Description
Issue 12
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Simon Cooke František Fuka | |
| Magazine | Piracy on Sam, Info on samples | |
| Freviews | Prince of Persia, Mouse Interface, Outwrite, Sam DICE | |
| Megablast | Simon Cooke | Sampled Bomb the Bass tune |
| Star Trek | Simon Cooke | Gfx and samples from the show |
| The vortex | Ian Slavin | Spiralling tunnel effect |
| Big sprite | Ian Slavin | Large running sprite |
| MC pt 7 | Steve Taylor | Search: “MC 7” Gfx routines, screen enlarge/reduce |
| Kind of magic | Masters of Magic | Scroller/demo |
| Warper | William McGugan | Screen manipulator |
| Sam jotter | William McGugan | Word processor |
| Sam pointer | William McGugan | Procs to produce a basic WIMP |
| Bar menu creator | Colin Jordan | Useful menu-creating system |
| Dancing fred | William McGugan | Spinning Fred (512k only) (256k version on Fred 14) |
| Scrolly | Richard Robinson | 3-layered parallax basic scroller |
| Game key | Chris White | MC keyscanning routine |
Magazine
The Editorial
Greetings to one and all and welcome to another issue sent
direct to you from Wales - the land of red dragons and geniuses!
Unfortunately, I am running out of programs to include in FRED
at this point so please,please send more stuff in. Having said
that, this month sees more great programs from Ian Slavin and a
relative newcomer proves his talent with the menu you've just
seen and a couple of great samples this issue. Simon Cooke has
promised there'll be more as soon as he gets the time so that is
definetely something to look forward to.
About last month - if you got one of the "faulty" issue 11A 's
please send it back and I'll replace it with a working version.
I'm pleased that no-one has yet moaned about the price-rise
but I'm sure someone will eventually....
You can send stuff to me at SAMCO, but please address it to
FRED and make sure it gets here during July otherwise I'll have
moved back up to Scotland and your letter may never see the
light of day.
If you have any suggestions for SAM software (conversions
included) please write or phone me at SAMCO.
News
F16 Combat Fighter (programmed by Keith Goodyer) should be
finished by the end of July - hopefully for release in
mid-August. The game could feature samples whilst playing for
those with extra memory. The game can be played in solid 3D
vector mode or just 3D colour wireframe mode (to increase speed
of play). The game does not need any joysticks (as mentioned in
SAMCO's newsletter) although one is recommended.
Chris White ( he of Prince Of Persia) is hoping to produce
Lemmings after he has finished with Prince but nothing has been
decided as yet - you'll just have to wait and see.
Sinclair User have seen the light! In one of the next issues,
they are including a FOUR PAGE supplement on "The Best Of SAM
Software" and a bit on the latest hardware eg the mouse! How do
I know what's going into it? Easy! I'm writing it!
Revelation have a new series of software planned
Unfortunately, I'm forbidden from revealing any details but I
can tell you that they'll certainly be classics.
BG Services have a coupe modem planned for September release
which will be based on the VTX5000. Price : £20-£30
Show Report
On the 22nd June at London's Horticultural Halls in Victoria
there was yet another All Formats Fair. As many of you will have
noticed, these fairs are occuring far too frequently for them to
become the success they used to be. This one should have been
well attended seeing as it was the last one for the Summer but
sadly this was not the case.
Only this time,it was not well attended by both the public and
exhibitors so the net effect was that I did not make a loss
(first time for months!), but for the public it can't have been
up to much.
Along with Bruce, I was on the SAMCO stand - showing off our
new mouse and Prince Of Persia demo. Both went down a treat.
Most of "The Welsh Brigade" also put in an appearance behind
the stands - Adrian Parker (Blue Alpha) and Paul Thomas (PBT)
were both busy talking the day away to all and sundrie ( They
even had the privilidge of talking to me !?!)
The Supplement crew had a stand as well, selling their latest
issue, number 9, as well as the One Meg Walker demo along with
Dave's numerous other creations.
Show Report ctd
He didn't turn up at the last two shows, but Steve Nutting was
there at this one - with his pre-release version of the all new
SC_Filer (99% m/c!!) as well as managing to sell his £400
printer for only £100!!!
FRED was also being sold there but not by me, by Brent Stevens
(in return for me selling the SCPDSA stuff a couple of weeks
back). He and Rebecca (his "assistant") were also selling other
PD stuff as well (for those who couldn't be bothered going) like
Enceladus, Turbo and Fastline. Brent had initially planned
to have a few blue and white balloons shaped into a disc sort of
shape but it so happened to be so(incredibly) hot that they kept
bursting every two minutes!
So who didn't appear? Quite a few people who are normally
there, didn't appear at this one. These include enigma, Garner
designs, SD Software, Format, GM_Software, BG Services,
Outlet... the list goes on and on (Ariston?). However I think we
should arrange that at only selected Shows, all exhibitors will
show up and everyone who might go to a show should go to that
one - what do you think?
Price Rise
Last month I announced the price rise of issues ( back issues as
well ) to £1.50. I didn't have time to give any reasons so here
they are : 1) In case you didn't notice, I have reviewed almost
every single product ever released on the coupe and nine times
out of ten I have to buy these (at full price) myself which
costs a few hundred quid in itself. 2) Partly due to the
disaster of the recent shows, I have been left deeply in debt
(with a bank manager going slightly mad at me!) and 3) everythin
has gone up in price recently due to the VAT increase - although
it's just a few pence, it makes one helluva difference on a tigh
a budget as I run.
So, there is absolutely no reason to moan because FRED is stil
the cheapest (pricewise) disc magazine about. Dan Doore recently
wrote to me with a note of support - "And what is this! Fred has
gone up to £1.50! who cares! It's still the best value for money
this side of a smack in the chops with a wet haddock." Thanks
Dan - now we know who the Your Sinclair reader is!!!!! Sorry YS.
Next month I should be able to bring you some decent
subscription offers, like buy ten and pay for thirty.
Mr Anon writes!
Dear Editor,
Although I have read FRED for many issues, this is actually the
first time I have put finger to keyboard and have decided to add
a little bit of input to this great mag. What is it that has got
me writing, do you ask? Well it is a very serious matter indeed
.... piracy!
I have recently seen a copy of the Enigma SAM Software Club
Newsletter, where they stated that they knew of the existence of
a team of pirates, operating in Birmingham, and they also stated
that if piracy carried on to the extent it has been, and they
continued losing as much as they believed they were - that they
would pull out of writing SAM Software altogether!!
If this isn't bad enough, I have recently heard, through a
pen-pal, of a large scale piracy operation, going on within an
established User's Group overseas! Although I have no details on
this matter, it seems that certain individuals are offering just
about every single game and utility, that has been released on
our beloved machine so far! Not to mention various Disk Mags,
etc.
