The Sentinel from Carlisle, Pennsylvania • 47

Sunday The Sentinel Page E5 Technology December 28, 1997 CSarisWoirks one off most useffu! programs Business Cards Select a business card. 'a Category: Company Focus Bob iichvcbsch fluailable Cards: I Universal Press Acme Widgets Inc. John Smith 123 Wttel Way GWftle, WA 987KJ Mail 9018 (808)769-317 (8081769-1000 Frtt Number On of) Attn Classic ClipRrt (right) ClipRrt (left) Bold Border Create business cards for business or personal use Of the thousands of programs I've looked at over the years, only a handful have been as useful as Clar-isWorks. This is a general-purpose office program for those who neither need por want the complexity of Microsoft Office or the Word Perfect or Lotus office suites. The latest version is called ClarisWorks Office, and for less than $100 it packs more punch than any other small-business program around.

The program works with Windows 95 "and Macintosh, and a long-standing advantage has been that all commands are the same on both computers and the files are interchangeable. ClarisWorks Office contains a iivord processor, database and spreadsheet, along with paint and drawing tools and a small version of a Web publisher, allowing you to post and edit pages for the World Wide Web. There are 230 templates for common business documents and more for home and school. The database is terrific and can easily create specialized lists and store photos and movies as well as text. The word processor lets you embed Internet addresses in any document.

The spreadsheet lets you paste any mathematical function and can fill cells with consecutive dates or numbers. The Windows version of Claris-Works Office is $79, the Macintosh version $99. Upgrades from previous versions are $49. For more info, call 800-544-8554 or 408-727-8227; www.claris.com. integrate, limbs litter the room.

It's true that it's violent, but on the other hand, so is Bugs Bunny. Quake II looks best with one of the new video accelerator cards you gotta get one. Up to 32 people can play at once via the Internet. If you can get a couple of buddies to cover you while you move through, you can clear a room full of monsters in seconds. On the other hand, the monsters are smarter now.

They duck, have shields and can lie in ambush or follow your tracks. Be careful: It's a dungeon out there. Quake II is $60 list price, for Win 95, from id Software and Activision. Numbers: 800-477-3650, 310-255-2000 or 310-255-2100 (fax); www.activision.com. Books "How to Find Anyone Fast," by Johnson Johnson ($17, MIE Publishing, Spartansburg, S.C.) contains nothing startling, but it's a useful guide.

It would have been helped greatly by having a CD with the search location addresses. The authors are a fatherdaughter team of private investigators. A note to readers regarding the contest on our web site: A computer shutdown during the Thanksgiving holidays caused us to lose a number of entries. If you entered during that period, please enter again. Readers can contact Bob Schwabach at the new "On Computers" Web site: www.oncomp.com, and by e-mail at bobschwab oncomp.com or bobschwab aol.com.

Progress Cancel Begin Back Next jj A screen from ClarisWorks Office with WebCalendar, an online calendar of events for the Internet. Business, schools and other organizations can publish a calendar of events and post it to the Pacifica Web site, and the calendars can be password protected. The software itself is $50, for Win 95, and it allows the publishing of 20 calendars in the first year; after that it's $50 a year. There are templates set up to accept club or company data in any of several layouts. The events themselves can then be clicked to reveal more information: travel directions, hotel accommodations, seminar or ticket prices, etc.

Clicking can also bring up links to other Web sites. It's an interesting service idea, but brand new and a little slow at the moment. Contact 800-755-9036, 415-551-2100 or 415-551-2111 (fax); www.pacificasoftware.com. Roll your own greeting cards 'Tis still the season and all that, and there are several choices in greeting card programs. The best-known are from Sierra, Microsoft, American Greetings, Broderbund and Corel.

The other package, Click Art, has 8,500 images, most of them in the Victorian style that has had a resurgence of popularity in recent years. The rest of the images are from the first half of this century. A print program is needed to use this package. Both Signature Greetings and Click Art sell for around $30. For Broderbund: 800-521-6263 or 415-382-4400; www.broder.com.

