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Star LC200 Colour Printer Review by Brian Mumford
Just recently I visited the Computer Shopper Show, and on one of
the stands I got to see the Star LC200 Printer and it was love
at first printout. I decided that I would have to get one, but
resisted the temptation for another 3 days, then I scanned the
computer mags to find a retailer of these beatiful creatures. I
eventually tracked one down at a company called Dimenstion
Computers. The Star LC200 is a colour printer made as either a
9pin or 24pin printer it is fully Epsom compatible and is the
upgrade to the Star LC10. I have used it with all my computers
they are a Spectrum, Amstrad 6128 and of course, a Sam and have
had no problem doing screen dumps,text printing etc. All this I
might add without changing anything, dip switch settings are
as they were when it was delivered. The features this printer
has are astounding for the price, which I might add, was cheaper
than the printer I already owned which was 10 years old. Some of
the features are you can load your tractor feed paper from the
back or bottom of the printer, if you load your tractor paper
from the back you can by the press of one key park your tractor
paper and pull the paper lever forwards, use single sheet with
out unloading, you can set the dip switches electronically, from
the front panel,and you will get a printout of how they are set.
You can reverse feed tractor or single sheet paper, you can
microfeed forwards or back to set the paper to the correct
starting postion,you have two draft speeds and four fonts
setable from the front panel also these can be condensed or
propotional. You also have 2 pitches 10cpi and 12cpi, it has a
16k printer buffer when not downloading characters, and of
course you can download character sets, it has also an IBM mode
for use with MS DOS. If you are thinking about a new printer or
about buying a printer for the first time I can highly recommend
the LC200 at £200.00p it is the best around in my opinion.
Colour Dump Version 2 by Darren Talbot
Reviewed by Brian Mumford
This is a new version of CSD written by Darren from feedback
that he has received from Sam owners who have bought his
first, excellent program. This new version allows you to produce
64 colours using the LC200 or LC10 colour printer from Star.
When you load the program using F9 you are presented with a menu
and you are instructed that if this is the first time you have
loaded CSD 2 then you should take the first option on the menu
and produce a colour chart, this shows you all the colours that
the program can produce, giving the primary and secondary
colours that make them up in number form, you will need this in
the other two programs,when this is done you're ready to explore
the rest of the programs on the disc. The program COLSWAP in
this version is slightly different from that on CSD in that in
this one it is mainly used for you to see what colours have been
used in the screen you wish to print, and to note the nearest
colours the program can produce, these are noted on to a piece
of paper for use with MULTIDUMP, you can also get rid of
wasteful background by changing colours to make a single
background colour, or to get rid of details you do not require
in your printout. When you load MULTIDUMP you are given
instruction as to how to proceed,you are also presented with a
list of 16 pens which you can adjust to suit the noted colours
you got from COLSWAP, you are then given the choice of sizes and
density of dumps. Once again this is a very professionally
produced piece of software well worth the asking price of
£3.95p. If you enjoyed using CSD then this new version is a
must, I highly recommend it, this makes it worth owing a colour
printer of the class of the LC200 or LC10.
This item is availabe direct from Darren Talbot at the
following address:-
2 Yew Tree Avenue,
Northend,
Manchester, M22 4DX
FLEXIPAGE. A First encounter. by Les Phillips
My first reaction to FLEXIPAGE was one of disappointment, and
this was long before the disc got anywhere near the Coupe. The
reason was that the manual was very obviously written for the
Spectrum 48+/128K/+3 used with Discovery/+D disk/ Microdrive.
The manual comprised 281 paragraphs, and modifications claimed
to make the programme compatible with the Coupe were tagged on
in another 14 paragraphs. This claim turned out to be just not
true, as I discovered the hard way. The omissions were serious
in that certain instructions did not produce the results as
described, and progress became impossible without a great deal
of trial and error, and accompanied by frequent rebooting of the
computer. Moreover, searching the manual for some help in
such unexpected circumstances was made much more tedious than
necessary because of the inclusion of considerable amounts of
text relevant to the Spectrum systems, and of no value
whatsoever to the operator. With the objective of affording
assistance to new owners of FLEXIPAGE facing similar
difficulties, I will describe my attempts to use the programme.
When the disc is loaded, a sub-menu appears from which demos of
the interactive and automatic programmes can be initiated. From
this sub-menu, key F moves to the Main Menu. Round about now you
will discover that the instruction which appears many times
throughout the document, viz., that pressing SYMBOL SHIFT and
zero will return you to the Main Menu, does no such thing! The
reason for this is NOT mentioned in the additional SAM-specific
paragraphs, and is an example of the incomplete translation of
the programme to the Coupe system. SYMBOL SHIFT and zero on the
Spectrum produces the underline character. To produce this
character on the Coupe, requires SYMBOL SHIFT and = keys.
Having overcome this frustration, I then followed the
instructions to make a FLEXIPAGE exercise. Pressing "N" (for NEW
PAGES), produced a dark screen with a message in green "Wipe
pages ?" This is, according to the manual, to remind you that
anything already entered may be lost if you haven't saved it.
