PsL Monthly 1993 December

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RE-01: RETAIL PRODUCTS This section describes Retail-Only products sold by PsL. Unlike shareware, you cannot try these programs before buying them and our rock-bottom mark-ups do not allow for returns, but we only carry items which have received top marks by everyone trying them and which we have tested ourselves. Most of these items have been reviewed extensively in magazines such as PC Magazine and PC World and recognized as the best of their kind. Selling retail products represents a departure from PsL's devotion to public domain and shareware software; however, it is still in keeping with our overall philosophy of providing information about (and a source of) high quality, low cost answers to your computing needs. It also is in keeping with the more aggressively commercial approach that shareware authors have moved towards over the years. In most areas in which there are both shareware and retail-only programs, the shareware programs often are better programs at better prices. PsL offers these products at only a few dollars above our cost, which is why we have to charge more for credit card orders and why the prices are subject to change when the prices we pay go up. Products are also subject to availability. Call or check the current PsL News for current prices. "Cash Price" is for payment by cash, check or money order. Retail product orders paid by check are held for 10 days for checks to clear. Prices are subject to change. If this file does not have a recent date on it, check with PsL for latest prices. All sales are final unless otherwise noted. Warranties are solely the responsibility of the manufacturer. If unsure about compatibility of a product with your system, contact the manufacturer for more information. Following are write-ups of some of the Retail Products carried by PsL. Call for pricing on other products. Categories: 1. Special Promotion Prices 2. Desktop Publishing 3. Task Swapping, Multi-Tasking, DOS 4. Business 5. Supplies & General Hardware 6. Voice and Music 7. Modem and FAX 8. Mouse and Ports 9. Video and Printers 10. Games & Education ------------------------- Special Promotion Prices: ------------------------- The following are items for which we received special promotional prices which we are passing along. Quantities are limited at these prices. #30391 Out of This World & Alone in the Dark -------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $39.95 Out of This World and Alone in the Dark are two exciting graphical adventure games with scrolling 3-D graphics, excellent sound effects and music. In ...World, you are hurtled thorugh space and time by a nuclear experiment gone wrong. You are faced with alien monsters and deadly earthquakes. In ...Dark, inspired by the work of H.P. Lovecraft, you explore Derceto, a huge mansion that becomes a nightmare world of the macarbe and the monstrous. Both of these programs have terrific 3-D graphics that are constantly scrolling, panning, and changing perspectives, more like the scenes in a movie than in a video game. We have a limited number of these bundles that let you get both programs for less than $20 each. #30387 Personal Label Printer ----------------------------- PsL Price: $129.95 The Avery Label Printer is another of those dedicated label printers about the size of a tape dispenser. What makes this one special is the price ($129.95), plus the fact that it is from Avery. Whether you have a laser printer through which you have to run a full sheet of labels to print a single one*, or a dot matrix printer which requires five minutes to swap between paper and labels, almost everyone can make good use of a dedicated label printer. (* Feeding a sheet of laser labels back through with labels missing can melt the wax paper where the labels are missing and cause serious damage to the drum.) The PLP comes with about $100 worth of software. The PLP software lets you grab and print addresses (or any other text) right from the screen while in your word processor, database, etc. The famous Avery LabelPro Software (list price:$99) lets you design professional looking labels with graphics (import PCX files) and fonts. Although you get some labels with the PLP, you'll also want to stock up while we have them at "show special" prices too: #30388 White $6.99 per roll #30389 Clear $6.99 per roll U.S. Robotics FAX-Modem Deal ---------------------------- #30363 $289 Internal #30364 $299 External We have made a special purchase of U.S. Robotics 14400 Sportster FAX-modems. Features include V.32 bis at 14400/12000 bps, V.25, V.42 & MNP 2-4 error control, V.42 bis and MNP 5 data compression for effective throughput to 57600 bps, and 9600 bps Group3 send-receive FAX capability. And of course it supports all modem speeds down to 300 bps. 5-year warranty by U.S. Robotics. Modem Bonus ----------- PCFDial is an excellent program for keeping track of names, phone numbers, and phone calls. If you have a modem, it will dial the phone for you. Despite this obvious tie-in to modems, we have never thought before about bundling this program with the sale of a modem, so here it is: Purchase any modem from PsL and we will include this disk free. To get it, be sure to mention this offer and specify disk size needed. (NOTE: PFDial is a shareware program; payment to the author is required for use of the program beyond a reasonable evaluation period.) FREE Games with Mouse! ---------------------- PsL's $29.95 mouse is so good that we have always said that if you do not agree that it has the best feel and is the best-tracking mouse you have ever tried, you can return it (with all the original materials) for a full refund (excluding shipping). Now, because we have just gotten in a big supply of these mice as part of another deal, we are sweetening the pot: when you buy a mouse, we will throw in four disks of arcade games to use your mouse with. (Be sure to specify 5.25" or high density 3.5" disks.) Desktop Publishing ================== #30336 FrameMaker ----------------- Psl Price: SPECIAL PURCHASE - ONLY $399! (quantities limited) This is the powerful Windows-based desktop publishing package that is used to produce PsL News. #30366 Print Shop Deluxe ------------------------ PsL Price: $54.95 Print Shop Deluxe has come a long way from the original Print Shop. The old Print Shop used to produce cutesy greeting cards and banners, but this Deluxe version is now more of a full-blown desktop publishing package with full control over text and graphics that yields very impressive, professional looking results. It allows you to easily create greeting cards/invitations, signs and posters, bulletins and flyers, banners, stationery, and calendars (yearly, monthy, weekly, and daily) using the included 300+ graphics and 30 different fonts. The scalable graphics can be stretched, flipped, and rotated for an unlimited number of special effects. The outline fonts can be also be freely resized without loss of resolution, and special Headline Text adds flamboyant shapes and styles for eye-catching effects. If you are not especially creative, many pre-designed layouts are provided to give you professional results right out of the box. The WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface lets you instantly preview any changes on the screen, so you'll never have to guess what the printed product will look like. Many popular printers are supported, from 9- and 24-pin Epson and compatibles, to HP LaserJets, and PostScript printers. The resolution independent printer support uses the highest resolution your printer can produce, and the included graphics are designed to print equally well in color or grey scale. Graphics can be exported in a variety of formats (EPS, CGM, TIFF, and PCX), and New Print Shop graphics may be imported. This is a powerful and easy-to-use Desktop Publishing package for home, schools, or small businesses. #30004 Publish It! Lite ----------------------- List: $60. PSL Price: $41.95. Cash Discount Price: $39.95. is a wonderful bargain for those interested in getting into desktop publishing. We can only assume that for Timeworks, this is a loss leader which they hope will make people want to upgrade to their full Publish It! program. Naturally this one does not have as many features as the full program, but it is certainly competitive with First Publisher and at just half the price. The only drawback is that laser support is not available. #30007 Corel Draw 2.0 --------------------- List: $695. PsL Price: $399.95. Cash Price: $383.95 This is a fantastic vector-based (as opposed to bit-mapped) drawing program. Being vector based means that you can scale text and images up and down, rotate them, mirror or stretch them, and not lose any resolution. Files can be exported in many formats, including PCX and PostScript, for importing into desktop publishing programs and word processors such as WordPerfect. Perfect for doing illustrations, ad layouts, etc. Comes with lots of clip art and fonts. Corel on CD-ROM: PsL Price: $445. Cash Price: $429. #30009 PC Paintbrush IV ----------------------- PsL Price: $99 Cash Price: $96 is an excellent bit-mapped drawing program. PC Magazine's Best of 1989. For handling large files (via EMS) and/or using a scanner, get PCP IV Plus for $124.95 ($119.95 check/m.o.). #30357 Vistapro --------------- PsL Price: $69.95 This is a fantastic computer-aided art program that allows you to create stunning electronic landscapes with the aid of fractal graphics. You simply click the mouse on a target on the topographic map, and click again on the map for the "camera" view. Vistapro will then render a beautiful 256-color 3-Dimensional image on the screen. Over 20 sample landscapes are provided, or you can generate an unlimited number of virtual landscapes using randomly generated fractals. You have complete control over the color palette (winter, summer, sunrise, etc.) as well as camera angle, shadows, shading, treeline, snow level, and much more. Landscapes may be saved in 256-color PCX format. Requires 640K RAM, 3meg of free hard disk space, VGA/Super VGA, and a Microsoft compatible mouse. #30369 Virtual Reality Studio 2.0 --------------------------------- PsL Price: $59.95 lets you create your own personal, scrolling 3-D world. It contains a complete library disk of pre-designed objects (cars, trees, boats, houses, furniture, etc.) to form the basis of your virtual environment. You have complete control over color, shading, shape, detail, layout, sound, and animation. You can create a replica of your home which people can "walk" through or you can design a game that takes place in a 3-D, scrolling fantasy world, and you have a choice of moving through your world by walking, driving or flying. You can even record your journey like a VCR and play it back. A sound editor is provided for adding sound effects and a library of sound clips is available. AdLib, Sound Blaster, and Roland sound cards are supported. Requires 640K, a mouse, and EGA/VGA. A tutorial video tape is included. #30010 Grammatik IV ------------------- List: $100. PsL Price: $63.95. Cash Price: $61.95. We have tested many grammar checking programs and this is the best. Many magazine reviews have found the same. It also checks spelling and is user configurable. #30094 Correct Grammar For Windows ---------------------------------- List Price: $120. PsL Price: $69.95. Cash Price: $66.95. CGW is a slick spelling and grammar checker that works with ALL Windows Applications. It will also work with DOS-based programs if you run them in a DOS window from Windows 3. CGW can be integrated into many Windows word processors and PageMaker, and can be used via the clipboard with programs like Ventura for Windows. Fonts & Clip Art ---------------- PsL sells all Adobe and Bitstream fonts and Clip Art from many publishers. Call or write for price quotes on your particular needs. For LaserJet Fonts see the shareware Listing in PsL News under Printing - LaserJet. #30276 FotoMan -------------- PsL Price: $519. Cash Price: $499 Logitech's FotoMan is a black-and-white digital camera that you can take anywhere, snap up to 32 pictures, and attach it to the serial port of your computer to view the pictures. Pictures are stored in the camera's RAM, rather than on film. The camera has a fixed-focus lens and a flash built in. The range of the flash is supposed to be four to ten feet, but the flash on our unit was no good beyond about four feet. You can attach a telephoto lens (like those made for camcorders) to the threaded adapter ring. Pictures are recorded in up to 256 shades of gray. You can retouch pictures with the image editing software that is included and save them in PCX, TIFF, BMP, or EPS formats. (The software can be used to edit non-FotoMan files, too, in the formats mentioned.) On our VGA, the pictures are quite sharp. This camera would be ideal for anyone needing to capture pictures for computer display, such as for employee records and real estate listings. #30280 HiJaak ------------- PsL Price: $139.95 Cash Discount Price: $133.95 This is perhaps the premier screen capture and conversion utility (with a price to match). Besides being able to capture virtually any screen mode, in both DOS and Windows, it supports the most files types. It also allows you to change colors and make other adjustments to the screen before saving or printing it. #30281 HiJaak PostScript ------------------------ PsL Price: $228.95 Cash Discount Price: $219.95 If you have a FAX card, you should check out HiJaak PS, which, in addition to having all the features