Games: Quake II There's more blood and gore on the floor with Quake II. Heads dis art has 25,000 images, not unusually large by recent standards, but everything is laid out well and the whole system looks good. List price on Print House Magic is $60, and street price figures to be around $45. Numbers for Corel: 800-772-6735 or 613-728-8200; www.corel.com. Broderbund has two interesting packages.

One is Signature Greetings for Win 95, done in association with the popular card designer Marcel Schurman. Not all the artwork in this program is from Schurman, so you have other options. The new Corel Print House Magic for Win 95 looks the best, with a few Broderbund offerings right behind it. What's nice about the Corel package is that it includes Corel Photo House, a photo-editing program similar to Live Pix and Picture It, and the Netscape 3.0 net browser. Photo House also does business stationery and office banners and all the other projects you would expect from well-known programs such as Broderbund's Print Shop and Sierra's Print Artist.

The library of clip Posting events Pacifica Software has come out Sequels capture many top spots By William Schiffmann Associated Press over the original. 1. Final Fantasy VII, from Square Soft for the PSX. This game stood head and shoulders above an excellent field this year. FF7 has it all; an engrossing story line, gorgeous graphics, excellent sound and perfect controls.

Stuffed onto three CDs (a PlayStation first), FF7 will keep you busy for weeks, and I guarantee you'll be sorry when you finish. I loved this game, and it's a no-brainer to put it at the top of the heap for 1997. There were so many great games, it seems unfair to limit the list to just 10. Here are a few which just missed the cut, in no particular order: 1. Nuclear Strike, from Electronic Arts for the PlayStation.

2. Bushido Blade, from Square Soft for the PlayStation. 3. FIFA Soccer 64, from Electronic Arts for the N64. 4.

Colony Wars, from Psygnosis for the PlayStation. 5. Nightmare Creatures, from Activision for the Playstation. 6. Saturn Bomberman, from Hudson Soft for the Saturn.

It's hard to believe another year is gone. But if 1997 provided so many video game thrills, imagine what we have to look forward to in 1998. See you then. de force for the Super NES. Nintendo remade the game and it's as great a hit for the N64.

Fifteen wonderfully detailed levels keep our four heroes on their toes, and a tank and submarine add to the flying excitement. 4. Goldeneye 007, from Rare for the N64. Once again, Nintendo called on the programmers at Rare, and they came through with a game that takes James Bond to a whole new level. The best first-person shooter of the year, with a nifty sniper feature which puts your target right in your lap.

Eight ways to play, the new RumblePak debuts, excellent sound effects and graphics a beauty from start to finish. 3. Crash Bandicoot 2, from Naughty Dog for Sony's PlayStation. Another sequel, another huge advance. CB2 is funny, exciting, easy to play and hard to beat.

Our hero is gifted with new moves and new adventures which make this sequel a real winner. 2. Tomb Raider II, from Eidos for the PSX. Sequels were big in 1997, and none was better than Tomb Raider II, featuring the enchanting Lara Croft in new and highly improved adventures, with new and more lethal weapons, fresh and dazzling moves and upgraded graphics which are a dramatic improvement separate games in a 3-D atmosphere. If you like Tetris, you'll love Tetrisphere.

8. Mario Kart 64, from Nintendo for the N64. Those who, like me, were underwhelmed with Mario Cart should give MK64 a try. Plain and simple, it's a hoot, a marvelous racing experience complete with eight cartoony Mario characters to keep it light, 16 tracks and three engine power levels to keep it interesting. 7.

Blast Corps, from Rare for the N64. A little jewel. Blast Corps was one of those original ideas that pop up every year and make video games so intriguing. Using a variety of vehicles, you must clear a path in front of an out-of-control truck hauling nuclear missiles. If the truck hits anything, kaboom! Dozens of levels and great explosions.

