Description
Issue 42
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Dan Dooré | |
| Magazine | Legend Of Eshan Announced | |
| Letters | Dishcloth Bug Fix, Sam Pd Plug | |
| Cybertennis | Matt Round | Sam Version Of Ancient Tv Game |
| Scum! | Matt Round | Tongue-In-Cheek Magazine Sampler |
| Mod -> Etracker | Colin Piggot | Convert Modules To E-Tracker Form |
| Mr Slidey | Andy Monk | Shift-Squares-To-Reform-Piccy Game |
| Mcode Pt 28 | Steve Taylor | Clipboarding, Writing Driver Apps |
| E-Tunes | Bob Brunsden | Music Done On E-Tracker |
| Modules | Amiga Module Files | |
| Infection | Matt Round | Original And Fun Arcade Game |
| Stereogram | Andrew Collier | Love 'Em, Loathe 'Em, Can't Ignore 'Em |
| Fredex | Brian McConnell | Updated Index Of Fred Things |
Magazine
BM Editorial
Oh dear. There can be no doubting the fact that this issue of
FRED, still as delightful and exquisite as ever, is late. Very,
very late in the sense that compared to a continent a neutron is
very, very small. We are talking late, here folks.
We do have a reason for this shameful lapse in time-keeping
though, and I'm sure a good few of you have been playing it
constantly - Lemmings in other words. We've been so busy
playtesting it that we've barely had time to eat never mind
compile a magazine. Contrary to popular belief, issues of FRED
don't just crawl out of some magical vat of discs. Lemmings is
at long last out, and we honestly don't know whether to go out
and celebrate or to heave a huge sigh of relief. Unless we get
the sales we need we won't we doing either for a very long time,
so buy it! Buy it twice! And then buy it again for good measure!
We're well into 1994 now and it's looking like it could be an
even better year for the SAM; you've got Lemmings and SAMPaint,
but wait until you get a look at the rest of FRED's plans!
BM Editorial
Now I'd like to say a quick "hello" to all those of you who are
reading pirated FREDs. How ya doin'? Good good. And on behalf of
all the other SAM users, thanks a million for trying to strangle
the SAM market. FRED may not be a big expensive, obviously
commercially-released product and it never will be, but it's not
PD and just because it's so cheap (Hmmm. Perhaps the term
"inexpensive" is more favourable) it doesn't mean you've got the
right to steal it.
On a wider scale, if anybody's even THINKING about pirating
Lemmings or SAMPaint, or anything else for that matter, please
don't. Publishers don't discourage piracy for the sheer fun of
it you know; just a handful of pirate copies can mean the
difference between a product being profitable and successful,
and loss-making and a failure. The enormous investment FRED has
put into Lemmings in particular means that we cannot afford for
it to fail; piracy can only cause it to do so, and that can
ultimately only hurt you, the user more than a meagre save of
£10 or £20 in the long run.
BM Editorial
I know there are some of you (a LOT of you) who don't pirate
software, even items you "wouldn't have bought anyway," and to
you I'd like to apologise for making you sit through this little
telling off. Without those of you who are willing to pay for the
hard work that's been put into a software product FRED,
Revelation etc. simply could not continue. Thankfully the
pirates are a minority (we hope!) and so we will try to
continue bringing out new titles.
I shall add that we are aware of who some of the pirates out
there are. We do have names.
You've been warned - stop the piracy or FRED, Revelation and
inevitably the SAM will die. As long as people buy software, new
titles will come out and the computer will continue (unless of
course the Govt slaps a 300% tax on software items for white-
coloured 8-BIT computers. And don't laugh - it could happen. It
could. Write to your MP and demand that he brings up the subject
in Parliament).
CM NEW RELEASE
Hands up all of you that thought Lords Of Midnight was
brilliant? And hands up all of you that never played it but
heard everyone else rave on about it? There, that covers about
everyone!
So you'll all be disapointed to learn that we cannot get the
licence to bring Lords Of Midnight onto the SAM. But, we've got
the next best thing - Legend Of Eshan. John Eyre (of SAMDice and
other Kobrahsoft titles fame) has come up with what can only be
described as the biggest, most complex and addictive game on
SAM! The nearest comparison to it is L.Of M. in that it's a
graphical strategy adventure.
Legend of Eshan, however, goes MUCH further - loads more
options, different ways to complete the game, over sixteen
thousand locations (16,384 to be exact) each with a MODE 4
screen! Hundreds of different characters to encounter (whether
you try to recruit their services to aid your quest or simply
slaughter them as they stand - or try to.
CM Eshan
Not only that but if you're lucky enough to have a mouse it
makes full use of it (naturally, Eshan works without one too).
The plot, put simply, is this :-
In the land of Avinell, Avorell The Noble has been captured.
Being Eshan, the eternal do-gooder, it is your duty to rescue
him. This perhaps not being the easiest of task, you have the
other option of killing the evil Barquin The WitchKing.
Although, he does have vast armies of Orcs ready to take the
Palace Of Avorell, so if you want an easy life, don't read on.
Set for a challenge eh? You'd better be. This is a MEAN game.
When you buy this, cancel everything for at LEAST a month - you
just ain't going to have time for anything other than Eshan!
Costing £14.99 (£12.99 FRED subscribers), it is out NOW from
Revelation at :
[redacted]
CM Delays......
Yes, I know you've all been kept waiting for Lemmings and
SAMPaint. For this I apologize - it seldom happens that one of
the delay factors is the fact that we actually received MORE
orders than anticipated!
Anyway, as you'll know, SAMPaint went out in the middle of
January and Lemmings was released just a few days ago. There
hasn't been much feedback on Lemmings but SAMPaint is certainly
going down a treat! I've never had so many customers tell me
that I should be charging more for it!!! (Not since Etracker,
anyway!).
I'm still very interested in what you think of the two titles -
but I don't think I'll be expecting suggestions for
improvements - they've both got everything they could possibly
have! One comment I would like to make is that there seem to be
some problems with different versions of MasterDOS when using
SAMPaint. We'll sort this out and let you know how to get round
it. In the meantime, anybody fancy doing us some reviews...?
