★ HARDWARE ★ CRAYONS OPTIQUE ★ ELECTRIC STUDIO LIGHTPEN MK II|Amstrad Action) ★ |
| Crayon - Electric Studio Light Pen Mk 2 | Hardware Crayons Optique |
The Electric Studio Lightpen has long been one of the better graphic add-ons available for the Amstrad machines. The high quality of the software and the wide range of options available made it a very attractive proposition in its original version. Now, however, Electric Studio have released their new Mark II pen. So what's the difference? The first thing you notice is the interface. Instead of the old chunky affair perched precariously on the expansion port, there is now only a simple edge-connector. This looks and performs much better than the original, making a more reliable connection and putting less strain on the expansion bus. Also, the software is improved. The original package only worked in mode 0. Now you can use the pen in any of the three screen modes - though you do have to load a different drawing program for each mode. There is no need to calibrate the Mark II pen - you can simply plug it in,load the software and use it. As before, the use made of icons is good and the documentation thorough. The only drawback with the new pen seems to be the business end of the pen itself. This is considerably blunter, making it a lot harder to see what you're doing. It appears that the nose cone has been cut shorter on the new model - possibly to improve performance - but that otherwise the pen is unchanged.
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