Those of us who are used to the Spectrum system expect to
respond to such a requester by pressing "Y" or "N". Both of
these return you to the Main Menu! The message is in fact to be
reacted to by pressing "W" to go on regardless, or any other key
to return to the Main Menu. Only half of this is made clear at
this point, viz., how to return to the Main Menu by pressing
'any other key'. Any other than what? You are supposed to have
remembered from a very vague paragraph 6, that any message in
green requires to be acted upon by pressing the capital letter
of the first word. I consider that this directive, more clearly
worded, should be relocated or repeated so as to be adjacent to
the first instruction that is likely to put the user in this
position - particularly as the form of requester is one familiar
to Spectrum users, but requires a completely different method of
response. The correct method of response is, in fact, set out in
paragraph 132, but this is way beyond the section concerned with
the current exercise.
Having, eventually, learned by experience, and pressed "W" to
wipe pages, the user is invited to indicate the required number
of pages, and a screen for each page duly appears upon which to
enter text.
The next section of the manual details an alternative method of
producing the pages - recommended if you are not a particularly
good typist, or if your page is to be of text only. This method
starts with selection of "C" (Correct pages) from the Main Menu.
According to the manual, this produces a message in green,
"number to correct/X". This time you are NOT to press the
capital letter, but enter the number of a page, e.g 1. When I
selected "C", I got the message "number to correct/0", and the
manual tells me that if the X turns out to be an 0, as in my
case, this is because I haven't made any blank pages, and must
go back to the Main Menu to create some blank pages, by using
the "N" option! Then I can return to the correction screen and
correct(?) pages with nothing on them!
Encouraged by my success (so far!), I then set out to complete
the first exercise, namely to produce a simple automatic
display. I called up the first of my pages and typed in the text
and saw it appear alongside the cursor at the bottom of the
screen. When I pressed ENTER I expected the text to be moved
into the yellow box at the top of the screen. It didn't! It
vanished! Nevertheless, I pressed on and made up pages 2 and 3
in the same way and with similar results. To see the pages
again, I had to press "C" from the Main Menu and call up each
page in turn. The text, this time, appeared in the box where it
could be amended if necessary. Moving the cursor down out of the
box produced an invitation to confirm by pressing "C". I decided
that henceforth I would use the "N" option on the Main Menu only
to provide the required number of pages, and then use the "C"
option to call them up for text entry and correction/amendment
at the same time.
So far, the text will have appeared at half the height it will
appear in the final display, but you can view the pages in their
final presentation format by pressing "A" from the Main Menu.
The manual then describes how to introduce different colours
and sound effects (there are three sounds to choose from). There
were no difficulties in this respect. Having successfully
introduced colour and sound, there remains the option of adding
pictures to the text. Pressing Graphics key ,(described as CAPS
SHIFT & 9, which you will remember refers to the Spectrum.
However, if you search through the book, paragraph 287 states
that graphics on SAM are obtained by key F0). Use of this key
when a blank page has been selected displays a selection of
graphics ranging from blocky shapes to two little men, and the
keys with which to select them. Details are then given as to how
to use these shapes to produce two pages which, when displayed
together, show the head and shoulders of a policeman (of
sorts!).
At this point, and with the Editor breathing down my neck, I
decided to stop while I was winning and defer examination of the
INTERACTIVE mode for reviewing in the next issue of
SUPPLEMENT.
What do I think of it so far?
1) The AUTOMATIC mode produces a display which could be very
effective in commercial fields, e.g. shop window displays and
the like. The text is a bit 'blocky' and the pictures produced
using the available U.D.G.s are somewhat rudimentary. This
feature may well be capable of improvement by use of the
Graphics Designer programme which is provided, and remains to be
tried out.
2) I have found the instructions tedious and difficult to use.
Once you have, like myself, battled through them (and not
without help), you can avoid the pitfalls. But an Instruction
Manual should be worthy of the name. It must be clear, concise,
unambiguous, and above all, ACCURATE. This programme stands in
danger of being judged by the quality of the Manual rather than
the merit of the programme itself.
IMPORTANT NOTE
The substance of these comments has been made known to Dave
Wornham who has undertaken henceforth to supply with the
programme additionnl information covering those aspects likely
to cause confusion with the Coupe.
For those of you who already own FLEXIPAGE, this extra
information can be obtained by sending a S.A.E to Dave.
NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS
(D.TONKS)
I've finally got my hands on the 1 meg expansion box, and I must
say that used in conjunction with MASTERDOS, it opens out the
possibilities of the Sam no end.
I've not had chance to try it out fully yet, but what I have
seen so far is very good.
You can get the expansion from Samco for £79.95
By the time you read this the next All Formats Computer Fair
will be held on 23rd March 1991 at the Horticultural Halls,
London.
Enigma tell me that their next release will be KLAX, which is a
sort of strategy/arcade game. This should be ready for the All
Formats Fair on 2nd Feb 1991. They are still working on Trivial
Pursuits, which I believe is nearing completion.
....
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