BM E-Mailtastic, Mates!
It's been five months since I started uni now and apart from the
obvious, the best thing about it has to have been the E-mail
facilities. Hello to all of you who've sent me things, including
you Tim Pavely you pervy so-and-so (more please!). In case you
missed it, my address is:
[redacted]
You can also get in touch with AXE (Ian Slavin) at:
[redacted]
and Cookie at:
[redacted]
Anybody else on the Net, let me know if you want your address
put in FRED and a huge network of SAM contacts could be yours!
BM Computer Science Anybody?
I'd imagine a lot of FRED readers are at school at the moment.
I'm also sure a fair few of you would like to do Computer
Science at college or university, so I thought I'd write a guide
to what Dundee University's got to offer. They are of course
paying me vast amounts of money to advertise them here, but try
to look on this as an unbiased view of the place.
In all fairness I can only give you a review of my course, which
at the moment is Maths, Computer Science and Psychology (well
it sounded good in the prospectus!). The Maths and CS depts are
all involved in various research projects, and the CS dept in
particular is looked upon generally as being pretty good. We
have a lab full of Sun Workstations and one with PCs. The entire
campus is linked on a single network, which is in turn linked to
the whole world (sort of).
The CS class is small - 50 people. There are 350 people doing
Psychology, so 50 is pretty tiny in comparison though it may not
sound small at first.
BM Comp Sci at Dundee Uni
The CS course started off assuming no prior knowledge
whatsoever. Nonetheless, some of the complete newies had a
little difficulty getting started. Pascal is used, and I believe
it's the standard language in Higher Education (to start with,
at any rate).
Pascal is a compiled language, so there's no running it and
correcting line errors as you go (like in BASIC). This isn't a
problem though, you do get used to it fairly quickly. Any
experience you have of programming, even just the old FOR...NEXT
loop will give you an edge; those of us who did say, Higher or
even Standard Grade, found the first term a doddle.
It may be tempting to leap into 2nd year if you have A-Levels or
CSYSs, but my advice is don't. A couple of people in my class
now dropped down from trying 2nd year directly and said it was
very hard going. Apart from the difficulty, everybody else had
already formed their own groups of friends. Besides, you want to
be able to relax for a year don't you?
BM Comp Sci at Dundee Uni
Dundee's CS department is one of only eight in the UK to give
unlimited access to the machines - yes, 24 hours a day, 365 days
a year you are allowed to use the computers. This may not sound
too impressive now, but when it's 11:00pm and you need to have a
program in the next day, you appreciate it. Not that I'm so
disorganised that I leave things to the last minute, of course.
It's not like I spend my whole life writing SAM magazines or
anything.
The lecturers are good, generally. They're all very approachable
if you do need help. The mixture of lectures, tutorials and lab
times is good; it's not all sitting in a stuffy lecture theatre
day after day. You're not even IN a lecture theatre, it's more
like a large classroom. And the seats are cushioned! Luxury!
Dundee apparently has an excellent rate of graduates finding
employment after finishing their courses, which is worth bearing
in mind.
BM Comp Sci at Dundee Uni
Maths is in first year just revision if you've done A-level, but
it does go into more detail than A-level. It goes without saying
that it's more or less all new if you go straight from Higher,
and if this is the case you'll find it hard going. Psychology is
new to most people, and so it starts off simply enough. They
claim it's a science, but it is really more of an arty subject.
It is extremely interesting, but there's a lot of coursework to
be done for it.
Dundee itself is quite a funky town. It's not a tiny little
place, but with about 200,000 people it's hardly a major city of
the world. There are a respectable number of shops and pubs and
things, but it's not quite as good as Edinburgh, Glasgow and
most English cities. Those of us here can usually manage to keep
ourselves amused, so there's no worries on that count. The
campus is about 5 minutes leisurely walk from the city centre
which is an ideal distance in my opinion. On the whole, Dundee
is a good place to study, even if it can be kind of cold
sometimes. I hope to see some of you there next year!
BM 'Nuvver Show! Yeah!
Remember the Gloucester Show in November? I don't, I wasn't
there (courtesy of Wm Low. Thanks Wm), but according to Colin
and everybody he spoke to there it was an outstanding success.
You can therefore imagine my unfettered joy at hearing about the
next one - for there is indeed another one planned! Hurrah and
thrice joy!
This one is also in Gloucester and takes place on Saturday the
30th April 1994. Note that date! Clear your diaries! On a
personal note, take that day off work! (I have put in my request
for a weekend off, and am awaiting permission. Fingers
crossed...) It's in Quedgely Village Hall, in Quedgely, which is
near the M5, 4 miles out of Gloucester. We'll be enclosing some
sort of map with FRED 43 or 44 which will give more details.
It runs from 10am to 4pm, and tickets are £1.50 advance and £2
on the door. Bob Brenchley, the enterprising organiser, can be
reached at [redacted] if you need more details. Even if this
is only half as good as November's, it'll still be amazing! Go!!
BM Price List Update
Additions to the FRED price list:
We have now added the following Revelation titles to our revered
FRED list:
Driver - the excellent WIMP system for SAM which, in a perfect
world would have been part of the ROM chip. Ah well. A
floppy version'll have to do! Stunning bit o' software
but make sure you've got MasterDOS first.
Campion - a very fully-featured spreadsheet which contains more
options than a very busy Cadbury's factory (okay, bad
joke, come on at least I tried). This is a seriously
powerful piece of software.
Comet - allegedly the very best assembler available on SAM,
but having no knowledge of MC whatsoever, you're going
to just have to trust me on this one!
BM Price List Update
The previous 3 items, Driver Campion and Comet Assembler for
those of you with ludicrously poor memories, usually cost £29.95
BUT! if you're a FRED subber you can pick them up for a measly
£24.95 each. All three would set you back £74.85, but if you
want them all, we can let you have them for only £70 (this last
applies only to FRED subbers) which is a saving on the RRP of
£20!!!! That's your entire sub!!!! Jeeez!!!
