Fred 24

Issue 24a

Issue 24b

Magazine (Disc A)

                           Editorial

THIS time it really has been an eventful month. Sadly not many
good events though. Firstly, I must apologize for the lateness
of this issue - although this issue seemed to be the last thing
on your minds after I send out those letters to FRED readers
telling of SAMCo's sad demise.

Many of you have been phoning round companies looking for the
"real" story. Obviously, there are a lot of details that there
is no point telling you when they have a chance of hurting
someone so I'll tell you what I feel appropriate.

In late May I went down to Swansea again to work for SAMCo,
nothing had changed really except that Alan and the staff were
over the moon about a foreign investment deal they were
expecting to come through any day. Things had been tight, sure,
but for every company in the UK, things are very tight. The
weeks went on, the deal always looming over our heads yet it
never quite seemed within reach.

                           Editorial

The orders had dropped off drastically for three main reasons :

1) It was the height of Summer and sales are never good. In fact
almost 75% of most companies trade is done in the last quarter
leading up to Christmas.


2) The demos on the Newsdisk gave far too much away, meaning
people played the demos and games and found that their time was
already preoccupied with all the Newsdisk programs - without
buying commercial software.


3) Many people had outstanding orders with SAMCo, naturally,
these people would not order any more goods until their original
order had been completed. In many cases, SAMCo could not supply
the goods because the money to buy them was owed by various
debtors - shops and dealers of various kinds.

                           Editorial

There came a point when too many of the creditors, bearing in
mind these included MGTs creditors as well, were threatening and
even carrying out legal action again SAMCo. Although the Arabian
deal was still looking very possible, Alan knew he was simply
buying time - it had to go all the way, one way or the other.
Either SAMCo disapeared - or the deal went through and SAMCo
would become a HUGE company. By HUGE we are talking guaranteed
six figure SAMs sold. And that's not including the knock-on
effect of having a successful computer...

So Monday was the date. Monday evening came, the latest wages
hadn't been paid and we stopped answering the phones - answering
two hundred calls a day was no-one's idea of fun. Tuesday came
and went with no further progress. Come Wednesday, Alan gave it
a noon deadline. The deal didn't go through, Alan went down to
the liquidators, came back and closed the lines with the message
"We're sorry to tell you that we havn't been able to make it.
The company is now in receivership....."

                           Editorial

In actual fact the company wasn't in receivership - it was in
liquidation. The essential difference is that receivership puts
the company on ice - as many of the companies "assets" are sold
- even the company if possible. With liquidation, the company is
dead.

For over a week afterwards, some of SAMCo's employees still came
in and helped Alan out wherever possible but most of the work
had to be done by him.

Lists were made of all creditors and each one was sent a letter
explaining the situation and telling of a "creditors meeting" on
Wednesday 28th July. Although I was back in Scotland by that
point, apparently nothing much happened.

Although, you've all been bombarded with the liquidators address
time and time again, here it is once more :


                           Editorial

[redacted]



And that's about it. The story, told for the first time by
someone who was working there at the time.

Many of you are concerned about Alan. He's bearing up and
putting on a brave face. But it's a lot to happen to one man,
and I think you all know, however much you have criticised SAMCo
in the past, that he has put his whole life into this machine
that you've all had so much fun out of. Any cards/postcards you
send to me will be passed onto him. Just a simple "Thanks - hope
it works out OK" or whatever would be best.


                           What Now?

Good question. You may have heard that Bob Brenchley of Format
and INDUG has been putting together a rescue package along with
West Coast Computers. At the moment he's in discussion with
numerous people including the liquidator and progress is being
made - albeit not fast enough for this issue. The deal being
worked on not only includes the computer but also most of the
software and hardware. Anyone interested in financially
assisting this new operation should contact Bob on 0452 412572.


Incidentally, the only part of SAMCo that appears to be in a
state of unwantedness is the Newsdisk! With over 1,000 people
owed an average of six discs, it would be a hefty responsability
to take on - would people still buy the Newsdisk if it was not
produced by the company that manufactures the computer???




                           What Now?

No doubt you'll all be wondering about what's going to happen
now. Nothings changed really. All the companies will still be
trading indefinetly, certainly FRED will continue for as long as
people keep buying it. In fact, FRED Publishing has snapped up
the rights to several games that Revelation were to be doing :

WaterWorks - an original puzzle/arcade sort of game all to do
with shuffling water about activating switches, opening doors,
killing aliens and, well, completing the level. Demo next month.
Expected release date : 1st September. Expected price £9.99

Plasmoid - it was firstly seen on Newsdisk 5 but we've changed
the name to "Dyzonium" and spent three more months on it. It's a
fast shoot-em-up / collect-em-up with lots of power ups and
tricky puzzles. Naturally, we've put decent graphics in as well.
Expected release date : 30th September. Expected price £9.99



                           What Now?

Mr Pac - another unseen wonder. This is a brilliant version of
the arcade classic featuring lots more features. The name will
change before it's release, but the fact that ESI have
programmed it should appeal to you! Demo next month.
Expected release date : 14th September. Expected price : £9.99

E Tracker - YES, FREDs got it!!!! The amazingly brilliant music
system from those Polish wizards ESI has been snapped up! Work's
been done rewriting parts of it and hopefully putting in a front
end but it's lookin' good!! Music this and next month.
Expected release date : 14th September. Expected price : £29.99

Please note that we are not yet taking orders for the four
products listed above.

You will be pleased to know that FORMAT now has the rights to
the Secretary. How it will be sold - especially to those of you
that had already paid for it, is unknown.

                 FRED Publishing to the future

As you should have been able to tell, FRED has every intention
of continuing to publish games for as long as possible. And I
can personally guarantee that'll we'll see a lot of games
released between now and Christmas.

And not only games - there are already a couple of utilities
that are almost completely programmed which could be ready for
imminent release...

