~News Compiled by Rich Ruane. Cheap Recordable CD's Soon -------------------------- Panasonic will launch a combined quad-speed CD-ROM & writable drive within the next couple of months at an amazing price of around œ650. This drive will easily beat the current price of the cheapest writeable drives which presently sell for around œ2000. The only downside seems to be the seek time, but data transfer is expect to be around 1Mb per second. With the introduction of this drive, mass duplication and backup will never have been so cheap. Presently 70 minute recordable CD's can be bought for around œ10 giving you an amazing 30Mb for the standard price of a High Density disk. Also out soon is a 7 disk SCSI CD-ROM drive from Nakamichi (do I haven't heard of them either) for only œ299. The drive is a double speed unit with average seek and transfer times (unless you swap CD's). The drive is to be distributed by CD Revolution who can be contacted on : (01932) 562000. Xmas Shopping ------------- Microsoft's Bill Gates has been busy spending some of his hard earned cash recently. After spending an undisclosed amount buying British software developer Nextbase (famous for there Autoroute program) & the œ1 billion buy-out of finance software developer Intuit, BG has just bought a notebook (not the computer kind) by Leonardo Da Vinci for about œ20 million. The notebook will now be known as the Codex Gates, as tradition dictates the notebook is named after the owner. Console Capers -------------- Atari have just annouced a œ100 reduction in the price of their Jaguar console to a more healthy œ199. Around the same time Sega has released there Mega 32X add-on for the Megadrive. Initial sales have been disappointing with many people releasing that Sega are trying to cash in on the Megadrive before the Saturn is released in this country in 1995. The 32X's fate hasn't been helped with the games initial released with the console. The 2 big games Doom & Star Wars Arcade have been slammed due to the superiour version of Doom & Doom 2 on the PC & the classic Star Wars games X-Wing (now on CD) & Tie Fighter. DOS 7 ----- Even though Microsoft have abondoned DOS for Windows 95 (now due out in June 1995 according to recent reports) & Novell are looking for buyers for its Novell DOS,IBM is to continue upgrading their PC-DOS. Not details of features are known at the moment but it is known that it will be launched in the first quarter of 1995. It looks like IBM has finally become dominate in an area again. Even if it is flogging a dead horse according to Microsoft. CD-iBM ------ Computer giant IBM have joined forces with Phillips to bring out a computer concept only seen once before with Amstrad's Mega-PC. IBM with bundle a CD-i with IBM PC. The add-on card will include Digital Video meaning the VIDEOCD's will run. Details of the specifications of the computer are not known but we do known that the Phillips LMS CM208 quad speed CD drive will be used in the bundle. Expect the bundle on the high street in Summer 95. But if you already have a PC (and who doesn't if you're reading Cheet Sheets) Phillips is looking to bring out a bundle with card & CD drive similar in concept to Creative's 3DO card. CD-i Game Sells Shocker ----------------------- Phillips were rather happy last month when for the first time since the CD-i console was released, a CD-i gamea actually topped the all-formats CD-ROM charts. The game is the "interactive movie" Burn:Cycle. The game beat off competition from MAC's Rebel Assault & the PC's Theme Park & Doom 2 (which hasn't been selling that well, too much of a rip-off most people think). 3 other CD-i games featured high in the chart. International Tennis, Mad Dog McCree & 7th Guest all charted well, with 7th Guest selling aswell as the PC game (7th Guest is the biggest selling CD game ever with +1 million sales). Phillips are now hoping that it's two new games Mutant Rampage & The Apprentice can do as well. More Footy Mania ---------------- After Electronic Arts getting Tony Gubba to produce the speech for the CD version of the brilliant Fifa Soccer, Daze have done the same by asking John Motson to dub there CD version of On The Ball. The game will have no new enhancements other than the speech but I enjoyed the game first time around & may be tempted to get the new CD version. Daze hope to have the game out by Christmas. Free Shareware -------------- If you're sick of paying œ2 or more for Shareware and Public Domain software that is supposed to be free don't worry. EuroTel Corporation Limited has recently set up a Shareware / Public Domain library of over 4 gigabytes of software and it costs nothing. How is that ? Because ETCL ask you to send the disks and return postage & packaging. No charge for the disks is made. The library is growing each month to include most of the new software & even some that isn't readily available in the UK. For a catalogue either send a 3 1/2" HD disk & postage & packaging to : ETCL, 51 Wern Gifford, Pandy, Gwent, NP7 8RT or contact the Cheet Sheets BBS on (01822) 833765 and download file ETCL.ARJ. 10 CD's for the price of 1 -------------------------- US Gold is releasing a CD-ROM collection called the "CD-ROM Interactive Collection Volume 1" under it's KIXX budget label. The collection includes 16 software titles on 10 CD's. There are some serious programs (The Animals, World Atlas Version 3.2, Interactive Space Encyclopedia), some games (World Cup USA, Outrun, Thunderhawk, Winter Olympics) and some utilities (Johnny Castaway, MIDI collection). The pack goes out at œ49.99 RRP. Which makes œ5 a CD !!! Or œ3.13 a program !!! Klik & Play Competetion ----------------------- Cheet Sheets are running a competition to see how good you CS readers really are. We are running a competition to create a Klik & Play game. The winning entry will be judged on graphics, sound & all important gameplay. The lucky winner will win a ton of software and 3 lucky runners up will receive 5 disks worth of software from the ETCL software library. So send in your entries to the usual Cheet Sheets address. The winner & runners up will have there game included on the Cheet Sheets disk & CD. Price Check ----------- In this issue we are going to start a new section where we highlight some of the games you can get cheap. Firstly Interplay's 10 Year Anthology CD-ROM is available for œ18.95 from Sinclair Direct (0171) 2632333. This compilation looks back at the last ten years in Interplay's history, and includes such classics as Bards Tale, Another World, Star Trek 25th & Battle Chess. Next up is the cool CD-ROM adventure Gabriel Knight. Using the voice of Tim Curry (Home Alone 2, Rocky Horror Picture Show) this game is unbeatable at œ17.99 from Premier Mail Order (0268) 271172. Missed out on Sim City the first time around. Well Cybersoft Direct are selling the enhanced CD-ROM version for only œ14.99. For more details contact Cybersoft on (0233) 660694. Future Zone the high street software vendor has several special offers for PC owners this month. Soccer Kid is a brilliant football based platform game whilst Reunion is definitely publisher Grandslam's best game yet. Each game sells at œ9.99 so get down to your local Future Zone now !!!