Description
Issue 44
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Brian McConnell | |
| Magazine | Sam's Paging System Explained | |
| Letters | Lemmings Reviewed (Again) | |
| Dinosorcerer | Lars Persson | Identi-Kit Dinosaurs Anyone? |
| Captain Comic | Lars Persson | Platform-Type Game |
| Sam A-Z | Matt Round | Misc Bits Of Helpful Sam Info |
| Driver Tweaks | Matt Round | Enhance Your DRiVER Environment |
| Net | Tim Paveley | Text Pinched Off The Internet |
| E-Tunes | Jon Binnie | Music Done On E-Tracker |
| Blob | David Lewis | Similar To Manic Miner |
| Missile Base | Andrew Collier | Stop Aliens Abducting Your People |
| Tape Labeller | Andrew Collier | For A Nice Neat Tape Collection |
| Crossword | Colin Anderton | Test Your Knowledge Of Things Coupe! |
| Polygons | Ben Hockley | Polygon-Drawing Procedures |
Magazine
BM Editorial
Hello once again, and I hope you all had a good Easter. For
myself it was, predictably, a time of much over-eating
(chocolate - quel surprise) and of staying in bed until noon.
Luxury. I did think of getting myself super-fit and Gladiator-
esque this Easter, and in fact I did make it to the gym; once.
On the first day of the holiday, there we were, 10 am, bench
pressing and sit-upping like never before. An auspicious start,
but of course it couldn't last. Ah well. I will go again,
sometime. Maybe next term. Maybe in the summer. Maybe in 4th
year. I hear 40 is a good age to start weight training... The
uni gym's pretty good too, and only 25p an hour. What a bargain.
Colin's off on his travels, so you may have a description of
them to look forward to in FRED 45. I know I can't wait to get
the sordid details off him. I get the full, uncensored version
though, while you lot are only allowed the printable stuff! I'll
have to accompany him on these travels sometime. Summer. Yes. I
*will* be there!
BM Editorial
If you sent off an order in the last week of March or first week
of April, don't worry about the delay. Colin's being "in
communicado" (not a bad Marillion song that) means that the
business side of things will be not quite as promptly dealt with
as usual.
The end of term saw a spell of frantic activity as exams loomed,
and I can now proudly announce that I passed them. Some of them
anyway: the two Maths papers and one of the Computing papers. I
don't know about Psychology yet, and don't much care to be
brutally honest. The results of the other Computing one also
remain to be posted, and I have to say I'm not looking forward
to seeing them. That was the nasty electronics part of the
course which is not nice. I know you all lose a lot of sleep
worrying about these things, so now at least you're out of your
misery.
We're still looking for our replacement editor, but more about
that later on.
BM News
Erm, this could be difficult. As far as I know, nothing remotely
newsworthy has happened since last month. Of course, there could
be a small envelope behind Colin's door containing an order of
50,000 SAMs but let's face it - it's hardly likely.
One thing which will sadden some readers more than others is the
death of Kurt Cobain, lead singer with the biggest band in the
world, Nirvana. Kurt has apparently committed suicide at the
beginning of April. This in itself will come as nothing new to
Nirvana fans though, who I'm sure have heard all about it by
now.
This is a huge loss not only to his family and friends, but to
music lovers the world over. It may not mean an awful lot, I'm
sure I speak for a lot of us when I say he will be missed. Kurt
was the spokesman, however reluctantly and unintentionally, for
an entire culture, and is without doubt irreplacable.
BM Colin's Bit
Colin is of course on his travels and so is unable to say much
in FRED. He's probably got severe slurring of the speech in the
everyday sense as well, but let's not dwell on the fact.
In his absence, here's a word or two from Paul Crompton on the
subject of the SAM's paging system. Take it away, Paul!
Sam paging system
-----------------
3 ports are used used on a sam without a meg upgrade. These are
the Lower Memory Page Register (LMPR), Higher Memory Page
Register (HMPR) and Video Memory Page Register. All 3 ports can
be written to or read from to get the current status.