On the next page is the now rather extended price list. All the
items listed are released and ready for desptach. We have
already agreed with Glenco to stock SCAD as soon as they receive
the manual back from the printers. Phone to check it's availab-
ility because it only just missed this issue. Price is £24.99

Cheques should be made payable to FRED Publishing and sent to
the usual address. Goods are normally despatched same day
however if we are out of stock and not likely to get it back in
within 14 days, we will inform you how long the delay will be.
                          Price List

FRED Publishing titles

Impatience       - £9.99  ) Both for just £13. NB The Later
The Later Levels - £4.99  ) Levels requires Impatience to run.
* Parallax       - £11.99
* SpellMaster    - £l4.99

BetaSoft / Andy Wright

MasterDOS        - £15.99
MasterBASIC      - £15.99
* GamesMaster    - £24.99
* File Manager   - £14.99

Steve's Software

SC_Assembler     - £12.50
SC_Filer         - £12.50
* SC_Monitor     - £15
                         Price List ctd
ENIGMA VARIATIONS
Defenders /Earth             - £14.99      NB : KLAX and
Pipemania                    - £14.99      EFTPOTRM are
Sphera                       - £14.99      not available.
Famous Five                  - £14.99      We will buy copies
MultiPack 1                  - £14.99      of each (in good
Mind Games 1                 - £14.99      condition). Please
Mind Games 2                 - £14.99      Ring.

CHEZRON SOFTWARE
Outwrite                     - £12
Style Writer                 - £9.99

Mouse Mat                    - £3
FRED Back issues             - £1.50  (1-23 available)
* FREDatives (1-4)           - £2 / £7 all
* Rachel                     - £3
6 month FRED subscription    - £8
12 month FRED subscription   - £15

                         Price List Ctd
HARDWARE

256K Memory Upgrade          - £29.99
Messenger                    - £39.99
1Mb Upgrade                  - £79.99
SAMBus                       - £49.99
External Drive Int           - £29.99
Comms Interface              - £29.99
BBC type Printer Cable       - £9.99
Mouse                        - £44.99
Mouse Interface only         - £29.99
Technical Manual             - £15.99
Replacement PSU              - £24.99
Disc Drive                   - £79.99
SAM Coupe 512K               - £199.99
256K Tape SAM                - £99.99
MIDI leads                   - £9.99
Network lead                 - £9.99
SAMBus Power Supply          - £19.99
Printer Interface            - £19.99
                         Price List Ctd

NOESIS SOFTWARE                     ! LATE ADDITION :
                                    !
SAM Print        - £14.99           ! PRODOS - CP/M EMULATOR
                                    !
LERM SOFTWARE                       ! FROM BG SERVICES
                                    !
SAMTape 4M       - £11.99           ! JUST £31 (INCLUDES FREE
SAMDisk 2        - £11.99           !
SAM Toolkit      - £14.50           ! CP/M PD DISC)
SAM Assembler 3  - £10.99           !
                                    !
HILTON COMPUTER SERVICES
Personal Banking System - £19.99

* Indicates new product.
Send orders payable to FRED Publishing to the usual address
Printers, monitors and more software soon to be added to
the list!!! Goods normally despatched within 24 hours.
Overseas orders add £2, with hardware add £5.
            And now - the normal FRED continues!!!

Now that the serious side is over with we can continue with the
usual malarky. Provided I get the time, this issue should be
quite productive.

To start off with, I have an important announcement :

On Friday 26th June 1992, Adrian Parker (he of MGT, Blue Alpha
and SAMCo) proposed to, and became engaged to the "small but
beautifully formed" Catherine O'Neil. It's sad really, because
they're both Welsh which means just one little accident and
there'll be one more "boy-O" to mess up an otherwise perfect
world (except for the existance of Wales!).... Yes, that's
right, now you can't print any comments in the Newsdisk in
return!!!

Seriously though, I hope that Adrian and Catherine will continue
to be very happy together, and I also hope that someday, Adrian
will buy a decent car.

                         The Other disc

For those of you that have subscribed past Issue 24, you will
have received issue 24B in your envelope this morning. For those
that havn't - you'll need to send £1.50 off for it.

Just to give you a quick taster : demo of SpellMaster, demo of
Parallax, another demo by Entropy, a game written using
GamesMaster from BetaSoft, a few more demos, possibly another
game and a few more tunes written using ETracker.

I'll apologize to people who have been waiting for SpellMaster
and Parallax that didn't receive my letter explaining the delay.
They will be with you within a few days. We hope you like them
and that you'll enjoy this disc as well. If we can possibly
avoid it,we will not take advance orders again. Sorry.

Remember, you can tell what issue your subscription goes up to
by looking at the number at the bottom left of the address label
on your envelope - the first four figures make up your
membership number, the last two is the last disc you will get.
                   Looking for a job ???????

Due to my many other commitments, including the vast expansion
of FRED Publishing, I am running short of time to be the editor
of this magazine each month. I am therefore looking for someone
to take over the compilation, writing and editing of FRED each
month. You MUST be able to keep to deadlines, be able to write
articles that are suitable for thousands of people all over the
world and of all ages. You should have a sense of humour which
will show through into your writing but also have a good working
knowledge of the computer and how to program - not necessarily
in machine code. You should also have a very professional
attitude towards you work.

Good money is paid for a good editor.

Please write to the FRED address with all your credentials -
especially if you will be studying for exams. Do not phone.
Please write as soon as possible for you to start work on
FRED25.

                       Professionalism???

I made a point of using the word "professional" on the last page
because I have something to explain to all you talented bods
that want to make money out of programming, drawing or
composing.

Over the last months, I have had two graphic artists let me
down, 1 musician and THREE programmers. Obviously, this left me
in a very sticky situation. All of these people were very good
at what they did - some of them were exceptional. But all of
them are amateurs. When members of the trade use the word
"professional" about someone, they could be either the worlds
least talented person or most talented. Their talent is
irrelevant. What matters is their attitude and their ability to
quote a time for getting something done - and doing it by that
time. I could have Raffaelle Cecco, Archer Maclean and Dave
Jones working on projects but if they let me down continually,
they are rated as unprofesionals. Now that that's explained, I'm
desperately looking for professional musicians and artists. Send
samples of work ASAP.
                   A bit of English humour...

