Scor­pio News

The quality of PD software is extremely variable and the majority of the vendors haven’t much idea either. So-called ‘clubs’ offer discounts for quantity but little else. Having been caught out by one or two of these organisations, I felt that it might be useful to give a few names and addresses of firms and user groups which I have found to be reliable:

Shareware, __ ____ ______, Tonbridge, Kent (____ ______).
Advertise widely; useful booklet for £1 in stamps listing all their PD and Shareware MSDOS programs with ratings and compatibility.

Seltec Computer Products Ltd., Farley Hall, _________ ____, Bracknell, Berks ____ ___ (____ ______).
Widely advertised, but generally more expensive than the previous firm. No guarantee given that software will run on your system but most will run on IBM or near compatibles. I believe that they used to and may still offer some CP/M software.

Some of the other PD Software houses may be OK – but I haven’t tried all of them – there seem to be dozens.

PC Independent User Group (____ _____) mainly for Amstradophiles but offer all (or nearly all) PC public domain software at £3 – £4 per disk; very useful organisation but costs £22 per year to belong. They do offer many disks of useful software which has been tested and does work on Amstrad and similar PCs) – and offer a useful help line service as well.

For completeness, I ought to add the IBM PC User Group (__ ___ ____), although I don’t belong to it (it costs £25 per year and a £5 joining fee), and what used to be called the CP/M User Group (____ _____). This organisation caters for MSDOS as well as CP/M users and was excellent. I used to belong to it but regretfully decided not to renew my subscription when they suddenly stopped producing informative journals/​newsletters/​library catalogues last year. Members have access to virtually all PD software which is commonly available for a copying charge of £2.30 or so per disk (send your own formatted disks) but you will need to know which library and disk numbers you need. Both CP/M and MSDOS libraries are available and CP/M disks can be produced in a variety of formats.

It might be useful to see if your potential source of software issues a catalogue (printed or on disk). I was impressed by the Shareware booklet and I understand that their bulletin board (____ ______) is quite useful. ●