The way I shall describe bits are
Bit 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Value 1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128
and not, as some people use
bit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Value 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
LMPR
----
This is accessed from port 250 and is set as follows.
bits Description
0-4 Page in lower memory (0-31), the first page is in
section 0 and the following page is in section 1, if
page 31 is in section 0 then page 0 appears in section
1 (as in basic)
5 If reset then page 0 is occupied by ROM 0 and if reset
page 0 is occupied by ram
6 If reset then page 3 is occupied by ram and if set
page 3 is occupied by ROM 1
7 If reset then page 0 can be written to if ram is there
if set then page 0 can't be written to so it acts like
a rom even if ram is paged in. (This is mainly used in
speccy emulators)
HMPR
----
This is accessed from port 251 and is set as follows.
bits Description
0-4 Page in upper memory (similer to LMPR)
6-5 These decide which colour set is used in mode 3. If
it is 00 then palette positions 0-3 are used, if 01
then 4-7 are used, if 10 then 8-11 are used and if 11
then 12-15 are uses
7 If this bit is reset then internal memory is used if
it is reset then external memory is used (this is
explained after VMPR).
VMPR
----
This is accessed from port 252 and is set as follows.
bits Description
0-4 Page that screen is in (modes 3 and 4 bit 0 is ignored
but in modes 1 and 2 any page can be used. mode 2
uses 6K at the beginning of the page for the picture
as in mode 1 but the 6K for attributes are stored 8K
into the page leaving a 2K gap in the middle and 2K at
the end)
6-5 these decide the screen mode - 00 is mode 1, 01 is
mode 2, 10 is mode 3 and 11 is mode 4
7 This is used to send and receive data down the midi
port (I think)
If bit 7 is set for HMPR then external memory is used this is
controlled by ports 128 and 129. Port 128 controls section 2
and port 129 controls section 3. These ports are set as follows
bits Description
0-5 This describes which 16K page is used (0-63)
6-7 This describes which meg unit is used.
If you use external memory you should check which units are
installed before using.
If you call a routine from basic and you wish to return make
sure you store the LMPR, VMPR the stack pointer, put sam in
interrupt mode 1 and enable interrupts.
Other useful information
------------------------
When sam is reset all then memory ports are set to 0 so if you
put a mode 1 picture in page 0 then it will appear when the sam
is reset.
It is useful also to trap the break button at the back of sam.
All this does is execute an NMI to disable the button. Place a
RETN instruction at memory location 102. This returns
interrupts to the state they were in and returns to the
interrupted program. If you put another routine there instead
then you will also have to look out for multiple interrupts as
the NMI button sends more than one.
To change palette colours set the register BC to 248+256*colour
position, set the A register to the new palette colour then just
OUT (C),A.
In modes 2,3 and 4 you can disable the screen by setting bit 7
of port 254. This allows code to run at full speed because
there is no memory contention also if mode one is used this
provides more memory contention then the other modes and can not
be disabled. This was to make it easier to emulate the speccy
and also stops speccy programs that set bit 7 from disabling the
screen.
In most Speccy emulators if you have problems loading from tape
you can usually enter OUT 250,35:POKE 1512,tape speed:OUT
250,163 from basic. The tape speed was originally 22 in the
speccy but will need increasing for the sam (a value between 26
and 30 is probably the best). If you use a program that saves
to tape and the save routine has not been changed you wil have
to set the tape load speed to about 6 to load it back.
Anyway time to finish this file. If anybody has any problems
then send them to me and I'll see what I can do. I am not that
good at Z80 as I only recently started learning but I could
probably find out anything I don't know and it will also help me
to leaan more.
I will also be willing to answer any other questions such as
BASIC queries etc, if I can. I would also be Grateful if anyone
with any tips could send them to me.
My address is:
[redacted]
BM Bummer!
People - I am not happy. I am very UN-happy. Why? I shall
explain... Just as I was writing the credits page, another issue
finally finished, I remember "Goodfellas" was on. So I
frantically got a video tape out, gave a small prayer that there
was nothing important on it, and pressed the ol' RECORD button.
Then, I put it on the telly's video channel to check it was
recording the right channel (it occasionally doesn't, which can
be VERY annoying. Okay it's my fault, but that's not the point).