This is a copy of an article in the style of a job reference
Alan Miles wrote about Adrian Parker to try and raise spirits.
Almost every single line contains a joke - so look out for them,
but many of them are "in-house". You should still find it
amusing though :

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

In three memorable years Adrain Parker has earned a repuation as
one of Swansea's leading character actors. In 1990 he made a
promising debut in the tragedy SAMLET;after a quiet start he won
critical acclaim for his portrayal of injured innocence in the
famous bedroom scene (co-starring Penny Jones and Katherine
Edmunds). His rich tenor was also a feature of the Roadshow
sequence. Regrettably though, not even Adrain's performance was
able to save SAMLET from a very short run. Some critics
questioned Adrain's interpretation of high tragedy as farce or
light musical, but if this was a failure it must be attributed
to lack of direction.
                         Job Reference

  Undaunted by this setback, Adrain then went on the produce and
direct his own one-man show, MURDER AT THE BLUE ALPHA. Set in a
Portakabin, this was the story of one man's heroic struggle to
breed mice. Despite a series of problems with sound, Adrain
enjoyed some success in the provinces, and the production
continues occasionally today now in the hands of the small
repertory company PBT.
   Adrain was then offered a leading role in DEATH OF A SALESMAN
- AND A PRODUCTION MANAGER AND A DESIGNER AND A WAREHOUSEMAN AND
A REPAIRS PERSON. Teaming up again with producer Alan J Miles,it
was here that Adrain's talents were allowed full rein. He has a
fine sense of dramatic timing - never better illustrated than
when heinterrupts a crisis meeting to announce that the
company's assets have all been stripped by bailiffs. He has also
developed a find feeling for the absurd and for horror. (Leading
critic David Tonks described Adrain's Harware Development Kit as
"horrible" and his Kaleidoscope as "absurd".) And in this
production has played every single role nervously at first, but
then without prompting.
                         Job Reference

Regrettably, DEATH will shortly be ending its run, and Adrain
has started his intention to devoting more time to his other
great love -KARAOKE. Whther this is hid future or not, we expect
further great performances from Adrain - a star of the future.

   1031488962

Swansea Prison
8th July 1992

Very amusing eh? I'll run through a few facts with you to help :
Adrian has performed staring roles in some theatrical plays
hence the base for most jokes, and now enjoys going down the
Karaoke club frequently (it was over the microphone at Karaoke
that he proposed to Catherine!). The rest of the jokes are based
on what he has down over the last 3 years.



                             Misc

FORMAT Publications have now taken over the "dubious" Sinclair
& SAM Computing from Garner Designs. If you had an outstanding
order with Daniel Garner, you will be contacted shortly by
FORMAT.

I have been approached with a DMA (Direct Memory Access) circuit
and am considering publishing it by the end of the year. I
propose taking advance orders of £30 to fund it's release, with
the RRP once it's release at £40. Any comments? NB Orders are
NOT yet being taken!!!!

You may have noticed that if you phone up a large company and
they want your address, all they ask for is house number and
postcode and then quote your full address back to verify it.
They don't seem to have names, just all the address of houses in
Britain - any reactions? How do you feel about the 1984 Data
Protection Act? How do you feel about your address being on
hundreds of computers - included the FRED computer?

                       Elementary Welsh

A short lesson in the delights of Welsh , with phrases quoted
from various ex-employees of SAMCo.

Other than raising and lowering the tone of your voice as often
as possible, mentioning the word "Valleys" at every opportunity
and adding "O" to the end of every second word, here's a few
sample conversations :

Charles Gill : A'Right Boy-O, where we gointo sit 'en? How about
by-there? No. No. No. We'll sit by-here, look-man.

Paul Jenkins : Isit? Fair Doo's, that seat does look a lot more
educational boy-O. But look at that one. Fair Doo's to that one
by-there too. Hold on, I'm having a fag.

Mark Hall : 'Old on boy-O's. I'm bigger, I'm bolder, I'm rougher
, I'm tougher - I'm the one and only Mark 'Oll, boy-O.

Adrian : Aiiiiiiiye. Uh..........Huh.   WHAT A GREETIN' BAIRN!!!
                        Swansea antics

There comes a time in every editors life, where he/she does
something silly. It's inevitable. However, how come I've landed
myself in more hot spots than I've produced issues? My first
story relates to a weekend when I went to London to see some
friends and relatives (cue smoke filled borders and husky voice)

On the Friday, I went out as per usual until 2-3am. I then set
off to the train station for a train I thought was at 3.30 - I
didn't buy a ticket. Fortunately, I did get a ticket, I didn't
miss the train and yes, I did get on the right one! However,
from Swansea I normally get the train to Birmingham which
involves changing at Bristol. Since it was a 4 hour journey I
went to sleep. I woke up as the train pulled into Reading.
"Reading" I thought. "Reading??? - Where the !@#$%& is Reading?
Oh $#@! I was supposed to change at Bristol" Just then a voice
came over the tannoy asking people to change for Heathrow and
Gatwick airports. There was no-one around me to ask where in
England Reading was and the guard had just blown the whistle for
the train to move off. Instincts prevailed and I thought "Right,
                        ZZZZzzzzzzz.....

I'll nip off this one and get a train to Gatwick - that's in
London". Off I popped and onto the next London train I hopped.
There happened to be a map on the train which told me to my
delight that Reading was on the way between Swansea and London -
meaning not only had I lost half an hour waiting in Reading but
I spent an extra £7.50 on a ticket I didn't need!!!
Adventure One over and done with I proceeded with my day.

That evening I had arranged to meet Chris White (yes, he's still
alive and thinking about Lemmings). We met up, went for "one or
two" drinks and a meal. Now, I was staying with friends in a
place called Grays in Essex and the last two trains were at 11pm
and 11.55pm. Being the cautious type, I opted for the 11pm.
Knowing I had only slept for 3 hours the night before and that I
had a few drinks inside me I forced myself to stay awake - I
made myself read every scrap of text I possessed then went on to
read a paper I picked off the ground. I then woke up as the
train pulled off from a station, looking at my watch I realised
I should have got off 30 minutes ago! The next stating we pulled
           HHHEEELLLPPP!! I need somebody - ANYBODY.

into was called "Leigh On Sea", checking the map I saw that
between London and Grays were 2 stops, between Grays and Leigh
On Sea there were half a dozen. Oh &%$#. I asked a woman sitting
further along "Any trains back to Grays?". A wide-eyed glum
shake of the head told me I was not in luck. "Any buses then?".
An even glummer shake told me that "Lucky" was most certainly
not my middle name. After rushing off the train before it pulled
off again I was taunted by the oh-so-kind conductor "Wake up
sleepy head - enjoy the walk!!!"

I was depressed to discover that "Leigh" only had a small
station - hence with no-one around at midnight. I was more
depressed to walk outside and not find a taxi-rank but when I
saw I was in the middle of no-one and had to run a mile or so
into the centre!! You will be glad to know that I did find a
taxi - but it left a hole of £25 in my pocket!!!



