SHIFT keys. Field rules let you type last names in lowercase, for example, and then let the program change the first letter to uppercase. This works great in Alpha Four . . . but not with names like MacLeod, O'Hara or McCay. Alpha Five offers an elegant solution to the problem of words that need capital letters somewhere in the middle. For these you can click on the Edit Exceptions button in the field rules area and type in -- what else -- exceptions! You can enter exceptions for other words and abbreviations too, like to turn ascii into ASCII. Lookups in Alpha Five look like combo boxes. (A lookup is a list of choices you can scroll through to enter data into a field.) If there's a button on the right side of the box in which you're entering data, that's the lookup -- click it for a window of options, then click the option to insert it into the field. Data entry goes much faster (and is assured to be more accurate) with lookups. I use lookups all the time. In our New Products database, I use lookups to "type in" the category of a program with just a few mouse clicks. For example, when I entered Arts & Letters Express into the database, a popup appeared when I arrived at the Category field. I clicked Graphics, and a sub-popup list appeared; there I clicked P for Paint/Draw. Lookups are easy to designate; you just fill in a table with your choices. I also use relational lookups to enter company names from the company database (which is kept separate because of all the contact info). Probably the most exciting thing Alpha Five has that Alpha Four doesn't is a built-in letter writer -- perfect for mail merges! If you've given up on trying to make your database talk to your word processor, this is the solution. Your form letters can have conditional paragraphs, pictures and calculated values. Xbasic is the built-in programming language for techies with special requirements. Xbasic uses a structure and syntax similar to QuickBASIC or Visual BASIC, but with database-specific functions and commands. There are more than 300 Xbasic functions, and programmers can call external DLLs and the Windows API. Xbasic scripts can be written to perform batch operations on your databases -- or to do anything normally called from a menu. You can add buttons to your forms to call Xbasic scripts. Do I recommend Alpha Five? Yes! *Anyone*, even a novice PC user, can set up a database and start entering data immediately with it. More advanced users will love the field rules and the graphical set editor. You can set up complete bookkeeping systems with Alpha Four without having to program a whit of code. Businesses will enjoy the more esoteric features of Alpha Five, like cross-file validation, which checks new data against old: it'll check new orders against a database of customers on credit hold, for example. The event rules will simplify your life and make your customers think you're really on top of things: with event rules you can trigger actions based on a condition -- for example, if someone tagged as a "preferred customer" places an order, event rules can trigger the printing of a special thank-you letter. >>[ A Few Complaints ]<< I have four complaints with Alpha Five. The first is a feature I enjoyed in Alpha Four but which is missing in Alpha Five. In Alpha Four, you could "print" reports to a plain ASCII file. This is great for anyone who needs to suck information from databases for any kind of formal publishing work, whether it's a catalog or a New Products list. We happened to use Alpha Four to enter the New Products, Press Box and Software Shopper product information. When it was time to publish, we just "printed" a report to a file, which we imported into PageMaker. Because we inserted PageMaker's style tags in the report layout, the document came into PageMaker with all the right fonts and attributes. So the absence of a "print to file" feature in Alpha Five really bothers me. Yeah, I sort of jury-rigged an ASCII report file by installing a Windows printer driver for "Generic / Text Only on FILE" and calling for Courier fonts -- but it's not the same. The spacing in between records isn't right, because the report layout insists on knowing your page size so it can paginate. (Not wanting more than one page, so I wouldn't have to deal with editing out the page breaks, I tried feeding the setup a custom page size of 8-1/2 by 100,000 inches. Big mistake. That bothered Alpha Five so much it burped up a General Protection Fault.) I think the idea of Windows' WYSIWYG power must have made the Alpha Software programmers forget about people who like to carry report data to other programs. Sure, you can use Alpha Five to design and print great-looking, multicolumn report layouts for, say, a catalog. But you can't interact with the layout on a page-by-page basis as you can with dtp software -- inserting sidebars here and graphic elements there. For that you need to