Naturally, I got kind of engrossed watching it, and switched the
SAM off to stop the interference on the screen. I think you can
guess which important disc-related action I forgot to do...?
Yes. That's right. And now I've got to write half the magazine
again. Great. So please forgive me if I sound a little bit eager
to get it over with. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!
*** This page is sponsored by the campaign for ***
*** compulsory backups in word processors in ***
*** word processors and other applications. ***
BM Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
If you were unlucky enough or, dare I say it, daft enough, to
miss last month's FRED, then you will not know that my time has
come - I'm giving up my FREDitor-ship. The reason for this is
that university work is going to take up even more of my time
next year. As it's been hard enough this year I decided I should
give Colin ample warning of my departure. And last month was it.
So we're now looking for a brand new editor. We've had a few
applicants so far, but we're far from decided. If you think
you've got what it takes - that is, you're good (not necessarily
stunning, but you should be fairly capable) at English,
programming (up to about the standards of our main menu
programs) and basically you enjoy your SAM - then get in touch,
explaining why you are the ideal candidate for the job.
Send applications to the usual FRED address. Mark them "Attempt
to replace the godlike and wonderful Brian" if you like. It'll
make me happy if not much else. Although it may get on Colin's
nerves too, which is an added bonus I suppose!
BM Let's Do It One More Time!
Okay, you know the score by now: April 30th, Gloucester, the SAM
and Spectrum show. Unless you are a goldfish with a memory span
of 7 seconds, you cannot *possibly* be unaware of this show. It
will in all probability be a SAM show with a few Speccy related
things, so PLEASE go! These shows could become regular events
where SAMmers can speak to fellow SAMers, see demos of the
latest software, get excellent discounts and of course put faces
to the names they've heard all about but never met. Stefan
Drissen for example - he'll be there, and if he can journey over
from the Netherlands, there's no excuse for those of us in the
UK not to be able to get there! There will actually be about a
dozen Euro-SAMmers there, so you can even get in a bit of
practice for your German GCSE. (They'll kill me for that. After
5 minutes of being spoken to in pigeon-German they'll be out for
blood! Probably. I would be!)
This is the last time you'll be asked to go, at least. Next
month you'll have the show report to contend with! Phone Colin
if you're at all unsure about where to go. He'll send you a map.
BM Competition!
Win - a £500 music system!
Yes, to commemorate my passing my Maths exams, we're offering
YOU the chance to walk away with a superb hifi system valued at
£499.99. All you have to do is answer the following simple
question, and send your answer to FRED before the 30th April.
The winner will be announced at the show.
Q: 0 to the power 0 - discuss the meaning of this expression
RULES:
1:- Answers must be in essay form, and must be no less than
50,000 words. Due to the nature of this competition, answers
must be handwritten, in the cyrillic alphabet, with a different
coloured pencil for each character (the same colour may be used
more than once, but not consecutively).
2:- The publisher reserves the right to offer alternative prizes
of a value not necessarily equal to that of the prize indicated.
BM Disc Contents
FRED 44 is a right old muddle of material. There are the
obligatory Gamesmaster games, plus the customary utility, and a
number of things which can only be described as "miscellaneous."
Take DINOSORCERER, sent in by NONAME for example. (Incidentally,
Mr NONAME - unless we discover your real name, it's going to be
extremely difficult to pay you for your contributions!). This is
a program which allows you to quickly and easily design your
very own mix n match dinosaurs, and then save them as SCREEN$
files or print them out. There are literally thousands of
different combinations of dinosaur possible, so you're not
likely to run out of possibilities for a good couple of days.
CAPTAIN COMIC is another PC conversion by NONAME (who's still
not getting paid until he reveals his true ID). This is an
arcade adventure along the lines of Ghosts N Goblins. Sort of.
It's a colossal game, and should keep you occupied for ages.
There's an instruction file to explain things further, although
it's an easy enough game to get into. Thanks for these excellent
conversions, NONAME.