Mr Anon Writes more
Now,it could be said by some people,that what software that is
available for the SAM, is far too over-priced. In some cases, I
would certainly agree. However, in comparison with all other
well-known machines there are much fewer Coupes about, so those
people who dish out the rights to licenses, or even those who
come up with original software, have got to cover their backs
with the price of the software. In some cases, it must be said,
that the games are not worth it. In other cases, the opposite is
true - however, no one is going to produce ANY software FULL
STOP if they think they are going to make a loss from it!
So,it's down to you.Do you want to see software for the SAM or
not? If so, and you know of any of these B******s (please dont
cut out the language Colin, I don't see why this SCUM should
warrent any manners!), then forget about any false morals about
"lagging" etc, after all these SCUM have none, so why should
you? Just give either Enigma, or SAMCo a call. They will
treat any information in confidence, and that they will do their
utmost to stop these MORONS from destroying the future of the
future of this wonderful computer!
Mr Anon continues
Another thing, if any FRED readers are put off buying any of
Enigma's SAM games, due to the price, then invest in joining
their software club. Not only do you get reasonable discounts on
software and hardware, a reasonable newsletter thingy, but the
dosh will hopefully go into developing more software! It will
also help them judge how many people are dedicated to buying
their software!
Ok, I've told you what I think about this- now tell Colin what
you think!
"The Terminator"
P.S. That may be a alias, but I would seriously like to apply
the methods of the original, to any pirates I find in action! I
doubt that any FREDster's are stupid enough to envolve
themselves in this kind of thing! Are we?
Thank you TT, I can't really add anything because that just
about sums up my feelings on the subject as well. - Ed
.
Letters - Michael Barker
I was glad to hear that there might be a 128k emulator in
the future, if this item comes to be we will be able to use more
of the recent software, but, what if software houses decide that
as we can use 128k programs,they think that we would not bother
with coupe specific software, then we will be as we are now,
ie,waiting and hoping for even a hint of software, I can't wait
for Prince Of Persia to be released, tho' it shold be out by the
time you read this (if this letter gets into FRED ) Has anybody
****************************************************************
listening!)outlet issue 46? Why pay £25 for the A***a version
when you get it free on a coupe disc magazine? Just as FRED
brought you Tetris, aren't we coupe owners a lucky lot?
I was surprised to see my last letter in issue 11 (fame at
last!) but I supose it was included to fill in a few bytes going
spare in a great double issue (nice one Colin) but no more
double issues if we have to wait 2 months between issues. Well
that's it for now (you mean there might be more?) so Bye Bye
Letters - Dave Ledbury
[redacted]
Dear Colin,
Due to thousands of commitments, with ZAT, this is my first
letter to FRED - so let me just get the obligitory creeping bits
out of the way first!
FRED is certainly one of the best disk magazines I have
ever seen! It is humorous, without being pathetic. It is
serious, without being heavy reading, and it is also extremely
original in content and presentation. It is definately worth the
patheticly small price that you charge!
Now, a little word or two...
A) There are many talented programmers, who read FRED, with
abilities ranging from normal to super-normal abilities. What I
would like to do is try to get a list of any talented MC
programmers, who would consider getting involved in any
Letters - Dave Ledbury
programming odds & sods. This is purely to find out WHO is
willing and able.
B) As of yet, no one has actually done a survey to find out what
people REALLY want for their Coupe! Okay, so many people love
games - but which ones, and if not - what do they like? What I
would like, is if anyone could take their time to answer a few
little questions, then I can pass on the information to some of
the many people involved on SAM development projects.
1) Do you play any games? If so, how frequently?
2) Which type/s of games (if any) do you preffer?
3) Which games do you own?
4) What titles, or game types, would you like to see?
5) What's your prefered price range?(A sensible figure please!)
6) Do you care about fancy packaging, or not?
7) Have you any strong views on this subject?
Letters - Dave Ledbury
8) Do you ever use any utilities? If so, how frequently?
9) Which type of utilities (etc) do you use?
10) What utilities (etc) would you like to see?
11) What is your prefered price range?
12) Any other views on this subject?
13) Do you own any hardware? If so, what? How often is it used?
14) What would you like to see developed?
15) What is your ideal price range?
16) Any other views?
17) Which fanzines do you read?
18) What areas of computing interest you the most?
19) What are your opinions on any fanzines, etc, that you read?
20) Do you think that an independant "Fanzine Federation" (as
opposed to "Team SAM") may help to improve existing mags?
21) How long have you had your Coupe? Is it your first computer?
Letters - Dave Ledbury
Okay, I know there are one or two questions here, but all the
answers could be useful, as they should provide useful info to
any party developing, or planning to develop SAM Software.
Little point Colin, I know you object to calling the Coupe,"SAM"
- personally, I think it is lot friendlier than some things,
that some of these morons in the press have said about this
wonderful little beastie. After all, no matter what the computer
is called, we know that it's bloomin' wonderful! Don't we?
Anyway, I'll shut up now, as I am sure that Colin has some
goodies for you to read now! Bye for now
David Ledbury - Deputy & Technical Editor - ZAT
Thanks David, I'm sure all the FRED readers would simply love
to write to you with their completed questionnaires, I myself
MIGHT even jot down a few notes for you to spend hours trying to
read my awful handwriting - Ed.
Letters - Dan Doore
Dear Colin,
If you want to get "Spinthing" to work, change the following
line in the "bits" menu :
60 if a=1 then MODE 4 : Load "Spinthing"
That should get it to work - the reason it goes funny like that
is because when it flips between screens, one is MODE 3 and the
other is MODE 4. But if you run it from the command line
everything is OK
Polyhedra does not work either. Omit any clear statements and
change : FOR R=1 TO 90
to : FOR R=1 TO 75
I hope this will be of help to you. Prince Of Persia was
mentioned in a previous FRED issue.
THANKS DAN, GUESS I MESSED UP REAL GOOD EH? P.O.P WAS ONLY
MENTIONED BY THE SHADOW - SAYING HE'D LIKE TO SEE IT !!!!
Twelve issues later, and there are still goodies to be got?
Yes, I guess I've been rather hard at it - collecting all this
marvellous software for a second or two. Anyway, less of my
pains - onto the juicy stuff.
Simon "cookie" Cook has sent in a couple of rather juicy
samples - one called MegaBlast and the other called Star Trek -
these are rather amazing so I'll leave you to see for yourself.
Please note, although all the contents of this disc have been
released onto Public Domain, they still remain copyright of FRED
and anyone found ignoring PD laws will be prosecuted - ie anyone
selling parts of this disc OR without my ( AND the author's )
permission.
Ian Slavin brings a very wierd Vortex scrolly thing to be
hypnotised or something at, as well as an example of the
animation that it's possible to achieve in BASIC in Big Sprite.