be able to create a tagged file for import into a dtp app. With everyone rushing around trying to put massive amounts of data into HTML format for World Wide Web surfers, it would behoove Alpha Software to bring back an easy "print-to-file" option. I'm sure the SysOps out there would second that. (You guys spend a LOT of time massaging data, right?) My second complaint with Alpha Five is the lack of a spelling checker. No, Alpha Four doesn't have one either, but it sure would be a handy thing to have -- and not just for those into desktop publishing (though we'd probably appreciate it most of all). Business managers in charge of mass mailings would kiss the ground. I mean, Alpha Five does such a great job of printing custom, targeted sales letters, it would be a shame to have them go out with misspellings -- by the hundreds or thousands! And it's no fun to have to print a memo-field report to a file (arrgh!) just to import it into a word processor for spell checking -- and then have to jump back into the database and manually run down each error (double arrgh!). Most databases don't have spelling checkers, it's true. A spelling checker might seem like too much to expect in a database -- but, hey, we're talking about Alpha Software here! These people pride themselves on listening to their customers. My third complaint is that the Windows interface of Alpha Five seems somehow inferior to that of Alpha Four. Maybe it's because Alpha Four is older and has gone through many levels of refinement. It's hard to get lost in Alpha Four, because the help at the bottom of each screen anticipates the actions you want to take next. Alpha Five delivers up speedbars, toolbars, scroll bars and buttons galore, but Alpha Four seems more direct. My last and final nitpick is the slowness of Alpha Five -- compared to Alpha Four. It's a dirty little secret that DOS text-based applications will *always* be faster than graphical Windows programs; this will still be true in *Windows 2000*. If do a "fast-forward" to look at sequential records in Alpha Four's form view (by holding your finger on the down button), the records fly by like greased lightning. If you try the equivalent procedure in Alpha Five, the records ooze by at one-fifth the speed. Alpha Five loads ponderously. Alpha Five is a Version 1.0 after all; I'm sure the speed and the interface will improve. >>[ Great Database, Two Flavors (Well, Three) ]<< If you want a Windows database, get Alpha Five. If you're motoring in DOS, set coordinates to Alpha Four. There's actually another version of Alpha Five that's especially appealing to nonprogrammers: the "Home & Business" version -- everything but the Xbasic language -- and it's only $49.95! The suggested retail price of Alpha Five (with Xbasic) is $445, but you can usually find it for about $99 through third-party resellers. Psst: Hot news! A new version of Alpha Four -- Alpha Four 6.0 for DOS ($99.95) -- is shipping! The new features look great. Alpha Four gets more mouseable, lets you add more fields per record, and will look a little more "Five-ish" with buttons you can plant on the form. For the first time Alpha Four offers multiple one-to-many links at the same level. {Alpha Five: Alpha Software Corp., 168 Middlesex Turnpike, Burlington, MA 01803, (800) 515-2650 or (617) 229-2924; $449. REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 8MB RAM, Windows 3.1, 5MB disk space, VGA graphics.} -=------------- -=*=- -=*=- -=*=- -------------=- New Products ~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following products have been received by PCM and examined by our magazine staff. This is your assurance that we have seen these products -- and that they are currently available, not vaporware. -=*=- >> Books << Buy That Computer! 1995 Ed. To help consumers take control of the overwhelming process of purchasing an IBM-compatible PC, best-selling author Dan Gookin has written this book. Its unique tear-out worksheets guide the reader through each step with acronym-free text. The reader can then confidently visit the computer store armed with a profile based on specific needs. "The purchase decision is in the hands of the consumer, not the salesperson, saving time and money." IDG Books Worldwide, Inc., 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Suite 400, Foster City, CA 94404, (800) 762-2974; $12.99. DOS User's Guide to the Internet, A A book, written by James Gardner, giving an overview of the Internet. With the included UUCP communications software from MKS, Inc., users can send and receive e-mail; access newsgroups; and transfer text and binary files (ftp). REQUIRES: a modem (to support the accompanying software) Mortice Kern Systems, Inc., 35 King St. North, Waterloo, ON N2J-2W9; $19.95. Internet Mailing Lists Navigator A guide that covers more than 1400 Internet mailing lists. The companion disc includes a searchable database of the