BM Disc Contents
SAM A-Z is Matt Round's first contribution to FRED 44, and
ccontains a selection of details, both trivial and essential,
about the SAM. Read and learn. The viewing program is a new one
of Matt's own design, and we're thinking about using to replace
the current viewer which people are apparently getting a bit
sick of. Let us know how you stand on this issue. Should be
start using Matt's viewer?
Using Matt's system is hardly the most taxing of activities.
Select a topic from the menu, using cursors and RETURN, and then
use those same keys to click on the various arrows and icons at
the bottom. Clicking on the up arrow takes you back to the
contents page from which you can quit back to the main menu.
I still prefer the current viewer, but that's just my
preference. We've had a lot of people saying they don't like the
colours and can't change them. To them I say simply "?!" because
if you press the CNTRL key, lo and behold - a colours menu
appears! Where's the problem?!
BM Disc Contents
DRIVER TWEAKS is the other Matt Round contribution, and it
allows you to customise your Driver. Not having a copy of
Driver, I haven't been able to see what it looks like, but hey,
this IS Matt Round we're talking about - it's hardly going to be
crap, is it! There's an instruction file to reveal all, and the
files are stored together on the disc so you shouldn't have any
problems with it. If you do, then tough. We don't care. [Slap! -
Colin's predicted reaction] Erm no, if you have problems, write
in saying what's going wrong and we'll help you out. That okay
Colin? [No slap] Phew.
NET contains some humorous text files which I think were sent
to me by Tim Paveley (whose name has two Es in it. Slappy wristy
time, again. I forgot about the 2nd one last time I mentioned
him). These are my favourite part of this issue of FRED, mainly
because half my holiday has been spent converting these things
over to Outwrite format. Sheesh! What a job. The Outwrite
method is great for the old PRINT MEM$ caper, but it has the
drawback of being utterly utterly non-standard. RSI here I come!
BM Disc Contents
E-TUNES this issue have been composed by Jon Binnie; the SAM's
answer to the Aphex Twin? (note: if you don't know who the
Miggins Aphex Twin is, don't worry. He's just a bloke who writes
very other-wordly "music"). PLUS! I even wrote a half-decent
scrolly for ya!
BLOB is a frighteningly Manic Miner-ish game by David Lewis.
This takes a heck of a lot of getting used to, but believe me,
it's worth the effort. I'll buy a pint for anybody who manages
to complete the first level in under 10 games (provided video
camera proof, AND solicitor's and doctor's signatures are
sent). Again, I believe Mr Lewis has a text file explaining the
game for you to peruse at your leisure.
MISSILE BASE is a game by Andrew Collier which just goes to show
that if you send us the same thing every week for six months
we'll publish it eventually! Of course, had we received another
issue of SCUM, this wouldn't have been included, but...
No sorry, Andrew, just trying to wind you up a bit!
BM Disc Contents
Missile Base is another item which rodent owners will be
especially delighted with, but us keyboarders are far from
ignored. The game is a shoot em up, and you must shoot the alien
scum in order to stop them from nicking the populace from your
home planet (which I'd assume is Earth, but you never know...).
Move the cross hair about the screen and let fly with one of
your three weapons (oo-er missus!) which are kept on the left,
right and centre of the screens. I strongly recommend redefining
your own keys because I don't have a clue what the default ones
are!
Be warned that if you keep playing for more than 5 minutes, the
SAM's memory chips melt. This only applies if you are holding
a blowtorch to the chips whilst playing though, so don't do
that.
TAPE LABELLER is another program by Andrew Collier, which should
keep him off our backs for a couple of months.
BM Disc Contents
I get the distinct impression that Andrew has a mouse because,
yes, this is another mouse-utilising proggy. Again keyboarders
are catered for, but we lose out in the ease-of-use stakes
somewhat. Actually I DID have a mouse, but Colin repossessed it
because I called him a turnip and painted his SAM green. Downer.
Anyway, to learn more about this fascinating program, zoom the
cursor up to the top left of the screen and either whack your
left rat button or press CNTRL (hold them down, in fact) to get
the pull down menu. From there, choose the ABOUT item (release
the key/rat button) to become enlightened. Oh, the program
prints cassette labels, by the way...
