Disc World

David Bradforth and Aaron Timbrell on this months DISCWorld

This months DISCWorld roundup

The starring attraction is a database, but we have also got a complete commercial game and a whole wealth of items supporting this issues articles.

Welcome to the disc page once again. This time, we have gone all out to bring you a disc packed full of superb software - including well over Ł70 worth of commercial software. I'd quite like to find out what people feel of the RISC World disc - we compile it for you, and would like to know what we are doing right / wrong.

All comments will be taken into consideration, and three people drawn from the hat will win the Superior Games CD-ROM worth Ł30. If comments could be directed towards editor@riscworld.co.uk, we will then use them as the basis for compiling future software sections. In the meantime, let's get back to the information of what's on the disc!

Masterfile III

A complete commercial database

Masterfile 3 is the latest development in the best selling family of database programs for RISC OS computers. It is fast, simple to use and provides powerful data management facilities suitable for home, education and business use. Included amongst its many features is a very comprehensive indexing system, allowing data to be accessed in any order.

In addition, subsets may be created allowing access to just those records which match the search criteria. Both indices and subsets are updated automatically when records are added, modified or deleted. The report generator allows databases to be printed in card or spreadsheet format, and provides full label printing facilities.

Features

Fast, multi-field indexing
Multiple subsets
Password protection for data security
Global calculations across all or part of the database
Multi-line fields
Optional toolbox with buttons to step through records
Calculation fields based on values in other fields
Import text and pictures into fields by simple drag operations
Import and export CSV, TSV and ASCII data files
Range checking data entry
Card designer allowing complete freedom for data entry screens
Re-structure database at any time
Up to 255 fields of 255 characters
Field types include text, integer, decimal, date, picture and calculation

RISC World readers can obtain the very latest version on CD-ROM, together with a printed manual and reference card for just Ł9.50. To order, please call APDL on 020 8778 2659 or email info@apdl.co.uk - complete details are on the main index for this issue of RISC World.

ArtWorks Modules

Shareware by MW Software and Richard Millican

With the pending release of Vantage, a number of people on the newsgroups (see our archive) are wondering what the future holds for ArtWorks. With the efforts of MW Software in Germany recently adding direct text support (as for DTP) as well as proper handling of true colour sprites, it's unlikely that people will be in a rush to cease the use of ArtWorks.

Recognizing this, we have brought together a small selection of freeware and shareware plug-ins for ArtWorks. To use them, simply copy them into the Auto directory within the !ArtWorks application. The next time you load ArtWorks, they'll be ready for the playing.

Before installation, we recommend that you read the instructions supplied - the Madness plug-in is a nice little toy to play with, but completely useless if you wish to get any serious work done!

Superior Golf

A complete commercial game.

When you open the GOLF archive, you will see the following three applications:

!Golf: the game itself;
!Courses: the location where the courses are stored;
!NewCourse: creates a blank course for use with the editor.

In addition, we are supplying the original instructions, taken directly from the original files used to typeset the instruction leaflet. (For the sake of interest, these instructions were originally written in Edit on a BBC Micro!)

The game is reasonably intuitive to use, and relies entirely on the mouse for operation. To create new courses, first run the !NewCourse application and drag the save icon to a suitable location. Then run the editor option in the program and follow the step-by-step guide to creating your new golf course.

This game is one of many present on the Superior CD. To order, at the special RISC World price of Ł25, please call R-Comp Interactive on 01925 755043.Or to try and get one for free why not try the new RISC World competiton page.

The Complete DiscWorld list

So in alphabetical order this months DiscWorld contains:

ARMCODE - Files supporting the ARM Code articles by Brian Pickard.
ARTWORKS - Files supporting the ARM Code articles by Brian Pickard.
BEGINPRG - The examples from the BASIC programming series.
MAME - The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.
MASTERFILE - The complete database application
RISCPC - Hi-res versions of the screen shots from Barry Thompsons article.
PD - The latest PD software from our PD column.
SGOLF - Complete version of Superior Golf from Superior Software.

Utilities

This CD-ROM contains a number of utilities and pieces of software to accompany the articles in the magazine. The magazine now uses GIF and JPEG images rather than having two versions, one with Sprites and one with GIF. The magazine can be found in the HTML directory from the root of the CD.

There are three utilities to help you read this disc (RISC OS users only). These can be found hidden inside the !RiscWorld application in the UTILITIES directory (The !RiscWorld application automatically uses these utilities if they are required):

A file-only copy of Fresco, to display the HTML. This will only run if you don't already have a copy of Fresco installed, so that it won't overwrite your cache.
ArcFS, which can be used to read some of the archived software on the disc.
SparkPlug, an alternative de-archiver which can also read Zip files.

Usenet archive

Also included on the disc is an archive of the comp.sys.acorn.* newsgroups since early December 2000. These are stored in a special read-only version of Messenger Pro which will allow you to view the messages, but nothing more complicated. The archive is presented 'as is', and RISC World doesn't make any guarantee about the usefulness, relevance or acceptability of any information contained in it.