Steve Taylor brings us more on the much-conversed, but little
actually done subject of machine code.
Disc Goodies
As I know you all love the Masters Of Magic's stuff (!) they've
sent in another demo thing for you to have a gander at.
William McGugan has been busy this month - not only has he
sent a warper program which "warps" the screens in any way you
wish ( example in Screen$ ) but he has done another word
processor type thing (I'm getting one of these every two months
now! Not that I'm complaining though!) which you should find is
documented upon loading. He has also developed a pointer routine
(which I will try to convert to the mouse for FRED13) which is
pretty useful for your own routines.
Back comes the adverts section!!!!
In the bits 'n' Bobs, we have a wide selection of stuff,
ranging from Colin Jordan's menu creator to a BASIC parallax
scroller from Richard Robinson to a magnificent FRED demo (512K
only - sorry!) from William McGugan and a m/c keyscan routine
from Chris White (Prince Of Persia).
Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any "unlisted" freebies
that many of you have discovered on various FRED issues this
month! Or maybe just one!!!!!!
The End
Thanks to :
Simon Cooke Ian Slavin Si Hindle
Andy Jones Dave Ledbury E. Dybacz
Andy Moore Steve Taylor Chris White
Dan Doore William McGugan Colin Jordan
Richard Robinson All at SAMCO Only Joking!!!!
Goodbye, my friends, perhaps we shall meet again sometime in the
future, but then again, perhaps not. ie. see you next month!!!
Issue 13 (phew!) out the first Sunday (maybe) in August for the
measly sum of £1.50. Order now - or order later - I don't care.
Please continue reading for some great articles on various
subjects after this, that are far too speshialized for inclusion
before the Credits page. Happy reading.
SC SONICALLY SPEAKING.....
Right then... You've probably heard the XENON 2 demo on this,
and if you've looked on the disc catalogue (and simply divided
the file length by 1024), you'll find that a 50 second music
demo has taken up only (...wait for it...) 55K!!! Wow! Just
think - it beats the hell out of the Kim Wilde demo (more of
which later) in storage capacity alone (256k= <25secs). Anyway,
down to what this article is about. After hearing the Blink demo
on the SCPDSA disc - a disc where I first became acquainted with
FRED, in fact - I messed around with it a bit, niggled at the
fact that I had only 10 seconds of sample to listen to (I loaded
the 512K version into my 256K machine by rewriting its file
header). So, I looked at how Monsieur Blink had done it.
What Edwin had done was to use a full byte for each slice of
a sound wave. Lets explain this:
With a sampler, sounds are converted to numbers. Each of these
numbers is the position of the speaker (while sounds come from a
speaker, it wobbles rapidly). To replay a sample, you play these
numbers back 'raw' - i.e. without any frequencies added, just
the speaker wobbles - through the sampler or the sound chip,
SC SONICALLY SPEAKING (2).....
mimicking the original sound wave. Now for the tricky stuff.
The sampler (Blue Alpha's one,any Amiga samplers, and some ST
samplers) can fluctuate the speaker between 256 different
positions - so to hold a slice of the sample, a whole byte must
be used. Now think of this - most people won't have Samplers (or
be driving an Amiga sound chip with their Coupe for that
matter!), so they have to put the sound out through the internal
sound chip. The unfortunate thing about the sound chip is that
the digital to analogue conversions (numbers to wobbles) put
through it are limited to only 16 different speaker positions.
This has the effect of lowering the resolutions of the samples -
they sound more grainy and not as sharp as the 256 level ones.
But, like all clouds, this one has a silver lining. This simple
fact of less resolution means that twice as much sample can be
fitted into a byte than with sound meant to go out through the
sampler - if my Xenon sample hadn't been squished like this, it
would have taken up roughly 110K - a whopper of an amount. If my
Star Trek demo is on the disc, you'll see how little you can fit
in such a large space when it comes to samples - and these ARE
SC SONICALLY SPEAKING (3).....
crunched! Okay then hands up if you can guess why the Star Trek
demo takes up more space than the Xenon 2 demo, when the Xenon 2
demo is longer... Give up? Alright then, I'll tell you.
Listen to it closely (to tell you the truth, it's very easy
to spot) - if you want to go away and listen to it now, fine -
I'll still be here when you get back! What you should notice is
that some sections are repeated (as they are in the actual
record). This lets us cut down on even more space by just
storing the basic building blocks of the music in memory, and
telling our sample player to play sections of the sample at the
right time, letting us build up a large tune in little memory.
Right, then. We've had Resolution, Repetition, so for another
R, we'll go for Rate. Rate is the speed at which samples are
recorded and re-played - the higher the rate, the better quality
the sound (e.g. CD sound is recorded at about 40Khz, while most
computer samples are recorded at about 16Khz). Rate works in
much the same way as the resolution - a CD has only a 2 bit
resolution (admittedly this is an encoded signal), but it sounds
so clear it's unbelieveable. Until next issue then...
SH Si Hindle's WWF Wrestling Update
Okay, continuing from last month, here is a comprehensive list
of all the "Baddies" in the WWF together with the managers of
the WWF. Unfortunately, the glossary of wrestling moves has had
to be postponed till next month. Here we go...
STOP PRESS!!! MORE "Goodies"
'SUPERFLY' JIMMY SNUKA: Hailing from Fiji, this fighter uses
aerial moves as opposed to strength to defeat his opponents.
FINISHING MOVE: Superfly Splash.
'THE BIRDMAN' KOKO B.WARE: Quite a boring wrestler - like the
Superfly, but not as good. FINISHING MOVE: Ghost-Buster Suplex
Now then, back to the planned part of the article...
TUGBOAT/TYPHOON: When he was called Tugboat, this character was
the Hulkster's best friend. Then, in a battle royal (Loads of
wrestlers in the ring at one time and the only way to win is to
throw everyone else out over the top rope...) he started on
SH Si Hindle's WWF Wrestling Update
Hogan. Everyone thought that it was because the fight was every
man for himself, but I knew that something was going to happen.
At a recent fight when Tugboat and the Bushwackers teamed up
against the Nasty Boys and Earthquake, Tugboat started kicking
the c**p out of Luke and Butch, making them lose. Tugboat has
now renamed himself Typhoon and fights with Earthquake in a tag
team called the Natural Disasters.
FINISHING MOVE: as Tugboat it was a big splash of the second
turnbuckle but I've no idea what Typhoon (or the natural
disasters) move is.
MR.PERFECT: The current Intercontinental champion (but not for
long 'cos Davey Boy's gonna kick his bottom...) and a total
moron. FINISHING MOVE: Perfect-Plex.
HAKU: Person from Tonga who is dead boring. Doesn't seem to be
able to win a match. FINISHING MOVE: Not too sure, 'cos I've
never seen him win. I think it's a back kick.
