Description
Issue 30
February 1993
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Brian McConnell | |
| Magazine | Outlet Merger, Wayne's World (Argh!) | |
| Reviews | Waterworks, Spritemaster, Dyadic, Day dream | |
| Shares | Search: “Darren Hubbard” | Very Addictive, Even With 1 Player |
| W Gamma | Quantum Software | Demo Of Wop Gamma |
| Kreuzen | Quantum Software | Classy Puzzle Game |
| Space | Marc Broster Jason Patrick | 2 Demos With Tenuous Space Links! |
| Mc Pt 21 | Steve Taylor | Search: “MC 21” Structuring Your Programs |
| E-Tunes | Andy Monk Ian Slavin | Music Done On E-Tracker |
| Wombles | Howard Price | Machine Code Demo |
| Shock! | ESI | Converted Esi Speccy Demo |
| Dos Editor | Search: “P Larkin” | Customise Your Samdos |
| New York Game | Chris Ainsley | Building-Bombing Fun |
| Interlace Patch | Stefan Drissen | Stereo-Ise Interlace Demo Fred 28 |
| Signal Patch | Stefan Drissen | Speeds Up Signal Demo Fred 24b |
| Address Printer | Marc Rickard | Print Addresses To Labels/Envelopes |
| Repay | David Joyce | Calculate Mortgage/Debt Repayments |
| Clip Art | Clip Art Screen |
Magazine
BM Editorial
February 1993 - will it go down in history as the month FRED
reached the magic figure of 10,000 readers? Hah. Fat chance. It
will be remembered as the month which followed January 1993
though, which not many other months can claim to have done. Oh
yes, it might also be the month in which all you Outlet readers
out there receive your first issue of FRED, so to any new
readers - welcome to FRED. You'll find it a little less formal
and technical than Outlet, but we think you'll like it just as
much. Indeed, we'll be keeping quite a few of their features,
just to make you feel a little more at home...!
This month we've got 3 games in total, one in Machine Code, and
two classy machine code demos (which usually go down a treat!).
I usually just blether any old rubbish to fill these Editorials,
but this month I think it's worth mentioning that until recently
I didn't have a clue how good the Spetrum 128 demos were. Now
that the craze has started for converting these to the SAM our
readers can't get enough of them! Hopefully we'll see even more
of these in the future.
BM Editorial
Something else I didn't realise until the recent spate of Speccy
conversions was just how good 128 music, when well thought out,
can be. Some of the tunes in these are fantastic! It's a pity I
didn't get any of these demos back when I actually HAD a 128!
Moving on again from that, I'm really quite suprised at how good
some of the tunes we're hearing from Etracker are. When you
consider that the SAM can't handle samples, some of them really
are incredible! The tune from Waterworks is just brilliant. I
suppose with the Amiga, ST and other powerful computers (not
that the SAM isn't, but you know what I mean) all you have to do
is string together a couple of drum samples and the odd sampled
"Oh Yeah!" and everybody loves it, but on the SAM musicians
really have to think about what their tunes are going to be. For
that reason, I think some the actual TUNES are much better than
many Amiga ones. Amiga ones might SOUND better due to sampled
instruments, but the tunes really aren't too hot usually.
End of waffle.
BM News
The first, and biggest, piece of news is that FRED has taken
over Outlet magazine. This will not be a SU/Crash type merger,
as we will be keeping a significant part of Outlet alive. Now
you can get the best of both magazines for less than half the
normal price (in a roundabout sort of way)! More about this
from Colin later though.
By now you should all have received your letter from West Coast
Computers, and so should all be aware of the developments in
progress.
As there are a lot of new readers who've just joined us, we've
put details of the massive FRED competition over the next couple
of pages.
BM The Great Software Giveaway!!
Welcome. Welcome to something extraordinary. Something never
seen before. Something that'll blow your mind - the FRED
Software Giveaway...
Poncy intro eh? Never mind though, I'm sure you're all capable
of ignoring something like that. So what's this software
giveaway thing all about? Good question and, coincidentally, one
which I'm just about to answer. It's a competition (never!)
intended to give those of you who were sensible enough to buy
either Etracker, Gamesmaster, SCADs, or all three(!) an extra
incentive to "get creating".
What we want is for you to send in either a utility, a game or
an Etracker tune. The tunes must (obviously) be written on
Etracker, and the games must be on SCADs or Gamesmaster, but
utilities can be written on anything you want (as long as it's
on the SAM...!)
BM The Prizes!
Now things start getting a bit complex (to a mere FRED editor
like me, anyway). There are three 1st Prizes, one for each
category - utility, game, tune - and three 2nd prizes. That
gives 6 sets of prizes. Each set consists of each and every item
of FRED software yet released, except the Etracker tune writers
who don't get Etracker for obvious reasons. The first prize
winners will also get their piece published commercially, and
therefore be in line for a large wad of royalties!
As well as that, entries which don't win 1st prize will be
featured in FRED, and the authors will be appropriately
rewarded with either cash or free issues of the magazine.
Incidentally, back issues are NOT included in the software
giveaway - for a start you should all HAVE most of them! - but
the FREDatives, Rachel, and all the FRED games and utilities are
all there!!
BM A Bit More Info
Don't be put off writing a game just because you're not too hot
at graphics; we'll be judging the entries on much more than how
they look (which is quite important for the music entries!).
Originality, effort, depth, these are all things which will be
considered, but in the end it'll be the overall impression which
decides the winning entry.
Joint entries are perfectly acceptable; if you want to get
somebody else in to do some graphics for your game or utility,
then that's fine, but we will only give one set of software for
each winning piece of software.
If for some reason you don't want your entry put on FRED, please
say so or we'll automatically consider doing so.
All entries must be with us by the end of July 1993.
BM A Bit More Info
If we get numerous brilliant utilities and games - and let's
hope we do! - then we might consider commercially publishing
more than just the 1st-prize winner's item. Any other pieces
published will just miss out on all the software.
Hopefully that covers everything. If you do have any queries,
though, you know the address to write to.
Well, Colin and I look forward to seeing all your games/
utilities/tunes.
CM Colin's Bit
It's good to see that Brian is settling into his job, and that
everyone out in FRED land is enjoying the discs brought to you
each and every month...so far!
As I said in the issue 29 newsletter, there had been numerous
events happening that I listed - and many more that I have been
sworn to secrecy about!
Just the day before FRED29 went out, the final contract in the
Outlet takeover was signed, sealed and delivered as they say.
From now on, the best parts of Outlet will be merged into FRED -
resulting in a magazine more fabulous than ever before! This
month does not see many changes towards Outlet because such a
big project is obviouslly going to take time.
