European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday september 12, 1995 computers the stats and stripes Page 11 nostalgia goes High tech scrapbook program photo Reader help preserve memories by Jack Warner Cox news service " a Little machine called the easy photo Reader the first snapshot scanner i be seen dovetails rather Well with Echo Lake the most elaborate electronic scrapbook maker i be Ever seen. On the other hand if heavy duty nostalgia in t your bag Del Ina s Echo Lake will pall very quickly. The entire thing from the packaging through the. Multi fold poster size instructions to the interface itself is so cute it sets my Teeth on Edge. However Given its premise it is extremely Well done. Echo Lake puts you in a Cabin in the mountains at a desk where you create books. You can choose the starting and ending Date of the Book and even the de sign of its spine. Well skip All the things on the desk that you use to do this arid Cut to the Chase. The books fall into eight arbitrary categories career travel Home personal family friends Leisure and education. Within education for instance you might create a Book on your College Days or your child s senior year in High school. You get the you can include just about anything your computer is capable of handling. You can illustrate your Book with clip Art some comes with the program audio both prerecorded and computer generated film clips in the form of Avi files although few of us Are set up to re Cord them and photographs from Kodak cd rooms there s a thing called an Inspiratory which is supposed to give you ideas for getting started or moving your Story along although if you need that i m not sure what you re doing in this program in the first place. Finally you can Export your Book and a viewer to a disk and Send it to friends and relatives. Echo Lake Sells for about .$50. /. /. The easy photo Reader is made by storm software and is designed for things like Echo Lake or putting snapshots into letters. It won t scan a Pic Ture More than 5 inches machine itself is Only about 6 inches Square and made entirely of plastic. It. Uses no internal Board in your pc rather it plugs into the Printer port with a con Nector that accepts your Printer Cable too. V every picture i put through it came out rather Muddy. However the. Easy photo. Software has simple editing features that allow the user to make considerable improvements in the image which is then stored As a Peg a Type of graphics file which also can be edited by More sophisticated programs. V there is virtually nothing in the Way of printed instructions for the machine and practically nothing for the software. However what there is seems to be Ade quate to get things moving none of it is very its Price of $269, easy photo Reader and its software works pretty Well. But for twice the Money you can get a pretty Good flatbed scanner that will do even better and will scan Large documents As Well As teen stays ahead of the game " " -. -. M -.-. Of by William Kates the associated press , n y. During most of their working Day Brothers Robert and Norman Sirotek Are consumed with the make believe wizards monsters and mercenaries the International Success of their up state new York computer game company sir tech software inc is no fantasy though. \. " ". " while other software companies have been Hurt by changing technology and Strong Competition the upstart sir tech has prospered from its innovative games Quality graphics and astute marketing. The Bottom line in this company is we will not release garbage. We never have. Our Label says to people out there that whatever we do will be. Content Rich entertaining fun stuff Robert Sirotek said. Sir tech s inaugural role playing game wizardry was an instant hit in 1981 and evolved into a series that has since sold More than 4.6 million copies worldwide. The pioneering game was the first to take fantasy role playing and allow players to create their own characters to solve Advent ". a the series has been so popular in Japan that it created a spinoff Industry of Novelty merchandise figurines comic books games videos a feature film and even a re cording of wizardry music by Hiroko a Schwa a top japanese pop Singer. Over the years the Small software firm has won nearly five dozen Industry awards and honors. Its current games Merce nary adventure called jagged Alliance is one of the hottest Selling games Industry publications and sales records indicate. Sir tech based in a empty shopping Plaza in this St. Lawrence River Community almost 500 Miles from new York City is the oldest privately owned software game company. It had worldwide sales to taling $5 million last year. The Sirotek project sales will Rise to be tween $7 million and $9 million in the next year with the release of seven new titles including additions to jagged Alliance and realms of Arkana and a wizardry Gold anniversary edition. By concentrating on different products we Are trying to show