World Of Sam - 16bit power at an 8bit price

SAM Revival issue 21 out now...

Wed, 07 May 2008 21:05:40 +0100

Story:

Issue 21 of SAM Revival magazine is now out from Quazar. (Click here for pricing and to order…)

SAM Revival is a printed magazine with an accompanying cover disk of software and aims to be packed full of SAM Coupé news, interesting features, articles and interviews, catering for everything SAM related. The first issue launched in August 2002, and the magazine is now read by SAM users in 17 countries.

Inside the issue you’ll find all the regulars covering all the latest news in the SAM Coupe world. Feature articles include an interview from Frode Tennebø where he interviews David Gommeren and Rob Mies of The Lords. Gavin Smith continues his look back at some of the top SAM games, looking in particular this issue at Arcade Classics.

Colin Piggot looks at using the MMC / SD Card slot on the Trinity Ethernet Interface. The first half of the article looks at accessing the flash cards with routines for detecting, reading and writing raw sectors. The second half goes through the patches made to B-DOS to allow it to use the Trinity for mass storage of files. Rounding the issue off is the Developer Diary where Thomas Harte explains how he is tackling his work on creating a solid 3D engine on the SAM.

B-DOS

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:54:47 +0100

Title image:

Publisher:

Public Domain

Author:

Edwin Blink and Martijn Groen

Release Year:
1998

Description:

B-DOS Is an improved SamDOS. B-DOS was mainly written to use with a harddisk (using the ATOM internal hard disk interface). However B-DOS can also be used without a hard disk but it only works with one diskdrive.

B-DOS features:

Faster verify (as fast as loading).

VERIFY AT sector command

Faster FORMAT (Formating a disk takes about 66 seconds).

Disks can be named with a 16 character name (file names not).

Date stamping (Both Dallas clock and SAMBUS clock).

Hard Disc Support:

BDOS works with ATOM IDE harddisk interface and supports harddisks up to 8 Gb.
To make using a hard disk as user friendly as possible. The harddisk works like a virtual second diskdrive. The storage capacity of a harddisk is devided into 800K blocks. Such a 800K block is called a record and has the same format as a floppydisk. (10 sectors per track, 80 tracks and 2 sides).

Hard Disc Booting

The Coupé can be booted from the ATOM by using a modified ROM3.0 called the HD Boot ROM

Instructions:

PDF for B-DOS17n by Wolfgang Haller

Trinity Ethernet Interface

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:50:54 +0100

Title image:

Publisher:

Colin Piggot / Quazar

Author:

Colin Piggot

Release Year:
2005-

Description:

Ethernet Interface, with built in 128K EEPROM for settings, and MMC/SD card slot for mass storage.

Current status: Released. Priced £69.99.

Instructions:

Mass Storage for SAM files using MMC and SD cards supported with B-DOS 1.5t

Sam Revival

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 20:48:44 +0100

Title image:

Publisher:

Colin Piggot / Quazar

Author:

Colin Piggot
+ other contributors

Artist:

Colin Piggot
+ other contributors

Description:

Paper & Disk based SAM Magazine. First issue launched in 2002, and still being produced.

Current issue: 21 (March/April 2008).

Issue 21 features:
* Coverdisk features Batz ‘N Balls, Tetris, Pac-Man, Soul Magician.
* Article/Source Code - Using the MMC/SD Card slot on the Trinity Ethernet Interface .
* Developer Diary - Start of a solid 3D engine.
* SAM Coupe News - news from around the SAM Coupe scene.
* SAM Games - classic arcade games for the SAM.
* Interview - David Gommeren and Rob Mies of The Lords.

More information: http://www.samcoupe.com/

Fred 17

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:01:55 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 17

Item Author Description

Menu Phantom Software

Magazine Back-issue summary, puzzle corner

Letters Prince of Persia, Flexipage

Yahtzee Dan Dooré Classic mouse dice game

Turtle + William McGugan Similar to LOGO language

Sector editor Vampire Edit the contents of sectors!