                          The Rivalry

In SAMCo, there was frequently pranks played - firstly
brightness turned down on monitors, then leads disconnected,
then fuses taken out of plugs along with the usual locking in
toilets etc etc etc but my good self and Charles (who was
entirely to blame), thought up something one better. There has
been the occasion when some bright spark locks some
unsuspecting person out of SAMCo, fortunately for the person
outside (me!), the rear entrance bell was connected to the fire
bell so that certainly got attention.

However, after a trick or two from Adrian in the morning, he was
last to return from the infamous lunch van (yes, they still make
chair jokes). We unscrewed the bell and disconnected the neutral
wire and proceeded to re-screw the bell back together. At this
point Alan appeared and enquired "You're not disconnecting the
doorbell are you?". "No" we replied "Neither are we planning to
lock Adrian outside in the rain". Seeing as it was lunchtime,
Alan left us standing in front of the door talking try not to
laugh as Adrian unsuccessfully rang the bell!!
                           Ta-Daaaa

It's that time again - where I have to tell all you loving bods
what you get to play with after you've read the text!

The Letters section is still decidedly empty - if you intend a
letter to be published either mention it in the letter or write
"Letters" on the envelope.

Ore Warz is a brilliant arcade / strategy game from Mork aka
SmartSoft. You get instructions when you load up by selecting
DEBRIEFING but you will need to know the filenames of a few
additional scenarios to load in that are also on the disc :
  STOCKADE, CAVES, TRICKSHOT & DEATH HAll (write these down!)

Dracula is another game for this month's disc. This time it's
from Banzai Productions (Thanx for the Postcard Dan - I was
there the same time as you! And yes, I know what you were trying
to say). It's based on the old Tanx type game - you must fire
projectiles at the other player by inputing range and angle
until one player hits the other. It's remarkably addictive if
                        FRED24 Contents

you really get into it. Before DRACULA loads up, a demo will
load. Once you've had enough of it, just press SPACE to load up
DRACULA.

And now, the long-awaited MOM demo! It was supposed to go on
FRED23 instead of Steves column but it didn't get here in time
so some of the messages may be a little inappropriate but I'm
sure you'll be suitable impressed anyway.

Here is another piece of music done by E-Tracker. From Roger
Hartley, it uses only the simplest of ETracker's functions
because he doesn't have the instructions (pirate!!) but along
with a nice picture and scrolly it goes up to make a good
quality demo.

For those of you who remain stuck on the tiles of Triltex,
here's a few more full solutions to keep you happy. Courtesy of
Wiz-Man Steve Taylor.

                           Contents

Also from Stevey -T- is the m/c column for this month that so
many of you expressed dissapointment when it didn't appear on
FRED23.

And another sample of E-Tracker music! This one is from newly
found group Entropy (Cookie and a few mates) but shows off his
their talents rather nicely. If you like this one you'll also
find another Entropy demo on disc B...

ZAT magazine eh? Well, ol' Daniel Cannon's been busy doing
adverts for them and has come up with this little cracker.
Featuring some very clever techniques it does ZAT a world of
good. Unfortunately, the ZAT / QUEST crew are having a few
address problems but if you pass orders onto me (either send a
seperate cheque or add it to a FRED cheque ) and I'll make sure
they get it. DO NOT SEND ANYTHING TO THE ADDRESSES IN THE
ADVERT!


                          A Story????

OK, boys and girls. You now get the chance to read a story.
"Rachel" is a totally original story written by Andrew
Hodgkinson and a few friends (HippoSoft - used to be Force 48).
After reading all the parts of this I was in complete histerics
and I'm sure if you appreciate the works of the likes of Terry
Pratchett or just have a vivid sense of humour you'll find it
brilliant too.

Anyway, the first part is on this issue - totally free to you!
However the next dozen parts won't fit on FREDs so we've decided
to sell it for £3. For just £3 (half the price of a book these
days) you get a totally wonderful story (don't believe me? Read
the first part for yourself) along with little jingles if you
have MBasic - Boot first MBASIC for a ditty on this demo too!!

Remember also that the FREDatives are still available at £2
each. Each featuring games, utilities, text, music, graphics
etc etc - all in a style like a super-FRED! Buy just no. 1 for
£2 and if you like it, I'll still sell you the other 3 for £5!
                 Virtual Reality All The Way!

Now that I have sampled the delights of a VR machine at London,
read one of the latest books on the subject and seen the
Lawnmower Man film, I can honestly admit to being more excited
about this than ever before.

The way it seems inevitable that it will work out is that 99% of
people will one day, will spend all of their time on a VR
system. It will let you work. It will let you take a holiday in
the Bahamas - you choose what the weather's like, you choose the
people you meet - the perfect holiday every time. Instead of
going out with mates who have an annoying habit you go out with
virtual mates who are exactly the same - but without the
"habit". You can have whatever you want because, in time, it
will get to be so realistic, so good graphics, so fast that it
will be exactly the same as the real world - only exactly the
way you want it. Virtual relationships, virtual shopping,
virtual working, virtual cigarettes, alcohol - even drugs will
be made "real" to the user.

                              VR

The whole concept of Virtual Reality is amazing, yet it's
incredibly frightening - that we now have the power that could
make every person on the planet happy. Or make everyone's life
miserable.

And the thing I find odd about it, is that it's not new - VR is
just a souped up computer - processor, screens and gloves for
input devices. But only now is the huge resourch being tapped.
The Japanese telecommunications giant, NTT (the largest telcom
company in the world) are investing £150,000,000,000 (150
billion pounds) just into fibre-opticing Japan for VR - let
alone all it's Research & Development (R&D) costs.

For example, when I was on holiday someone tried to point out a
minute object on a mountainside to me. No chance. In the future,
with a VR system, I would see the mountainside through the VR
system but he could virtually point at the object, ie a pointer
would appear on my display. I would appreciate any comments you
have on VR, and I'll do my best to answer ANY queries about  it.
                            SAM Tech

If you remember from the Newsdisk, Alan explained about Bruce
Gordon's company - SAMTech. Despite SAMCo's demise, they're
still going strong and are now on the verge of releasing
the platform game "Boing" from Rob Holman they've been working
on for almost 9 months now. It costs £9.99 and will be available
from FRED from early September.

However, they have decided to deal direct with the public to
offer repairs. They can fix your coupe for a standard price of
£20 (not including disc drive faults or problems due to
tampering). If your SAMs gone down, phone them on 0792-797770.
They will make sure the problem is a machine fault and if
necessary, give you a quote.