SH Si Hindle's WWF Wrestling Update
BARBARIAN: Haku's tag team partner and a solo fighter. Same
coments as for Haku. FINISHING MOVE: Once again I've never
seen him win, butI think it's a Legdrop off the top turnbuckle.
IRS (Irwin R. Schyster): Newcomer to the WWF and is everybody's
friend - a Taxman. Currently having a go at Rowdy Roddy Piper.
FINISHING MOVE: Write-Off
EARTHQUAKE: The fattest b*****d in the WWF. Currently the
subject of much verbal (And physical, we hope) abuse from
Jake 'the Snake' Roberts after he squished Damian the Python.
FINISHING MOVE: Earthquake vertical splash.
THE UNDERTAKER: This 6'9" giant is having a bit of trouble with
the Ultimate Warrior at the moment. A ruthless fighter, and one
of my favourites.
FINISHING MOVE: Tombtone
Sorry, but that's it for this month. This has been written
just before the deadline so I've been cut short! goodbye !!!!!!!
AM ANDY M'S CLUB SCENE
Yo! It's the world's most happening, informative, egotistical,
(- that was from Cookie) Club Authority. In other words ME! Andy
M. Right, straight to business (as they say)...
ALBUMS:
COZMIC JAM by Quadrophonia
A superlative album from the people who brought you
QUADROPHONIA (NO...) and ANASTHASIA (Yup, T99 and
Quadrophonia are one and the same). It includes their new
brilliant single THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE as well as a remix of
QUADROPHONIA which is actually far better than the original.
Most of the other tracks are of a similar high standard,
although the raps over most of the tunes detract from, rather
than compliments the tunes themselves, and four of the
so-called-tracks are merely interludes. SCHIZOFRENIA is not a
house track, and shouldn't have been included - it's just a
piano piece. All in all, definitely recommended if you like
this style of music (which reminded me of a lot of 8O8 state,
in its style).
AM ANDY M'S CLUB SCENE (PART 2)
REACTIVATE by various.
The definitive collection of hardcore Belgian techno.
Although the only well known track is ANASTHASIA, the others
are extremely worthwhile, powerful, well composed, hard
techno classics. BUY IT.
DECODED AND DANCED UP RHYTHMS OF DECONSTRUCTION by various.
I've recently shoplifted this club compilation which is
obviously designed for a rather short rave. It begins with
mainstream club music (such as a remix of FANTASY by Black
Box) and evolves into hardcore club tracks (e.g. ANTHEM by
N-JOI) with some raunchy tracks (THE DANCE by Eden's
Paradise) to get you in a party mood, and finishes off with
the traditionally slow dance number (WAREHOUSE REQUIEM by
Guru Josh). I'll recommend it to anyone who's throwing a
party or who likes club music. One other track, and my
favourite alongside ANTHEM, is a hard techno track by
Liasions D, entitled FUTURE FJP. It's an audio drug, like
CUBIK by 8O8 State, in that one addictive theme is constantly
AM ANDY M'S CLUB SCENE (THE BASS GOES ON)
hammered into your brain. Like it.
AVOID THESE SO CALLED COLLECTIONS OF MUSIC!
HARDCORE DANCEFLOOR by various.
Although the name promises so much, many of the tracks are
commercial, Stock-Aikman-Waterman equivalents of rap/house/
club (yes, MC HAMMER, I'm talking to you!). There are a few
worthy tunes (GYPSY WOMAN(LA DA DEE), DEEP IN MY HEART) but
in general, this can only be classed as a teeny-boppy
compilation.
Vanilla Ice's latest album (whatever it's called).
This does for rap what Kylie did for Pop. Anyone over 12 seen
purchasing this album is one SAD person, and should commit
suicide or contact the Samaritans immediately. If you want to
hear what rap REALLY sounds like, buy these rapsters' albums:
MC Tunes, Silver Bullet, or Terminator X. Hardcore rappin'
over hardcore tunes with a hardcore drumbeat, about hardcore
topics. (Not endless, meaningless, talentless, brainless,
AM ANDY M'S CLUB SCENE (THE CLUBSTER CONTINUES)
senseless, pointless, tuneless, monotonous drivel).
SINGLES:
DOMINATOR by Human Resolve.
An aggressive, yet laid back rap delivery with one hell of a
powerful and addictive tune make this one of the best records
I've heard for months. Excuse me now while I listen to it
again before I suffer withdrawal symptoms.
.... later ....
Ahhhhhhh. That's better. Next...
SEVEN WAYS 2 LOVE by Cola Boy
WOWWW!From one bangin' tune to another. This is one of the
best records I've heard for months. Very addictive club music
which knocks the brilliant Gypsy Woman for six. Does for
club music what DOMINATOR did for Rap. Once again I feel
compelled to play this addictive tune again... Back in a mo'.
AM THE CLUBSTER'S CLUB SCENE (ANDY M Continues...)
.... Later (again) ....
Ahhhhhhh. That's better... On with the reviews.
A NIGHT IN MOTION by Cubic 22
Yeah, I'm reviewing it again (but this time with the correct
title). It deserves it. It's one of the best records I've
heard for months. Does for House what SEVEN WAYS 2 LOVE does
for Club, and what DOMINATOR does for Rap. Between the three
of these singles, you have the very elite, the creme de la
creme, the premiere, the pinnacle of musical taste. NIGHT IN
MOTION, admittedly isn't the most original of tunes, but it
sure as hell is the best. It's got an addictive, listen to
it forever quality to it too. (I'll be back).
..... Much, much later .....
Phew! That's better. Now where was I? Right, next review.
AM THE CLUBSTER'S REVENGE (More M)
CHILL TO THE PANIC by Deep C.
A lively rap with an expertly composed tune. Recommended.
THE WAVE OF THE FUTURE by Quadrophonia.
Great, great house track in the same style as Quadrophonia.
Powerful, fast and frantic track. I loved it, although the
rap is nothing special. (Mind you, Ice/Hammer can't even
touch this [!] ).
OG ORIGINAL GANSTER by Ice-T
A hard-as-hell rap track by the contraversial rapster.
Recommended if you're into hardcore rap, but I can't help but
think that this is old style and is slow and pretty dull.
On the B side is BITCHES 2, which is more interesting, but is
still depressing (!) and slow. I liked it, though! Rated
"Good", since this is after all real, genuine, 100% hardcore
rap, but not in the league of more exciting rapsters like
Human Resolve. That's enough singles, I think. On to a new
section: Club Classics
AM THE CLUBSTER'S CLASSICS (Golden Oldies)
MENTAL by The Manic MC's
About 3 years old this one, although you wouldn't think it to
listen to it. Refreshingly different from all the latest
techno/house anthems, it's a very lively, upbeat tune, with a
great drumbeat. Brilliantly composed. Seek this one out.
