80-Bus News

Overall I found the Climax card very fast indeed and very effective with no vices. Nothing I did locked it up, either by design or unintentionally. The documentation, whilst not as thorough as the Nascom was adequate and the provision of the primitive source listings was most helpful.

The Summary.

I have tried to examine the salient points of all three cards, and in the process have glossed over a lot. I suggest that any potential purchaser try to get hold of the manuals for all three before making a choice as there is a lot I have missed here and there may be things which are of some importance to the potential user that I haven’t mentioned at all. As to how I rated the cards:

Pluto.

The worst buy, being expensive and poorly documented. Most suited to specialist uses and finding its way into broadcast standard equipment. Very definitely not a cheap way of playing colour space invaders.

Nascom.

The best buy, the cheapest, the best documented and with very adequate resolution. A little slow in some respects and pity about the 10″ x 8″ card format, but in all other respects fine.

Climax.

The one in the middle nearly equal with the Nascom but let down by the higher price for slightly lower resolution. The square display leaves margins on the screen but well worth considering from the speed and provision of the primitive source listings alone.