BITS N BOBS suffers from our quality-not-quantity policy this
month, and has but two items on it. The first is a crossword
puzzle about our old friend SAM, and is an impressive example of
how to spell Colin Macdonald's name wrong. The answer to 1
across is only correct if you miss out the first "a" in Colin's
surname, hint hint. Also, pretend that Rod Hull's surname begins
with "s" and you can't go wrong...
BM Disc Contents
The second item in an ever so truncated BNB is a shape drawer
which lets you draw filled circles, boxes and triangles with the
greatest of ease. There's also a semi-trippy demonstration for
added entertainment. Smart!
SCREENS contains, believe it or not, some screens. We thought
we'd have a bit of a change in this section and show you some
screens. It's a radical move, but I think it might catch on.
Yes, there are some screens to view, and they're all by Brian
Harriman. Except for the last one, the Mickey Mouse one, which
was done by G Williams. Mickey Mouse is strictly speaking
copyright to Disney, but we don't care. We like to live on the
edge, and despite the fact that Big D have hundreds of spies in
the SAM market we're going ahead and using the screen.
ADVERTS contains the usual selection of explicitly sexual and
violent images which we've been using for the past six months.
Since nobody looks through them anyway, who's going to complain?
BM Last Page
Before I go, I'd like to give a massive apology to those who
were expecting to see a FRED team entered in the USA World Cup
this summer. Despite a valiant effort, Colin and myself were
unable to spare the time to (A) become an independent nation,
(B) form a footy team, or (C) arrange any qualifying matches.
This does not mean that our plans for glory have been abandoned,
it just means we're going to have resort to becoming a world
class rugby team instead.
Next, we regret to inform you that the upcoming book, "Colin
Macdonald: Autobiography of a Teenage Tycoon" has been cancelled
due to the wrong sort of leaves on the word processor. Any
demands for compensation should be addressed to Mr Doug Willis
off Neighbours.
Finally, we hope to have Russell Butler explaining how he
managed to write a virus which only works when Annalise, er
Annalees er, the blond girl is on the keyboard. Goodbye. - BRIAN
BM Credits
Editor (for now): Brian "I will save it this time" McConnell
Thanks to:
NONAME (no pay either, matey) Andrew Collier
Matt Round Brian Harriman
Tim Paveley G Williams
Jon Binnie Colin Anderton
David Lewis Ben Hockley
Paul Crompton
Scottish Education Dept (GRANT CHEQUE!!!!!!)
FRED PUBLISHING
[redacted]
>>> Quite literally NOTHING! >>>
>>> Don't bother even trying >>>
BM Disobedient Pups
Hoi. What do you think you're doing? I told you there was
nothing worth reading, but oh no. You know better, don't you?
Well, you're going to have to be punished. The FRED detector van
will be in your area soon, and as reading this page sets up a
nuclear process in the TV, you will be discovered. The penalty?
You will have both your legs amputated and the stumps tattooed
with very politically incorrect statements. Ha! That'll teach
you.
Impudent young whippersnapper.
Letters & Review
Letter from Derek Morgan
SAM PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE LIBRARY
[redacted]
Dear Brian,
Thanks for your comments about the PD. If you're going to make a
mistake then make a big one, I always say. It will get you
noticed, and it did!
I would like to thank everyone that phoned or wrote to tell me
that I had advertised the 'Mouse Driver' at £2.50 when I was
selling it for £1.50. Also thanks to Dave who bought his copy at
the Haydock All Formats Show. I got the message, thanks for both
phone calls.
Letter from Derek Morgan
Another problem that people asked about was the DOS on Mouse
Driver 2. You do not need MasterDos to use the Mouse Driver 2,
use the Dos that is on the disk with the program. It's PD, use
it.
To all those people out there who thought that we would try and
rip you off, shame on you. How could we hope to do this with
Watchdoggy Brian watching over you.
Sam PD is here to provide you the Sam user with good reliable
software, at a fair price. I won't use the word cheap, it's not
nice. At the time of writing this letter we have 67 disks (not
titles) for sale and prices start from only £1.25
We have received five new disks of software and we are in the
process of sorting and debugging them now.