of HiJaak 2.0, will convert a PostScript file to a format acceptable by virtually any FAX card made. Since most major desktop publishing and graphics programs will print-to-disk in PostScript format, anyone can create professional looking FAXes with a variety of fonts and graphics without needing a PostScript printer. (Call 800-828-8088 for a demo sent to your FAX.) Task-Swapping, Multi-Tasking, DOS ================================= #30093 DOS 6.0 -------------- PsL Price: $89. This is a major update to DOS that includes special Windows utilities, hard disk compression, defragmentation, multi-configurations, memory optimization, and MUCH more! Requires DOS 2.11 or later, 8088 or better processor, and 512K. #30144 QEMM 6.0 --------------- PsL Price: $59.95. Cash Price: $57.95. Quarterdeck's popular memory manager, QEMM, has been upgraded. The amount of high memory it makes available for TSR's, etc, has been increased from 128k to 196k. When used with DOS 5.0, you get from up to 92k more memory than with DOS 5 alone, and QEMM is much easier to set up. QEMM also works with Windows 3. #30011 DESQview --------------- List: $130. PSL Price: $78.95. Cash Discount Price: $74.95 is a multi-tasking, task-swapping program that lets you keep several programs active at once and switch between them. Some programs can even be made to run in the background on a 286-cpu machine. We use this at PSL and highly recommend it. This is the type of utility that you may not feel that you need if you have never tried it, but once you have used it, you will wonder how you ever did without it. #30012 DV-386: PsL Price: $134.95. Cash Price: $129.95 #30014 Windows 3.1 ------------------ PsL Price: $99. Upgrade Price: $49.95 This is the hot graphical user interface that everyone is talking about. On the off chance that PsL News is the only computer publication you read, here is what all the others are saying: "MS Windows will save the world. Get it quick." Be sure to see all the great sharewre Windows applications and utilities in the Reviews files. SitBack: ------- #30030 For DOS: List: $100. PsL Price: $64.95. Cash Price: $61.95. #30090 For Windows/DOS: List: $140. PsL Price: $89.95. Cash Price: $86.95 We have always given our highest recommendation to SitBack for DOS, which will quickly and automatically back up specified files or subdirectories in the background while you are working in other programs. It is a TSR that uses only 14k of memory and will back up to a floppy, another hard disk, a network drive, or any other type of drive (but not to tape). Now there is a SitBack for Windows & DOS with all of the same advantages. Like SitBack for DOS, you can have backups done automatically, in the background, hourly, daily or weekly. Only files that have changed will be backed up, of course. You can also set it to do the backups whenever your computer is idle for a specified length of time, or to backup different files at different times. SitBack for Windows uses only 17k of memory and also works for DOS, so it's like getting two backup programs in one! #30368 Stacker 3.0 for Windows and DOS Upgrade ---------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $95.00 This is a high-powered upgrade of the already popular utility for doubling your disk space. You can never have enough disk space, but with Stacker, you can at least have twice as much as you had before. This version provides an intelligent setup that reads your system configuration and offers several options. You can also customize the compression/speed specifications that can give you up over 10% more disk space than Stacker 2.0. We received close to an extra 4 meg on the 40MB hard disk we tested and could have gotten more by trading off some response time. Other new features in this version include Stacker Anywhere which allows you to stack a floppy or other removable disk and use it on a computer that's not running Stacker, double password protection, quick defragmentation options, and more. Windows users will appreciate the Stackometer which provides a graphic display of Stacker information and a menu-driven interface to Stacker functions. This is a worthy successor to Stacker 2.0, with many powerful and flexible features. Business ======== #30018 Money Counts -------------------- PsL Price: $25.95. Cash Price: $24.95. is an inexpensive home accounting program. Features include a more business-like chart of accounts than most programs, extensive report generating capabilities, built-in notepad and calculator, graphical analysis, income tax estimator, as well as the usual home accounting features. Supplies & General ================== #30021 Avery LabelPro for Lasers #30117 Avery LabelPro for Dot Matrix ------------------------------------ List Price: $100. PsL Price: $59.95. It is not too surprising that the top name in laser labels would come out with a pretty good label printing program, and this is the best we have seen for laser printers. Features include preset layouts for various sizes of Avery labels (or other brands), graphics displays and the ability to view the output on screen before printing. It comes with an integrated database function or labels can be printed from existing database files or from dBase or WordPerfect and other file formats. Two typefaces are included and they can be scaled from 6 point to 96 point. In addition, clip art and other designs are included. PCX files can be imported as well. To get you started, several sheets of many different types of labels and other Avery materials are included. (PsL stocks the popular 4"x1.3" size laser labels and can get the other sizes quickly.) Printers supported include the HPLJ, Canon, Xerox 4045, PostScript and compatibles. A version for dot matrix printers is available at the same price. #30122 Dot Matrix 3.5" Disk Labels ---------------------------------- PsL Price: $16.95 Avery Laser Labels ------------------ are specially designed for use in copiers and laser printers. Good for mailing list, disk labels, etc. #30118: 4"x 1.5": 14 per sheet, 25 sheets to a packet: List: $10. PSL Price: $6.95. Cash Discount Price: $6.49. #30339: 3.5" Disk Labels (#30339) (qty: 600) $35.00 --------------------------------------------------- Make professional looking disk labels with either a dot matrix or laser printer. User Avery LabelPro, below, or see the label making shareware programs in the Words & Graphics - Printing section. #30338: Laser Labels - Video Tape (#30338) $35.00 -------------------------------------------------- 300 spine labels, 300 face labels. Tidy up your video tape collection with custom printed labels. #30376 System Memory -------------------- PsL Price: $39/meg If your system uses SIMMs for holding RAM chips, you can upgrade memory as easily as you would insert an expansion card in an interface