So there you go, you can still buy almost all the software and
hardware for your SAM (including a SAM) as well as getting your
machine fixed! NB : Obviously, your guarantees lie with SAMCo -
not SAMTech.
                                                               .
                         SCAC SOftware

My, Dave Whitmore and Phil Glover have certainly been busy -
I've just received their FOURTH issue as well as a few discs
with dozens and dozens of adventures on!

I don't have time to review either the mag or the games this
issue (considering I've released 2 games in the last 12 months
and now I've got 6 coming out in the next 6 weeks!) so here's
the details and prices to FRED readers :

Deep Waters : 12 games by Jack Lockerby. £7  (£8 from 1 Sep '92)
Marlin Magic : 3 games by Linda Wright. £5 (£6 from 1 Sep 1992)

The Traveller in Black. 3 games. £6
River Collection. 4 games by Jack Lockerby. £7
Darkest Road & Kobyashi. 2 games by Clive Wilson. £4
Magic Isle + free game. By Palmer Eldritch. £2.50

The first two I can vouch for as being particularly brilliant
but I'd imagine they're all top notch!!
                          SCAC / JMP

The address for SCAC software is :

[redacated]

I can also heartily recommend £3.50 for all you budding techies
out there, at £3.50 it's very steep but here's the address if
you want to order an issue :

[redacated]

                 Yes, Of Course I Remembered!!!

Well folks, other than all the exciting news, it's issue 24.
That means I've now done 24 issues (2 double issues and 3 "Best
Of FREDs").

It all started one day in May 1990 when I got my SAM and had no
software for it and started writing a magazine. Naturally, I had
my dreams of it being big - I had planned to give away my "Issue
1 notes" as a prize if it did get off the ground! Well, here we
are - I'm still doing it as a hobby , still non-profit making
and I've got a lovely little software house to go with it.

One day I'll give away the Issue 1 notes as a prize - but I
think I'll hang on to them for now. Call me nostalgic if you
want....

Since the first issue of FRED has appeared, two companies which
manufactured the SAM have gone bust - as well as thousands of
other companies as well. Not that people who voted Conservative
should feel guilty for killing their computer. Really...
                       FRED Questionnaire

I've done a quick calculation of the Questionnaire that about
150 replied to back in June. Here's the results :

FRED Quality : 8.4 / 10      FRED Service : 8.9 / 10
SAM  Quality : 7.7 / 10      SAM  Service : 7.3 / 10

Favourite Game :   Prince Of Persia : 79%
                   Batz 'n' Balls   : 21%

Least Fave Game:   EFTPOTRM         : 77%
                   Splat            : 23%

Fave Magazine  :   FRED             : 47%
                   Enceladus        : 14%
                   Newsdisk         : 11%
                   Supplement       : 9%
                   Format           : 9%
                   YS               : 7%
                   SU               : 4%  (you SAD people!)

Letters & Reviews

                   Mork's Puzzle Corner no.6


Tis I, Mork, setter of riddles and poser of puzzles. Not only is
Fred  celebrating  two  years  since  it  was  just a twinkle in
Colin's  eye,  but on the very day this issue was brought out, I
will  have  reached the grand old age of 18, hurrah! If you want
to  send  me a birthday card (preferably with a £20 note inside)
then send it to the usual address.


I  think  I  was a little too leanient on you last month. "Spare
the rod, spoil the child" as I hardly ever say.

Answer  to  (1).  Mork, the Indian warrior, he look far and wide
for the answer to the question that burns in men's hearts. After
smoking   the   pipe   of   peace  with  "He-who-is-at-one-with-
the-grass",  the  Great  Spirit came to him. The earth quaked as
the Great One Spoke.

"Standing-bull is his mother!", it said.
                              Mork

Answer  to  (2).  This puzzle is so old, there's mold growing on
it.  If  two  trains crash right on the border of two countries,
you don't bury the surviviors anywhere. There not dead!

Answer  to (3). Dear oh dear, If you didn't get this one there's
not much hope for you. Pea-cocks don't lay eggs, Pea-hens do!


Answer to the Prize Puzzle

Last months prize puzzle was as follows.
"A  two-digit  number,  read from left to right, is 4.5 times as
large  as  the same number read from right to left. What is that
number?"

Here's my solution.

10 FOR num=10 TO 99
20  LET num$=STR$ (num)
                              Mork

30  LET num2=VAL (num$(2)+num$(1))
40  IF num/num2=4.5 THEN PRINT num
50 NEXT num

If  you  were to run this program, you would get the answer, 81.
81 read from right to left is 18, 81 divided by 18 is 4.5. There
you go.

I put all the entries into a big hat and pulled one out. And the
winner  of  the  Prize Puzzle is... fanfare please... Dan Doore!
(aka.  Banzai). He came up with almost exactly the same solution
as  I did. Just goes to show, great minds think alike. So Dan, a
copy  of  SmartFile  and SmartPhone will be winging their way to
you  right  now.  Commiserations if you got the right answer but
didn't win.


Take  one  brain. Add a liberal amount of puzzles. Season with a
pinch of frustration. Bring to the boil and leave to simmer.
                              Mork

(1) What is unusual about the word UNCOMPLIMENTARY?

(2) Create a wordsquare with the word 'mind' using the following
letters.  Each  asterix  in  the diagram must be replaced with a
letter  and  you  must  be  able  to  read the same four letters
downwards as well as across.


A A A T T E E S D         M I N D
                          I * * *
                          N * * *
                          D * * *

(3) Crack the code and read the message:-

CTVDI SLOHK OIEIN ALUSE NOSNG GDNIF GNUDT EOEGD RSCEH VNXNG
AYCCI EETEE TOERS RSMDE UUEYM YEOMT LHDPE WENOS AAETS EYTRE

(4)  Create  a  sentence with five consecutive AND's in it ('and
                              Mork

and and and and'). And it must make sense. Sounds Crazy, I know,
but it is possible.

(5)                The beginning of eternity,
                   The end of time and space,
                  The beginning of every end,
                    The end of every place.

What can be described in this way?


