ST New Products
DIGISPEC & UNISPEC
Digispec Works with your Computereyes digitizer to capture 512-color images from a video camera or VCR. Then it displays the image on your color monitor and lets you adjust the color balance, brightness and contrast before you save it to disk in Spectrum 512 format. On top of 512 pure colors, Digispec's dithering capabilities bring the number of simulated colors to 24,389. And the program is compatible with Amiga 1FF files and CompuServe GIF files. You can view any Amiga picture, even a 4,096-color Hold-and-Modify mode picture, and convert it to Spectrum 512 format, then touch it up in Spectrum 512.
Unispec turns Spectrum 512 (see review in this issue) into a desk accessory that can run simultaneously with any regular GEM program, most notably DEGAS Elite and CAD-3D. You can instantly import full-screen pictures or blocks generated by the other program to Unispec's 512-color screen or to the buffer, and blocks from the outside program can be pasted on top of the current 512-color picture. You can also touch up images digitized with Digispec and Computereyes in Unispec.
Unispec features anti-aliased lasso cut-and-paste, which lets you cut an arbitrary curved shape from one picture and paste it to another without any "jaggies."
$39.95 each, color. Trio Engineering, P.O. Box 332, Swampscott, MA 01907. (617)964-1673. FINAL.
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DRAW, STUD
For Home Casino Poker Etc, Dubl Dubl Funware has added Blackjack to its already popular Draw and Stud Poker package. A color monitor is required for these lightning-fast card games. Draw Poker features the best elements of poker machines. Stud Poker is a head-to-head game, played against other people or the computer. Blackjack is played just as it is in the casinos. All games are for one to four players.
$34.95. Dubi Dubi Funware, RO. Box 06401, Portland, OR 97206. (503) 771-7833. PRESS.
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WILD BLUE YONDER
MicroProse's Gunship ($49.95) is a simulation of the U.S. Army's AH 64A Apache attack helicopter. All new Army pilots must train at the Gunship base before reporting to hazardous combat duty in Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East and Western Europe. Gunship generates the topography, enemy weaponry and strategy present in each region. You control not only the aircraft but its weapons and counter-measures as well. The enemy's artificial intelligence responds with the weapons and tactics most likely to defeat you.
F-15 Strike Eagle ($39.95) is enhanced for its ST version-with higher resolution, more detail and color and additional game play features. You're the pilot of an F-15 all-weather, air-superiority and ground attack fighter with more than 24 flight weapons and electronic counter-measure controls. Mission scenarios range from Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf, and a new mission has been added to recreate the United States' 1986 retaliatory strike against Libya.
MicroProse, 120 Lakefront Drive, Hunt Valley, MD 21030 (301)771-1151. Both items PRESS.
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NEW REAL BASIC
Real BASIC, version 1.3, is compatible with all previous versions of Real BASIC as well as ST BASIC. It's GEM-based, making frequently-used commands such as LIST and LOAD available via a menu bar, and features a series of new keywords and functions as well as dialog boxes and alerts. The extended directory commands let you list subdirectories, access files within folders and change the default directory and drive. Most GEM tasks can now be performed with a single BASIC statement instead of PEEKs and POKEs, and a MIDI statement has been added so you can use the MIDI ports. Updates to registered Real BASIC users are free.
$49.95. Computer Crossware Labs, Inc., 516 Fifth Avenue, Suite 507, New York, NY 10036. (212) 644-2591. FINAL.
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VROOM
In the joystick-controlled Speed Buggy, a longtime arcade favorite, you jump your buggy over obstacles, drive on two wheels and run into flags to gain time and bonus points. Be a maniac-you deserve it.
$44.95. Data East U.S.A, 470 Needles Drive, San Jose, CA 95112. (408) 286-7074. PRESS.
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ELECTION '88
SSI's President Elect-1988 Edition says that Vice President Bush had better hope for no recession of any kind, or else he doesn't have a prayer against the likes of Cuomo, Dukakis, Gephardt and Gore. However, before the stock market crash in October, 1987, President Elect forecasted a decisive victory for Bush. No predictions were made for Gary Hart.
President Elect lets you simulate any election from 1988 back to 1960 using any actual figures from a large roster of actual historical or present-day canddates. You can rate existing candidates or create fictional ones by using a built-in political 'litmus test" that measures potential candidates' political orientation in economics, domestic and foreign policy areas. On election night, votes are tallied and states are projected minute by minute until a candidate gets the required 270 electoral votes.
$24.95. Strategic Simulations, Inc., 1046 Rengstorff Avenue, Mountain View, CA 94043. (415) 964-1353. FINAL.
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New ST product notices are compiled from information provided by the products' manufacturers. Antic assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of these notices or the performance of the product. Each mention is followed by a code word indicating that, at press time, Antic had seen a FINAL marketable version, near-final BETA, earlier ALPHA, incomplete DEMO, or PRESS release.