slot. If you are not sure if your system uses SIMMs, or if you don't know what an expansion card or an interface slot is, you are probably better off leaving memory upgrades to your dealer. #30028 Name Tag Kit ------------------- List: $100. PSL Price: $59.95. Cash Discount Price: $57.95. makes impressive looking name badges quickly and easily. This complete kit even comes with fancy peel-off tags and card-stock (with plastic holders) name tags! Has six predefined formats for ease of use, or create your own. Mix up to eight hi-res graphics fonts. Many printers are supported, including the HP LaserJet, but the tags provided are on continuous, one-across, form-feed stock. Import name and address lists to avoid retyping. Prints mailing labels too for follow-up mail-outs. #30027 Tripp Lite Isobar IB-4 Surge Protector --------------------------------------------- List: $100. PSL Price: $59.95. Cash Discount Price: $56.95. After reviewing as many available surge protectors as we could find, we selected the Isobar IB-4. It features two pairs of isolated, filtered sockets (four sockets, total), plus RJ11 phone jacks for modem, fax and telephone protection. We decided to get this because librarian Duane Hendricks had his system fried by a nearby lightning bolt. He had a cheap surge protector, but they are usually worthless. The Isobar is a heavy-duty unit with premium components with 21 active electronic filtering components; it is rated at 15 amps. We have one of these on every system at PsL that doesn't have a Tripp Lite Battery Backup. Tripp Lite Battery Backup ------------------------- #30025 250-watt: PsL Price: $196.95. Cash Price: $188.95. #30024 350-watt: PsL Price: $229.95. Cash Price: $221.95. #30026 450-watt: PsL Price: $329.95. Cash Price: $316.95. Shipping in the U.S. is $18. We finally got tired of losing our work when the circuit breaker tripped because someone turned on the microwave oven in PsL's lunch room at the same time our space heaters were on. Because we (and quite a few of you) have been very happy with the Tripp Lite Isotel computer and phone system surge protector that PsL has been selling, we decided to go with Tripp Lite's battery backup system. The 450-watt unit is sufficient for a loaded 386 with a VGA monitor. Tripp Lite suggests a 350-watt unit for "XT's with hard disks". We have a 200-watt for our phone system, since we used to frequently lose calls when power went out. We have noticed that the unit kicks in several times a day, which we interpret as a voltage sag, even though the lights don't dim. Just knowing that we are sparing our machines that abuse makes us feel better, even though the power only goes completely out once or twice a month, usually. Bernoulli Drives - 90-meg Removable Cartridge "Hard Disks" ---------------- Cr.Card Price Cash Price Internal 90meg drive: $ 781 $ 751 2nd Internal 90meg 717 689 External dual 90's: 1559 1449 Transportable 90 meg: 859 826 Parallel port interface: 199 192 Controller card for PC: 204 196 Controller card for PS/2: 287 279 Special, one only: $260 Cartridges (5-year warranty) 90meg Gold, 3-pack: 429 409 1 90-meg cart. 156 150 44meg Gold, 3-pack: 299 289 20mg Gold, 3-pack: 189 179 650meg erasable optical: 3599 3499 (just to make you drool) 650 meg cartridge 235 219 Shipping for the drives is $12 in the U.S. Iomega has just taken a giant step toward making their famous Bernoulli removable-media drives a more reasonable alternative for those looking for unlimited "hard disk" space plus the perfect backup medium. They have more than doubled the capacity to 90meg per cartridge while actually pricing them lower than the 44meg drives! If that isn't enough, they have increased the speed (19msec effective access time) while adding even more reliability. The new drives can read (but not write) 44-meg cartridges. Software that comes with it includes compression software that increases backup storage to 180meg. For years, we have used Bernoulli drives at PsL for reliable, high-speed backup, as well as for a hard disk that could be expanded in 44-meg chunks. As a backup device, it is unsurpassed. We used to use tape backup, but when it got down to the nitty-gritty and we had to restore from tape, we found it to be unreliable. We immediately switched from tape to Bernoulli drives. With Bernoulli, you can access the data like you would if it were on a hard disk, so you can verify that you have good data BEFORE you need it. And if your hard disk crashes, you can continue running on the Bernoulli, while with a tape backup, you would be out of business until your hard disk could be repaired. If that's not enough, getting just one or more particular files is substantially easier with a Bernoulli drive than with tape. As additional hard disk space, we have found it to be as fast as many hard disks, and the unlimited storage space makes it ideal for space-hungry applications like desktop publishing and programming. With the 90-meg version being even faster and larger, you could easily use this as the only "hard disk" on your PC. Given that the Bernoulli serves both as a high-speed backup device (it is perfect for use with SitBack [#30030: $64.95], which backs up onto it in the background while you are in other applications) AND a hard disk substitute of unlimited total capacity, we have always felt that the 44meg model was reasonably priced. However, others have admittedly been put off by the cost of a Bernoulli compared to an ordinary hard disk. If you have passed on a Bernoulli before because of the price, now is the time to give it serious reconsideration. The Transportable is a single external drive. It can also be used on Macintosh computers SCSI port without a controller. All models require a controller card and at least one cartridge, which normally come in a three-pack. You can get a single 90-meg cartridge for $150 cash, $156 cc. Shipping for the drives is $12 and for controller or cartridges is $4. #30054 1.44 Meg 3.5" Bargain ---------------------------- PsL Price: $72.95. Cash Discount Price: $69.95. Get a 1.44 meg 3.5" drive for as little $69.95 and maximize your floppy storage in the minimum space. We installed some of the drives in our machines. Installation is a breeze. You just slide the drive in and hook it up to existing cables. All you need is a Phillips screw driver. All screws, mounting hardware, etc, are included, along with detailed instructions. If you already have two 5.25" drives, just take out drive B: and put the 3.5" drive in its place. If you have a 720k 3.5" drive, at the low price of a 1.44 meg drive, you should consider upgrading and doubling your disk storage space, particularly on a laptop. Since the price of 1.44 meg disks are under a dollar and still falling, a 1.44meg drive is bargain all around. If you do not have a hard disk, having