Previous Next

Electric Etch is a great new program for the Colour Genie. It is designed as a high resolution graphics editor and will work with the 16/32K versions of the Colour Genie (old and new). I say this is a new program but this program has been with us for some months and is for sale from B. P. Cooper.

One cannot help but wonder why anyone would want this program - but have you ever tried to produce a complicated display in high res only using Basic commands? Believe me, you could spend 10 to 20 times as long making the display without the use of this program. Circles, elipses, arcs, boxes and triangles can be produced at the touch of one key.

The manual supplied is complete and precise, but it takes a few minutes of practice to become an expert in the use of the Electric Etch. I found out that I was typing in the wrong sequence of certain commands and thinking there was a bug in the program but, like most people, I did not read the instructions properly. When I did, I soon found the error of my ways. There is a built-in Help command which instantaneously provides the names and command letters you may use.

It only took me a few minutes to create an interesting picture (Bear in mind that I am no Picasso!) and I could easily change and swap colours, again only at the touch of a button. There are, in fact, over 20 commands available and the majority of the commands perform a unique task.

Of course, you can save and load and pictures you create as well as edit high res pictures produced from most other programs. This is a very useful feature because you may want to improve upon pictures from other programs. (Obviously, they did not use Electric Etch!)

This program provides excellent value for money if you have a need for this program. If you do use the high res screen, then you do have a need for this program.

Marc J. Leduc