HELP SOUGHT - SYNTAX READER DESPERATELY REQUIRES PC GUIDANCE ! Sent in by Brian Burke Dear Marge, sorry.. err.. Sue & fellow readers, Let me explain the background to my problem. I've been an Amiga user for around six years now and (yes, I'll lie down if you think it's best), for the most part, happy with my lot. But around two years ago, on the recommendation of a friend, I started to subscribe to a magazine called "Strategy Plus". Here at last was an adult, non-arcade that is, presentation of Adventure, RPG, Sports, Simulator and of course Strategy games. Over the months I read of new releases with interest and waited for the games to be ported over to the Amiga format. At first quite a few came over and I played them and read the SP mag quite happily. The first signs that something was wrong and when doubts started to worm their way into my blissful world was when Ultima Underworld appeared. The reviews were ecstatic but no way, said the reviewers, absolutely no way will these games ever appear on anything other than on a PC. And so it came to pass, "Betrayal at Krondor" and loads of others in the same genre are only available on the PC format (boo hoo). Not only that but a majority of the new 1994 releases are on CD-ROM. Despair furrowed my already furrowed brow. At around the same time a super golf game called Links was converted onto the Amiga. I'd seen this running on a 386 machine at work. I was suitably impressed. Off down to the local software shop and Links was mine. It was hard disc install only, not unusual for PC owners but pretty radical on other formats including my Amiga. Drooling with anticipation at viewing the superb graphics in my own home I booted up my machine and ran the game and I waited, and I waited.... I made a cup of tea (well, I nearly did) and I waited... and finally the next screen appeared. All in all on Max, max, max detail setting it took around one and half minutes for the screen to refresh, even on Min, min, min I was waiting 40 seconds. On the PC at work I was seeing this activity take 5/10 seconds at most. Gnashing my teeth at the delay on my Amiga (which runs at around 7mhz) I scanned the adverts and set off in search of an accelerator card. The guys I talked to spoke in telephone numbers when I enquired naively "how much?". I discovered that I needed 4meg of Ram on 7 nanosecond or better chips along with my improved clock speeds and so on. Not one of the potential vendors could confirm that Links would indeed load faster after I'd parted with my œ500. Even an appeal via a friend's BBS failed to obtain any positive response. It was when I said to one of these overpriced opportunists that I could buy a 386 PC for the price that they were looking for that the light went on in my brain and I thought "why not?". Off I went and bought a PC magazine or two. Little did I realise in my cloistered Amiga world just what a minefield the PC market is. Not only are there umpteen different suppliers of PCs, there are umpteen squared different types of machines and configurations. I won't bore you with all the options but, my goodness, there's loads. The issues of Strategy Plus kept coming and reviews of CD-ROM games began to appear, some CD games incredibly occupy 3 CDs! Now not only was my predicament of whether to go for a 486 SX, DX or DX2 confused, this was further confounded as to equip it with a double, triple or now even a quadruple speed CD Drive. Not only that but there are other gizmos that drive graphics around even faster. Accelerator cards with one or two meg on board. Even the type of manufacture is vital. Diamond, for instance, make super fast hardware products. Multimedia, I discovered, brings on multi-migraine. There's more I'm afraid... the Christmas editions of PC mags (are they breeding or something?) talked about release 4.0 of Windows and 7.0 of DOS. Operating systems with town names like Chicago and Cairo are mentioned (who needs DOS then?). In the same breath Windows NT takes up a reported phenomenal 70meg of Hard Disc space. Now the hard drive manufacturers are saying "it's my birthday - thanks, Bill" and gleefully talking of entry level PCs with 200mg on board using new MR read/write technology. The information and guidance I'm seeking is, or if you like the decision reassurance I'm after - just what is a confused potential PC buyer such as myself to do? I'm not looking for a business machine, although a PC will no doubt be of use to my daughter (now 13 years) as she grows older, but I am looking to be future proof, within reason (say up to the turn of the century), to allow me play the types of CRPG, Simulator and Golf games that appear on the PC format (either CD or disc) every month. I don't want to spend a couple of grand (subject to successful negotiation with "her indoors") and find my hardware lagging behind the software as is now happening on my Amiga. Thankfully it's taken 6 years for that to happen. Indications are that CD-ROM is the format of the future, if that's the case do I really need a large hard drive, i.e 300mg plus? Is anyone out there due to launch an independent PC based CD-ROM like the Sega, Jaguar or Amiga CD-32? Taking it as read that it'll be 486 based Multi-media system should I: go for a PCI bus a DX2/4 system 66Mhz clock 2 x speed CD-ROM or better Graphic accelerator card 15" FST Monitor wait for the Cairo operating system 32bit or 64bit Pentium DOS or OS/2 SCSI or IDE Hard Drive pray that I win the pools Finally - I've been talking to Gateway, a supplier who seems to be as competitive as anyone. Any other recommendations? Any assistance will be gratefully absorbed. I'm not in a hurry 'cos I've still got Legends of Valour to play on the Amiga (and the summer holiday to pay for) first - all those blocky, jerky graphics to look forward to ..hic...choke....sob..... @~Any advice for Brian? If so, please write in, especially if you @~can recommend a system or manufacturer. - o -