We've got another of Revelation's titles, Astroball, for £9.95.
With the subber's discount that tumbles down to a mere £8.95.
Now that FRED has taken over SCPDU, we can offer their back
issues for £2 each. Available issues are:
0, 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4a, 4b, 5
Further price reductions include the near cult hit Impatience;
you can get this for only £4.99. FRED subbers even get a
discount on THIS price, taking it to a rather ridiculous £4.
That's about the price of 2.25 pints - which'd you rather have?
BM Price List Update
Due to the fact that Colin's been eating boxes again (better
than a Big Mac at least! And more nutritious to boot!) we have
some Spellmasters and Etrackers in a very boxless state. If you
think you can live without a box for your prize proggy, you
could do a lot worse than picking these up for only £9.99
(Spellmaster) and £19.99 (Etracker). Slightly predictably, we
can offer these even cheaper to FRED subbers - £9 and £18
respectively. Nice of us isn't it?
Finally, the following titles are available in limited supply.
Phone before sending off your order to confirm availability:
GM_Base
GM_Calc
SCADS
SAM Adventure System
Prince of Persia
Football Director II
BM Happy Happy Joy Joy!
Congratulations are to be offered to Dr Andy Wright, readers.
Why? Because he proudly announced the birth of his first son
Marcus Alexander on the 6th of January, that's why! Hurrah! The
little fella weighed in at 9lb 9oz, which is a decidedly healthy
weight to be. Unless you're, like, 19 years old, in which case
you're either very underweight or a cat.
So congratulations to the new parents, and best wishes to
Marcus. As long as he doesn't turn out like Colin or myself I'm
sure he'll be fine!
Apparently Marcus is not yet programming, but I'm sure it won't
be too long.
"Andy, Marcus said his first words today! By the way, do you
know what a floating point maths co-processor is...?"
All the best, Andy.
BM Disc Contents
I'm in a bit of a rush to get this finished before Colin sends
the boys round to make me an offer I can't refuse, so no
waffling, I promise.
CYBERTENNIS - Matt Round comes up with yet another excellent
game. Based on those old Atari console things, Matt's done an
original version and a SAM-ified version for the Nineties
(ahem). He has also written INFECTION, which is also a game.
Where does he get the time!!! Both these games were written on
Gamesmaster, and both are superb. Instructions are included
before the games load.
SCUM! was also sent in by Matt, but I'm not exactly sure what it
is. I think you'd best see for yourselves....
MOD -> ETRACKER - a utility by Colin Piggot which converts MOD
files from the Amiga to Etracker format files. It doesn't
convert samples, so you need to provide your own instruments,
but the important bits, the actual patterns are converted.
BM Disc Contents
MR SLIDEY - Andy Monk shows off his ever-improving machine code
and musical skills with this natty MC game. Based on the old
theme of sliding bits about, this adds a neat little twist. A
picture is re-arranged in varying degrees of chaos according to
the difficulty level and your task is to get it back to its
original incarnation before the time runs out. Not easy.
He's back!! Steve Taylor takes a break from the pressures of Uni
life and gives us another Machine Code article! Oh joy! We're
getting even more Driver details, this month, so I expect to see
hundreds of innovative Driver applications before too long heads
will roll.
E-TUNES are all by R Brunsden, and yet again the scroller is
pathetic in the extreme.
MODULES - a couple of Amiga music MODULES which you can either
convert using Colin Piggot's program, or listen to with Stefan
Drissen's from last issue.
BM Disc Contents
STEREOGRAM - this is a program for those of you who spend half
your lives gazing into these posters containing at first glance
nothing but little dots, but which reveal mystic and spiritual
images if you get your eyes befuddled enough. Andrew Collier's
the bloke to thank (blame?!) for this, which allows you to draw
your very own! He's included a doc file, so I thankfully do not
have to explain further.
FREDEX is the sequel to, um, FREDEX in issue 36. It simply
contains the contents of issues 37 - 41 (as well as 1 to 36). I
imagine those of you who ripped me to bits for saying plurals
would double the size of Spellmaster's dictionary will complain
that we've already given away the list of 1 to 36, but I really
don't care. Think of the poor people who missed it first time
round!
And that rounds off our lovely issue of FRED! Whew, I'm now very
knackered. Goodbye!
BM Fin
Editor: Brian "didn't mention beer ONCE! Ha!" McConnell
Thanks this month to:
Matt Round Matt Round Matt Round
And that's the lot. Oops! No, sorry, he did let these other
people in:
Colin Piggot R Brunsden Darren Hubbard
Andy Monk Andrew Collier
Steve Taylor Stefan Drissen
Cheques payable to:- Phone:- 0382 - 535963
FRED Publishing,
[redacted] ==>> Wrestling (no music!!!) ==>>
DH Daz Hubbard's Wrestling Update!
Due to popular demand (well, Bri's demand anyway), I'm back with
more wibblings from the world that is wrestling. And, oh boy,
has there been a lot gone on since the last time we met? Yes,
there has. Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, apart from the rock
'n' roll bit, has been plentiful recently.
Well, that's later on. Now some listings. (From now on, it's the
name of the wrestler with weight straight off to save space).
Oh, by the way, I'm covering WCW as well as the WWF because both
are of around about equal quality.
WWF "grapplers": GOODIES (or Fan Favourites, whatever)
----------------------------------------------------------------
DOINK, 249. Obnoxious bloke with quite good skills that please
other fans but bore me to death. Jack Tunney (president of the
WWF) made a ruling that only one Doink is allowed in the WWF
(following other Doinks hitting opponents etc) so Doink now has
a midget wrestler dressed as a clown, called Dink.