I have been speaking to Brian Cavers about his continuing to
write the letters section - for those of you familiar with
Outlet, you'll know that this section was one of it's strongest
points and provided a great service to all Outlet readers.
CM Out The Window? Nope, into FRED
We (as in me & Brian!!) are talking about using the Outlet
Checkout which we feel was also a major contributing factor to
Outlet's success.
Items like the 'Outdex' will take a great deal of time to become
operational in future issues, so we're not sure when (or if)
this will start to appear.
We shouldn't have any problems continuing with the clip-art
though!
In order to make FRED appeal to a wider audience, as well as
implementing many of the "serious" parts of Outlet, other steps
have been taken and we hope to see some big names writing the
occasional piece for FRED!
Naturally, I would particularly welcome anything from the people
that contributed to Outlet - I think FRED readers would too!
CM Have I lost more money?
Nope, no-one loses out of THIS deal! All outstanding, paid
Outlet subscriptions have been transferred into FRED
subscriptions starting with Issue 29. All those of you that had
issues due from both FRED and Outlet, you'll find your FRED
subscription somewhat extended!
This transfer of subscriptions was done on a one-to-one basis.
Because Outlet was a commercial venture, another of it's strong
points was that it paid for it's contributions. And this is
something we will continue to do - all contributions that get a
"main menu" spot will receive a cheque - at least £10.
I know £10 isn't a lot for the program you've been slaving over,
but the magazine simply doesn't have the funds to pay more -
attending shows, taking over Outlet, and honouring subscriptions
paid before the price-rise have all bitten deep into the
magazine bank balance - and I don't want my bank manager to moan
about that account as well!!!
CM All Straight?
OK - that's that explained! If you think you were owed issues of
Outlet from Chezron and you haven't got a letter from FRED or
your subcription number hasn't changed (it's the 6 digit number
on the envelope your FREDs come in - the last 2 digits show the
last issue of FRED you are due to receive), then just drop me a
line explaining the problem.
FRED now has the copyright of all the back issues of Outlet,
ranging from 32 (April '90) through to the last one, 65 (January
'93). This is still being sorted out and I'll announce later
when and how you can get them.
I would like to point out that this takeover and the transfer of
copyrights pertains only to the SAM version of Outlet magazine.
None of the Spectrum versions of Outlet, or Chezron themselves
have been taken over by FRED.
And if you're wanting either OutWrite V2 or Style Writer -
they're still on the order form!
CM Problems, problems ...
Since issue 26, FRED magazine has been professionally duplicated
and on-body printed.
The theory behind this was to save myself many hours of tedious
work, to make the discs look more professional and to reduce the
number of faulty discs.
Unfortunately, the company we were using, proved very unreliable
- not only on delivery dates and faulty discs (sometimes up to
10% of the discs were faulty !) but many other mistakes were
made by them in the short time we used them.
So, now a new duplicating company has been found - and this is
the first issue they've done. Unfortunately, I don't know what
the discs are going to look like because the master disc has to
be finished almost 2 weeks before the discs are received back
from the duplicators! - Hence the usefulness of the Newsletter
for up-to-date news!
CM Life's just one big hassle
As I explained - I can't tell if this company will make a better
job of the discs so I will continue to do what I've been doing
for the last two months now, and that is to fully check every
single disc that goes out of here!
All FRED discs done by the duplicator are individually verified
- I mean each and every of the 160 tracks is checked!
All FRED discs copied "in-house" are fully verified and checked
at time of copying.
All FRED Publishing titles are individually loaded up and tested
before they are sent out.
This has meant that from 3 months ago when we would receive
several faulty discs every week, I now get none! The only faulty
discs that get sent back now were either corrupted by the user,
or they were sent out before this testing scheme came into
action. That's a pretty good improvement!!
BM General Drivel
Yes, Colin there in exceedingly good spirits. "Problems
Problems" indeed. Very cheerful!
Anyway, a little note to remind you all that if you want to
contribute to FRED, but can't program/create music/draw, then
all is still not lost! You can of course buy software and review
it for us, or you can write an article! You don't have to write
about the SAM, or even about computers, as long as your article
is likely to appeal to a reasonably wide audience (no tips on
how to maximise the offspring rate of ostriches please...).
I'll take this little space to announce that I've just seen what
could be the saddest thing EVER on television. Picture the scene
- I'm sitting writing this in the middle of the morning, when I
get the urge to see what's on. So, I reach for the remote
control, press "1", and see.......a bloke lying doing bench
presses with a broom handle, with water-filled balloons on each
end. I can't believe we pay our licences to watch "exercise
guides" like that! NOTHING will EVER be sadder than that. Ever.
Welcome to Wayne's World
..where all the excellant things in life you only dreamt about
hang out in abundance (well for me anyway...). Where all the
babes are 'magically delicious', where the tunes are so heavy
they're unusual to the point where public safety is at risk and
where life is just one long amazing gig to which you have an
'Access All Areas' pass!
Waynes Unusually Vital Statistics
Full Name : Wayne Niblet Campbell
Sex : Exsqueeze me?
Date Of Birth : September 31st
Place Of Bith : In the area of my Mother's undercarriage
Birth Sign : Leo. I was born Libra but Leo's are
good leaders, fiercely loyal and moody
Parents : One Mother, One Father.
Mom's Maiden Name : Niblet
Height : 4 feet and 20 inches
Weight : 8 stone
Eyes : 2, sparkling hazel
Hair : Shoulder Length and dandruff free
Glove : Size 7, 5 fingers
Residence : Aurora, Illinois
Occupation : Host of own TV show and international man
of mystery
Politics : The One Humungous Party
Hobbies : Electric Guitar, Parties
Currently Reading : This article
Who's Who in Waynes World
Wayne Campbell : See the previous page for my most excellant
mentionables!
Garth Algar : He is my best bud and co-host. We've known each
other for ever and he is possessed of many (although not all) of
my heroic qualities. The most important quality that Garth is
blessed with is that his cousin Barry is a roadie for Aerosmith.
Mrs Algar (Garth's Mom) : I'm sorry but Garth has a babe for a
mom. He's such a lucky duck. She's a fox.
Beev (Garth's Dad) : How can a dweeb like him be married to a
fox like Mrs Algar? It is not natural. Does this foretell the
coming of the apocalypse? Will monkeys fly out of my butt?
Stacey : Ex girl-friend and psycho hose-beast. Like Madonna, she
still has the hots for me, the poor tortured creature. But you
know I feel partly responsible for her self-nullifying
behaviour.
Who's Who...