lists. "With the click of a mouse button, the List Navigator software will automatically submit requests to join or leave lists so that you don't have to learn arcane list-management commands." Before you can use List Navigator, you must first install NetManage's Internet Chameleon, a Winsock-compliant networking package (it's included on the disc). If you don't already have a SLIP or PPP account with an Internet service provider, you can use this program to set one up. You'll discover mailing lists for a variety of topics and interests: fiction writing workshops, the C language, cryonics, and the Andy Griffith show. REQUIRES: A CD-ROM drive is required for the companion CD-ROM disc Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, (800) 428-5331; $39.95. Prentice Hall's Illus. Dictionary of Comp. Prentice Hall's Illustrated Dictionary of Computing, 2nd Ed., by Jonar C. Nader, is a treasure trove of computer information. Its 691 pages are profusely illustrated, and occasionally offer up "fun facts." Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632, (800) 428-5331. >> Business << DacEasy Accounting for DOS, Version 6 A complete accounting package designed to follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. It now includes customer service tracking, serial-number tracking, salesperson tracking and faster processing speed. Areas include General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Manager, Inventory, Billing, Purchase Order, Fixed Assets, Invoicing, Budgeting, Financials, Graphics, Custom Forms Designer, and DacAccess Report Generator. Supports Novell networks and NetBIOS-compatible LANs. REQUIRES: 640K, DOS 3.1+, hard disk DacEasy, Inc., 17950 Preston Road, Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75252, (800) DAC-EASY. Maximizer Sales Suite for Windows A vertical software suite designed specifically for salespeople and contact-oriented professionals. The suite will allow salespeople to stay in touch with their clients and prospects; analyze results with presentation-quality custom reports; plot client and prospect databases on detailed maps; and send, receive and organize faxes. The Maximizer Sales Suite is comprised of these tightly integrated, "best-of-breed" products: Maximizer (a contact manager), Crystal Reports (database reporting), MapLinx (easy-to-use geographic database) and FaxWorks (software for your fax modem). Full installation requires 30MB of disk space. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system with 4MB RAM Modatech Systems Intl., I, 8445 Freeport Parkway, Suite 535, Irving, TX 75063, (800) 804-6299; $199.00. Multimedia Business 500 Release 2 A multimedia reference to America's top companies -- overviews, strategies, financial data, graphs, addresses, phone numbers, even Internet Web sites for 500 major U.S. companies. View up to 10 years of financial, stock and employment data -- more than 1000 graphs. Includes a Prodigy startup kit -- and links to Prodigy! -- letting users visit corporate Web sites and receive current stock prices. The publishers say this is the first retail CD-ROM program with an automatic linkup to Prodigy, and through Prodigy to the Internet. REQUIRES: an MPC system with CD-ROM drive Allegro New Media, 16 Passaic Ave., Building 6, Fairfield, NJ 07004, (800) 424-1992; $49.95. NAIC Personal Record Keeper A comprehensive investment program designed to offer complete portfolio management. It handles a variety of asset types and transactions. Reports show current holdings, sold positions, unrealized gains/losses, income received, commissions paid, and more. REQUIRES: 640K, DOS 2.1+, hard drive Quant IX Software, Inc., 5900 N. Port Washington R, Suite 142a, Milwaukee, WI 53217, (416) 961-1991; $79. Power Translator Professional An English/Spanish translation program to translate letters, legal documents, presentations, proposals, sales material -- or any other document -- quickly and easily. Features full-sentence, bidirectional translation at more than 20,000 words per hour. Its general dictionary includes more than 250,000 word forms and phrases, plus more than 15 industry-specific dictionaries (legal, finance, medical, telecommunications, etc.). Import/export formatted files from Word for Windows, WordPerfect for Windows, Ami Pro for Windows, ASCII, RTF and most major Windows/DOS word processors. Also features bilingual help screens and voice output in English and Spanish. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system with 4MB of RAM and 22MB disk space Globalink, 9302 Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA 22031-1208, (703) 273-5600. >> Education << Visit here next month -- we're covering more than 100 educational programs as a "Back-to-School" special!! >> Games << Dominus A fantasy role-playing war game that casts you as an overlord in the employ of an aged king. Neighboring clans -- a scourge of ravenous looters, soldiers and mages -- are invading the dominion. Pit your armies against theirs. You have the power of Magick, Creation and Inquiry. REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, VGA, CD-ROM drive U.S. Gold, Inc., 303 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA 94111, (415) 693- 0297; $54.95. Ecstatica An adventure in which a solitary traveler stumbles upon a deserted village, where the disturbing dreams of the one called Ecstatica take on physical form, wreaking havoc. "Help to free Ecstatica in this terrifying graphic adventure with a fully explorable 3-D environment, stunning animation and ground-breaking ellipsoid technology." Contains subject matter that may not be appropriate for audiences under 17 years of age. REQUIRES: 486+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, VGA, CD-ROM drive, hard drive Psygnosis Limited, 675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, (617) 497-5457. Eddie Kantar's Bridge Companion A bridge game designed with the help of Eddie Kantar, Jr., renowned bridge master and syndicated columnist. Not just a game, it's also a tutor. Not sure how to play a hand? Bridge Companion will offer hints. Plus, there's an interactive tutorial with more than 50 challenging hands from Eddie Kantar. Features various levels of play; multiple bidding conventions; user-entered hands; and Rubber, Duplicate or Chicago scoring rules. (A demo, shareware version of this program is available as MVP Bridge for Windows.) REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system Lifestyle Software Group, 63 Orange St., Saint Augustine, FL 32084, (800) 289-1157; $59.95. Harpoon Battleset #3: Cold War An add-on game for players of Harpoon naval battle simulations. Cold War offers 15 scenarios from one of the most fascinating periods in the annals of naval strategy, the Cold War. Could the Soviets have taken Iceland? Could they have held it? Other what-if scenarios are explored. REQUIRES: 386SX+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, mouse, 512K VGA, hard drive IntraCorp, Inc., 501 Brickell Key Drive, Sixth Floor, Miami, FL 33131, (305) 373-7700. Links Championship Course: Prairie Dunes An add-on course for the Links family of golf games. This time it's a digitized representation of Prairie Dunes Country Club golf course in Hutchinson, Kansas. Those who have the Links 386 CD game can enjoy the new simulated aerial flybys, which offer a bird's eye view of each hole, along with helpful commentary. REQUIRES: Links, Links 386 or Microsoft Golf and a CD-ROM drive Access Software, 4910 W. Amelia Earhart Dr, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (800) 800-4880; $29.95. Novastorm A fast-paced arcade "shooter." Novastorm launches the player to the Bator System in the year 2129, where the Federation is on the brink of collapse, thanks to a military intelligence network (SCARAB-X) gone berserk. The network has mutated and taken on a life of its own, decimating the population and ruining cities. In a last-ditch effort to stop it, the Federation launches an experimental space fighter, piloted by, uh, YOU, to track down and destroy SCARAB-X. Features Fractal Engine Technology, which allows smooth video transfer even from single-speed CD-ROM drives. Features stunningly rendered graphics and backdrops, and a hot soundtrack. REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, VGA, CD-ROM drive Psygnosis Limited, 675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, (617) 497-5457. Operation AirStorm A combat flight simulator in which you can choose daytime or nighttime missions, along with your choice of high-tech aircraft: F-15E Strike Eagle, F-14A Tomcat, F-117A Stealth Fighter or AH-64A Apache helicopter. Features a well-stocked cockpit display, audio narration, smooth-screen 3-D animation, and eight different flying missions. REQUIRES: 386SX+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, CD-ROM, VESA graphics, mouse Expert Software, Inc., 800 Douglas Road, Executive Tower, Coral Gables, FL 33134-3160, (305) 567-9990; $19.95. Royal Flush A poker-themed pinball arcade simulation based on the real thing -- Gottlieb's original pinball machine. Try the True-Touch flippers and nudge. You can choose a scrolling (320x200 or 640x480) or stationery playfield (800x600). REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, VGA/SVGA, CD-ROM drive Amtex, P.O. Box 572, Belleville, ON K8N-5B2, (613) 967-7900. Star Reach A fast-paced strategy game of galactic conquest, set in the distant future when alien races battle for domination of the galaxy. Controlling a vast fleet of space craft and troops, players attempt to rule the galaxy through planetary colonization, economic decision making and space combat. Star Reach features 32-bit programming, stereo sound effects and other features to produce a visually stunning challenge. Its split-screen action allows two opponents to play