this inexpensive drive can let you run programs that will not work on 360k drives. We get more programs like this all the time in PsL. Other retail products which we sell are backed solely by the manufacturer's warranty and no returns to PsL are allowed. However, PsL backs these 3.5" drives with a one-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. If the drive does not work in your machine, or if you just don't like it for some reason, you can return it to PsL for a refund of the purchase price (excluding shipping). #30052 2-Drive Floppy Controller --------------------------------- PsL Price: $31.95. Cash Discount Price: $30.95 #30053 4-Drive Floppy Controller -------------------------------- PsL Price: $46.95. Cash Discount Price: $44.95 Older computers may support 720k 3.5" drives but not 1.44meg 3.5" drives. These controllers support 360k, 720k, 1.2meg, 1.4meg. Check your machine before ordering. These controllers are supposed to replace your existing one. If your hard disk is connected to the same controller card as your floppy drive(s) or your floppy controller cannot be removed, you CANNOT put in a new floppy controller unless your present floppy controller can be disabled. 9ms Hardcard ------------ #30046 50meg: List Price: $580. PsL Price: $379.95. Cash Price: $363.95. #30047 105meg: List Price: $1000. PsL Price: $555. Cash Price: $535. Plus Development boasts of some amazing numbers for their HardcardII XL models: a 9ms access time and a 1400kb transfer rate. Adding a Plus hard card to your system is easy, even if you already have a hard disk. All you have to do is take the cover off your computer and plug the Hardcard into a 16-bit slot (a 286 or better is required). The Hardcard should peacefully co-exist with any other hard disk. And while Plus Development used to charge a pretty stiff premium for their drives, their prices are now very competitive, especially when you consider that the controller is built in and not an extra-cost item. Plus Development covers both drives with a two-year warranty. (Call Plus Development at 800-345-3377 to verify that it will work with your system or for other technical information.) Voice & Music ============= (Also see the CD-ROM and Multimedia section RE-02) #30032 Visual Composer ---------------------- PsL Price: $69.95. This is used with any Ad Lib compatible card for composing and transcribing music. #30147 ThunderBoard ------------------- PsL Price: $99.95. Cash Discount Price: $95.95 If you want Sound Blaster compatible digitizing and playback along with Ad Lib compatible music support, this is the card for you. At a third less than the street price of the Sound Blaster, and with higher quality digitizing, there is no reason to pay more. We picked up this card when one of our customers called to say that he had paid $130 for one and it didn't come with software and drivers for playing Ad Lib compatible music files. Not only do you save $30 with PsL, we will give you PsL's "Ad Lib Compatible Start-Up Disk" with it for no extra charge. Thunder Board also comes with a joystick port, a sound editor, 22 khz sound recording (compared to a noisy 13khz on the Sound Blaster) from microphone or line input (mic not included) and a sampler of several games. Covox Sound Master II --------------------- PsL Price: $144.95. Cash Discount Price: $139.95. This is an all-in-one sound card that has Ad Lib compatible music chips, speech synthesis, voice recognition and more. It has a built-in amplifier and output jacks for headphones or speakers. It features the ability to play back digitized sounds (eg: speech) in addition to playing synthesized (Ad Lib compatible) music. At this time, only a couple of programs support the digitized sound capability. The Sound Master II also has sound digitizing and playback capabilities. The SMII also includes software for waveform editing and digital signal processing. Other software includes voice recognition software, which can be used to control your computer, and PC-Lyra, a graphical music composition program. Also included is a MIDI interface complete with MIDI cables. All you have to do is plug your keyboard or other MIDI device in and start recording with the PC-Lyra software. Another unique feature of SMII is the ability to connect a PC speaker (if yours is chassis-mounted) to the card to improve the sound of your PC tremendously. This card will work on all PC compatibles with 8- or 16-bit slots, from old 8088s to new 486s. It will NOT work on PS/2s, however. While the card offers Ad Lib hardware compatibility, it does not come with the software to play the music files in PsL. So we are including the "Ad Lib Compatible Startup Disk" free with the SMII. (Some files on this disk are shareware and require payment to the author for continued use.) Speech Thing ------------ PsL Price: $59.95. Cash Discount Price: $56.95. The most popular Covox product is the Speech Thing, a speaker-amplifier that hooks up to your parallel port with a pass-through connector that you can still plug your printer into. The software drivers that come with it allow you to play digitized speech in a number of ways, including echoing everything you type in DOS and support from many games and educational programs. We've put together a disk of programs in PsL which support the Speech Thing and will include it free when you buy a Speech Thing from PsL. The disk includes a talking Star Trek game and a program that will let you play digitized sound files from the Mac, Sound Blaster, etc. (Current Speech Thing owners can order this special disk, #9113, at our usual fees. Some files on this disk are shareware and require payment to the author for continued use. Also see MU-01: MegaDisk Set #7232 for more sound files.) #30275 Koss Self-Powered Speakers --------------------------------- List Price: $40. PsL Price: $34. These high-quality Koss speakers are designed for use with computer sound cards. They are shielded and small enough (4"x6") to fit on the back corners of your desktop PC. They will run off batteries or an AC adapter (not included). Their frequency range is 50-20,000 Hz, with a maximum power input of 100 mW, and a maximum power output of 7.2 watts. These are heavy-duty speakers with excellent sound. Order them the same time as a sound card, and deduct another $5 from the already discounted price. Modems ====== #30045 Practical Pocket Modem ----------------------------- List Price: $160. PsL Price: $104.95. Cash Discount Price: $99.95. This is an unbelievable little modem. It fits in the palm of your hand, or in a shirt pocket, yet it is Hayes compatible and supports 0-300, 1200 and 2400 baud. Now get this - it requires no power from the wall or from batteries. It's perfect for laptops, but you can just as easily use it on a desktop machine. You can