Cassandra : If I said she was a babe you'd say "No Way" and I'd
say "Way", then you'd say "Noo-oo Waa-aay" and I'd say "Waa-aay"
and you can see the infinite regression this would cause.
Glen : Runs the local donut store where Garth's dream chick
works. Home of excellant munchables!
Benjamin Oliver : An honest, upright and thoroughly excellent
television executive who I would trust my girl, show and life
with...........NOT!
Claudia Schiffer : The Guess jeans girl....SCHWING!
.
BM On the Disk
Bet you didn't know Wayne had a SAM! Just goes to show how
popular the Coupe really is...
"Shares" by Darren Hubbard is one of the best games ever given
away on FRED. No doubt. After just one game on this I'm sure
you'll agree. Superb. Basically you've got to make £1,000,000 or
more by buying and selling shares. Up to 6 people can play, and
it's brill. Full instructions are included in the game.
Wop Gamma is an exclusive demo of the new Revelation's first
game, so now you can all see what to expect when you send off
your cheques to order a copy.
Kreuzen (pronounced Kroy Tsin - German for "cross" - I think) is
a full machine code game, written by the gent responsible also
for the item above. What a busy lad. Anyway, instructions aren't
included on this game, so we'll give you some here. The controls
seem a good a place as any to begin with, so use either a
joystick, or the corresponding keys (67890).
BM On the Disk
When you begin the game, you'll see a board of coloured squares,
a timer, a target colour and a percentage meter. What you have
to do is convert all the squares (100% of them - that's where
the % meter comes in, as if you couldn't guess...!) to the
target colour, which I think is red on the first level. You do
this by surrounding a square by
four squares of the colour that To Convert Blue to Red...
you want to convert the square
to. If you want to convert a RR
blue square to red you surround RR bb RR
it with 4 reds as shown in the RR
diagram. Simple, really.
To move the squares around, you hold down FIRE and then push the
joystick in a direction. If you press up or down then the column
of squares will move up or down. If you press left or right then
the row will move left or right. And that's all there is to it!
An intriguing little game this, and a good tactic once you've
got about 25% is to hold fire and press left and up a lot.
BM On the Disk
This hopefully converts loads more colours to the target colour,
but if it doesn't just convert a few more squares the "proper"
way and then try again. Eventually the whole row and column will
turn to the target colour, and then you can move onto a new one.
After Kreuzen comes Space. This contains two demos both
featuring space in some way, hence the name. FRED is not really
known for being cryptic... One is by Marc Broster, the other by
J Patrick.
Machine Code part 21 follows that, and this month is about
programming style - what to wear for those long computing
sessions. Steve Taylor takes a look at the new £800 posh Pro
Assembler range of typing gloves, and asks the question "Do they
really need to have built in smoke alarms?" Unless of course you
HAVEN'T been on hallucinogenic drugs, in which case it's about
something completely different - amateur dramatics in the Outer
Hebrides...
BM On the Disk
Etunes, our usual music section, this month has some tunes
written on Etracker, which we thought might make a pleasant
change to erm, tunes written on Etracker. Yes. Fine.
Wombles is a pleasing little demo written by some young
hooligans claiming to be the Wombles. Ha. But we're not fooled,
are we? We all KNOW that the wombles actually live in Downing
Street... A subtle hint: try pressing the NMI button!
Shock! is a converted Speccy megademo, featuring a number of
very impressive sections including a perspective spinning pair
of chessboards. Definitely worth a look. Thanks to Stefan
Drissen for this.
DOS Editor. Now, we've all known for ages that it doesn't take
much to fiddle about with POKEs and things to alter the SAM Dos,
but this little prog from P Larkin eliminates the need for
looking up variables to mess around with, as it is fully menu
driven and makes life that little bit easier.
BM On the Disk
Adverts? No. I refuse to explain this.
-- Bits N Bobs --
New York Game is from Chris Ainsley, and is based on the old
favourite where you drop bombs onto buildings to clear a space
to land on. Controls are P = up, L = down, SPACE = drop yer
bomb! Great fun.
Repay is to help you work out how much you need to pay per month
on the things like Hire Purchase, mortgages etc. It's fairly
self explanatory, so we won't go into details here. David Joyce
is the talented bloke responsible.
Address Printer from Marc Rickard is a program that lets you
print an address directly onto an "A4 folded in three" size
envelope, as he so delicately puts it! It's been written
specifically for a Citizen 140 or something, so it may not work
with all printers - just try it and see.
BM On the Disk
Demo Patches. These, supplied by Stefan Drissen, are for the
demos Signal and Interlaced. They basically enhance each demo
slightly. You will need the original demos, by the way. The
Patch does not overwrite the files on the disk, so the change is
not permanent.
Clip Art is a screen of clip art (surprise, surprise), and is
just one of the features of Outlet which we're going to be
keeping. Just use the stuff on the screen as you like: load it
into Flash, GRAB sections from BASIC, whatever. As long as you
don't alter it to pictures of illegal sexual acts involving
animals, and distribute printouts among your community, we don't
really mind! Just in case though: we at FRED cannot be held
responsible for you being arrested for doing things with obscene
material...
BM A Plea or Two
Some the newer readers (ie those who've just joined us from
Outlet) may not be aware that FRED now pays for contributions
which are used on the main menu, so please send in any programs
which you might have lying around. Without readers'
contributions, remember, FRED can't really do an awful lot...
And Now for Something Completely Different...
Does anybody else get annoyed with having to change aerials
around the whole time? It's not so bad with just SAM and TV, but
with an Amiga and video to worry about as well, it seems I spend
most of my life switching aerials around.
So, does anybody have one of these little gadgets that allow you
to put in three or four inputs, and then select the right one
using a switch to spare? If so, please get in touch, and state
how much you want for it. Thanks.
BM Credits
Editor: Brian McConnell
Thanks to the following people, without whom this issue of FRED
would be about as exciting as a game of Sphera...
Marc Broster J Patrick Stefan Drissen
Darren Hubbard P Larkin David Joyce
Chris Ainsley Marc Rickard David Simmons
Howard Price The Wombles Barry Spencer
Steve Taylor Ian Slavin
Mike Patten and the rest of Faith No More for being great!
FRED Publishing, Phone [redacted] at
[redacted] any REASONABLE time!
>>> Music and Wrestling >>>
BM Music Reviews
Albums reviewed this issue:
New Model Army - Impurity
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Mother's Milk
Superchunk - Tossing Seeds
Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over
Nirvana - Incesticide (by Howard Price)
As you can see, this is the first month that somebody's written
in with a music review of their own, so Hurray! for that!
