The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 44

Computer THE GUARDIAN Thursday November 19 1992 John Minson As videogames continue to grow in popularity a battle for readers is raging in the fiercely competitive world of magazine publishing Scireem wairs within three weeks. This will have been helped by the inclusion of a free gift "worth 4.95," a digital watch keyring in the shape of a miniature Nintendo GameBoy. Future's Greg Ingham concedes that "Emap is spending an awful lot on the first three issues of NMS," but adds: "the true battleground will be the first ABC circulation figure of next year, January to June." NMS may sound like a licence to print Nintendo-sanctioned money but Kean and Ingham have their, caveats. Keen quotes the case of Nintendo's attempt to take its American club magazine on to the newstands: it performed poorly compared with independent titles, though he admits its lack of editorial independence would have been an important factor. Emap could also find its official status a mixed blessing.

Nintendo software tends to appear here later than in the US, with many titles never becoming available. This has led to a flourishing market for unofficial imports. While Future and Europress are free to review these, NMS may have to wait until they appear in Bandai's release schedule. Bandai has also indicated that it will be adopting a more co-operative attitude to the unofficial titles. But Future and Europress are not neglecting licensing opportunities.

This week Europress launched Bad Influence! to tie in with the Yorkshire TV series. Europress chairman Derek Meakin says: "The promotional value of being associated with something on screen is invaluable." Meakin says he had previously approached Hewland International, the production company behind Channel 4's successful Games Master. At that stage it was not interested in a magazine. It has obviously changed its mind because Future is set to publish the official Games Master magazine. Encouraged by a peak audience of over three million during its first season, Ingham says the initial print run will be 350,000 copies.

Ingham and Meakin see their magazines as adjuncts to the TV shows, going into greater depth than a 25-minuta programme allows. Ingham believes he will replicate the spirit of the show, which "defines a generation." Meakin also draws a comparison with BBC magazines such as Gardener's World, which have become market leaders. But Taylor sounds a cautionary note, pointing out that Auntie's teeny-bopper magazine, Number One, was closed at the start of this year, despite cross-promotional opportunities. GamesMaster is being edited for Future by Jim Douglas, who was poached from Emap, where he had been due to edit the official Nintendo magazine. Ironically, GamesMaster if to be launched at the start of next month at the GamesMaster Live exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham a show sponsored by Emap's magazines.

IF YOU want to cash in on the current craze for all things Nintendo and Sega but can't program, why not start a magazine about video games? According to a spokesman for Smith retail, the huge success of the consoles has spawned one of the fastest growing areas in magazine publishing. The company already stocks about a dozen titles and expects this to reach 20 by the end of the year. Such is the rate of growth that figures for top-selling console magazines such as Mean Machines (about 130,000) and Total' (about 80,000) are out of date as soon as they're published. While circulation figures have not reached the heights of long-established teenage magazines such as Smash Hits (368,258 copies per issue), sales are challenging those of titles devoted to traditional leisure activities, such as (about 182,000) and Match And a new generation of titles could put these figures in the shade. The latest trend in the circulation war is to link magazines with a television programme, or get the official sanction of a console manufacturer.

At the start of this year Nintendo was looking to sanction a licensed title and the three major players Future Publishing, Europress and Emap made their pitch. Emap won because of its editorial staffs strong track record with multi-format titles such as Mean Machines (now aimed at Sega owners) and according to Jayne Shipperly from Nintendo UK distributor, Bandai Nintendo Magazine System sounds more like a peripheral than a publica tion, emphasising its close links with tne manufacturer, emap Graham Taylor believes that from the editorial point of view his staff benefit from early access to the latest products. Also, Shipperley says Nintendo's customer support division proof-reads the magazine to ensure prices, release dates and tips are accurate. Cynics might wonder whether such a close relationship is healthy. But judging by the first issue, at least, Taylors team, headed by industry vet eran Julian Rignall, has maintained its integrity.

As Taylor puts it "Credibil ity is most important, which means good reviews that people believe in. And the price they have to pay for that is bad reviews. Jim Douglas (left) and Greg Ingham: The true battleground will be the first ABC of next year' photograph: john minson Taylor says the first issue, with a print run of 200,000, almost sold out Thanks for the extra memory Manek Dubash IF YOUR PC slows down running Microsoft Windows and restarting doesn't cure the problem, it might well be time to plug in more memory. This is simple to do, but there are a few things to watch. If buying a PC, check that it will accept at least 32 megabytes of industry-standard modules, dubbed Simms for Single In-line Memory Modules.

In recent years, manufacturers have moved away from proprietary and therefore expensive memory cards, but some remain. You can usually tell by the price. If the manufacturer is quoting more than about 25 per megabyte, either ask why it is so expensive or go elsewhere for memory. Thirty-two megabytes of memory may sound a lot now, but in the next five years the memory demands of operating systems will rocket. Realistically, OS2 2.0 needs six megabytes to run and is happier with at least eight, while Windows NT, due out next year, will call for even more.

The 16 megabyte machine will no longer be a rarity. Also make sore you can get at the Simms easily and that they are not overhung by the power supply unit. Then look a little closer. Simm sockets have small securing lugs on either side which need to be bent back to remove a module. Some are plastic, others metal.

The plastic types tend to break, so choose metal where possible. Simms can be bought with a good chance of success from the back pages of computer magazines. They are commodity items with price the decisive factor. Prices have been as low as 15 for a megabyte of memory until recently, but are creeping up again due to a Simm shortage. Each Simm is likely to carry either one- or four-megabit chips, enough to add either one or four megabytes of memory respectively.

The PC's manual should specify the appropriate type, although many modern ones will accept both. If possible, go for four megabit Simms since they are more than 10 per cent cheaper per megabyte than older one-megabit types. Speed is the other important variable. The computer's documentation should say how fast its memory chips are; 70 nanoseconds is about average. Memory speed is the minimum time that must elapse between each memory access, so installing faster memory will hurt your wallet, not speed up the machine.

On the other hand, installing memory slower than the manufacturer's recommendation will almost certainly, at some point, cause the machine to crash. Having bought your extra memory it's time to look inside the box. Somewhere not too far from the processor sits a row of chips mounted on one or more vertical pieces of circuit board. Adding a Simm is a matter of carefully slotting the new module in place and rocking it gently back until the module socket's securing lugs snap into place. Make sure you start with the socket furthest from you.

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