plug it straight into your serial port! It comes with a five-year warranty. #30102 Internal Zoom Modem with Send-FAX ---------------------------------------- PsL Price: $73.95. Cash Price: $69.95. This modem features 300/1200/2400 baud and completely Hayes compatible and comes with a seven-year warranty plus scads of coupons for dial-up services. You can send FAXs, but not receive them with the 4800 baud FAX send capability. Mouse, Ports ============ #30048 3-Button Mouse ---------------------- PsL Price: $30.95. Cash Price: $29.95. We checked out the competition and settled on what we think is the best deal presently available - a slick three-button, serial mouse with software drivers. There are plenty of cheap (price and quality) mice around, but this is an EXCELLENT, heavy-duty mouse. PsL offers a 30-day money back guarantee (excluding shipping and any damages to the mouse, the manual, the disks or packaging) if you don't agree that this is the best mouse you've ever used. Some people ask why we don't carry a bus mouse. It doesn't make sense to us. A bus mouse card takes up a slot and cannot be used for anything else. A serial mouse can be used on any serial port. If you don't have a spare serial port, you can add a serial port card and maintain maximum flexibility, since many devices can use a serial port. #30411 Motor Mouse ------------------ PsL Price: $39.95 The Motor Mouse works like a standard serial mouse, but looks like a fire-red Lamborghini Countach sports car. This car/mouse comes fully loaded with features: a Lamborghini for a cursor, front fender panels for mouse buttons (which you can hardly tell by looking), horn honking, and the ability to change the size and color of the cursor. Load the "Cruise Control" software (Windows required) for additional features. Motor Mouse works with DOS, Windows, and OS/2. In Windows, various characters pop out now and then. When Motor Mouse arrived at PsL, everyone around here loved it. We would have expected to have to pay a big premium for such a well-designed, super-cool mouse, but it is very reasonably priced. #30340 PC Stylus Mouse Pen -------------------------- PsL Price; $49.95 This is the first high-quality, reasonably-priced mouse pen that we have found. It comes from IMSI, the same company that supplies the three- button mouse that we feel is one of the best made. PC Stylus has 400-1200 dpi tracking resolution and it is Microsoft Mouse compatible, so you can use it with Windows and any other program that supports a MS (or Mouse Systems) mouse. It requires less space (and no mouse pad), so it is handier for use with laptops; in fact, it comes with a carrying case for that purpose. It can be easily used by left- and right-handers. IMSI offers a three-year warranty on PC Stylus. #30264 Gravis Game Pad ---------------------- PsL Price: $29.95 Now you can play PC games the way you do Nintendo, et al, with this game pad substitute for a joystick. The pad includes a four-button cluster on one end and a direction pad on the other. The direction pad can be converted to a regular joystick with the included handle. The pad's utility disk comes Commander Keen, and when you send in the pad's registration card, you can select one of five other games to get for a $10 shipping charge: JetFighter, Night Shift, PowerDrome, Ski or Die, or Prince of Persia. #30051 Multi-Port Card ---------------------- List Price: $40. PsL Price: $20.95. Cash Price: $19.95. For what we used to pay for a single serial port card, you can now get this card with TWO serial ports, a game port and a parallel port, all of which are user configurable through a bank of jumpers. You can even disable ports you don't want or need. Video, Printers =============== #30055 Video 7 1024i VGA Card ----------------------------- PsL Price: $95 In shopping for a VGA card, be aware that some cards claim to be "Super VGA" but offer only 16 colors in the 640x480 (or higher) resolutions. We recommend cards like the 1024i that support 640x480 x 256 colors, particularly if you are running Windows 3 and/or desktop publishing. The 1024i supports 1024x768x16 colors at the high resolution end. You can pay a lot more for a 1024x1024x256 card (a one-meg card), but there are few, if any, programs around to support them in the graphics mode, and you really need at least a 16" monitor to use such a card, since they squeeze more onto your screen. #30058 Samsung/SamTron VGA Monitor ---------------------------------- List Price: $575. PsL Price: $387.95. Cash Price: $375.95. A good color monitor for use with VGA cards, and at a modest price. 31mm. Games & Education ================= #30330 Bodyworks: An Adventure in Anatomy ----------------------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 This is an excellent, interactive introduction to the intricate systems, structures, and functions of the human body. You can use a mouse or the keyboard to zoom in on the skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, reproductive, cariovascular, lymphatic, urinary, and endocrine systems. Simply clicking on an object in the main window highlights the name of the object, and detailed text can be brought up by clicking the right mouse button. Several colorful animated movies are included. Graphics can be printed or saved to disk in PCX format. A section on Health is included, with information on first aid, general fitness, common illnesses, and more. There is enough information contained in this program to qualify as a reference tool for medical students, but it's ease of use and high-quality graphics should appeal to anyone interested in the workings of the human body. Requires 512K, 2.5 meg of hard disk space, and EGA/VGA. Both 3.5 and 5.25" disks are supplied. (This is NOT compatible with the disk compression utility STACKER.) #30392 Betrayal at Krondor --------------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Digitized actors and scenery take up 15MB of hard disk space for this program, but you will think it is worth it when you get wrapped up in this fantasy role-playing game set in ancient, mystical times. The program also requires a 386SX or better, DOS-5+, 2MB RAM, and VGA. Greats sounds and 3-D graphics bring this game to life. Comes on seven 1.44MB 3.5" disks. #30326 Design Your Own Railroad ------------------------------- PsL Price: $39.00 Lets you have all the fun of a model railroad on your PC! You lay out the track, add scenery, select the cars for one or more trains, and then guide them around your layout, complete with coupling, uncoupling, switching, underpasses, bridges and more. #30377 Distant Suns for Windows ------------------------------- PsL Price: $39.95 Distant Suns puts a powerful and realistic planetarium on your desktop. It can display the night sky anywhere on Earth from 4173 B.C. to 10000 