PUSH IT by Salt 'n' Pepa
This will go down in history as the rap that gained female
rapsters their well deserved acceptance. Even though it's as
old as the hills, it can still compete with today's best. For
this reason, I recommend that you buy A BLITZ OF SALT 'N'
PEPA HITS, an album which includes all their best raps, old
and new, including PUSH IT, SHOWSTOPPA, and DO YOU WANT ME.
PACIFIC STATE by 8O8 State
Their debut single, this was different and innovative enough
for them to gain automatic recognition. Still sounds as good
today as ever.
AM THE CLUBSTER'S CLASSICS (Golden Oldies)
20 SECONDS TO COMPLY by Silver Bullet
Silver Bullet's violent, aggressive, psychopathic, manic
style put him on the rap map immediately. Since, he's gone on
to produce many more similarly fast 'n' furious raps (most
remarkably UNDERCOVER ANARCHIST which recently got in the
charts) and has now released an album which I recommend with
all my heart.
HUMANOID by Stakker Humanoid
A sort of house version of Jean-Michel-Jarre, it can only be
described as pure genius. If you can still find it, go and
get it! (The Snowman Mix is available on DEEP HEAT '89)
MEGAMIX by Fast Eddie
Fast rap which epitomises the rap style of the time, it is
still a worthy track today.
... I've been forced to mention (by Cookie) MEGABLAST by Bomb
The Bass, which is admittedly pretty good. Not what I'd rate as
AM THE CLUBSTER CONTINUES
a classic, though. Whilst we're on the subject, Bomb The Bass
are about to release a new album entitled UNKNOWN TERRITORY.
They've drastically changed their style - expect more in the
LOVE SO TRUE vein this time around, which although is not
a house track - it's mainstream club music - is at least modern
in style.
RECOMMENDED RADIO LISTENING:
Sunday: 7-8pm Key 103: "Bus' Dis" with Stu Allan (Rap)
9-10pm Key 103: "House Hour" with Stu Allan (House)
Thursday:(Evenings) Radio One: Pete Tong (All Club music)
Friday: 7:30-10pm Radio 1:"The Essential Selection" with
Pete Tong (All Club Music)
Saturday:8-9pm "The Bacardi Beat Dance Chart" with Stu Allan
(Dance Music)
9-12mnt "Don't Touch That Dial" with Stu Allan
(All Club Music)
(Both Saturday's are on Picadilly Key 103FM)
Until next time...
.
Reviews
A CITIZEN SWIFT 24 By Malcolm Phillips
(colour) printer review. GM-Software (A member of TEAM SAM)
Introduction.
Not so long ago with regard to dot matrix printers, high quality
meant high prices. Not any more thanks to printers such as the
Citizen Swift 24. For almost what you then paid for a 9 pin
printer that managed draft/nlq you are now able to purchase a 24
pin machine that will print in a variety of styles and at
different speeds. For a little extra (it's always the same,
isn't it) you can add colour, too. These printers have two
vertical columns of 12 pin heads as opposed to a single column
of 9 pins. Both single sheet and tractor fed paper is
acceptable, with the nowadays almost obligatory paper parking
facility. This I find really wonderful after my old printer
(Citzen LSP 100), and all from a single keypress too!
Macros
The printer is equipped with memory not only for the incoming
data, but for storing different configerations as "macros" (of
which there are four). A macro is, in this context, a
Citizen Swift 24
combination of printer set up commands. It is possible to
"program" each macro with the printer's emulation, style
(font,pitch,colour etc.), print mode (speed, text or graphics),
and page layout (line spacing, form length, perf' skip and
margins). All this is done from the front panel switches of
which there are six. Above the switches is a LCD panel that
keeps you in touch with what's going on, and how. The macros
once set up, are retained in the printer's memory even after
power off. You decide which will be the default macro on power
up. Changing between macros is easy, again from the front panel.
The advantages speak for themselves- whatever your requirements
are- you are able to quickly go from one set up to another at
the press of a button. If you can't remember exactly how you set
up one, or all the macros, don't panic. Merely print them out!
Again, another handy feature that saves you physically going
through each macro's setting as viewed on the LCD panel/screen.
Citizen Swift 24
Colour
I won't bore you with the necessary details of fitting the kit,
because it only takes about five seconds. You are then ready to
experiment with the range of colours available (which can be
quite extensive due to multiple ribbon passes in various
permutations).I use the colour screen dump available from PBT
Electronics and some of the shades are quite remarkable. As a
matter of fact, it is supplied free if you purchase a colour
printer from them. I did, and have not been dissapointed both
with the printer and the service they offer. If you remove the
colour ribbon and replace with a black only ribbon, the printer
recognises this without you having to "tell" it from the front
panel.
Extras
Colour kit apart, there are font cards available which merely
plug into a port and immediately provide you with, yes you've
guessed, a different font. Increase the resident 8K buffer to
40K by purchasing the 32K memory chip and free your computer
when printing those really long files. Into mail merge? Then the
Citizen Swift 24
sheet feeder is a must for you. Both semi and fully automatic
are available, of which I obtained the latter. And very good it
is too. I am able to change from continuous tractor fed paper to
(automatic) single sheet printing at the press of a button!
Price
The best (lowest) I found at the time of buying (£296) was with
PBT Electronics, although a phone call is advisable as I find
printer prices fluctuate more than almost any other computer
related hardware, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn it had
dropped even lower.
Specifications (just the ones that count)
Straight out of the manual- so you can knock off around 10 cps
as they always overestimate (i.e. lie).
Print Speeds Emulation
Draft 160 cps Epson LQ
NLQ 53 IBM Proprinter
NEC
Citizen Swift 24
Fonts (resident) Font (IC card)
Courier (Draft) Scriptum (NLQ)
Times Roman (NLQ)
Helvetica (NLQ)
Courier (NLQ)
Prestige Elite (NLQ)
Conclusion
First, the price was right (for me, anyway), and secondly the
makers offer a two year warranty- not to be scoffed at. I
compared the output against other 24 pin printers in the same
price range, and quite honestly couldn't tell the difference, so
my mind was made up.
PBT were kind enough to lend me a SWIFT 9, when I was trying to
make up my mind as to which printer I needed, so you could say
that coloured (ooh!) my judgement, but I don't think so.
Recommended
SAN MOUSE - SAMCO , £39.99 Andy J.
Well , what do you get for your money?
First there's the mouse,of course,then there's an interface to
plug into the mouse port on the back of the Coupe,and then you
get the discs containing a revised Flash etc.
Well the mouse is a large two buttoned mouse by Contriver with
a small switch on the side set for the Atari.Included with the
mouse is a mouse house.This I thought was a nice little touch.