the Market that we Are More than just a wizardry company. That we understand what it takes to build a Good product Robert Sirotek said. The flood of releases will nearly double the number of titles marketed by sir tech which produced Only 12 games in its first 15 years. A tile the computer games sold by sir tech software inc. Have created a spinoff Industry in Japan of such Novelty merchandise As figurines comic books and playing cards. Sir tech employs 40 people including 15 in Ottawa where the firm opened its own in House game development Section in june 1994, in its Early years sir tech contracted with Independent game designers. Sir tech came into being More by Acci Dent than design. V the Brothers father Frederick Sirotek a Canadian industrialist bought into a resin Sands business based in Ogdensburg in the late 1970s. He needed a computer program to keep track of shipping rates and tariffs and asked his partner s son to devise Woodhead who would later be come prominent developing anti virus computer vaccines and other games produced one in less than a week. Soon after Woodhead met the Sirotek Brothers and the threesome struck up first a Friendship then a business. Woodhead along with Andrew Green Berg created wizardry and remained the creative Force behind sir tech until leaving in the mid-1980s. The Sirotek who at first had limited knowledge about computers and software brought their business Acu men to the partnership. There were not a lot of software Compa Nies in those Days. And it really sold Bris Kly said Norman Sirotek the company s president. In those Days there was such a void anything would today the Industry is overflowing with game makers and dominated by such giants As time Warner Sony and Viacom which produce Between 4,000 and 5,000 new titles yearly. Sir Lech s first five years were filled with rapid growth. But by 1985, Domestic sales of All computer games were beginning a five year slump that bottomed out in 1988 1989. /1 because we marketed globally and did t just stick to North America it actually saved this firm a couple of times said nor pan Sirotek. The company was one of the first software firms to gain entry to the japanese Market. In 1988, it reached an agreement with Asci a Large japanese Magazine publisher to help Market a customized ver Sion of its wizardry series in Japan. In the ensuing years sir tech followed with customized versions of its games for South Korea Taiwan Germany France and the United kingdom. It licenses with overseas companies to produce and Market . Add ram As you can afford More by Don Wittekind Cox news service q. I want to get a multimedia computer but the ones that fall in my Price Range generally have Only 4 megabytes of ram. Is this a realistic amount of memory for a machine with a cd rom drive if not what do you suggest s.\v. , a. A 4-megabyte machine is not your Best bet. You la be Able to run some Muti Media under that setup but you la find Many More that you just can t handle. I recommend a minimum of 8 megabytes of ram and even that May be on the Low Side. However if your budget says it s a 4-Meg computer or no computer go ahead and make the Purchase. That Way you still get the benefits of having the machine while you save up for the additional ram. This is Likely to Cost a Little More in the Long run bit it it least lets you put some time Between the Pur chases ,. However it s important to understand that All computers Are not created equal when it comes to being Able to expand their capabilities. Some computers have More ram expansion slots than others so be sure to ask your dealer about the limits of any machine you consider. ". Q. I want to use my macintosh. For desktop publishing and am wondering what software i should buy. I be heard quite a bit about both pacemaker and quark press but Don t know which is better for publishing a newsletter. Which one shrill i i buy k.n., at Lanta -. A. there s a loaded ques Tion. I la shirt Rny fudging on this one by telling you that both pro Grams do essentially the same thing. If you can do it on pacemaker you can More than Likely do it on quark. That said there Are differences but you la find they Are More feel than function. Both programs will take you to the same place but they use different routes to get there. Neither route is necessarily better they re just different. I suggest you Start your Hunt by going to a computer store and asking for demonstrations. Call ahead because not every store will be prepared to offer this. Once you be had a preview you re Defi. Nicely going to feel More Comfort Able with one or the other product and that s Likely the program for you. However with the track record behind these products you re not Likely to make a mistake no matter which Way you go. Got a question write to Don Wittekind Atlanta journal Constitution 72 Marietta St. N.w., at Lanta a. 30303. Email acc Don on America online 15057,2274 on computer a dsev55d on Prodigy com on the internet. _