A.D. with over 9100 stars, and 450 galaxies/nebulas/star clusters. You can save and restore important astronomical events, and add up to 3000 custom objects. Clicking on any object will bring up detailed information, including color photographs for some items. Other features include printing of high-quality star charts, the ability to reproduce eclipses and show lunar phases, and more. The information contained in this program is suitable for both amateur and professional star-gazers. Requires a 286, hard drive, and EGA/VGA. #30410 Game Maker ----------------- PsL Price: $59.95 You can create your own arcade games and adventure games without doing any programming. You can easily make characters and monsters which can fly, walk, run, jump, and make sounds. Characters can shoot or throw any type of object to kill monsters. Creating scenes for your game is just as easy as creating the characters. Among the many features is the ability to import graphics. Several templates are included which can be modified to give you a head start on making your own games. Requires VGA graphics, hard drive, and a mouse. Joysticks and Sound Blaster compatible sound cards are also supported. #30408 Hole-In-One-Miniature Golf Deluxe ---------------------------------------- PsL Price: $29.95 The windmills and cinder blocks of real miniature golf are nothing compared to many of the obstacles you'll face while playing this game. There is unusual gravity, magnets, and even golf balls that are moved telepathically. Attempt a hole in one while navigating through busy city traffic or dodging machine gun fire. Hole-in-One has eight different golf courses. Digitized sound brings the action to life, and sharp realistic graphics add to the enjoyment. Up to 4 people can play. Hoyle Book of Games 1 & 2 ------------------------- Hoyle #1 (#30324; $25) contains versions of Gin, Hearts, Klondike Solitaire, Cribbage, and even Crazy 8's and Old Maid. The game is produced by Sierra, and features the "stars" of many of their games, such as Leisure Suit Larry, as your computer opponents. Hoyle #2 (#30327; $25) includes 28 different solitaire card games. It's a pretty good value at less than $1.00 a game, but the EGA graphics are not up to the standards of today's mostly-VGA shareware card games. The music and sounds are nice, if you have an Ad Lib compatible sound card. #30374 Inca ----------- PsL Price: $29.95 As the fabled El Dorado you must fulfill the prophecies and battle futuristic Conquistadors, rocket across unknown galaxies, and unravel the ancient mystery of the lost Inca treasure. This amazing game features motion-picture quality digitized video and a beautiful soundtrack for sound cards. The story line unfolds with incredible cinematic sequences featuring real actors, such as are normally only found on CD-ROM games. There are exciting space battles, dungeon-like mazes to explore, Spanish Galleons in outer space, challenging folklore-based puzzles, sword fights, and unending action in this epic adventure of space and time. The mouse-based interface is very easy to learn and use. If you've been yearning to play the type of games usually found on CD-ROMs, but don't want to have to buy the hardware, this award-winning game is it. Requires a 386-20 or better, 640K, 17MB of hard disk space, and a mouse. This is available only on high density 3.5" diskettes. #30373 The Incredible Machine ----------------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Sierra's Incredible Machine is a delightful puzzle-game and freeform "invention" factory. Those of you old enough to remember the old Rube Goldberg drawings know what this is all about. In the accompanying picture, a bowling ball falls on a seesaw, causing a rope to turn on a light which is focused through a magnifying glass, lighting the fuse to a rocket which flies up and breaks a fish bowl, attracting a cat which walks over a mouse's cage, causing the mouse to run, driving the pulley, etc., etc. In the puzzle mode, you are presented with certain elements and required to add other elements to cause a specific result. In the freeform mode, you have access to 45 animated parts for creating your own machines. Just to make sure things don't get boring, you can also change air pressure and gravity so that balloons and bowling balls behave differently. The program has hi-res VGA, a crazy music background, and sound effects. Requires 640k, VGA, 386+, hard drive, and a mouse. #30342 Links386 Pro ------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 Provides the most realistic play and best graphics of any Golf game we have tested! It includes digitized graphics of courses, excellent animation, and digitized sound effects. It requires a 386 or faster CPU and Super VGA video. #30341 Microsoft Golf For Windows --------------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 This is actually the non-386 version of Links, above, but rewritten for Windows 3. Links386 and MS Golf Courses ---------------------------- These courses can be used with Links, Links386 and Microsoft Golf. Links Courses are created with actual digitized photographs with precise attention to detail, including an actual score card from the club. They are the next best thing to being there. (Only available on multiple 3.5" disks except Bay Hill which is 5.25". Mauna Kea is only on 1.44MB 3.5" disks.) #30349 $19.95 Hyatt Dorado Beach East Course beautiful seaside course. #30350 $19.95 Pinehurst Number Two the PGA Tour Championship course. #30351 $19.95 Bay Hill home of Arnold Palmer's Nestle Invitational.(5.25") #30352 $19.95 Barton Creek the Legends of Golf championship course. #30353 $19.95 Troon North the number one course in Arizona. #30354 $24.95 Mauna Kea this course is priced a little higher because it is for SuperVGA only. Photographed in late Spring, this beautiful course is the top-rated course in Hawaii. (1.44MB 3.5" disks) #30345 Firestone Course for Links & Golf For Windows ---------------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $19.95 #30344 Jack Nicklaus Signature Edition Golf ------------------------------------------- PsL Price: $49.95 The graphics in JNSE are not as high-res as in the Links/MS games. You get a graphical golfer instead of a digitized real one, but none of this seriously detracts from the play of the game. Also included is a Course Design program for creating additional courses to play. #30372 NY Times Crossword Puzzles --------------------------------- PsL Price: $34.99 Swfte, the company that publishes this package, did not mess around. The puzzles in this set were licensed right from the pages of New York Times, meaning that they are the most challenging puzzles you are likely to find. The New York Times Crossword Puzzles and Microsoft Windows make a good combo. Some people say that the