| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ CREATION GRAPHIQUE ★ PARROTRY PLUS ★ |
PARROTRY PLUS (Amstrad Action) | PARROTRY PLUS (Amstrad Computer User) |
Parrotry Plus is an enhanced and more expensive version of the original utility. For those who have the original program. Treasure Island will offer "an advantageous deal to update". The major change is the introduction of a data handling facility with which either the whole, or a selected section of the drawing can be manipulated in a variety of ways. In addition to the ability to scroll the display horizontally or vertically (a last-minute extra included in Parrotry), you can now reverse, invert, rotate, and change the size of the display in the horizontal and/or vertical plane by a factor in the range between 0.25 and 4. Increasing the size by 2 or 4 provides a zoom facility of sorts for detailed work, reversible with a subsequent equivalent decrease. Vertical lines may be slanted by up to 48 degrees to left or right, and with a bit of ingenuity, horizontal lines may be similarly altered. Sensibly, you are advised to save a design before attempting to manipulate it, and to delay the addition of fills and text until your drawing is completed, especially when using change size and slant commands. Parrotry Plus has been extended to include Mode 2. A second character set is available; and several minor alterations have been made to standardise procedures and make the utility more user friendly. A supplementary series of drawings, based on a picture of a PC 1512 demonstrate all the various data handling commands clearly enough, though I can't imagine anyone could possibly want a picture of an upside-down, reversed or elongated airo could they? There is promise of a Parrotry library to come, containing useful shapes, an alphabet set and maps and so on which can be merged into your own designs. While the new, improved Parrotry Plus still falls a long way short of sophisticated drawing utilities such as Advanced Art Studio for any straightforward screen design work, it incorporates some interesting possibilities for special effects, and is certainly economical memorywise. Jill Lawson , ACU #8707 |
|  |