The mouse has miles and miles of lead (tail!) before it is
contected to the interface.
The interface is in the usual little white box.This I thought
was a little large if all it's got to do is convert an 8 pin DIN
plug to a 9 pin D-plug.
On the accompanying disc there are three pieces of software...
First there is a modified version of Flash,next there is the
mouse driver and lastly there is a little game to keep you happy
for a while.
Well how good does it work? Well the mouse is very very
fast,miles faster than Blue Alpha's mouse and I also think that
it's faster than some mice that I've seen on the Amiga and some
SAM MOUSE - SAMCO , £39.99 Andy J.
PCs.The modified version of Flash works fairly well apart from
the fact that if you use it to fast not a complete line is drawn
only the start and finish.Also the buttons can be two sensitive
because I can't get VIEW to work,the picture comes up and then
it flashs back to the main menu in the blink of an eye.
The game is called Slidy and was rewritten to use the mouse by
Colin (I like the little FRED in the top right hand corner).It's
quite a good little game that will keep you amused on a rainy
day.
Overall I think this mouse is the best apart from the size of
the interface and the small problems with Flash,but as this will
be updated sometime in the future these little problems should
be cured easily.If all the software we're promised comes out
then us SAM owners are in for a treat.
THIS WAS A TOTALLY UNBIASED (AND EVEN UN-PROMPTED!) REVIEW OF
THE SAMCO MOUSE. THE TEXT WHICH HAS BEEN EDITED OUT WAS NOT
RELEVANT TO THE REVIEW (IT'S NOT A CRITICISM ANDY!) SO I CANNOT
BE ACCUSED OF BIASED EDITING! PHONE BLUE ALPHA IF YOU DON'T
BELIEVE ME! CM
DL OutWrite - Chezron Software , £17.00
How many people, after buying their Coupe's, went out and
brought "Tasword 2" - thinking that a SAM version would be a
good investment? Then discovering that it was rather,erm ...
c**p! I think the problem is, that since many SAM owners are
Spectrum upgraders, many of us have taken our favourite Spectrum
Word Pro (ie, Tasword), and have stuck with it. Unfortunately,
although Tasword was good on the Spectrum, particularly the +3,
the SAM version was another matter.
However, Chezron (publishers of OUTLET - hence the name!) have
released this new word pro.
What's it like?
Well, It has most of the features that "good ol'" Tasword has
(and any other self respecting word pro, for that matter) such
as 64 column text (but this is in mode 3, at last!) word
wrapping, justification, block facilities, jump to top and
bottom of text, page stepping, tabbing facilities, printer
graphic controls, plus much more!
DL OutWrite - Chezron Software , £17.00
Except, it has been written especially for the SAM, and thus is
much more responsive than any other program available, and is a
darn sight more faster with it!
It also has useful options of changing the on-screen font (I
can't test if it prints out in this font, as my printer is
waiting for a print head!), which can make things more
eye-catching. A few excellant fonts are supplied, and the
hand-written font is especially great! Included is a utility to
convert standard fonts, into the special format needed for the
screen fonts.
It also features,a "screen save" facility, which allows you to
use the program, to design text screens. (although this does
wipe off one of the HELP menus!) It has a simple and fast help
menu (press INV), which lists the key presses needed. The
command mode itself is simple - press EDIT, and a second key, to
call the needed function. The program can also store a whopping
45k of text! Not bad, when compared to Tasword's 32k! (And, when
I have used PROTEXT on the ST, that has resort to storing most
of the document on disk, once you have passed the 32k mark!
DL OutWrite - Chezron Software - £17.00
You can also merge in files, to a particular point in the
document (although you have to insert enough blank lines first!,
which is a rather odd lapse!)
OutWrite has most things that a decent word pro should have.
All it needs is a left and right margin, user definable tabs, a
good "search and replace", and a little DOS interaction, then it
would be beyond any complaints! Perhaps a Mail-Merge, and
Spell-Checker would be a useful addition? Or am I asking for
miracles?
I really recommend this one, especially as OUTLET should be
supporting it through their mag, although I suggest trying to
pick it up cheaper at one of the "All Format" Shows!
I personally think that this one should be treated as the
"official" SAM Word Processor, at least until CP/M arrives, so
we can use WordStar!! Particularly as, although it may not be
the world's greatest "word pro", it is certainly the best one
available for the Coupe!
Overall Rating - 83% .
SC SAMCO Mouse - SAMCO (!) , £39.99
Now, due to Colin's change of location (namely to SAMCO), he's
asked me (cookie!) to write a review of the mouse because all
you lot out there might think because he works at SAMCO, he'd be
biased. So here goes.
What you get for your money is a lovely jiffy bag, within
which you will find a Contriver "Two-in-One" mouse (with mouse
holder to stick to your TV or monitor), a Mouse Interface (which
is a bit bigger than a 3.5" disc)9, your guarantee card and a
disc with some mouse software on it. Firstly, though, the bad
news. All of you who were waiting patiently for a 3-button mouse
will have to make do with a 2-button one. The good news is that
I have no idea what use a third button would be anyway, so that
makes up for the lack of one. (good logic eh ? - Ed)
The mouse itself that you get in the package is very good
quality (Si Hindle claims that it isn't as good as a Naksha
mouse, but I don't believe him). It looks good (white with a
green logo), and fits in with the rest of the coupe stuff quite
well (apart from the green bit). The mouse may look good, but it
feels even better. It fits into the curve of your palm, and the
SC SAMCO Mouse - SAMCO , £39.99
shape lets you rest your hand on it, with your wrist on the desk
(or whatever). Now that we've gone over the aesthetics, how does
it respond? The answer is excellently. The response from this
mouse is very quick, and gives smooth results (I'm going from
the Mouse Driver program on the Mouse Software disc for this.)
The hardware taken care of, lets look at the software. In the
package, so that you can mess about with the mouse before
people start to write software for it, are three programs. One
is a Slidy puzzle game, one is a mouse version of Flash! (the
one on the system disc won't work), and the other is a Basic
Moue Driver - a simple program to demonstrate how to use the
moue in your own programs.
The version of Flash! I got in my package was a pre-release
version - I'll still tell you about it, but hope that someone
rewrites it before it is released. Remember - Flash! may be all
sorted out before it gets to you.
I had a few try outs with Flash! and was none too impressed.
The results from the Basic Mouse Driver program are better - and
SC SAMCO Mouse - SAMCO , £39.99
Flash! is written in machine code! I don't know about you, but I
don't think it bodes well when a Basic program does a job
better than an M/Code one! Using the Pencil on Flash! gives a
series of straight lines with some gaps in which follow the
pointer. Ugh! Ok, I've given up on Flash!, how about the rest?