best way to tackle a crossword puzzle is to work on it for a while then put it away and work on it some more later - an approach for which Windows is ideally suited. The approach used by the program is clever. The 200 "daily" puzzles are divided into days of the week, so that you can work a different puzzle each day. There are also 50 "Sunday" puzzles, which are longer and even harder. Other features include a "peek" mode, three skill levels, and the ability to save and reload the puzzle you are working on. #30066 Read'N'Roll ------------------ Special Price: $15 Teaches reading and rewards progress with game playing. Ages 9 - 12. #30068 Chessmaster 3000 ----------------------- List: $50. PSL Price: $39.95. This is an all-new version of Chessmaster. #30394 Sierra's Pinball for Windows ----------------------------------- PsL Price: $29 Sierra's Pinball For Windows is like all Sierra games: lots of entertaining graphics and sounds. There are eight different playing fields and themes based on other popular Sierra games, such as Leisure Suit Larry. Our favorite was the layout called "Draxon 2". Its black holes and gravity fields created bizarre effects not possible on real pinball games. If you are a pinball purist or don't like Windows games, stick with Tristan, which is still the most realistic pinball simulation, but if you just want to have a fun and flashy game to pop up while you are in Windows, this is it. This comes on 1.44mb 3.5" diskettes. #30409 Pinball Dreams --------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Pinball Dreams is a very realistic pinball machine simulation game. There are four games to play, each with it's own set of digitized sounds, images and pinball action. You'll find all the usual pinball game gadgets such as balltraps, ramps, bumpers, tunnels and more. You can even "bump" the machine, but be careful not to tilt. You can choose from four different playing field themes, each with corresponding digitized sounds. Choose the Western theme and you'll hear gunshots, for example. Each playing field is three times the height of the screen. As the ball moves up and down the playing field, the screen scrolls up and down. Requires 3 meg of hard disk space, 570k of free RAM and a VGA monitor. #30380 Strike Commander ----------------------- PsL Price: $59 This is a flight simulator for SERIOUS flight simulator lovers. Minimum hardware system requirements call for 4MB RAM, 27+MB disk space, 256-color VGA, and a 1.44MB 3.5" drive. Recommended system set-up includes a 486-33 or better, 8MB RAM, joystick, sound board and 33MB of disk space REAL disk space: compression utilities are NOT supported. If you use something like Stacker, you must have 27+MB of unStacked disk space. What you get if your system meets the qualifications is fantastic graphics and animation, fractal-generated landscapes, sounds and music -the result of two years of development and graphics techniques previously used only in multi-million dollar real flight simulators. This is not just a flight simulator, though. The flying missions are part of a rich military adventure taking place in the near future. Translate It! For Spanish, German & French ------------------------------------------ PsL Price: $59 Per Language Timeworks has another sure hit with this series of language translation programs for English-Spanish (#30395), English-German (#30397), and English-French (#30396). Each program lets you translate text files in either direction. Each comes with a very large 250,000 word dictionary, as well as a user-modifiable dictionary. The programs do not simply do word substitution; they perform full-sentence idiomatic translations. Different tranlations of a word are based on parts of speech. You can choose whole-document translation, or an on-screen, interactive mode. You can even translate documents as you create them with the built-in text editor. Translate-It! is also compatible with all major word processors. This is a real help for us at PsL where we often get FAXes in German, French, etc., with nobody available to translate them. Although Translate-It! does not do a perfect job (90-95% accuracy is claimed), it does well enough to let us figure out what is being said. Timeworks is so sure of this product that they offer a 60-day money-back satisfaction guarantee. #30371 Tristan Pinball ---------------------- PsL Price: $34.95 Tristan is without a doubt the top pinball simulation ever written for the PC. If you have ever enjoyed playing a real pinball machine, you can be assured that you will love Tristan. The game has all the feel, pace, features, and fun of a real machine. You can even "jiggle the machine" by hitting a user-specified "nudge" key (such as the space bar), but if you overdo it, you'll tilt it and lose. #30393 Ultrabots ---------------- PsL Price: $34.95 This is an incredible arcade game where giant 60-ton robots battle it out for the domination of the Earth. You can train in the Humanoid Warrior, Scorpion, or Scout robots, each with special offensive and defensive weapons. The game features fully interactive simulation-style cockpits, beautiful 256-color ray-traced graphics, computer generated maps and visual displays, realistic digitized sound effects, a SoundBlaster/Roland musical score, and much more. All in all, this is a futuristic feast for the eyes and ears! Requires a 386/16 or better machine, VGA, mouse, 1meg RAM, hard drive, and a high density 3.5" floppy drive. #30390 Where in Space Is Carmen Sandiego? ---------------------------------------- PsL Price: $39.95 The latest in the educational and entertaining "Where ... is Carmen?" series, this Deluxe Edition takes 10MB of hard disk space and features breathtaking NASA photographs (VGA required), video clips of planetary flybys, digitized sound effects, and hundreds of different cases. A 386 or better is required to manage this feature-filled program. Your VAL-9000 computer contains a wealth of information about the geography and science of space. You must plot your course through the stars, interview witnesses, and interpret clues as you hunt for the infamous Carmen Sandiego. Also included is a 128-page guide to the stars and planets. #30109 SAT Personal Trainer -------------------------- List Price: $50. PsL Price: $39.95. Cash Price: $37.95. If you have students in your family who are facing the S.A.T. college entrance exams, this software will help prepare them for it. It will give you sample math and verbal SAT exams, prepare detailed training programs customized to your particular needs, help you develop strategies for taking tests, and more. For visual feedback, it charts your progress with 3-D graphs. Davidson, the publishers of the program, offer a 30-day, money-back satisfaction guarantee on this and all of their other programs. ]]]]]]]]]]