                        Computer Puzzle

Find  a  four  digit  number  which  satisfies each of the three
following conditions:

1. The last digit is twive the first digit.
2. The third digit is twice the second digit.
3. The sum of the first and last digits is twice the third digit
                              Mork

Another  months  worth of brain-power testers over. It's getting
harder  and harder (infantile giggles) to think of these puzzles
and,  I fear, next month may be the very last Puzzle Corner. And
we don't want that do we! (he says in a very patronizing voice).
If  every  Fred  reader  sent me just one puzzle I'd be up to my
armpits in them. Your Puzzle Corner needs YOU!

If  you  want to send me a birthday card or a puzzle then here's
my address: [redacted]

Nanoo, nanoo. Mork signing out...



Ed  :  Cheers Mork - the puzzles are getting better , I actually
have to THINK about some of them!! Seriously, Great work.



Dear Colin,

  As you and,  I  suspect,  many  FRED readers maybe getting the
latest  (and  I MEAN late) SCPDSA catologue disk soon, you maybe
thinking that this disk will be up to the standard of their demo
disk given to you when joining.

Think again.
  This disk is  the biggest waste of money I have ever seen. The
catologue part is very irritating to use, and when you do use it
you  will  find  it  either saying "Write to PD company for more
details"  (very useful that) or you will find that it only lists
about  half  the  disks  available  at  that  library (even more
useful).

  Then there was  the demo. All it was was about seven digitised
screens   from  the  Karate  Kid  movie  displayed  in  sequence
backwards  and  forwards. Instantly forgettable. Then there were
the  digitised pictures from The Running Man. They would of been
OK  if  Brent hadn't recoloured them in. Now they just look like
yesterdays curry after being thrown up.
                             Letter

  Also, there was  the  news  that Brent has decided to stop the
order  service  due  to  alot  of people using it. Now he's only
selling  the Fastline and Masters Of Magic disks. So that leaves
one  question  -  what  is  the SCPDSA's purpose now that it has
relegated  itself to a diskzine? Not a wise move since the SCPDU
disk  is doing a better job covering the new PD disks. My advice
to  them  is  to improve the disk by getting a full, easy-to-use
catologue  on  the  disk  and THEN filling the space with demos,
instead  of  the other way around. Either that or go back to the
old  paper  format,  which  I  feel  is  more  appropriate for a
catalogue.

  So,the verdict on the new-look SCPDSA:large (and I mean LARGE)
room  for improvement. In a few issues time it will have got its
act  together,  so  I  advise any people thinking of joining the
SCPDSA to wait until then before filling out their cheques.

     Yours in a multitude of interesting ways,

   HAY YOU, TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF THAT CURSOR AND READ .....

 Dear Alan,
        I just want to thank you for my lovely present you
sent me. I've  always wanted an ATARI ST. If I can do anything
for you in return then don't hesitate to .......

Sorry, I dunno what came over me (looked a bit like a mouldy
 grape to me) ooh shut up missus. Right , to the point as it
were ,or even as it is at the moment. Have you seen the state
of the telephone boxes in Bangladesh. Disgraceful. oooooohhhhhhh
hhhhh     noooooooooooo   wwwwwhhhhhhhaaaaattttttt  iiiiisssss
hhhhhhaaaappppppppppppeeeennnniiinnngggg?????? mmmyyyyy   fffiin
nggggeerrrrss  aarrrree   sssssttuuuucckk    to ttttthhheee kkkk
eeeyyyysss..............

 And now a word from Charlie the cow with a big head. Take it
away Charlie ....
 "You lied to me . You said Philip was a nice boy. I didn't like
THE 2nd PART OF A STRANGE LETTER WHICH COMES FROM WISBECH

                        KEEP ON REEDIN'

him. He wouldn't stop talking about bell ringing."
 Always nice to hear from Charlie, I'm sure you'll agree. I
don't agree with him about Philip though. I think he just eats
too many dairy products.  I'd get that head seen to if I were
you.
 Now it's time for some music I composed myself. It's sung by
my good friend Albert the shru. Take it away Al...
la la la la la lo lo lo lo bo bo bo lo lo la lah lala la.
Erm I seem to be loosing control of my SAM .I wonder what is
ha........  TEG NA IRATA TS WON. ATARI ST I BEST. GET AN ATARI
ST ,UOY T'NOW EB DETNIOPASSID , I ESIMORP UOY. ATARI ST'S ROOL.
GET AN AT.... Sorry ,I don't know what happened there.. Very
strange. But not as strange as the time Mr Pineapple came
round our house to show us his goosberry bush. I must say  I
do like cheddar cheese.
              AMEN,
                Christopher Bailey
                IT's PART THREE....

                    DON'T STOP TILL ACAPULCO

P.s. With your finger (make sure it is clean!) feel the working
surfaces of the teeth at the front of your mouth and in your
cheeks. The working surfaces are those parts which push into
the food when you chew it.

Now answer these simple questions .
1) How old is Colins pet aardvark?
2) What does the tattoo say on the inside of Colins lip?
3) Do you drink Carling Black label?
4) Dunno really.
5) The nice men say they have come to look after me so I may
 see you again or on the other hand I may see you again .It
 all depends if Colin uses this or on the other hand if he uses
 toilet paper. It's up to him really.

Ed : Oh - VERY surreal and imaginative. Very good Chris.
But  I  must  point  out that the tattoo doesn't say very much -
whether  it's on the inside of my lip or whether it's sitting in
an armchair sipping a Molotov Cocktail and watching El Dorado.
             ASTROBALL REVIEW BY CHRISTOPHER BAILEY

 SAM games , what a load of old balls,eh?  Yes ,we've been
quizzed by quizball ,kicked in the mouth by Football director 2,
Sphera was a bit round and,if you don't mind me saying so,
Mindgames was a load of old balls too. What is the fascination
with these round things? I mean, what have they done for us?

 As you may have guessed this is a review about another game
featuring a ball imaginatively (?) called 'ASTROBALL'. I bet it
took them a long time to think up that title. Anyway ,I'm not
paid for moaning (not that I'm paid at all), so on with the
review.

 You are a ball (as I may have mentioned) and for some reason
you are stuck in the sky bouncing from cloud to cloud collecting
gold (whick looks more like silver,actually). The only two
things which stop you from 'doing your thang' are death stars
(Which look quite cute and cuddly) which burst your ball on
contact and the ground below which will smash you in to lots
of itty bitty pieces. There are helpful things too such as
CB                         Astroball

extra lives, warps ,invincibility. Also at the start of each
level (there are 30 by the way) you get a map which gives you
an idea of wot the level looks like.