A big thank you to Paul Crompton, Chris Dodd and Nigel French
for sending software. Fame already!
Letter from Derek Morgan
There is also another part of SAM PD. This is known as
F9 SOFTWARE
which has been running for many years. F9 Software sells full
price software for people who want to retain there copyright.
This software ranges from games, utilitys, demos, adventures and
educational to Disk magazines.
For a full list of SAM PD and F9 Software, please send a large
stamped addressed enverlope to the address above.
Yours,
Derek
Letter from Chris Bailey
Dear Whoever,
Hello. Firstly, well done on Lemmings. It's very good.
Right, now I wonder if I could ask a favour? I write the Coupe
Column for the bi-monthly Spectrum magazine FISH and we need to
get more readers (I'm sure you can remember how hard this is).
So this is a blatant attempt at gaining a mention in FRED, if
you please.
I've enclosed a copy of the latest issue but please note that it
is only a bad photocopy of my copy, so the quality may not seem
too good. I hope it gives you an idea though.
Fish doesn't come from me, but from Mat Beal, 3 Station Road,
Birch Vale, Stockport, Cheshire, SK12 5BP and costs only 25p +
SAE, or £3 for six issues (which does work out cheaper).
Thanks for the publicity, Chris Bailey
BM Reply to Chris Bailey
Oh all right, you may have your little plug. Readers - buy FISH.
It's great. It is mainly Spectrum-related, but there is Chris's
Coupe Column. The magazine is a good laugh even if not greatly
relevant to the SAM. I certainly enjoyed it, although I have
been told I've got a pretty odd sense of humour sometimes.
The overall feel is very Your Sinclair, so if like me you loved
that late, great Speccy magazine you'd do well to get FISH.
Don't expect massive long MC tutorials, or indeed anything
remotely serious!
That's all I'll say, but for only £3, can you really go wrong?
Issue 7 is due for a May release; they've just had their first
anniversary (awwwww). The address once more is:
[redacted]
Dear FRED,
I bought a Kaleidoscope quite some time ago, thinking that it
was the future for graphics on the SAM. [Ahh, hindsight! -
Brian] It gives each of the 128 colours 256 shades, making 32768
colours in all. I can count the number of times I've used it on
one finger, so I would be grateful if you could put me in touch
with someone who might be interested in it. There is also a disk
that comes with it.
Long live indie music!
[redacted]
Consider it done, NJ. - BRIAN
Letter from Mark Trask
Dear Colin/Brian,
Thank you for sending my Lemmings so quickly. I love it, and
think it must be well the best SAM game yet, miles better than
Prince of Persia even. Give Chris a pat on the back from me. The
only thing is, the palette flashes when levels are being loaded.
Is this a bug?
I have a question now. Has FRED got any other games lined up? I
know just releasing Lemmings you're very busy at the moment, but
I just wondered. You see, I've got a couple of game ideas that
I thought up. Because I cannot program in BASIC never mind
machine code I thought you might like them? You'll be pleased to
hear that none of them are puzzle games!
Finally, what has happened to Cookie? Will he be at the show? I
will, so I'll try to speak to you and some other FREDheads
there!
BM Reply to Mark Trask
Yes, I'm afraid the flashing palette interrupt is a bug. For the
two or three of you who don't have Lemmings, all this is is the
top couple of lines of the screen flicker whilst levels are
loading. I know it's a little bit annoying, but there's nothing
wrong with your copy or anything. I'm just relieved that it's
not a more serious bug!
I'm not sure what plans, if any, Colin has up his sleeve for
future releases. There is of course the huge Legend of Eshan
coming up in the next couple of months, but other than that if
Colin does have anything brewing, he's being very secretive
about them. We're always on the lookout for new game ideas, so
send them in. We don't want suggestions of, "Do a footy game,"
or, "I want a good beat-em-up," or even worse, "Is there any
chance of FRED getting a licence for Mario?". If you have any
ideas, they should give full details of the game, ie plot (if
any), level themes, characters' names, characters' abilities,
enemy attack formations, etc. Ideally the programmer should not
have to think about the game at all, but should be able to take
BM Reply to Mark Trask
your specification and just program it. No worrying, "What does
this end of level baddie do?" or, "Should I do a space level or
an underwater level," or ....