Before we begin this month's section, a brief mention that next
month will be a bit of a Dinosaur Jr special - we'll have a
review of their new album "Where You Been?" PLUS! a review of
their UK concert as seen at the Glasgow Barrowlands! (Bet you
can't wait!). Hopefully this concert will be a little better
than the last time they played Glasgow, when one of band decided
to be asleep in his hotel at about the time he was due
onstage...
BM NMA - Impurity
I only got this recently because I was at a party a couple weeks
back and it got played a lot and basically I liked it and bought
it the next week! It's not that old anyway; 1990 it came out.
There are 12 tracks on this CD, and it lasts 49 minutes. The
style of music's also fairly difficult to categorise, but it's a
bit like the Levellers, with a bit more of a Metal influence, if
that helps any...?
The album is one of these that takes a fair few listens to
really appreciate; at first there are about 3 tracks that you
like, but gradually you get used to more and more of them, and
after about 8 or 9 plays you'll like just about all the tracks.
This is the first NMA album I've bought, but on the evidence of
this I'd say I'll definitely be buying more. 7 out of 10.
BM Chilli Peppers - Mother's Milk
This is an album I've been meaning to get for AGES, but have
never got round to it. Until now, and it's a top album; their
best, some say. It's 44 minutes long, with 13 tracks.
The Chilli Peppers are a mixture of rap and "modern" heavy
metal (they're also American, in case that matters to
anybody..?).
The best track by far is "Higher Ground" which really is
amazing! It's fast, it's got a great tune, and it's um, a cover
version of a song by Stevie Wonder... Yup, I was surprised by
that too! It's class though. The first few tracks are the best,
with the last couple being a bit naff really. There's a song
taking the mick out of the corporate music, and one all about
the Lakers, the bands favourite basketball team I'd imagine.
Overall I can't say that this is their best album - I've only
got two of them - but it certainly is a damn good one! 8 out of
10.
BM Superchunk - Tossing Seeds
This is the collection of all Superchunk's singles, none of
which even came close to making an impact in the UK chart!
Superchunk, whose album "No Pocky for Kitty" I reviewed in a
previous issue, are one of these American indie/metal bands, and
one of best in my opinion.
This collection of singles, 13 tracks lasting 40 minutes, is a
fair mixture of songs. Some are brilliant, like the offensively
titled "Slack Mother******", others are just good, and some are
a little bit lacking. There aren't that many singles so a few
of the songs are B Sides; I've nothing against B Sides, but
they're rarely anything to get worked up about are they!
There are also a couple of cover versions, which are good to
listen to. Chances are if you liked ...Kitty you'll like most of
this, but buy that if you want to see why such a fuss is made
about the band. 7 out of 10. Next month we'll have a review of
Superchunk's NEW album, as long as the Dundee record shops get
it in, that is...
BM Buffalo Tom - Let Me Come Over
Buffalo Tom are one of the most under-rated bands around today;
hardly anybody seems to have any idea who they are! Well,
they're a Boston band, and they're one of these bands that like
to do very mellow songs with the occasional really fast one
chucked in.
This is a fairly good length, 50 minutes or so, and has 13
tracks on the CD (the tape has only 12 for some reason). The
songs range from good to utterly brilliant. Unusually, the
lyrics are almost always clear enough to understand, and some
are very philosophical. If you don't care about lyrics (which I
usually don't) it's not too hard to ignore them though.
This is easily one of the best albums of 1992, with two
particular songs - Taillights Fade and Porchlight - being among
the best individual songs EVER! 9 out of 10 for this particular
album, methinks.
I'll now hand you over to Howard Price for Nirvana's newest.....
HP Review - Nirvana: Incesticide
The first thing I noticed about this CD is the fact that Nirvana
have this unquenchable urge to stress that they're not out for
the money - on the front of the box is a sticker saying this is
only a load of published bootlegs, not a full whack album.
The second thing you notice about it is that the cover's crap,
which also shows up on what sort of budget this is produced
under - a low one (reminds me of Sam game covers). A good
indication of how much cash went into it is the amount of paper
in the front booklet (Madonna and George Michael get booklets,
while you'd be hard pressed to find ANY Auteurs stuff with more
than 2 pages). So you get the picture. This isn't supposed to be
brilliant. I don't know why I bothered with that qualifying
paragraph, cos it's blatantly obvious that most things on this
range from the just releasable to the downright naff, but it's
still brilliant. You've got stuff from the older versions of the
band, different writers and extra players and BBC sessions from
Mark Goodier and John Peel.
HP Review - Nirvana: Incesticide
It really makes you realise how good their style is, cos it
shines through the most obscure tracks ("Big Long Now" is a good
example).
There are at least 4 hit grooves waiting to get out, which ought
to sell even if they do faff aroud a bit every now and then
("Aneurysm"). The arrangment isn't exactly variable but each
title is ideally suited for the grunge it's played on. The
recording isn't loud, but has the power of any Faith No More
song, and shows that they're capable of producing that amazing
feedback when needed, not doing the feedback later on and using
another production track to get it right.
This is destined for fame, cos I'm giving it 8/10. Watch out for
Sliver on the Chart show (Indie chart). Well worth losing hours
of sleep for.
(Read on for some wrestling news, from Darren Hubbard! - BRIAN)
DH Darren Hubbard's Wrestling Update!
All yer usual news, listings and tantilising shocks in the
comfort of yer armchair. (Unless, like me, you have yer SAM in
your bedroom). This month, I annouce the main event of the
riveting, ravishing and rather canny Royal Rumble and I have
more Survivor Series results.
----------------------------------------------------------------
VIRGIL 250 lbs Good Guy
Former bodyguard, under Ted Dibiase (last month), Virgil
"double-crossed" (american term - I use "been shan") Dibiase and
became a wrestler in his own right. Unfortunately, he isn't very
good. In fact, hes c**p! Wears red and white stripy bottoms and
he looks a bit queer in them.
Finisher - Snap Neckbreaker
----------------------------------------------------------------
YOKOZUMA 505 lbs Managed by Mr. Fuji Bad Guy
Take a look at the weight! 505 lbs! 10 stone is only 140 lbs!
Thats over 36 stone of lard you have there! (ahem) Yep, he is a
bit on the tubby side because he was a sumo wrestler. Wears
bottoms which look like they belong to Santa. (They're wierd).
Finisher - Banzai Splash off the second turnbuckle.
----------------------------------------------------------------
TATANKA 250 lbs Good Guy
Supposed to be a Lumbee Indian. I'm not so sure. Nice tan,
though. Extremely irratating voice gets on my nerves - on
interviews he shrieks "Yee!-Yee!-Yee!-Yee!-Yee!-Yee!-Yee!" and I
feel like putting my foot through the telly. Undefeated.
