Monthly Archives: January 1999

Mindscape – Chessmaster 6000

January 12, 1999

Forget Big Blue for a moment. Desktop processor developments mean that the humble PC could give many Grand Masters a run for their money, particularly if the software in question has – as is the case with Chessmaster 6000 – a database of over 300,000 previous games at its disposal. Actually, these games are really…

Traveling Software – LapLink Professional

Software

January 12, 1999

There was once a time when the LapLink program took up less than 100KB of disk space and was only useful for transferring files under DOS. These days it comes on a CDROM and offers some of the most impressive PC connectivity features ever seen. And they still can’t spell ‘Travelling’. Running on any version…

Choosing the best Scanners

Guides

January 1, 1999

As little as six or seven years ago, scanners were genuine luxury items for computer users. With entry level prices kicking off around the £300 mark (and that really didn’t get you a fat lot, either), the cost was simply too much for the majority of us. Now? Hunting round local computer fairs can get…

Choosing the best System utilities and disk tools

Guides

January 1, 1999

Computer journalism is responsible for many clichés. One of these is that a computer is similar to a car. Look at the cover of any computer magazine: ‘Supercharge your PC!’ it will say, offering ‘performance tweaks and tips!’. The computer/car analogy is true up to a point. Regular maintenance helps keep your car running smoothly….

Choosing the best Miscellaneous games

Gadgets

January 1, 1999

A pretty broad category this; the miscellany, the Twilight Zone of the gaming world. Anything that doesn’t fit into our other categories gets unceremoniously lumped in here. It’s a mixed-up bag, rather like Ruby Wax. Sorry… There’s a myriad of subset genres in this general grouping; here we might review conversions of popular board games…

Choosing the best Reference cds and dvds

Guides

January 1, 1999

There’s no getting away from it; reference software is a necessary, yet uncomfortably broad term. Encompassing the likes of astronomy, encyclopaedias, route planning and various other multimedia works, it covers an area of software that’s been booming in recent years. Let’s start with encyclopaedias, though, which are just beginning to take better advantage of the…

Choosing the best Web browsers, e-mail clients, instant messengers

Guides

January 1, 1999

Listening to some so-called experts talking on television, you’d suspect the Internet was a floating vapour that somehow allowed people to communicate – a little like telepathy crossed with ectoplasm. The reality is that the Internet is nothing more than lots of computers connected together. And because these are computers, they need software. A Web…