N64 owners, you need this game. 6. Doom 64, from Midway for the N64. When I first got this one, I almost didn't play it. How could Midway improve on the original? Was I wrong! This is the best Doom by far, with 30 levels of mayhem and flying gore, new monsters, fabulous graphics, beautiful light sourcing and great sound.

5. Star Fox 64, from Nintendo for the N64. When the original Star Fox hit the shelves, it was a fabulous tour Video games took a giant leap forward in 1997 but it was sequels that captured most of the attention. Movies do it, authors do it, so why not video games? If you have a good idea, why not expand it, stretch it, make it even better? Well, it doesn't always work, but this year, programmers pulled out all the stops, and games with a past took up several slots on my best-of-the-best list. First, the legal disclaimer.

These are my persona picks. I haven't played every game released this' year, so if your personal favorite isn't here, that's life. It doesn't make it any less fun to play, does it? Now, without further ado, the envelope, please. 10. Fighters Megamix, from Sega for the Saturn.

This colossal conglomeration features 34 fighters from two already excellent games, and all have new moves and terrific 3-D. A must for fighter fans. 9. Tetrisphere, from H20 Entertainment for Nintendo's N64. Tetrisphere took the popular Tetris to new heights, and in the process provided the best puzzle experience of the year.

A huge globe, with layer on layer to wade through, provided five Q1997frr Character from "Final Fantasy VII" More sequels: 'Civilization 11 'Quake ir are best descend on fresh carcasses. And instead of just standing there, or plodding straight ahead like most of the killer creeps in "Quake," the next generation in "Quake II" stalks you in packs, lies in wait, runs zigzag patterns to dodge bullets and can actually duck under incoming fire aimed too high. Be afraid. "Quake" is by far the favorite game of multiplayer death-match junkies, usually expert players tired of single-player computer competition. Hungry for human opponents, they dial up via modem to powerful remote servers, from all over the world, to meet up and leap into cyberspace arenas more than a dozen at a time to race around and blast each other to bits.

Pretty soon they'll all be doing it with "Quake II." Some sequels set a whole new standard. "Quake II" is one. ence that suck you in and never let go-Using a lighter, more colorful graphics palette, enhanced 3-D modeling techniques and superior action programming, id Software designers engineered eight challenging multi-level search-and-destroy environments for "Quake II" It's packed with booby traps, camouflaged ambush sites and secret rooms. Not to mention the bad guys, an army of mechanized mutant cyborgs called the Sirogg. They're faster and smarter and bctlcr armed than the last batch of crumb bums uglier, too.

To level the playing field somewhat, there are some enhanced weapons, power-ups, medkits, armor and shields for intrepid human heroes. The music is rockin' and some of the special effects are loo cool, like the buzzing swarm of flics that epidemics brought by the white man. Samurai re-creates ancient feudal Japan before European contact. The World of Jules Verne is a 19th-century world where Verne's imaginary creations and contraptions actually exist. It's a must-have for established "Civil" addicts, and a great place to start the game for beginners with no taste for the game's often dry basic scenarios.

Technically not a true sequel, the "Fantastic Worlds" add-on package requires a copy of "Civil" to play. Quake II: Making it just under the wire for Christmas shopping with an early December release, this highly anticipated overhaul of the premier first-person 3-D shooting game cannot fail. Fans with Web sites devoted to the game can't rave enough about its stunning architecture and immersive combat experi games with embarrassing rush-job sequels that aren't worth the CDs they're burned into. Happy hunting. It's impossible to list all the losers in the short space here, so here are a couple of sure winners.

Civilization II, Fantastic Worlds: A second-generation sequel to last year's biggest selling sequel, "Sid Meier's Civilization II," the "Fantastic Worlds" add-on package by Microprose ($29.99) not only gives "Civil" addicts 19 wild new strategy scenarios to play out, but also includes new scenario-building tools to create and edit individual customized worlds. Having already covered most of known human history in a previous, much less-thrilling "Civil" add-on, game designers explored the worlds of science fiction, fantasy and prehistory in the latest package. The best new scenario has players living as one of several dinosaur species in The Age of Reptiles, evolving over millions of years, defending and expanding territory as they try, try, try to avoid extinction. Two space scenarios. Ice Planet and Mars cast gamers as leaders of off-world groups, including aliens, fighting for their lives.