Directory manager Vampire Directory utility

Fred moves Calvin Allett Fred moves in mysterious ways…

MC pt 11 Steve Taylor Keyscanning; redefine keys routine

Axcellent Axe Progs by Axe

Memory game Joao Nuno Coelho Similar to Simon game

Cutesy demos Vampire, John Hancock, Andy Monk Several sickeningly cute demos

Megablast 2 Simon Cooke Updated sample tune from Fred 12 with graphics.

Credit scroll Howard Price Vertical scroller, credits style

Pipe palette Mark Walker Improve fonts’ appearances

Cosmic Demo Dan Dooré colourful patterns

Talking clock William McGugan Clock that, um, talks with the Voicebox

Smoker William McGugan Sam takes up the evil weed?!

Fred 16

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:01:29 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 16

Item Author Description

Menu Phantom Software

Magazine Interview with Mike Lamb, coder or Robocop

Letters Primary Maths Pack 1, The Key Press, Splat!

Sam base Phantom Software Impressive database program

Mystery The President Sam Fox sample

Wilde Demo The President Better than Kylie I suppose…

Spanish inq Simon Cooke Not what you’d expect!

MC pt 10 Steve Taylor Smooth sprite movement

Mogwai Robert Smith Animated Mogwai

Mouse progs Dan Dooré, Axe Programs for mouse owners

Mega fonts Axe Over 50 fonts to choose from

Lazers Banzai, Infoteq Maneouvre a line across the screen

Bouncer (512k) Andy Monk Bouncing screen effect

Scrolly Andy Monk Large vertical scroller

Tree Axe Fractal drawer

Circles Colin Pratt Ever-expanding circles

Quads Paul Finn Quadratic-equation solver

Fred 18

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:31:51 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 18

Item Author Description

Menu Simon Cooke

magazine f16 binned, details of samdisk update

letters editor of public; shortcomings of pd

draughts mc version of the classic board game

childish demo demo/ad for challengers pd

the axemen top-notch humour from axe

htba cp zeb green tries programming

mc pt 12 more graphics routines

databases 2 - yes 2! - databases to choose from

life anim the famous on/off cell thing

demon anim vaguely similar in concept to life

wireworld enter the scary world of electronics

gizmo demo adventures of the gremlins star

creator game list creator

yahtzee 2 additions to the game on #17

the blues a spot of music

fonts 2 large collection of fonts

daft demo you’ll like this one!

exclusive demo of batz n balls?

The Key Press

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:30:03 +0100

Publisher:

Revelation

Author:

David Philpot

Description:

Word Processor Concepts for the under 10’s

Colin Cameron

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:54:25 +0100

AKA:

Vampire

Biography:

Coder.

Fred 13

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:36:44 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 13

Item Author Description

Menu Steve Taylor

Magazine SC_assembler tips, The Key Press release, Triltex mooted, Info on samples

Letters Letters, plus a moan from Colin!

QL>Sam conv The President Convert QL software BASIC files to Sam

Gauntlet demo Simon Cooke Sampled music from Gauntlet arcade game

Encounters Axe Continuing Zeb Green’s adventures

Banzai demo Dan Dooré Demo/scroller from Banzai

MC pt 8 Steve Taylor Working with Interrupts

Gods demo Masters of Magic Sprite demo

Header reader Mark Walker Reads headers on cassette software

Database Infoteq Address-managing database

Simon Dan Dooré Famous memory-testing game

Capper Chris White, Colin MacDonald Lower case filenames -> upper case

Total key scan Chris White Improved mc keyscanning routine

Joystick reader William McGugan Reads joystick actions

Text coder William McGugan Encrypt text files

Un-blitzer William McGugan Returns a blitzed string to commands

Fade routine Simon Cooke MC screen fading routine

Expander Simon Cooke Screen enlarger

David Philpot

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:36:05 +0100

Biography:

Coder.

