The recent deal between Pace and Honeysoft brings us a package that really does offer the best of both worlds - good, solid hardware and slick, friendly firmware. The Pace serial interface is free-standing, and connects with the expansion/floppy drive port via a length of ribbon cable. This makes for a much more secure connection than the dangling Multiport manages. If anything, the connection is a bit too secure. Swinging Arnold round your head by a bit of ribbon cable isn't a terribly good idea, but this connection feels like it would stand it. The review copy gripped like a vice, and unplugging it took a fair bit of effort. In practice, you won't have much call to disconnect it - it causes none of the 'environmental'problems you get with Multiport. If it wasn't for its power-up message, you'd never know it was there - until you come to use it. that is. Once in use, the interface's Commstar firmware starts to show what it can do. To call the system user-friendly doesn't really do it justice. The extensive use of pull-down menus simplifies things so much that the manual seems almost unnecessary. The package takes all the work out of telecomputing, and is generally a delight to use. Of course, you can't always manage without a manual. When you do have to check up on something, however, you can be pretty sure the Commstar documentation will cover it more than adequately. Sad to say, plug-ins manuals tend to be very poor, and the Multiport documentation is probably not far below average. Against this background, the Commstar manual is a remarkably thorough and professional piece of work. It's clear and helpful at novice level, while its technical depth will earn it a place on any hacker's bookshelf. Amstrad Action #8 ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ DOWNLOAD ★ |
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CPCrulez[Content Management System] v8.7-desktop/c Page créée en 221 millisecondes et consultée 1986 foisL'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
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