head-to-head, or against computer opponents. REQUIRES: 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 3.1+, VGA, hard drive Interplay Productions, 17922 Fitch Ave., Irvine, CA 92714, (800) 969- GAME. Virtual Pool A realistic pool simulator that renders a billiards table in 3-D. Players can walk around the table, in virtual-reality fashion, adjusting their viewing angle -- along with the angle and force of the cue stroke. Players can accurately apply English: the game uses realistic physics and geometry, and is designed to simulate all aspects of the physical billiards game, taking into account spin, skid, friction, throw and more. Four games are offered, 8-Ball, 9-Ball, straight pool and rotation. Multiplayer modes are offered to allow you to challenge friends over a modem or network (or take on the computer). Also features a full-motion video library -- learn the history of the sport or take some trick shot lessons from world-renowned pool champion "Machine Gun" Lou Butera. Interplay claims this program will improve anyone's game, and they back that up with a money-back guarantee: if purchasers return the program with a brief description explaining why the game failed to improve their game, they'll be reimbursed. A 486+ CPU is recommended (but required for high-resolution play), along with a double-speed CD-ROM drive and SVGA. Interplay's Web site: http://www.interplay.com. REQUIRES: 33MHz 386+ CPU, 4MB RAM, DOS 5.0+, VGA, mouse, CD-ROM drive Interplay Productions, 17922 Fitch Ave., Irvine, CA 92714, (800) 969- GAME. Warplanes -- Modern Fighting Aircraft A multimedia encyclopedia of modern military aircraft and aviation, covering the period from 1976 to the present. Features realistic 3-D rendered models of aircraft; animations showing combat tactics and how weapons systems operate; more than an hour of live-action video; a multimedia database of technical and service data on more than 500 aircraft; more than 1000 full-screen photographs; and flight simulators for A-10 Thunderbolt, C-130 Hercules and Soviet Su-27. REQUIRES: an MPC system with CD-ROM drive Maris Multimedia, 100 Smith Ranch Road, Suite 301, San Rafael, CA 94903, (415) 492-2819; $69.00. >> Graphics << Africa Screen Saver A "peaceful and relaxing" screen saver featuring 16 gorgeous animated scenes (shot in movie film) from the plains and forests of Africa -- with wildlife. The Scene Composer recomposes the scene for the best results based on the actual size of your screen; it can fill the entire screen for sizes up to 1024 by 768. It offers password protection and randomizing options. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system with 4MB RAM and 6MB of disk space Socha Computing, Inc., 15 Central Way, Suite 1200, Kirkland, WA 98033, (800) 717-6242; $29.95. Art Parts A cool selection of more than 300 "wood-cut" style images "from a couple of guys named Ron and Joe." The art is wry, wacky and "grooveball." Thanks to the "ClickArt Trade Secret," every image can be made available in every popular image format. Also included is the onscreen catalog/browser and the "Regular Joe the Font," a funky little font. A 100-image version is available on CD-ROM or floppy disks for $19.95 each. REQUIRES: any program accepting .AI, .EPS, .CGM, .PCX or .TIF files T/Maker Company, 1390 Villa St., Mountain View, CA 94041, (415) 962- 0195; $59.95. Arts & Letters Express A powerful but easy-to-use Windows draw program. You can use Bezier curves to draw intricate objects, or call upon the CD-ROM disc's 10,000 images. You can do amazing things with color: control the image or just part of the image like you do your TV with brightness, contrast and hue controls. Professional graphic artists can use it to generate color separations. When you register, you'll receive a disc with 1000 TrueType fonts. Special text effects let you warp, extrude, or fit text to a path. Run from CD or hard disk (consumes 7MB). Other special effects let you experiment with layers, masking and hole-cutting. This is a fun graphics program! REQUIRES: 386SX+ CPU, 4MB RAM, Windows 3.1, mouse (optional CD-ROM) Computer Support Corp., 15926 Midway Road, Dallas, TX 75244, (214) 661- 8960; $199. Harvard Montage Harvard Montage is for business people who use slides, images, clip art, photos, sound, video and other graphics to create presentations and documents. It gives them a fast, easy way to organize their slides, clip art, images, sound and video files. (Supports Harvard Graphics, PowerPoint and Freelance Graphics -- plus, users can catalog and view their presentations with this program.) It provides colorful thumbnail snapshots of files and lets users neatly arrange their slides or images into visual photo albums, and it lets users tag files by keyword. It includes a CD-ROM disc with more than 2000 clip-art symbols, textured photo backgrounds, and a variety of presentation templates. Each album can hold more than 65,000 files. Users can organize the files into sub-albums, down to slide level. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system Software Publishing Corp., 3165 Kifer Road, P.O. Box 54983, Santa Clara, CA 95056-0983, (408) 986-8000; $99.00. Working Watermarker for Windows A background graphic printing utility that can put a "watermark" in the background of anything you print. A watermark can be anything -- a logo, a label, a message or a graphic. Comes with dozens of watermarks, like, "URGENT," "DO NOT COPY" and "DRAFT," but you can of course make your own. Works from within any Windows program with any Windows-supported printer. You can determine the darkness (or print density) of the watermark. REQUIRES: Windows 3.1, 4MB of RAM Working Software, Inc., P.O. Box 1844, Santa Cruz, CA 95061, (408) 423- 5696; $49.95. >> Hardware << Jack of Diamonds Trumpcard An "all-in-one Ethernet and direct cellular data/fax modem PCMCIA card" -- featuring direct connection to Ethernet 10Base-T, regular phone lines and cellular phones. No external modules are needed for the Ethernet 10Base-T or modem connections. Two versions of this multifunction card are available, 28.8Kbps and 14.4Kbps. (We received the 14.4Kbps, $549 modem for review; the 28.8Kbps model lists for $749.) "Both versions also offer Windows-friendly hardware design that eliminates the danger of data loss during high-speed fax or data communication." It also features intelligent media detection to automatically sense an Ethernet 10Base-T or 10Base-2 connection and configure itself automatically. REQUIRES: a Type II PCMCIA slot Ositech Communications, I, 679 Southgate Drive, Guelph, ON N1G4S-2, (800) 563-2386 or (519) 836-8063; $549. >> Home Help << ESPN Baseball Tonight A program designed in partnership with ESPN, this program lets baseball fans play an arcade, managerial or statistical-based game. The look and feel of an actual ESPN broadcast is provided by full-motion video of ESPN personality Chris Berman and play-by-play commentary from announcer Dan Patrick. "We have the players, their stats, the teams and their logos," said Randy Thier, vice president and general manager, PC Division, Sony Imagesoft. "That alone makes ESPN Baseball Tonight stand apart from the other games on the market. Add to those elements our unique player perspective; enhanced game play, graphics and animation; and the incredible speed of the game, and you can see why we believe ESPN Baseball Tonight immediately becomes the best PC baseball game on the market." The program integrates the complete stats from the 93 and 94 season; it also accepts statistical update discs from other products. Features digitized athletes and "true-to-life" player animation. REQUIRES: an MPC system with 33MHz 386+ CPU and a CD-ROM drive Sony Imagesoft, 2400 Broadway Ave., Suite 550, Santa Monica, CA 90404, (310) 449-2999; $69.95. Fax Congress Now! A program that works in conjunction with your fax modem, your fax software, and your Windows word processor (or plain old Windows Write) to easily send a fax to a member of Congress. The program lists fax numbers for the 104th Congress, including those newly elected. "It will even route faxes to those members who have unlisted fax numbers." (If you don't have a fax modem, you can make printouts for your fax machine.) REQUIRES: a 4MB Windows 3.1 system, fax modem or fax machine Patriot Software, Inc., 9225 Katy Freeway, Suite 314, Houston, TX 77024, (713) 467-7507. MegaGuide to CDs & Albums: Volume 1 An exhaustive, detailed and easy-to-use multimedia CD-ROM reference to music, The MegaGuide to CDs & Albums includes information about more than 25,000 albums released from 1954 to 1994 -- including every song on every album. You have the option of using either the DOS or Windows multimedia software to access the catalog, create lists, find songs or print reports. The author has searched the music industry to find outstanding music that isn't being played on the radio, and sound clips from these selected CDs and tapes are included, so you can hear the music and decide for yourself if you like it. With the Windows multimedia features, you can even view album cover graphics and artists' photos. With the search features you can find all the songs by your favorite artists, or every version of a favorite song. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 or DOS 3.3+ system with CD-ROM drive PSG-HomeCraft, P.O. Box 974, Tualatin, OR 97062, (503) 692-3732; $29.95. ORGANIZE! Your Collection: Multimedia A multimedia database program with templates for just about any collection you'd care to organize: sports cards, records (or CDs or tapes), books, magazines, stamps, coins, video tapes, guns, home inventories, names for mailing lists, slides, photographs, comic books, art, memorabilia, wine, fabrics, and more. You also have the flexibility to design your databases to catalog tools, jewelry, dolls, or anything else. The multimedia features allow you to attach pictures and sounds to your records -- imagine a baseball card collection with scans of the cards. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system PSG-HomeCraft, P.O. Box 974, Tualatin, OR 97062, (503) 692-3732; $59.95. Peanuts Family Organizer An information manager and scheduler designed specifically for active families. It can be used as a calendar to track family and personal schedules; as a to-do list manager; an address book; a message center for family message; as a way to post family events to everyone's schedule at once; and as entertainment -- with peanuts comic strips and icons. As a fun feature, each family member can select a Peanuts character to use as an alias. REQUIRES: a Windows 3.1 system with 2MB RAM, VGA and 4.5MB disk space Individual Software, Inc., 5870 Stoneridge Drive, #1, Pleasanton, CA 94588, (510) 734-6767; $19.99. Warren Miller's Ski World Skiers thinking about where to take their first turns of the season can now have their own personal expert on hand to create the ultimate ski experience. Warren Miller's Ski World is a complete multimedia guide to skiing -- with action videos from Warren Miller, expert how-to-ski instruction, ski trivia and an interactive resort database. The database has info on more than 1000 resorts with information on lodging, lifts, services, amenities and more. REQUIRES: an MPC system with 486+ CPU and a CD-ROM drive Multicom Publishing, Inc., 1100 Olive Way, Suite 1250, Seattle, WA 98101, (206) 622-5530; $49.95. >> Programming << VisualAge 2.0 for Windows A program with which you can build graphical client/server applications: rapidly create prototypes that extend to production applications; build complex business applications that are easily expanded and maintained; and integrate existing data and applications from a variety of databases and platforms. VisualAge provides a powerful visual programming approach for constructing applications from parts. An extensive library of prefabricated parts is included for graphical user interfaces, relational database access, programming logic, and remote/local functions. (Programmers, shielded from the details of the underlying programming language, can build applications by visually connecting parts, which are iconic representations of underlying code.) Includes IBM Smalltalk, a complete, object-oriented development environment. REQUIRES: 486+ CPU, 16MB RAM, DOS 6.0+, 55MB disk space, VGA, mouse IBM Corp. Software Solutions, Route 100, P.O. Box 100, Somers, NY 10589, (914) 766-9155; $2495.00. >> Utilities << BatteryDisk A utility that saves the day in case your CMOS battery dies. It reads your computer's unique, vital CMOS settings and stores them on a floppy disk. It'll let you restore your CMOS settings and keep working -- even with a dead battery. It doesn't even need DOS to do it. REQUIRES: 286+ CPU and floppy drive International Systems, In, 351 W. Hubbard St., Suite 501, Chicago, IL 60610, (801) 224-4828. d-Time10 1.1 An updated CD-ROM accelerator (cache) utility that claims to make your CD-ROM drive as fast as your hard disk. New features include enhanced full-motion video detection, automatic Smartdrive detection, an XMS-only driver, and a Windows full-motion video interface. REQUIRES: 386SX+ CPU, DOS 4.01+, a CD-ROM drive Ballard Synergy, 10715 Silverdale Way, Suite 208, Silverdale, WA 98383, (206) 656-8070; $69.95. Server Sentry A utility that automatically reboots NetWare servers and restores network services, generates a chronological history journal of the network crash, notifies network managers of an upcoming (or present) catastrophic network situation, and generates downtime cost analysis reports. REQUIRES: NetWare Circuit Masters Software, 10014 Kent Town, Sugar Land, TX 77478, (713) 242-9353. System Commander 2.0 "Add as many operating systems to your PC as you want, even 100!" Have MS-DOS 6.0 (with Windows 3.1), Windows NT, Windows 95, OS/2 Warp, SCO Unix, Netware and PC-DOS 7.0 (and more) all present and accounted for on your system -- let System Commander take care of the configuration. It's compatible with every Intel-compatible operating system and EIDE or SCSI drives of any size. System Commander's automatic installation will have your PC ready to add new operating systems in minutes. It does not require repartitioning of your hard drive, and it does not require a partition of its own. After installing System Commander, your first reboot brings up a menu of the operating systems already installed. Just select the OS you want and System Commander does the rest. To use another operating system, just reboot and make another selection. It's not a TSR; it uses no resident memory. REQUIRES: any PC V Communications, Inc., 4320 Stevens Creek Blvd., Suite 120-DU, San Jose, CA 95129, (408) 296-4224. -=------------=- T-H-E E-N-D F-O-R N-O-W -=------------=-