The Slidy program had to be the highlight of the software I
got in my package - it's great fun (albeir silent, with a
pointer that flickers a lot). I can only get to Level 8 (out of
ten), but this game is pretty good, and shows how you could use
the mouse in your programs - the original used keys.
Ratings :
Response : 10/10 Aesthetics : 8/10
Software : 6/10 Overall : 9/10
The mouse is great - I'd recommend it to anyone - but it is
seriously hampered as a drawing tool by the version of Flash
which is included.
Prince Of Persia - Revelation , £14.99
Unfortunately, I have been forced to review this because it
has not been released yet, so I am "forbidden" from sending out
a review copy to anyone. However I'll do my best to keep it
unbiased - considering it's got me bored stiff playtesting it!!
The King of Persia has gone away for a dirty weekend, and in
his absence, Jaffar, the wicked Sultan has taken over. Old
Jaffar also happens to have captured the King's daughter ( the
Princess of Persia ?!) and tries to have his wicked way. But the
Princess is loyal to her lover and denies Jaffar - who then
gives her a whole hour to think about it, after which she will
be forced to marry him.
Nice plot eh? In case you were wondering where you come into
this typical scenario,you happen to be in love with the Princess
and are completely set on rescueing her (actually, you want to
become the Prince and then knock of the King so you can take the
throne!). Being the miserable old sod he is, Jaffar has shut you
in his dungeons - which happen to be littered with tremendous
drops, lethal spikes, energy, poison, gates, falling platforms,
dozens of Jaffar personal guards and even mice!!!!!
Prince Of Persia - Revelation , £14.99
Controlling the Prince is a pure delight, he is superbly
animated - all 140 frames were taken directly from the PC
version, the Amiga and ST versions only used HALF THAT NUMBER OF
FRAMES! So now you can show up your 16-bit owning friends! You
have to open portcullises by stepping on triggers and then
dashing through them before they close. You have to be as
nimbler as a mouse on a razor edge on some of the later levels,
when you climb up to six screens upwards and have to jump huge
gaps and then stop yourself before you go skidding over the
other edge of the platform.
You lose energy by falling more than the height of yourself,
so the bottles of energy are crucial to the game. The highlight
of the whole game on other versions has to be the swordfighting
- you have to swordfight each opponent to the death before you
can pass him. And we ain't talking a few seconds of fighting, we
is talking like fully fledged sword whacking, blocking,
thrusting, skewering etc all with neat little sound FX
(brother!!) In fact, the whole game is very nice from a sonic
point of view - the title screen music (that many of you may
Prince Of Persia - Revelation , £14.99
have heard on the hotline) is really good, and there are also
little ditties whenever you drink a potion, collect your sword,
come near an enemy, kill an enemy or complete one of the 13
levels.
In between some of the levels, there are "movie scenes", these
entail the ongoing story of Jaffar and the fair Princess - and
very nice they are too.
I'll admit it, the graphics are perfect, the gameplay is
superb, the whole thing is so much like the original I could
cry! This version is very easily mistakable for any of the
16-bit versions. But why should you believe me? Crash gave it
96% - that makes it one of their top ten best ever games!!!
You don't have to take my word for it - you could wait until
everyone else gets their paws on a copy and SAMCO are flooded
with orders, but I'll leave that entirely up to you. If you
don't buy it, what I should have for you next month will make
you buy it!!!!!
Overall : 93%
Next Month - FRED 13
As I'm running late with this issue, I can't really forecast
what I'm going to have next month.
But I will try my measely little best. I will hopefully have
a few goodies up for review, like Keypress, F16 Combat Pilot,
SAMDISC, the new improved SC_Filer (99% M/C!) and possibly some
of these games I can't tell you about - I'll even try for some
screenshots since we havn't had any for months!
Simon Cooke has done a brilliant new Freview system, and is
working on a new menu thing with all fancy bits and bobs -
getting very technical here you see!
Interviews with Adrian Parker, Chris White and Sean Conran may
appear - ie I've got them all it's just a case of typing them
in!! PS they are Blue Alpha, Prince Of Persia and the music man
respectively.
Possibly a Trip-a-tron 5 and one or two goodies from AXE, as
well as all the usual bitties that I can't (for the life of me)
remember. Oh well. See you later. CM
SAMDICE - Kobrahsoft , £12.99
Based on the version for the +3, this is the superlative disc
user's companion. You can do almost anything to a disc with this
- it can "intelligently" unerase, let you alter anything on the
disc in the easiest possible way and a host of other features.
What I think is that this is yet another utility that is handy
but is not actually needed - you could do most of it from BASIC
with a little knowledge. Although SAMDICE tends to take disc
care and editing further than the likes of Disc Doctor.
The whole thing is driven from a series of menus with tons of
information - like when you edit sectors, it dissasembles the
code automatically for you.
If you don't already have a Disc Doctor and you do more than jus
play games then I would recommend this.
Kobrahsoft ,
[redacted]
Previews / Stop Press
Ummm Sorry I lied.
If anyone has any COMPLETELY BERRRRILIANT software that you
think would be worthy of me publishing then please get in touch.
If you don't know of any, then you should!
Did you know that, unlike Scotland, after 2 in the morning (even
on a Friday night) Swansea is dead!!!! It's shameful - at least
in Dundee after the pubs shut, there are still plenty of clubs
open - but not in Wales!!!!
Remember those games I told you about - one of them happens to
be Splat! by Incentive and is programmed by Colin Jordan. So far
he's programmed the editor and done the graphics but MAYBE by
next month I'll get a couple of piccies from him as well!!
Machine Code Tutorial #7
Greetings one and all, for the seventh time in as many articles.
Unfortunately, I can't think of any witty openings, so let's
just get straight down to business, shall we?
This month I've decided to demonstrate some graphic routines
which look pretty complicated, but after some careful thought
are really not too bad at all.
Number One.. The Scrolly Cylinder Type Thing
============================================
This is a prime example of something which we see all the time
on fancy computers, but we could never imagine an 8-bit machine
like the coupe to manage. Unless we cheat, that is.
Basically this routine takes a mode 4 screen and wraps it around
a 64 line cylinder to create a 3D effect. With a little more
effort it can be animated to produce a very nice effect indeed.
Firstly, we have to work out how we'll go about solving the
problem, and this is my solution. The routine will only alter
the graphics vertically, so we can forget about any effect on
the piccy horizontally by the curve of the cylinder. To create a
curved image, therefore, we have to be sneaky.
There is a table of offsets at the end of the program and this
is used in the following way...
1> The first line of the piccy is copied onto the screen.
2> Instead of just moving onto the next line of data, we jump
the number of lines specified in the offset table.
3> We move onto the next line of screen and repeat the process
for all 64 lines.
The routine manages to distort the image in such a way that it
looks round on the screen. Now, the proggie..