 So wot's the game like then? Well it's good, very good in fact.
The parallax-scrolling is smooth and the game is very fast. My
only moan is the programmer ,Balor Knight , has left out the
space invaders bonus level, a great feature of the spectrum
version ,in favour of some little messages. Oh yes,
For  your  £9.99  you  get  a disk and a badly photocopied inlay
card.  These  are  only  small moans though and won't spoil your
enjoyment of the game.

TOTALLY AND UTTERLY RUDDY ADDICTIVE. Great Stuff!!! - 88%

PS .Watch out for Plasmoid by Balor Knight coming soon from
   Revelation.  ED - ERM, ACTUALLY IT'S NOW CALLED DYZONIUM AND
IT'S FROM FRED PUBLISHING! BUT IT'S WELL WORTH LOOKING OUT  FOR.

FREDs Film Features

Batman 2 - Batman Returns (July 10)

Ah ha! Michelle Pfeiffer, Michael Keaton and Danny DeVito all in
one film! Well, lets start the elimination process shall we :

"The  Penguin"  could have been ANYONE under all that makeup and
costume - a total waste of DeVito's talent (other than using his
name for promo of course)

Michael Keaton is a Hollywood snob and can't act.

Michelle  Pfeiffer  is  only ever seen as Catwomen, a boring old
"grey"  secretary  or  for  about  10 seconds in her true glory.
Another waste of $5 Million

Now to the film, A Megalomaniac plans to suck all the power from
Gotham  city  with  the  help  of the Penguin. In the process he
kills  his  secretary  who  is  then  transformed into Catwomen.
Penguin is elected Mayor. Gets chucked out. Batman, Catwomen and
                             Films

Penguin  fight  for  a  while.  Batman and Catwomen fall in love
(well, only when they are Bruce Wayne and whatever her name is).
Batman succeeds in foiling everyone's plans but fails in getting
the girl - everyone say aaaahhhh.

There are actually a few decent jokes splattered around but this
still  doesn't  make up for an over-hyped, over-budgetted souped
up kids TV program - even if Michelle Pfeiffer does look nice in
black leather......

Sorry guys, it's a bit of a miss really.

My Cousin Vinny

A  fairly  low hype film (makes a change) but this one is almost
half  decent.  Starring  Joe Pesci, it tells the story of two 18
year olds driving across America. They stop off at a Shop to get
some  food, they accidentally steal some sardines. Naturally the
Police  pull  them  over on suspicion of killing the shop clerk,
                             Films

naturally  the  two  guys  plead guilty - but they think they're
pleading  guilty  to  shoplifting  while the Police are charging
them with murder!

Their  families  can't  afford a lawyer, but it turns out cousin
Vinny  has  just  passed  his law exams so he represents them in
court.

Unlike  Batman, we get some good acting but for what seems to be
a  comedy, the jokes are spaced well out - although some of them
are brilliant.

It's worth seeing but don't miss Brookside for it.

Stone Cold

I  don't  think  there are any "stars" in this film - in fact we
hadn't  heard  of it until we turned up at the Cinema and it was
the only thing on!
                             Films

The  "hero"  gets  chucked  out  of the Police but as usual, the
Feds,  CIA,  FBI  whoever,  over  him  a  "special" job. He goes
undercover into a gang of motorcyclists who have recently become
involved  in  killing,  blackmail, drugdealer - more or less the
works really.

He tricks some of them, beats others up, falls in love with one,
kills another few and then at the end of the film, he kills most
of them. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but it's another Die
Hard  /  Terminator  /  Hard  To  Kill  type where the producers
thought "The more deaths - the higher the box office returns"

And  it  doesn't  work. Not at all in fact. To be truthful, it's
laughable. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Get  it on video, save it for a rainy day and then make the most
of  it by cutting little men-shapes out of the video tape with a
pair of blunt scissors.                                        .

Roger Hartley            Lawnmower Man

   You can't really not have heard much about this film, the
hype has been so intense. But we all know what to think of hype
(did someone in the back just say "Sphera"?) don't we? As usual,
I fell for it. Why else would I be writing a review of it?! (The
film, not hype, silly!)
   I'll try not to give too much away about the plot, like I
usually do. But Doctor Angelo is experimenting with Virtual
Reality, to investigate some of it's uses, mainly expanding the
intelligence of the human mind. Of course, he doesn't experiment
with humans (yet!) but chimps. It is discovered that with the
treatment used, the chimp gets extremely violent, although
intelligence is greatly expanded. Eventually a chimp (Doctor
Angelo's own, apparently!) is killed trying to escape. The
government still want experimentation to continue however,
preferably with a human.
   The main character however, is Jobe Smith. He's not very
bright, and his occupation is mowing lawns. (So now you know why
it's called The Lawnmower Man!) Do I really have to spell out
what idea he gets next??? He's not altogether inhuman though,
RH                       LawnMower Man

and devises a different treatment, which should not cause such
violent reactions.
   The usual jiggery pokery (can't you tell I'm rushing this
review?!) occurs whereas one of his greedy colleagues alters the
treatment, making it very similar to the previous one used.
(This is due to government pressure, honest!) However, the
intelligence experiments work beyond his wildest dreams, with
Jobe getting smarter by the day. Then some very strange side
effects begin too. Strange effects like telepathy! (I'll say no
more).
   I think I've said too much already, (I'll spoil it for you if
I keep on), and I think what you really want to know about are
these virtual reality FX. They are UNBELIEVABLE! I think anybody
who has actually played a virtual reality (not including myself,
I'm still looking for one) machine will still be surprised. The
graphics are amazing, (they look like 24 bit images to me!) and
the speed is just awesome. I would evem go as far as to say that
in many ways, they are better than those in Terminator 2!
Although obviously, they are a different style. If this is what
RH                       Lawnmower Man

virtual reality is like, I've just got to get addicted! If
you're after great FX, see this on the big screen, it simply
won't be the same on video (and it's rare I say that about a
film). You must see it for the FX alone, this time, believe the
hype! It's all virtually for real (geddit? I know it was bad).
   The rest of the film holds up pretty well, and is certainly
well done. Although maybe the magnificent graphics really
influenced my opinion. I personally thought the plot was fairly
good, even if the basic idea does go back to Frankenstein days!
However, if you're easily offended, it's not a good idea.
There's a bit of strong language in there, maybe it's just me
being funny, but it seemed a bit worse in that sense than your
average 15 rated film. And of course there's some nice women in
the film (make of that what you will!).
   You've probably guessed I like this film, and if it isn't too
late, see it. I might even see this again, just for those
luscious FX! (A couple of luscious other things in there too,
but FRED's a family mag!). It does actually pretty much keep you
on the edge of your seat (of course, those effects help again),
RH                       Lawnmower Man

and is definitely worth seeing.
    Lastly, apologies for this naff review. Please, let me just
set the scene (let 'em all know why it's bad, Col!). Last night
I saw the film. but in approx 12 hours I'm setting off on my
holidays, to the costa del Skeggy! I haven't even packed, so
this review is so short (and not as critical perhaps as it
should be) because I'm in a rush.