Master of Magic and The Mythic History of Midgard were made for Dungeons and Dragons fans. Play "what if?" with Atlantis and The New World. Using the first scenario, players determine how the mythical ancient civilization said to have been swallowed up by the ocean might have developed if the cataclysm never happened. In The New World, players take control of an Indian tribe in a North America free of conquistadors, pilgrims and the accompanying killer By Ric Leyva Associated Press NEW YORK You can't judge a computer game by its Roman numerals. In a market oversaturaled with sequels, and sequels to sequels, only the best sequels deserve a second look.

Unfortunately, spotting the difference between a successful spinoff and a dismal knockoff is nearly impossible without buying the game and trying it out. Adding to the dilemma is the fact that, unlike movie sequels that rarely match the quality of the original, computer game remakes are often way better than their ancestors, good enough to make players forget what came before. On the other hand, companies lacking any fresh ideas just as often milk rabid fans of especially popular Adding memory goves new life to agimg PC tions. It also made it much easier to have several applications open. The bottom line is thai for less than $2(K), plus about 15 minutes of lime, the system's useful life was prolonged al least a year.

If you're not comfortable opening the system case, many retailers will install the RAM for you on the spot if you bring your system case lo the store. Especially during the winter months, take special care to avoid static electricity. It will fry RAM (and other system components) beyond recall. When I work on a system, I attach the bare copper of a length of lamp cord to a wrist and the other end of bare copper to a water pipe. (I also work bare-fool, which has caused some family amusement, but I haven't lost a component lo static in 15 years, so let 'em laugh.) Bringing my system up lo 48 megabytes of RAM brought a noticeable improvement in performance, especially on WordPerfect 8 and photo-editing applica The catch is that while RAM moves data at speeds measured in nanoseconds (billionths of a second), a hard drive, being mechanical, slogs along at milliseconds (thousandths of a second).

That's a million times slower. So when I got tired of watching the disk drive light blink and the Windows hourglass, I called Gateway and asked for 32 megabytes of additional RAM. On my system, as on most, there are two banks for RAM, each with two slots. The first bank was filled with two SIMMs of eight megabytes each, so the thing to do was put a pair of 16 megabyte SIMMs into the second bank. It's OK to have different SIMMs in different banks, but they should be the same in each bank, and it's good to have them all at the same speed, i.e.

60 or 70 nanoseconds. The kind of RAM you have in your system should be on the manufacturer's spec sheet. Easy install Installing RAM in most systems is easy. The SIMM is put into the empty slot at a 45-dcgree angle and when you raise it to vertical position, the memory locks into place. tively small cost.

Besides, today's software looks at 16 megabytes as a de facto minimum, and you can bet Granny's garters that will be 32 megabytes before mid-1998. Two years ago, my Gateway 2000 120-megahertz Pentium with 16 megabytes of RAM was top dog. But as applications got more demanding, it began to spend more and more time going to disk. That's what happens when Windows 95 runs out of room in RAM. It puts needed information onto the hard drive and swaps it in and out of RAM when necessary.

By Larry Blasko Associated Press When your 2-year-old PC doesn't seem to have the zip it Once had, when compared to today's 300-mcgahcrtz screamers, consider memory. No, not the nostalgic kind, the kind that comes in SIMMs (single in-line memory modules). PC memory prices are dipping below $40 for eight megabytes, and sometimes, with rebates, as low as $30. An infusion of memory can give Windows 95 machines a significant performance boost at a rela Questions and comments are welcome. Send them to Compuli-w.

PO Box 626, Summit, N.J. 07901. Or e-mail via the Internet, Larry JilaskoCdap.prg..