** 0.5 page review / 260 words **

High VIDELity

Shiuming Lai puts the squeeze on this latest Falcon software video extender...

** SETVIDEO.GIF here **
** CENTVIDL.GIF here (overlapped?)**
** POWBCNTK.JPG as part of title **
** RD13.IMG **

The Falcon's VIDEL graphics chip is vastly more flexible than the ST's system, although using standard GEM you wouldn't know it. We've now seen a number of programs which prove this by squeezing extended resolutions out of GEM without additional hardware. CENTEK's screen management software is one of the most simple and elegant yet, give it a try. Some modes are designed to be used with CENTurbo II, like the colourful 16-bit/pixel in 640x480, which requires a faster video clock. Unaccelerated Falcons can still benefit from 800x592/52Hz in up to 256 colours (don't sit so close to the screen, as a larger proportion of your more sensitive peripheral vision is exposed to the CRT and you'll notice the drop in refresh rate) and enormous virtual screens with smooth scrolling.

Rather than invisibly patching the system so the displayed settings actually map to something else or using some other convoluted method, a new front-end tells you exactly what's happening. There are two parts: an AUTO folder program, CENTScreen (CNTSCRN3.PRG) which calls up a new Video settings... dialog with a more sophisticated control panel (but you can still use the old one by holding down [Alternate]) and CENTVIDEL (CENTVID3.APP) lets you design custom resolutions and save the parameters to the VIDEO.DAT library on your boot partition. It's an absolute doddle to use.

** SQUASHIT.GIF **
Squash it! running in 800x592, a great improvement