Finishing move - Top Rope Sitdown Splash
OWEN HART, 230. The brother of Bret Hart who has gotten a wee
bit jealous recently cos his brother always gets the credit. Has
however formed a tag team with Bret, (called the Hart Brothers,
natch), and is a little peeved off with the tag-team title
situation at the moment (see later)
Finishing move - Northern-Lights Suplex/Top-rope Dropkick
----------------------------------------------------------------
BADDIES (or Rulebreakers, or Heels, or whatever)
----------------------------------------------------------------
JEFF JARRETT, 232. Scientific, high-flying wrestler with the
gimmick of a country music star who can't get his break in the
music world. A newcomer who should rise to the top within weeks.
Finishing move - DDT
----------------------------------------------------------------
BASTION BOOGER, 401. A truly disgusting specimen of a human -
imagine Bernand Manning crossed with Roy Chubby Brown with a
giant hump on his back and you're halfway there. He's a bit crap
for a man of his size and weight.
Finishing move - Vertical Splash
QUEBECERS, Combined weight 523. These are two blokes who dress
up as Mounties and are suprisingly talented. Managed by Johnny
Polo, they won the WWF Tag belts off the Steiner Brothers in a
bizarre "Provence of Quebec" Rules where titles can change by
countout or disqualification (normally, this wouldn't happen).
Their individual names are Jacques Rougeau and Pierre Quillet.
Lost the titles to Marty Jannetty & The 123 Kid on January 10th.
Finishing move - Boston Crab with second turnbuckle Legdrop.
----------------------------------------------------------------
WWF NEWS
--------
Well has a lot happened this month in the WWF or what? Firstly,
WWF head Vince MaMahon was indicted by the U.S. Justice
Department over the sex and drugs scandals happening there.
MaMahon pleaded not guilty, and was released on $250,000 bail.
The trial is still continuing, and if MaMahon is convicted, he
will spend eight years jail + another $500,000 fine.
Secondly, Jerry Lawler was released on $1,000 bail on charges of
rape, sodomy and harassing a witness. Lawler expects he will be
exonerated from all allegations by the time you read this.
Anyway, back to the wrestling itself. Top story this month is
that the Hart family is up in arms over Owen challenging Bret.
Their parents, Stu and Helen, are crying, upset etc over the
whole thing (so the WWF say). Owen said on TV that he is sick of
living in Bret's shadow, and so far Bret has refused the
proposed match. The brothers made up at Christmas, and
challenged the former tag-champs the Quebecers at the Royal
Rumble. However, expect the brothers to brawl at the Rumble.
The Royal Rumble is an event where 30 wrestlers take part. It
starts off with two inside the ring, then another wrestler is
added every two minutes until everyone is in there. The only way
a wrestler can be eliminated is if he is thrown over the top
rope onto the arena floor. The names that have been entered are:
Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Scott Steiner, Mabel, Doink, Kamala,
Crush, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Adam Bomb, Billy & Bart Gunn, Greg
Valentine, Bob Backlund, Rick & Scott Steiner, Samu, Fatu, the
123 Kid, Randy Savage, Bam Bam Bigelow, Rick Martel, Bastion
Booger, Marty Jannetty, Mo, Jeff Jarrett, Ludvig Borga, Tatanka,
Lex Luger, Tenryu and the Great Kabuki. Expect Luger to win, cos
this is his only chance to wrestle the WWF Champion at
Wrestlemania X (the winner of the Rumble gets the title shot).
As well as the battle royale type match, two other matches have
announced as well - WWF Champion Yokozuna vs the Undertaker in a
Casket match (the winner of this one is the person who pins his
opponent then places him inside a coffin), and Intercontinental
Champion Razor Ramon (who won the belt in a tournement when
Shawn Michaels was stripped for misconduct) vs IRS, who stole
Razor's belt about four weeks ago. Ramon has a bit of a feud
going with Michaels, who says he is still the champion as Razor
didn't beat him. Michaels still has the old I-C belt (Razor has
a new belt) and he is allowed to keep it, as if a wreslter quits
or gets suspended from a federation he does not have to give
back the belt back as possession is 9/10's of the law. Full
results of the Rumble next month, fans!
WCW BUMPF
Well, here there has been a new WCW World Champion. Ric Flair
pinned Vader for his 10th World Title at the Starrcade 93 super-
card on December 27th. No other wrestler has ever gotten 10
World Title before. Wow, eh? In the bout, Flair smashed his
front teeth in, cracked a rib and suffered abrasions which
required stitches. Flair always tend to bleed from the forehead
whenever he is wrestling a major opponent anyway. Now, WCW are
trying to arrange several steel-cage matches between the two.
Davey Boy Smith (aka British Bulldog) has left WCW. The offical
reason is that he didn't turn up for matches, but the unoffical
reason is that a warrant for his arrest has been released
followed allegations that he smashed someones head against a
brick wall, causing the victim to slur his speech, become deaf
in one ear, and suffer bouts of amnesia. The verdict on his
court case shall appear in the next FRED.
The rest of the results from Starrcade 93 are as follows (so get
used to the names!): Terry Taylor defeated Equalizer...Paul
Orndorff & Paul Roma beat 2 Cold Scorpio and Marcus Alexander
Bagwell...Shockmaster pinned Awesome Kong...TV Champion Lord
Steven Regal and Ricky Steamboat battled to a 15 minute draw...
Cactus Jack & Maxx Payne pinned Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce
when Jack pinned Slazenger...Steve Austin won the United States
heavyweight Championship of Dustin Rhodes in a best-of-three-
falls mathc...Rick Rude beat The Boss...Sting & Hawk defeated
The Nasty Boys by disqualification.
Arn Anderson has returned to WCW after the infamous stabbing
incident between him and Sid Vicious in late October. It appears
he wasn't to blame for the incident, leaving Vicious with no
federation to go to. "Psycho" Sid was supposed to beat Vader at
Starrcade instead of Flair to win the belt as well. Unlucky!
WCW have snapped up what is considered one of the best
commentators in the world from the WWF - Bobby "The Brain"
Heenan.