Finisher - Fireman's Carry
----------------------------------------------------------------
RICK "THE MODEL" MARTEL 234 lbs Bad Guy
Former tag-team titleist in 88. Wears pink trunks, thinks hes
really, really fashionable and puts on a fake "Model voice"
whenever he talks.
Finisher - Boston Crab
----------------------------------------------------------------
HIGH ENERGY 470 lbs Good Guys
"The Birdman" Koko B.Ware and "The Rocket" Owen Hart (Bret's
brother). Quite possibly the worst tag-team ever. Koko thinks
hes really great (wrong) and Owen is just, erm, not all hes
cracked up to be. Wears quite possibly the worst ring attire
too! They both wear this dodgy dungaree things which stretch to
their armpits. As for the colour, well, lime green? (Vomit!)
Finisher - Dropkick off the Top Turnbuckle into a pinning
combination.
----------------------------------------------------------------
HEADSHRINKERS 562 lbs Managed by Offa Bad Guys
Fatu and Samu. Mad, savage beasts from Samoa. Likes eating
their opponents up - literally! They bite their opponents faces
after their matches.
Finisher - Sameon Drop
----------------------------------------------------------------
BERZERKER 320 lbs Managed by Mr. Fuji Bad Guy
Thick massive bloke who wears Viking clothes when he wrestles.
Shouts "Huss!" as he wrestles. Hes not very good really.
Finisher - He usually flings his opponents over the top rope
but during recent weeks he has a new move which looks, er, like
a belly-to-belly side powerslam (sorry, won't happen again.)
----------------------------------------------------------------
BOB BACKLUND 235 lbs Good Guy
Old timer who used to wrestle over nine years ago - hes 43.
Really boring. Dull in interviews, wears dull blue trunks and he
has no music introdution. Dull.
Finisher - Roll Up and Bridge / Three Quarter Nelson with pin.
----------------------------------------------------------------
CRUSH 315 lbs Good Guy
Very big (6'9) very muscley and very strong indeed. One of my
favourites. Undefeated so far. Wears an orange/yellow/blue or
purple outfit.
Finisher - Cranium Crusher
----------------------------------------------------------------
MORE SURVIVOR SERIES RESULTS!
Continuing from last month...
VIRGIL vs YOKOZUMA
It was obvious that Virgil was going to get beat. Yokozuma used
his weight to beat over overrated (and crap!) Virgil. Yokozuma
did an impressive legdrop half-way through the match which
neally caved his neck in. Now, the WWf may be fixed, but that
must of hurt! Yokozuma won with a Banzai vertical splash.
TATANKA vs RICK MARTEL
Worst match of the night. Rick "stole" Tatanka's sacred eagle
feathers (sacred my eye! They're piegon feathers!) and if
Tatanka won the match, he would get them back. He did so he did
(if that makes sense).
HIGH ENERGY vs HEADSHRINKS
This match didn't last long. First, High Energy took the tide in
their favour then the Headshrinks dominated the rest of the
match. They must have used a blind ref for this match because
the Headshrinker's manager, Offa, snapped a Bamboo stick over
Koko's back in full view of the ref! Samu pinned Owen with a
Sameon Drop.
ROYAL RUMBLE 1993 PREVIEW!
The Royal Rumble is probably the best WWF event of the year
because in the ring there are no rules! The rules are simple. It
starts off with two people in the ring and every two minutes
another person enters the ring. The only way to eliminate each
other is to throw everyone over the top rope, and the last
person left in the ring is the winner. In addition, the winner
of the Royal Rumble gets a WWF title shot at Wrestlemania IX.
At the time of writing (well typing really) twelve wrestlers
have been signed to battle in the Royal Rumble (30 is needed).
They are - Ted Dibiase - Tatanka - Yokozuma - Bob Backlund - The
Berzerker - The Undertaker - Ric Flair - Mr Perfect- Randy
Savage - Virgil - Earthquake and Crush. As well as this event,
the WWF Championship will be up for grabs - Bret Hart (champ) vs
Razor Ramon. And a match between Big Boss Man and Bam Bam
Bigelow.
And here, from a (very) reliable source, are the rest of the
contestants for the Royal Rumble - before they are to be
annouced!
Hacksaw Jim Duggan - Typhoon - El Matador Tito Santana - Nailz -
Koko B. Ware - Owen Hart - IRS - Nasty Boys - Papa Shango - Rick
Martel - Headshrinkers - Repoman - Damien DeMento - Jerry "The
King" Lawler - Carlos Colon and Tenru.
Plus Marty Jannetty will challenge Shawn Michaels for the
Intercontinental Championship. Quick prediction time...
Mr Perfect or Tatanka will win the Royal Rumble
Bret Hart will beat Razor Ramon
and Marty Jannetty will beat Shawn Michaels to win the IC belt.
If you read this before the event takes place (doubt it), then
the Royal Rumble can be seen on January 26th on Sky Sports.
Exclusive - Steiners hit WWF!
The best tag team in any organisation has came into the WWF -
Rick and Scott Steiner. They have won amature wrestling belts,
the tag champs in Japan and the WCW tag belts twice! Not bad.
The Steiners are just really great. Scott Steiner has probably
the best finishing manuever ever - the "Frankensteiner" which
has to be seen to be believed. Honest. Its like a combination of
a vertical headscissors, a monkey flip and a jump and Rick does
a canny belly-to-belly suplex.
When the listings of wrestlers get low, I shall start doing
listings of wrestlings manuevers, by the way, so you might start
to understand my jargon!
Oh, the Steiners. Watch out for them. They will be fighting
the Beverley Brothers at the Royal Rumble (probably. It's just a
guess.
Stay tuned next month because there will be more listings, more
news and the results of the 1993 Royal Rumble. Until then, I can
be reached at 10 Princetown Tce, North Moor, Sunderland SR3 1RL.
(an SAE ensures a reply, and put my name on the envelope!)
Letters & Reviews
BM Contents
01 - This page
02 - Letter from Howard Price
05 - Reply to Howard Price
06 - Letter from B Harriman
10 - Reply to B Harriman
12 - Letter from Barry Spencer
15 - Reply to Barry Spencer
17 - Erm, see for yourselves....
