PC/CD Gamer UK 6/PCGAMER06.bin/bits/cheet/1ews8.txt

Text File | 1995-01-06 | 8KB | 190 lines

~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 £650.  This drive will easily beat
the current price of the cheapest writeable drives which
presently sell for around £2000.  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 £10 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 £299.  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 £1 billion buy-out of
finance software developer Intuit, BG has just bought a
notebook (not the computer kind) by Leonardo Da Vinci for
about £20 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 £100 reduction in the price of
their Jaguar console to a more healthy £199.  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 £2 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 [phone] 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 £49.99 RRP.  Which makes £5 a CD !!!
Or £3.13 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 £18.95 from Sinclair Direct [phone].  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 £17.99 from Premier Mail
Order [phone].

Missed out on Sim City the first time around.  Well
Cybersoft Direct are selling the enhanced CD-ROM version
for only £14.99.  For more details contact Cybersoft on
[phone].

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 £9.99 so get down to your local Future Zone
now !!!