And, err, thats it. Questions/advanced news/ mail/ money can be
sent to me, Darren Hubbard, at 10 Princetown Tce, North Moor,
Sunderland SR3 1RH. Next month sees more listings, results for
the Royal Rumble, previews of WCW Superbrawl 4 and WWF Wrestle-
mania X and more title changes, particularly the WWF tag-straps
going back to the Quebecers once they beat the s**t out of
Jannetty and the Kid! So long...
P.S. Bri, (don't print this bit), is there any chance of having
a "contributions/articles in by whatever date" thingy in the
credits page in every issue so people (e.g. me) can send in up-
to-date stuff?
REPLY: Sorry for printing the last bit! A very valid point, and
I will try to bear it in mind from now on. Bascially, anything
we receive by about the 3rd or 4th of the month will be
considered for the magazine, although we try to get the actual
programs finished off by then. This month being an obviously
late exception... - BRIAN
Letters & Reviews
Letter from Matt Round
Dear FRED,
OK OK yes I know it's me AGAIN, but after that desperate plea
for more letters I thought I'd risk cropping up in Fred too
often! I'm half writing this as if it's a letter to Colin and
Brian, and half as if writing to Fred readers, so it's a strange
hybrid, but bear with me..!
Firstly, a little bug fix - if any of you are still using
Dishcloth (well you never know, there might be lots of maths
graduates out there!), you can repair the error-trapping with:
LOAD "DISHCLOTH" LINE 60000
2825 ON ERROR mathserr
3625 ON ERROR mathserr
SAVE "DISHCLOTH" LINE 1960
Letter from Matt Round
You should do all that on a 'clean' SAM (reset then only BOOT
some DOS, nothing else), and the same fix applies to the
joystick version which may appear on Fred sometime.
Fred 41 was the best I've seen - it was so packed that I'm left
wondering if all that talk about having to go bi-monthly was
just a cunning ruse! (You know it's full when even a 30K game is
compressed down to 20K to make room!)
Pauli Lindgren's complaints about the text viewer have
apparently been echoed by quite a few people, and although there
are a couple of replacements already supposedly on the way, I'm
having a go at one (in fact, you may well be reading this using
it!). The idea for using MIDI devices to improve SAM music is a
non-starter though - few people have got MIDI synthesisers, few
would buy an add-on module, and the software would require a lot
of extra work to use it...
Letter from Matt Round
At long last, a Kaleidoscope review, and the fabled add-on turns
out to be about as stunning as twiddling the colour control on
your telly. Pauli was a bit tough on the hardware development
kit though - it was never meant to be the electronic equivalent
of a Lego set!
SmartPhone is brilliant, but resets the SAM completely when you
quit, which is inconvenient. After rummaging through the program
I found a fix which instead hops out to any waiting AUTO file
(the main SmartPhone program's filename is AUTOphone, so you'll
want to change that if you're using it on a disk of your own and
the 'proper' AUTO file doesn't precede SmartPhone in the
directory).
It doesn't set everything back to the defaults (such as the
character set... does anyone out there know if there's a ROM
routine you can call to easily get the original set back?), and
I haven't tested it rigorously, so please don't modify the
original file just in case it's wrong!
Letter from Matt Round
Do the following on a 'clean' SAM (see the "Dishcloth" fix):
LOAD "AUTOphone" LINE 60000
CLEAR
4715 POKE SVAR 321,0:DPOKE SVAR 224,7326:DPOKE SVAR 252,0
:MODE 4:CLS #:CLEAR:CLEAR 81919:OPEN TO 4
:ON ERROR NEW:LOAD "AUTO*"
CLEAR
SAVE "AUTOphone" LINE 10
As mentioned in Fred, various people are seemingly STILL
dreaming about major hardware developments. If anything, the
planned add-ons could do some harm if they ever appear- the SAM
market isn't large enough to support different peripherals and
setups, and us poor ol' programmers are easily intimidated by
added complexity.
Letter from Matt Round
A 512K SAM with a drive is all most people 'need', although I'd
also like to see the mouse become widespread. To me, endless
talk of hardware is an irritating distraction; why fight a
pointless battle on the hardware front when you can freely
develop software instead? I've used the kinds of machines so
many enthusiasts seem to get all excited about (powerful PCs,
colour Sun workstations, Silicon Graphics systems etc.), and
there's nothing magical about them, believe me - in the end it
all comes down to the software.
Lastly, please keep software flowing by buying it. The market is
only just about large enough to support new releases, and
although I'm not in it for the money (I'd earn FAR more doing
'proper' work) I have to feel that SOMEONE will want what I'm
working on!
Exercise that cheque book, and let 'em know what you want to see
released in the future (but try not to keep Colin from his
dinner for TOO long!).
BM Reply to Matt Round
Well, it had to happen eventually, didn't it? After months of
sending in excellent games for us, Matt's turned his hand to
letter writing too. And a very good letter it was too, Matt,
complete with Carol Brooksbank-esque bug-fix/program improvement
suggestions.
Not a lot I can say except that I fully agree with your hardware
opinions. There isn't the market for them, nice though they'd
be, and as long as we've got the software SAM's unstoppable
anyway!
Thanks for the new text reader, Matt, it's a very impressive
replacement for the one we're using at the moment. Two things
though: (1) it doesn't compress the text, which means that to
use it we'd need approx twice as much room for the text
articles. (2) I only have Outwrite (not Wordmaster or even
Driver's Notepad yet). It's a shame about that, as it really
would be a great replacement for our current viewer.
- BRIAN
Letter from Mike Haine
Dear FRED,
You asked for it, ie a letter, even if full of waffle.
Well let's start by some comment on things like menus, scrollies
etc. The latter may be OK in Picadilly circus and such places,
where the only available display is for a short single line of
characters. Otherwise, when the available display has many
lines, scrollies can only be described as DAFT. We are capable,
through long experience, of scanning over a page of text and
picking out the important bits very efficiently. The scrollie
might have been fun as a demo but NO MORE PLEASE.