18 - Another Parallax review, by Diggory Gray
20 - A Small Apology
21 - Waterworks Review
24 - Spritemaster Review
26 - Dyadic Review
28 - Day Dream Review
Letter from Howard Price
Dear Ed/Col,
I'm sorry if this has already been said, but the price raise IS
a good idea. And I don't care if no-one else thinks so. What you
have at the moment, at a guess, is hundreds, nay, thousands of
budding Sam users, who are busily saving up their pennies to buy
your excellant mag. Now, what does a price raise do? Well, let's
face it, 50p is not a lot of money, and it represents the chance
for programmers to get a bit of cash in. The standard will
increase, hence more people buy Fred, and you turn into a bigger
company. You get better coders out of it, you inject money into
the limbo that is the current Sam situation. I think that there
are a very high percentage of Sam coders in comparison to other
computers (if you want to play games, you'd get an Amoeba), and
everyone could write a main menu standard thingy once every 20
months (yes, that's how often you'd need to earn £10!!).On top
of this, probably more important than most of the other reasons,
it'd be more difficult to ignore this 16-bit standard, 8-bit
priced computer! Hurrah for that and an eclair for all of us.
Letter from Howard Price
As a programmer anxious to keep up with current 16-bit standards
(there's that word again), I'm rather interested in the wonder
known as the OVERSCAN. As far as I can tell, either the screen
area is redefined, or the border colour is changed to look like
pixels. Result? No borders, and a BIG screen to play around with
great! If there is either some other way to do this or an easy
way to acheive this effect on the Sam, I would love to know it!!
This is probably a quezzie for Col, as I'm not sure whether our
brand-spanking-new Ed has an Amoeba or STE.
Wasn't the on-disc printing a clever feat!? It must've taken a
bit more than shoving it through the printer! My only gripe,
which really isn't too much of a problem, is the fact that the
issue number doesn't appear on the top edge. Still, it's these
sort of professional touches which shows exactly how stable the
Sam market is, when done well (it's no luck that Fred is number
1!!).
Letter from Howard Price
Can I just say, in response to a remark I made a while back
about scrolling, and in particular, Sonic. I still think there
is a VERY easy way of getting smoothish scrolling on the Sam. I
will explain. Use two screens. Also, I may as well say that the
Sam has more than just mode 4, which means it can do things
extremely quckly in mode 2, for example. Perhaps we can get
another OCTOPUS quality prog for mode 2.(by DAX) Only hoping..
And now, a last word to all Sam coders and supporters, let's
keep on producing stuff PLEASE, things like the B&B menu and the
letters page are getting a little bare!! (if I see that 4 lines
thing again I shall write a program where you shoot discs with
it on then assasinate Ian Slavin!! (Hi, no hard feelings??!)
from.. Howard Price
PS Shall we concentrate our All formats trips to Birmingham? HP
BM Reply to Howard Price
BRIAN:- Thanks for the letter Howard, and for your support of
the price rise. 50p isn't much, as you said, but it allows us to
onbody print (you're right - it IS more complex than putting it
through the printer!), get FRED properly duplicated, as well as
pay programmers such as yourself. It's worth noting that so far
almost everbody who's written says the price rise is a good
idea. As from next month, therefore, FRED will be £9.99 per
month (joke...).
As to your next point, I DO have an Amoeba - that's what I use
to do my graphics on - but I don't have a clue about overscan,
other than what it does. I don't know much about the technical
side of the SAM, but I think it's safe to say you can't get
overscan on them. Unless somebody knows otherwise...?
A small tip for your disk dilemma - put a small blob of Tippex
on each issue which is a multiple of 3 (like this one) which you
can then use to spot the issues quickly and easily. (FRED can't
take responsibility for any disks corrupted in this way though!)
Letter from B Harriman
Dear Colin,
HAP-PY NEW YEAR!
And hello again. If you remember , I spoke to you (one of the
few! eh!), in the Northumbria Centre,Washington (early October
'92) at the All Formats . I am referring to "Have you heard of
the program that was reviewed in an Amiga (spit!) publication
but is written in SAM Basic?"
Well, the program is called "Video Studio 3" and I have traced
it to the "Amiga (spit!) Format",issue 39,October '92.Page 159.
On reading the article, I picked out "ZVP, phone 0268 411719"
and that was when the angry newsagent gave me the look what
said,"BUY OR GET OUT!".I'm sorry I couldn't get any more.I tried
to phone but didn't connect or something.
Anyway, that's my bit of sleuthing done on that subject.
Letter from B Harriman
This letter is purposefully (??) on disc so you can edit it to
put into the letters column on a FRED disc. (Ta muchly - BRIAN)
First, could YOU convince ZVP to bring out "Video Studio 3" as a
working title on the SAM. I am prepared, as I'm sure the rest of
your readers are, to back you up for sending letters to ZVP (or
any other suggestions).
Second, any budding artists (I'm not),out there,could design
title screens to build up a vast library for any budding
director or "videographer" to use in any up and coming epic. As
a few suggestions :-
Months of the Year Eg. Flaming June, Mad March etc., Our
Anniversary, Champagne glasses bubbling, Christmas Day, Summer
Holidays, Holiday Destinations, eg Butlins, Greece, Miami
etc.,etc.
Letter from B Harriman
Third, as featured on other Fred Disks, the MASTERS OF MAGIC
(upon reading this ) can bring out user friendly versions of
their wonderful scrollys, eg Kind of Magic, Fred Iss. 12. I say
user friendly by the fact they can be made to 1st, input a
message; 2nd, select a background screen; 3rd, select a font ;
4th , select time on screen ; 5th , type of fade-in/out and
finally PRESTO! A nice video titler. Credit to Simon cooke
(Fancy Fonts, Fred Iss. 14), he can have a bash too !
I know my requests seem one sided but if you or anybody else for
that matter, takes a look through the camcorder mags then you
will see that any titler other than stick on letters, is way up
and above the £140 mark.
Fourth, lets have a good set of screen routines for fade-in/out,
screen dissolves, wipes, fades from one screen to another. I
know I'm asking a lot but, are we, the Sam Users, just gonna sit
and wait for somebody else to do something?
Letter from B Harriman
KEEP THE FAITH!
Yours Faithfully, Brian Harriman
P.S. I enjoyed using Spell Master but does nearly every plural
have to be checked? I also have added more cash to the cheque -
see order form.
P.P.S Has any "codies" came up with a way to pick the codes (in
Speccy 48k games via an emulator) which use a 128k sound chip if
played on a 128k, +2 etc. These codes can then be re-coded,
re-diverted to the Sam sound chip. I wrote a letter to MGT with
this question for inclusion on the next newsdisk way back, but
as you know...... Well anyway, I know somebody is thinking along
these lines cos I've just read Sam Centre in Iss. 86 of Your
Sinclair (Feb '93) Wish I knew Machine code.