ED : I've seen the film as well and although the plot wan't
thrilling, it was a good film. The effects are not brilliant -
however the impression they give of VR is far superior to any
machine today - but it won't be long.... Did you know that a
certain American electronics firm had produced a prototype of a
home VR game called CyberJobe which was to be tied in with the
film? It was never released because "they" thought the film was
going to flop - how wrong they were! The game entailed the user
wearing a similar face-mask (not helmet) as in Lawnmower Man and
the user played games against animated backdrop sequences of the
film! Remarkable eh?                                           .
                            Come on!

I'd just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that has
helped FRED become what it has. I can't remember everyone but
I'll thank EVERYONE in Swansea, Nick Roberts, Jon Pillar, AXE,
Cookie, Banzai, MOM, my bank manager.......

I hope that some of you will have time to write a letter for
inclusion in the next FRED with regard to the current situation
at SAMCo and the future of the SAM. Please remember, if you wish
a letter to be included, please send it on disc as an ASCII file
because I don't have the time or inclination to spend my days
typing in letters that have already been typed in and printed
out!

If you do send any discs into FRED, you will either get a
replacement disc or have an issue added to your subscription. MY
CHOICE!!!!!



                    We may meet again....!

As ever, my gratitute extends to :

Cookie           Wizman            Nicam       Doctor H
Mork             Banzai            AXE         MOM
The Hippo        OMCC              Doogle      Mikropol
SD (VR-man!)     T Pavely          Jenks (PJ)  Markey Mark
Adrian "Kriss"   Charley "Kross"   Brucey -G-  Daz Clarke
Alan (&Edwin!) - Happy Birthday!   Ron Column  SU - bye bye!!!

Next month, there'll be demos of WaterWorks, ETracker, "Mr Pac",
Dyzonium and hopefully The Tower. Steve's M/C column will be the
best ever - he's revealing EXCLUSIVE brilliant coding techniques
only in FRED!

FRED25 out fist 2 weeks in September (I need stuff desperately!)

Just £1.50 only from : [redacted]

Magazine (Disc B)

                         Hello Again!

Hello, and welcome to disc B of the special 2 year birthday
issue of FRED Magazine. If you were impressed with some of the
stuff you saw on the first disc, you're going to like this one
as well!!!

Enough of the chat - I'll get down to the nitty gritty and tell
you what's what on this little disc of marvels.

To start with, we've got a demo of FREDs new Spelling Checker -
"Spell Master". It's 100% Machine Code, has over 80,000 words
(on 512K machines - approx 30,000 on 256K), has a fully
functional built in word processor which re-formats, justifies
and word wraps while spell checking. You can spell check the
entire text - or just a single word. There's even an Autocheck
option which spell checks while you type!!!

It accepts files from all major word processors - Secretary,
Outwrite, Tasword etc etc in fact any ASCII file will do.

                            Also..

It's also got a built in Anagram solver and Crossword Solver!!

Naturally, all the usual features are included : add / delete
words from dictionary, ignore / ignore all spellings of a word,
allows for phone numbers etc.

It's now been released for just £14.99.

The demo on the disc is a VERY simple demo of what Spell Master
can do but we hope that you will be able to see that it is a
very powerful utility.

Parallax :

The FRED shoot-em-up is also now been released, the demo on the
disc is just one of the TWELVE end of level guardians but we
hope you'll enjoy blowing him to bits! Unfortunately, the return
shooting and music couldn't go in this demo but that shouldn't
spoil your enjoyment of this demo.
                           Parallax

Before the demo runs you can have the choice of whether you
would like your ship with the speed power up already installed
as well as which of the three types of multiples you can have -
I suggest just trying them all!!!

Parallax (previously named Purge) is now available from FRED for
just £11.99


As promised from FRED24A, here's another great demo from
Entropy. This time it's a FRED Birthday demo - but it's still
full of Entropy plugs!! Enjoy the music - it was done using
E-Tracker. (so was the music on their last demo).

The OMCC (One Man Coding Crew) has done a multi-part demo which
you which like. It features a Ned screen and an animated man
running and jumping along a landscape - load it and see!


                              24B

A new contributor who likes to be called Doogle has supplied two
programs for this issue. Unfortunately, they only run in 256K
mode so you'll need to reset and load up again. They are :

MOONLIGHT : A scrolling demo using the HARLEQUIN landscape.

ESCAPE    : A scroller with a picture in the background and line
            interrupts on the screen.

Wiz-man Steve Taylor is back to assist you with the last few
levels from the original Triltex. Look out for the solutions to
the Later Levels and a level editor soon!!!!

And now, a YS covertape demo! It was originally coded by
Mikropol but has been transferred to SAM by Stephen Drissen. It
seems you have to choose between the music and scrolly because
he can't get them both running at once - I recommend the music!


                              24B

A new contributor, presents the Hints and Cheats section. So
far, he's compiled a list of all the cheats etc that he knows.
He's already written a mouse compatible one but is waiting for
more cheats etc. There is a cheat mode on Manic Miner but I've
forgotten it!!!

Luckily, Stefan Drissen has come to the rescue, simply enter the
following POKE before the CALL in the main loader then whilst in
game, pressing F7 gives you invincibility, F8 up 5 levels and F9
up 1 level.    POKE &1967 + 11 * 16384 , 0

Tim Pavely, has two programs on this disc (as well as doing the
bobs program on 24A). The first is a game he created using
GamesMaster. You don't need GamesMaster to run it, and if you've
got a mouse then you can use that! He's also done a series of
helpful PROCedures in the BITS menu.

Mr Drissen appears again with his DISCiple utility. I can't
promise that it works - but it looks useful!!!                 .