Now turn to menus. We have full page ones or ones in windows,
popups, pull downs and so on. We can select by numbers if each
item is numbered (OR lettered), by the initial letter of an item
(usually highlighted or INVERSE Printed), or by a cursor
movement to select and then a keypress to confirm.
Letter from Mike Haine
The last looked very clever when it first appeared, but it is
really DAFT. Instead of a single keypress it involves a
multiplicity of these. Yours are even worse when,having chosen
an item, further presses are necessary to get away from the
menu.
Of course we can go even further and use a full scale WIMP
system. This can be very impressive and, no doubt, can be very
useful in complex embodiments such as found in "WINDOWS" and the
like. I suppose most of us have met it most in FLASH and now in
"SAMPAINT". Nice, but is it really the best way of menuing such
progs? Possibly yes but I have some reservations.
My own choice is for popup menus with highlighted first
characters to item names, the items being chosen by pressing
that key. This system requires the minimum number of key presses
to choose a given facility and is extremely easy to follow. I
have used it in my modifications to Tasword 2, (Given away with
SAM Supplement or by sending a disc to me).
Letter from Mike Haine
That prog has over 30 menu entries all operated by single key
presses. No more than 6 in any one menu. All sorts of facilities
are included for example press "d","1","3" now enter "l" and a
directory listing of all items on the disc in drive 1 beginning
with the letter "l" are listed on screen and the list is
"lettered. A menu pops up giving the option to LOAD, COPY, SAVE,
ERASE or RENAME. Press"l" and you are told to press a letter
opposite the item you want to LOAD. It does the load and goes
straight into Text mode. (Who wants a specialist prog to do
this?).
Other facilities offered include one to read the Directory
listing into the Text file, and to delete, copy, move, save
marked blocks of text. These block facilities are very fast
(near instantaneous).
The use of this sort of menu system is very easy to learn. I
found that, after only an hour or so that I seldom had to even
look at the menus.
Letter from Mike Haine
Well so much for a few comments on menu systems. Now to get down
to more important matters. Us British have developed the habit
of running the country down on every possible occasion. Sure
there are lots of things wrong. But it is not going to help to
take this NEGATIVE approach to comment. By all means put forward
CONSTRUCTIVE criticism and suggestions for how to improve
matters, but being NEGATIVE inevitably subtracts from hope.
So why be so darn negative about SAM, Fred? Why keep stressing
that it is a dead duck? As part of the team responsible for its
continuance one would expect a more buoyant attitude. There are
still a lot of us who own the machine. I cannot accept that we
can expect no more hardware developments. Have you never heard
of amateur electronics hobbyists? Coupled with a few keen
proggers there is no reason why a wide range of add ons
shouldn't be developed. Where is your sense of enterprise? Is it
drowned in all that beer, in the consumption of which you take
such pride. Do you really think that many of your readers admire
you for getting stoned drunk?
Letter from Mike Haine
Maybe it is a necessity to you, but to your readers it cannot
give much confidence in our future.
You asked for letters. You encouraged one to whaffle....... Well
here it is!!!!!!
[redacted]
BM Reply to Mike Haine
Sorry, what was that? I couldn't make it out for all this BEER
I've been drinking....
No sorry Mike, I won't be like that. I'm glad you took the time
to go over what I'd imagine are quite common criticisms of the
magazine. As people rarely complain about the magazine (and yes,
I do know that this is due to the polite nature of our readers
rather than to us being perfect), it is only on occasions like
this that Colin and I are able to judge what needs improved in
the magazine.
HCI - Human/Computer Interface. Everybody tends to have their
own opinion on what constitutes the ideal method of getting
information into the computer. For some, command-based
environments are still tops, while others would die defending
WIMP systems. Then there is of course the hotkey alternative
which you appear to favour, Mike. Researchers are even now
looking into ever-more productive means of HCI, including the
Computer Science Dept. at Dundee University.
BM Reply to Mike Haine
My own personal preference is something of a mixture. On
numerous Amiga packages there are two levels of HCI - you can
use the WIMP system, selecting items from menus with the mouse,
or you can use the keyboard hotkeys (CNTRL + F, say, to format a
paragraph) - and this is what I prefer.
I can commit to memory the very frequently used commands such as
delete line, save file, centre line etc., but don't have to
bother with commands which I'll possibly only use once every
couple of weeks (eg thesaurus options). This makes it easier for
new users to get to grips with, but lets more experienced users
work much more productively.
On the SAM, I've yet to see this mixture used. The version of
Outwrite I have is the hotkey one, which, now I'm familiar with
it, is excellent. It did take a couple of months to make the
transition from Tasword though - completely forgetting one set
of hotkeys and learning another is not easy. A menu system here
would have been much better initially.
BM Reply to Mike Haine
The newest version of Outwrite though has a menu system. This
makes it much easier to use at first, but when you know what
you're doing it is a hindrance rather than a help, especially as
the hotkeys are disabled.
I don't know where your complaints are aimed at regarding our
FRED menus, though. Our main menu is certainly a hotkey affair
and always has been. Okay, the magazine has menus in it, but I
for one almost never use them in a normal reading session and
they're not really that irritating to use, surely? Most of the
time is spent pressing one of the four cursor keys. A wimp
system is something which it might be nice to use in FRED
someday, but don't hold your breath.
Regarding scrollies, where's the problem? I would sympathise if
the entire magazine was presented in scrolly form, but it's not.
Scrollies are most often confined to the demos, and rightly so.
By the same token though, pages of text do not belong in demos,
and so the scrollies shall remain. Probably. I don't write the
BM Reply to Mike Haine
demos, so it's up to the coders themselves. I still can't think
where the scrollies are which are getting to you so much though.
Now onto something which looks set to go on for quite a while
yet - the subject of my apparent pessimism regarding SAM's
future. I have never said that the SAM is dead - it most
certainly isn't. It's getting stronger if anything. SAMs are
still selling, software is getting better and more is coming out
than ever before. Things are without doubt looking good!