BM Reply to B Harriman
BRIAN:- Hmmm, interesting about that video studio thing. Are you
sure it was in SAM basic and not just some other, similar,
language? Unfortunately, I don't think that even the wonderful,
Godlike FRED could persuade a company to publish a product. If
users do want the product they should write themselves though,
and let us know what happens.
Your second point about images for video titling is a good one,
but I don't think you'd find too many artists willing to develop
vast amounts of graphics without some form of financial
incentive. On the other hand, however, this month sees the first
in a regular selection of clip-art images. As is discussed in
the main magazine, FRED has now taken over OUTLET, and one of
their features which we'll be keeping is the clip art. You can
get to this via the Bits N Bobs section, and can just GRAB the
relevant image(s) or load them into Flash! or whatever you want
really. How's that for prompt action!
BM Reply to B Harriman
If the Masters of Magic and/or Cookie are listening - how about
it then? "The MOM Scroller Editor" is something I'm sure a lot
of people would find useful for their own demos as well as video
titling.
I couldn't agree more about how useful a selection of fancy
screen fades would be. Another one for the machine coders I
suspect...?
There is a reason why plurals in Spell Master are queried -
memory. When you think about it, to include plurals in the
dictionary would just about double the size of it, so only half
the amount of words could be included. It's just a matter of
compromise.
Thanks for that Titler program you included. It was far from
naff, but probably not sufficiently widely-appealing to include
in FRED. Keep at it though!
Letter from Barry Spencer
Dear Brian,
May I first congratulate you on the continuing success of FRED
Publishing during 1992. 1993 has started well for the SAM with
the arrival of the West Coast Computers Newsletter, the release
of your game "Waterworks" and Revelation Software's 1st new game
"Wop Gamma". I've been playing Waterworks for some time now (I'm
stuck on level 13 (where else)) and it's certainly one of the
best FRED games so far. I'm glad to hear it's selling well as it
certainly deserves it.
As always with SAM, any good news is tempered with bad; the bad
being the demise of both Outlet and Enceladus. I know they've
been taken over or bought out but ask any CRASH reader what that
means (have you seen the state of Sinclair User these days?).
I wasn't a regular subscriber to Outlet (I purchased 8 issues)
but I found it an excellent magazine, especially the letters
section which was mammoth. The reason given by Outlet was lack
Letter from Barry Spencer
of contributors. Enceladus was another top notch magazine, and
as yet I don't know the reason for its ending. Graham Burtenshaw
was spending a lot of his time on an art package for the SAM so
perhaps that has something to do with it.
These, together with last year's demise of Arcadia (a superb but
unfortunately poorly supported mag) and the closing of PD
libraries has changed the make-up of the SAM world for 1993.
With more commercial games and utilities being released, PD
Software seems to have run its course.
Also, we now only have three regular general interest quality
mags - the two "veterans", FRED and SAM Supplement, (both
excellent if different) and the "newcomer" SAM Prime (shows
promise). There are a few erratic mags like SCPDU and
Baktrak, and some specialist mags such as the excellent SAM
Coupe Adventure Club mag.
Letter from Barry Spencer
Well, let's hope the good news outweighs the bad in 1993.
I've included a PD game "Kreuzen" for possible inclusion in one
of your issues. This was a freebie on the Your Sinclair Feb '93
cover tape, but reading comments in your and other mags it seems
most SAM Users have given up on the Spectrum mags, and may have
missed this quite playable game.
All the best,
Barry Spencer
BM Reply to Barry Spencer
BRIAN:- One of the many letters we've received praising
Waterworks, and it's only been released a few weeks! I
personally can't even GET to level 13, so I'm afraid I can't
help you there!
It is a pity that so many ventures go under or are taken over,
but in the case of the FRED/OUTLET thing, it's more of a merger
than a direct takeover. FRED will be the more dominant of the
two, but there's no way we're going to drop OUTLET completely!
We'll be trying to give you the best of both magazines.
The SAM world in general does look a bit like it's falling
apart, but the way I see it, it's better to take these things
slowly. It's all very well to have vast numbers of magazines in
circulation, but the quality tends to suffer. Better to work up
slowly, building a good secure base, before flooding the market,
which is what happened before. The fewer magazines there are,
the less likely they are to find themselves short of material,
and so the vast majority of users benefit.
BM Reply to Barry Spencer
Then, when there becomes too much stuff and not enough
magazines, new ones will form. With the SAM, it seemed that new
magazines formed without really thinking where they could get
regular material from. The PD scene is another area where it's
better to have one really good library than 10 mediocre ones.
You think the PD scene's dead? Look at the Amiga scene; it's
thriving despite hundreds and hundreds of commercial titles. It
hopefully won't be too long before a really solid SAM PD library
is formed, without all the problems suffered by the past ones.
Thanks for the Kreuzen game - we've decided to use it this very
issue! It really is a brilliant game, and 100% Machine Code as
well! Instructions are in the main magazine (in the Disk
Contents section, believe it or not).
Letter from "The Pot Smoking Hobbit"
Dear Nazis,
Well thankyouverymuch, I dont think. Thanks for printing my
escapades with the ole "waccy baccy" (in SAM Trek, FRED 27 -
BRIAN) I have now been arrested, and heavily booted about by
the boys in green (the hobbit cops).
They've told me I'll get at least 3 - 5 years, and its only fair
to say that its all your fault!
I hope all your hair falls out and your teeth turn purple,
An irate hobbit.
BRIAN:- Um. Well, what can I say? Except that I didn't know that
hobbits lived anywhere near Birmingham...
Review of Parallax by Diggory Gray
Parallax is without doubt better then Sphera. My reasons for
this statment are;
1..Parallax has full colour sprites
2..You get explosions when you blow something up!
3..The "one bullet at a time" basis stops the game becoming a
test of how fast can you press you fire button
4..Extra guns, speed, lives, and speed
5..A very hard game (Sphera was far too easy!)
But Parallax like Sphera is not quite as brilliant as some shoot
em ups that I would like too see on the SAM (Xenon2!). Parallax
doesn't have any sound effects (SHOCK). The game's playability
is very good but there needs to be more guns!! By this I mean
different gun types. If people (programmers)
Parallax Review by Diggory Gray
were to mix together Xenon2, X-Out, R-Type and maybe a dash of
Parallax well then I would be "wow mega dude or what, you really
kicked their butts" (if my memory has called that up correctly).
Well thats it from me I'm running out of space on Colin's word
processor (FRED 5). BYE!
CM : Thanks Diggory - glad you liked the game. You made a lot of
valid points although if we did mix Xenon2, X-Out and R-Type,
not only would the game be produced on every single computer and
be one of the best selling games of all time, but we would face
one of the biggest court battles ever seen..... Hmmmm....