ORG #E000 ; In the space after a screen in HMPR
SCROLLY DI
LD (SPSTORE),SP
LD SP,STKSPACE
IN A,(LMPR)
EX AF,AF' ; See below
LD A,%00101011 ; Page 11 with no ROM
OUT (LMPR),A
LD HL,(SCROLLPOS)
LD DE,#8000 ; Top of screen - you could change
; this to another area.
LD IX,OFFSETS
LD B,32 ; No. of lines in top half
SC1 PUSH BC
LD C,(IX+0)
LD B,(IX+1)
INC IX
INC IX
ADD HL,BC ; Add on the offset
CALL WRAPROUND
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC E
INC E
INC E
INC E
LD BC,120 ; LDIR is a block instruction that
LDIR ; copies BC bytes from HL to DE.
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC HL
INC E
INC E
INC E
INC DE
POP BC
DJNZ SC1
LD B,32 ; No. of lines in lower half
SC2 PUSH BC
CALL WRAPROUND
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC E
INC E
INC E
INC E
LD BC,120
LDIR
INC L
INC L
INC L
INC HL
INC E
INC E
INC E
INC DE
DEC IX
DEC IX
LD C,(IX+0)
LD B,(IX+1)
ADD HL,BC
POP BC
DJNZ SC2
LD HL,(SCROLLPOS) ; This bit adds 1 line to the
LD DE,128 ; start of the graphic data,
ADD HL,DE ; to give an impression of
CALL WRAPROUND ; rotation.
LD (SCROLLPOS),HL
EX AF,AF'
OUT (LMPR),A
LD SP,(SPSTORE)
EI
RET
WRAPROUND LD A,H ; This subroutine alters HL
CP 96 ; if it goes over the end of
RET C ; the graphic data, so that
SUB 96 ; it 'wraps wround'.
LD H,A
RET
SPSTORE DW 0
DS 14
STKSPACE DW 0
OFFSETS DW 384,384,256,256,256,128,256,128,128
DW 128,0,128,0,0,128,0
DW 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
SCROLLPOS DW 0
A couple of points - all the sections with lots of INC L's and
INC E's are to avoid copying 4 bytes (8 pixels) at either edge
of the screen. If the background of the piccy is left black (or
another colour), and in these 16 pixels the egdes of a roller
are drawn, the whole effect is much better.
LDIR is a block instruction that copies BC bytes from HL to DE,
and moves both HL and DE on that amount of bytes. BC becomes
zero.
I don't think I've mentioned it in any previous issue, but aside
from the regular registers, there is an alternative set. Only
one set can be used at any one time, and the commands for
switching between them are:-
EX AF,AF' - Switches just for A and F, used above to
store the original accumulator value.
EXX - Switches for all the rest.
If you reckon the final effect isn't just right, you could
change the values in the offset table. Each entry must be a
multiple of 128. Also, you can change the size of the roller.
There are two LD B,32 instructions - one for each half of the
roller. If you do change this, make sure there are enough
entries in the offset table (half the total number of lines)
Number Two.. The Expansion and Compression Routines
===================================================
I remember seeing a BASIC expansion routine in FRED a while ago.
That was pretty slow (in fact, VERY slow!) due to the fact it
was written in BASIC. Here is a routine to take a window 128
pixels long and 96 pixels down, and to expand it to fill the
entire screen.
ORG #4000 ; In system heap, like last month
EXPAND DI
IN A,(VMPR)
AND 31
OUT (HMPR),A
LD HL,(SEED) ; System var set by RANDOMIZE
LD DE,#E000
LD A,96
EX1 LD BC,64 ; Firstly, copy the window into
LDIR ; the 8k workspace after the
LD BC,128-64 ; screen
ADD HL,BC
DEC A
JR NZ,EX1
;
LD HL,#8000
LD DE,#E000
LD C,96
EX2 LD B,64
EX3 LD A,(DE) ; Get byte
AND %11110000 ; Isolate 1st nibble
LD (HL),A ; Store it
RLCA ; Rotate into other nibble
RLCA
RLCA
RLCA
OR (HL) ; Merge together
LD (HL),A ; And plant on screen
SET 7,L ; Move onto next line
LD (HL),A ; And store it there too.
RES 7,L ; Move back
INC L ; And on one byte
LD A,(DE)
AND %00001111 ; Repeat the whole process for the
LD (HL),A ; other nibble.
RLCA
RLCA
RLCA
RLCA
OR (HL)
LD (HL),A
INC L
INC DE
DJNZ EX3 ; Repeat this for the whole line
INC H ; Move down two lines on screen.
DEC C
JR NZ,EX2 ; And go round another 95 times
EI
RET
SEED EQU #5C76
This is pretty simple - copy the window into a workspace, then
take each pixel in turn and plot it into the four pixels onto
the new screen.
Right, now the squash routine. It does exactly the same, but
in reverse.
ORG #4000
SQUASH DI
IN A,(VMPR) ; Put screen in HMPR
AND 31
OUT (HMPR),A
LD HL,#8000
LD DE,#E000
LD C,96 ; 96 lines in squashed version,
SQ1 LD B,64 ; each 64 bytes wide.
SQ2 LD A,(HL) ; Get 1st nibble of 1st byte, and
INC L ; second nibble of next byte.
XOR (HL) ; Merge then together - see below.
AND %11110000 ; And store (in temporary
XOR (HL) ; workspace)
LD (DE),A
INC DE
DJNZ SQ2
POP HL
INC H ; Move on two lines; ie. miss one
RES 7,L ; out to compress.
DEC C
JR NZ,SQ1
;
COPY LD DE,#8000 ; Screen address to copy to.
LD HL,#E000
LD A,96
C1 LD BC,64 ; Copy from workspace.
LDIR
EX DE,HL ; These lines blank outthe rest of
LD B,64 ; the line - can be omitted.
C2 LD (HL),C ; .
INC HL ; .
DJNZ C2 ; .
EX DE,HL ; .
DEC A
JR NZ,C1
EX DE,HL ; And these blank out the rest of
LD DE,#B001 ; the screen. Again, they might
LD (HL),0 ; be unwanted.
LD BC,#2FFF ; .
LDIR ; .
EI
RET
A couple of points again - if you want to copy to a different
bit of the screen, omit the lines for blanking bits out, or
you'll get awfully confused. There is a handy little bit of code
above called a BIT MERGE - the lines XOR (HL); AND %11110000;
XOR (HL)
These three steps are useful when we want to copy some bits of
one register over only some of the bits of another. Eg. if we
had a screen address in HL and wanted to add on only the second
bit of the accumulator, we'd go:
XOR (HL)
AND %11110000 ; Show the bits of (HL) to preserve
XOR (HL)
Well, that's yer lot again for this month. See you next month
with more of the same. So it's goodbye for him, and it's goodbye
from me. Goodbye!
[END]