That does not mean a market exists for all the hardware plans
which are constantly bandied about by people who are getting a
little over-excited. Amateur hobbyists are one thing; if
somebody can build himself a 66MHz accelerator for his SAM then
well done. To suggest that a market exists for such a thing is a
different matter. I don't think it does. This is not being
negative though, it is being realistic, and this is an attitude
which a lot of people would do well to adopt.
BM Reply to Mike Haine
I am not telling people to give up on their SAMs. Far from it.
As Matt Round says umpteen pages earlier, it's the software that
counts and look at the software we're getting now - Lemmings and
SAMPaint being only the latest in a long line of software.
Similarly, I don't consider it negative to claim that the SAM
will never rival the PCs of the world. Again, I consider that to
simply be realism. The SAM wasn't designed to compete with
state-of-the-art machines, so why do people keep suggesting that
in only a couple of years, with the right hardware add-ons of
course, SAM can be controlling everything from the space program
to the arcade games in the local arcade!?
I could of course start telling you all that SAMs are selling in
droves, that we're negotiating contracts to get MI5 a SAM-based
organisation, but do you want the truth or groundless hype with
no prospect of being lived up to? Better to be pleasantly
surprised than heavily let down, if you ask me.
BM Reply to Mike Haine
To just summarise the past couple of pages, I believe that while
the SAM will never rival the professional machines, it does have
a future. It is NOT dead, and is showing no signs of dying. I'm
sorry if I've ever implied otherwise. I didn't mean to.
I hope I've dealt with all your points of criticism. Thanks
again for taking the time to give us your views.
I'm off for a quick pint or ten now - back in a mo'!
- BRIAN
Letter from Robert Southern
Dear Sir,
I recently purchased a program from you called SAMPaint which
can only be described as fantastic but for one thing: it isn't
compatible with my printer, a Panasonic KX-P1124 at any setting
from within the program.
However, my main concern is that I'm about to purchase a Canon
BJC 600 colour printer and I would like to know if it is at all
possible to enter print codes into the program or, failing that,
supply a code file to do it?
BM Reply to R Southern
I'm sorry you've had such trouble printing with SAMPaint. Are
you able to print normally (ie using DUMP) with it?
If anybody can help Robert, write in and let us know. I'm afraid
I really can't help you though. - BRIAN
Letter from Derek Morgan
[redacted]
Dear Colin + Brian,
SAM PD.
There is now a new Public Domain software Library for Sam. For
the past six months, we at Sam PD have been trying to obtain new
software for the PD library. This has been a hard task. With the
loss of the SCPDSA last year there should have been a lot of
programers with PD software and no where to send it.
Programmers that once produced PD programs got better at
programing, and now they are involved in full price games and
Letter from Derek Morgan
utilitys. Other programers may not have heard of us and didn't
know where to send in their programs. There will be some of you
that have played about with Basic and Machine code, made
yourself a little game or a utility and think that no one else
would be interested in it - well, we at Sam PD are.
Disk magazines, music disks and all types of demos are very
welcome. We have expert help at hand if your program needs play
testing or infomation adding etc.
We at Sam PD are also catering for overseas Sam users:
Do you find that because of the low price of PD software and the
added cost of a Euro cheque, it works out expensive to obtain PD
software? The next time you order Fred, or any other Sam product
for that matter, be it hardware or software, then send the whole
cheque to us at Sam PD. We will then split your cheque and send
you your PD software and pass your cheque and order onto the
other distributor for their attention.
Letter from Derek Morgan
I have been providing this service to Sam users in Australia and
New Zealand for the past three years.
*** New PD software 'Mouse Driver V2.0'. £2.50 ***
This interrupt driven mouse driver is a stand alone updated
version of the mouse pointer program that is used in Steve
Taylor's excellent 'Driver' utility program.
The disk contains auto relocatable code. An easy to use and
understand BASIC program is provided to manipulate the code, so
no machine code knowledge is needed.
Think about it: you can now build your very own WIMP utility
program or game. All the hard work has been done for you. Seven
different user pointer's are available at the push of a button,
and there is room for your own pointer disign.
Letter from Derek Morgan
A Read-Me file containing information and technical information
is included on disk for use with Notepad and other word
processers. If you do not have a printer and would like a
printout of the readme file, please state A4 or A5 when
ordering. Also included on disk is a basic drawing program.
This program (MD,V2.0) will also replace version 1 on 'Driver'
Many thanks to Steve Taylor for producing this program and
making it Public Domain.
For full PD list, please send a Stamped addressed envelope to:
[redacted]
Best wishes
Derek
BM Reply to Derek Morgan
Aha! It seems I was wrong about there not being any PD libraries
for the SAM. Any other PD libraries reading, get in touch so we
can alert the world to your existence.
I don't want to be nasty or anything, but isn't £2.50 a little
expensive for Public Domain? I mean, FRED is actually a
commerical thing, and we manage to cover costs (discs, postage
AND paying our contributors!) for £2 a disc. I expect there are
a good few overheads involved in starting a PD library so I
won't get too Watchdoggy!
It's good to see somebody doing something on the SAM again. I
hope the library goes well.
- BRIAN
Letter from Graham Goring
Dear FRED,
I have here some vitally imortant information about that oh
so innocent Colin Anderton and the omni-annoying Peter Moore:
Colin Anderton never submits his own programs; anyone else's and
yeah! sure! He'll only be to glad to stick it in a jiffy bag and
pop it in the post. For instance, that really awful big print
thing in supposed vanishing point 3D, well, I ACTUALLY WROTE
IT!!! and only found out after it was published (I'm afraid it
was on one of my really bad days).
Colin is indeed a scamp! And Peter Moore (whatever you may have
heard of him) is actually a pervert (a lot like myself) with
breath branded as "pure mould" by Colin. Peter has a dog called
Topsy which the RSPCA are considering taking into care and
putting in a home for nervous doggies. Me on the other hand, I
write all my own stuff, mainly as I cannot stand his sterile and
bland presentation.