Wrote Primary Maths Pack 1 and The Key Press word processor concepts for children.

Primary Maths Pack 1

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 20:34:54 +0100

Publisher:

Revelation

Author:

David Philpot

Description:

Maths.

Fred 15

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:41:48 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 15

Item Author Description

Menu Phantom Software

Magazine Hexagonia announced, Comet assembler

Letters Pros/cons of disc/paper magazines

Sam fruit Darren Clarke Excellent fruit machine game

HTBA pop star Axe, Ged Corner, Wayne Watson Zeb Green enters the biz!

Popcorn! Mike AJ Tune made up of samples

Trip-a-tron 4 Axe Superb trippy effects - best t-a-t

MC pt 9 Steve Taylor Scanning/detecting mouse, music in MC

MC routines Axe Screen manipulating effects

Sam Word Phantom Software Impressive word processor

Hacker Axe Examine/rip memory

Fish demo Axe Animated fish

Circular scroll Steve Taylor, Paul Kelly Screen wrapper

Frog demo Axe Slightly surreal unicycling frog!

Dir handler Paul Smith Directory utility

Sam snake B and B First of many snake games…

MC pointy Colin MacDonald Example MC pointer routine

Fast scroll Mike AJ Ludicrously fast scroller!

Smooth scroll Howard Price Very smooth basic scroller

Fred 14

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:22:18 +0100

Title Image:

Description:

Issue 14

Item Author Description

Menu Simon Cooke

Magazine Life down at Samco, Manic Miner

Freviews Impatience, SC_filer v2, mega demo

Triltex demo Steve Taylor Demo of Fred’s 1st commercial title

Sim island? Johnathan Marsh Build your very own little island

Screen Cruncher David Gommeren The official Fred screen compressor

128k emulator Simon Cooke Don’t get your hopes up…

Fancy fonts Simon Cooke Use colourful fonts in progs

Sam point 2 Phantom Software Mouse-driven wimp routine

Small text Phantom Software Use small font for mode 4 text

Masterteq Infoteq Spectrum-emulating antics!

256k dance William McGugan Simon Cooke 256k version of dancing Fred from Fred 12

Letters Mark Walker Disable keywords in speccy emulators

MC printer Colin MacDonald Simple MC example for beginners

Garfield Mike AJ Animated garfield

Reporter Simon Cooke Gives technical sam status info

Rainbow trip Axe Colour-screen effects

Spacer Phantom Software Alters text appearance

Michael Andrews

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:20:17 +0100

AKA:

Mike AJ

Biography:

Responsible for many sample demo disks and E-Tracker tunes Released by himself under AJ Incorperates and Phoenix Software Systems.

Made his own modification to allow a Romantic Robot VideoFace, a ZX Spectrum digitizer to work on a SAM.

Item	Author	Description
Menu	Phantom Software
Magazine		Back-issue summary, puzzle corner
Letters		Prince of Persia, Flexipage
Yahtzee	Dan Dooré	Classic mouse dice game
Turtle +	William McGugan	Similar to LOGO language
Sector editor	Vampire	Edit the contents of sectors!
Directory manager	Vampire	Directory utility
Fred moves	Calvin Allett	Fred moves in mysterious ways…
MC pt 11	Steve Taylor	Keyscanning; redefine keys routine
Axcellent	Axe	Progs by Axe
Memory game	Joao Nuno Coelho	Similar to Simon game
Cutesy demos	Vampire, John Hancock, Andy Monk	Several sickeningly cute demos
Megablast 2	Simon Cooke	Updated sample tune from Fred 12 with graphics.
Credit scroll	Howard Price	Vertical scroller, credits style
Pipe palette	Mark Walker	Improve fonts’ appearances
Cosmic Demo	Dan Dooré	colourful patterns
Talking clock	William McGugan	Clock that, um, talks with the Voicebox
Smoker	William McGugan	Sam takes up the evil weed?!