You used the thing on FRED 5? Wow....There's always a first!
There is a perfectly good word processor on FRED 19 which has
loads and loads of functions which I thoroughly recommend.
BM A Small Apology
A slight mistake in last month's issue - I sort of credited
Darren Hubbard for all the past wrestling articles when I
announced the return of the FRED wrestling expert.
As a lot of you probably know, it was in fact Si Hindle who did
them in past, so sorry to both Simon and Darren. We sincerely
hope this has not resulted in any major loss of life, limbs, or
sanity, and are quite prepared to stand on one leg for a whole
minute if this will help...
Normal service will now continue
(This month's wrestling IS from Darren Hubbard, and you can find
it neatly tucked away at the end of the main magazine after my
"crucial" music reviews)
BM Waterworks Review
Waterworks - you've seen the demo (on FRED 27), you've heard the
music, you've lived on the edge of your seat waiting for it to
finally be released, and now, at last, you're reading our
"official" review of it. And you probably want to know, is it
any good?
Well, yes, to be honest it IS good! I usually hate games that
require more than a bare minimum of thought, but this is
original enough to almost fool me into forgetting it's a puzzle
game at all.
You, the player (naturally), take control of a small helicopter
and must roam around levels consisting of a number of screens
(from 1 upwards) using water pipes to get water to run through
switches, opening doors and allowing you to collect the key to
exit the level. There's more to it than that, but you get the
basic idea.
BM Waterworks Review
What makes this game different from most other puzzle games is
that there's so much action in it. Your little helicopter is
nicely animated, and there are various little aliens and spikes
and other fatal obstacles that it's much more arcadey than your
average puzzler, which to me is a good thing.
Not that die-hard puzzle fans will be disappointed; the levels
may start off easy enough, but by 7 or 8 you really do need to
think very carefully. The game allows much more scope for
creative thinking than that other classic puzzler Triltex,
because it's not so limited. In Triltex it was pure trial and
error really, but in this it's possible, in fact essential, to
work out what will happen. There are some sections where trial
and error is all you can do, but these are used fairly sparingly
so they don't get annoying. With Triltex it wasn't long before I
got a bit sick of starting from scratch, matching every block
with every other on the screen, but this is much better; you can
act constructively right from the start rather than just guess.
BM Waterworks Review
The gameplay's well up to scratch then. So what about the
graphics? No worries there, believe me. The graphics aren't
incredible or anything, but they're well above average, and
there's a nice crispness to everything which makes it very easy
to see what's what. The sprites are large and surprisingly fast
and smooth. The collision detection is also spot on.
Sonically the game's a bit of a mixture. The main tune which
plays at the start is easily a candidate for best SAM tune yet,
but the ingame noise is limited to a few short effects. No
problem though - just bung on a CD.
Overall, I think it's fair to say that this has something for
everyone. If you don't usually like puzzle games, regard this as
being worth 7 out of 10, but if you enjoyed Triltex you should
regard this as being a 9 out of 10 job. Brill.
Remember kiddies - FRED welcomes all your reviews as well, so
send in your commments about Waterworks to the usual address.
BM Spritemaster Review
Unless you read the News section in FRED 29, you might not have
heard of this one. It's designed to help in the creation of
sprites, is published by Orb Software, and is available from:
Orb Software,
[redacted]
for the price of £6.95.
Right. Publicity over, on with the review.
The first thing strike me when I got my little paws on this was
the professionalism of it. I don't think Orb Software is
exceptionally large, but Spritemaster comes with a comprehensive
manual, only 10 pages long but full of concise explanations and
pictures of the particular icons being explained.
BM Spritemaster Review
But you don't buy a package just for the manual, so it's just as
well that there's a useful little utility here. It is aimed at a
fairly narrow band of users, I suspect - unless you've all been
waiting for a sprite designer but were too shy to ask for one..?
Anyway, if you do think a sprite designer would come in useful,
I can highly recommend this. It has a very wide range of
features, including redefineable keys or mouse control, the
usual disk functions, alterable magnify size, alter sprite size,
rotate sprite, symmetry, OK, Undo, plus the option to save the
sprite as a GRABbed block or a code file.
There are also full instruction on how to use the sprites in
MCode and BASIC programs.
A most impressive program this, and one which fully deserves 8
out of 10.
BM Dyadic
Another puzzle game! This one is released by Pheonix Software,
and can be bought from:
Pheonix Software,
[redacted]
I'll start by being honest. This disk, with two games on it,
isn't overly good. The games are both puzzle games of a sort,
the first one involving the player having to join up various
bits of wire to form a circuit (I think that's the plot,
anyway), and the second requiring the user to wander about a
maze eating dots, and having to avoid running over your tail.
Neither game is really bad by any means, but there's no real
enjoyment to be gained from them.
BM Dyadic
For a start they're both very much in the trial-and-error vein,
which bugs me a bit. You don't have to actually THINK to
complete these, just try out numerous combinations using what
you think looks even remotely likely to perhaps succeed. There's
no room for any real inspiration, and as a result you don't feel
like you've really achieved anything when you complete a level.
The graphics and music are both good, and the presentation is
also of a reasonable standard, there just isn't much game there!
I think that if these games were released as PD, they'd be very
popular indeed, but it's too much to sell them as a full price
package. Sorry, but only 5 out of 10 for this/these.
BM Day Dream Review
This is an adventure game. You're 4 inches tall, and must move
around your house completing tasks to allow you to get help in
returning to your normal size. The game costs £4.50 and can be
bought from:
Cheques Eureka Software,
payable [redacted]
to:
C.G. Williams
Adventure games are, like most puzzle games, not things I
usually enjoy playing unless they are noticeably different from
the rest of the genre. This isn't, and I don't like it. The few
games I've had have led nowhere. It's meant to be an
introduction to adventure games, but I still can't work out how
to do anything. It seems that there are a lot of locations but
nothing to actually DO in any of them!
BM Day Dream Review
This is extremely frustrating at times. For example, you're told
at one point "You see a tack" but when you try to "get tack"
it's not understood. Also, when you try to read a computer
screen (which you are told has some writing on it) that isn't
understood either. Things like this really get to me, I'm
afraid.
The graphics are very poor, and typically consist of a simple
shape filled with a garish FILL from Flash!
If you think this WILL appeal to you, you know where to get it
from, but I can't advise it. 4 out of 10.
BM End of Reviews
That rounds off this month's Reviews section. Please do send in
your own reviews of titles you've bought, from FRED Publishing
or otherwise, as we want to give all our readers the widest
possible range of opinions.
Until next month then, good bye!