Letter from Graham Goring
Colin does write some good stuff, such as his character
assasination animations, which depict me, him and Peter with all
our worst traits amplified a thousand-fold (any mention of the
word "ear wax" from Colin is to be totally disregarded) anyway
I've got to go, in case Colin censors this letter I just like to
say...
All my love and kisses,
GrAhaM gOrINg (Aged 9 (Mentally, that is))
ANOTHER LETTER OR 2 BELOW
0
0
0 0 0
000
0
Letter from Colin Anderton
Dear Brian, (not his ASSISTANT Colin!)
Just to make my disc complete, I thought I'd better write
a letter. The reason for this 99% BASIC disc was mainly because
FRED is perfect in all but one way. All I feel it needs is a
few more addictive little games such as FLIP 'N' HELL, YAHTZEE,
BONG!, etc... and we are the guys to do it (I think). Anyway,
on with the pointless rubbish.
Firstly, commenting on Graham's lie about him writing my
logomaker program. I'm sure you don't believe him, mainly
because if you look at the listing, the program is (a) not long
winded, (b) logical and (c) in MODE 4. Proof or what? Silly old
greasy earwax man. I think he's already senile. I've had to ban
him from coming near my SAM - it toook me three weeks to clean
the mess off after he leaned over it last time.
Secondly, I've just received FRED 38 and I'd like to complain
about the person who complained about Stefan Drissen.
Letter from Colin Anderton
Well, I feel I must add my comment. I personally believe that
Stefan's donations are extremely good demos, even though they
are conversions. Do you all want him to be offended and leave
the SAM scene? I think not. I'd like to see Mr Hate-mail's
efforts at M/C. There you go Stefan. Do you want to mention me
in one of your next demos now? No doubt when I'm rich and
famous, you can tell your children that, yes, the millionaire
and partner in the world-wide company, West Coast Computers, did
take time out to defend you. Of course, this may not happen, so
feel free to choose who you want to thank. Erm, sorry.
Thirdly, I think you pay too little attention to worms. After
all, if it wasn't for worms, spellmaster's dictionary would be
smaller, so you could not boast that many words, and it would
not sound that great. Bet you never realised how important they
were, did you?
Fourthly, where can I get hold of a code compresser?
Letter from Colin Anderton
I've got billions of discs full of speccy games which could be
crunched to a zillionth of the size they are. HELP!
Fifthly, a word from my cat. C'mere. dhhhhhhn2777jfe. (I added
the full stop - he's a bit illiterate, stupid animal).
COLIN (As in Anderton, not Macdonald)
P.S. If there is anyone out there who owns an Archimedes, or
whose school owns one, get in touch with me because I can
provide a converter for SCREEN$. (Include an SAE). Address:
[redacted]
P.S. I think this letter's a bit out of date now... Soz
BM Reply to Those Rather Odd Young People...
Well. There's not an awful lot I can say about those letters.
There was another one from the Peter who got a very brief
mention, but I decided to remove it in the interests of decency.
(Don't ask...)
We have sort of got a compressor program here, but I've never
got around to learning how to use it I'm afraid. I know I really
should but I haven't, yet. I will though, soon. Honest.
At the moment, we use a thing which Colin gave me a few months
ago and which I believe originally came from SAM Supplement.
I'll need to ask him about it.
Finally thanks for that disc you sent. I expect we'll be using a
proggy or two from it next issue...
- BRIAN
Random Dot Stereograms
AC Random Dot Stereograms I doubt that you will have been able to avoid the recent mania for 3D images. The craze includes the recent BBC 3D week, which needed special glasses. (Since everything that moves will look 3D, games and demos will look 3D if you wear them - scrolly messages go 'into' the screen, unless you wear the glasses upside down.) Random Dot Stereograms (which were featured on Tomorrow's World) are seemingly random patterns of dots which, when viewed correctly, will look 3D. The effect is like an object, wrapped in patterned paper. They require no special equipment, but do take a bit of practice to see. More on that technique later. The program on this disk will print out a stereogram, given an image on a mode 4 screen. You will need a printer; the program has been tested with the Esprint MRC 016 (9 pin dot matrix) and the Panasonic KX-P2123 Quiet Printing 24 pin colour printer, but it should work with most printers. AC You may find that the image "falls off" the side of the printer; entering the control characters 27,63,75,4 might cure this. To view a stereogram, each eye's line of sight must initially be through one of the alignment arrows at the top of the image. This means that you will see three arrows, the centre one being much darker than the other two. To achieve this requires practice and determination (plus a strong belief that the whole thing isn't a hoax! I assure you, these things are real) There are a number of methods. The first, far-eyed viewing, involves training your eyes on a distant object, such as a wall, or the horizon through a window. Whilst doing so, slide the stereogram in front of you, at a point where the line of sight for each eye happens to be through an alignment arrow. Then glance down when the arrows finally fuse. If you try this and fail, then attempt cross-eyed viewing. Hold your finger halfway between your face and the paper. AC Whilst looking at your finger, focus on the paper behind. As before, the arrows should merge, which should evntually focus along with the rest of the image. This will, however, make most stereograms look inside-out, rather like a hollow mould. To use this program, either select a shape from the menu, or draw one yourself, using any art package. Pen 0 is the lowest, pen 15 the highest. There is no "paper level" as such, the background level can be any number, with objects below and above it. When viewing a design on screen before printing it, the palette can be changed so that any position can be black; the background. The other colours are scaled; purple objects are above black, green below it. This palette is for viewing only, and does not affect the printed result. When designing a screen for use as a stereogram, leave about an inch at the top of the screen, filled only with the background colour- this makes viewing easier. Don't use a frame or border line as this can be very confusing. AC Try to make sure that the object is fairly large, doesn't have steep drop-offs or repeating patterns. Above all, make it interesting! If you have any queries, write (with an SAE please) to me: [redacted] NB. "On The Tiles!" still available - £2.50 to the same address.