You get the idea.
Onto your last point about Cookie. He's at uni somewhere,
Manchester I think, and is doing Physics (although again I'm not
absolutely certain about that). I do hope he gets to the show,
but if not there's always Colin and myself and the hundreds of
other, er, "FREDheads" to chat and offer free beer to, should
you feel so inclined. That's a point. I wonder if there's a bar
there. What's Bob Brenchley's phone number again...?
Letter from Dundee University
Dear Brian,
You are a brilliant student, possibly the best we've ever had,
and we are so glad you came to Dundee. You are clearly destined
for greatness in your future career, and we humbly await your
next command, oh Lord.
Yours faithfully,
All the staff at Dundee University
PS Please accept 8 thousand pounds worth of Threshers vouchers.
Reply to Dundee Uni
"Wahey!" eh readers? That's a striking bit of good news.
- BRIAN
BM Letters Shortage
Bad news now readers - I've run out of letters. Even Robert
Pain's stopped talking to me! Come on, people, get those writing
heads on. Get that word processor loaded in. At least find a pen
and scribble something for your co-readers to read and learn
from. More reviews would go down quite well too, if anybody's
interested...?
Next up is a review of Lemmings by Dan "Banzai" Doore. Thanks
Dan.
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Smart, huh?
DD Lemmings Review
---------------
Right, lets talk small and furry. Unless you have had your head
in a tar pit for the last three months or so, then you will know
that ** Lemmings ** has hit the Coupe, courtesy of Psycnosis, Mr
Chris White and Fred. If you have never heard of Lemmings then
you are:
A) A loner
B) Unlucky
Therefore, for those that fit in the latter category, I will
attempt to explain (apologies to the 98% of you who are at this
very moment yelling 'GET ON WITH IT') what Lemmings is about.
Lemmings is a one player game best used with a mouse, but
keyboard/joystick control is perfectly adequate. A lemming is a
little creature who walks about and, with no thought for
personal safety, will gladly fall into chasms, off ledges, drown
etc (stupid is the point I am trying to get across here).
DD Lemmings Review
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Your task in Lemmings is to guide the lemmings across a
landscape to a safe exit within a certain time. Sounds simple,
doesn't it? But listen closely, oh Lemmings trainee: that voice
that was screaming "Get on with it" earlier is now muffling a
snigger!
Because all lemmings are stupid and only walk about, you must
give a lemming a special property such as the ability to build a
bridge, climb walls, dig tunnels, explode (!), block the path of
others or fall long distances. Using these skills you must save
a certain percentage of lemmings. If you get stuck, you can
"Nuke" the lemmings, exploding each furry critter all over the
screen (brilliant for stress, this). If you save enough lemmings
you will go to the next level and have a bash at solving that
one. You can pick the level at which you want to start according
to set markers (eg level 1, level 20, level 60 or something like
that) depending on your confidence and ability.
DD Lemmings Review
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Not a good description I know, but since this game is such a
quantum leap from ALL other formula games it is a hard job (even
the Lemmings manual has to resort to cartoons for this). Lets
get brutal. Lemmings is NOT for those with short tempers,
nervous disorders etc. and requires brain power when you get to
the higher levels and to complete the game, but it is SO evilly
addictive that it will have you up at 3am with more caffine than
your bladder can stand, trying to complete a level. Each time
you complete a level, you are given a password so that you can
return to it at any time and continue.
Right, now that everyone is up to speed we will start to have a
look at SAM Lemmings. Since I have played Lemmings on the Amiga,
Atari ST and (completed it on the) Acorn Archimedes, I am in a
reasonable position to compare. The opening animation sequence
is not present on Sam lemmings, but this is probably due to the
fact that had it been present, Lemmings would have had to come
on two discs (like the Amiga version) and for something you
DD Lemmings Review
---------------
watch once and skip through the next 4000 times, it's not worth
it.
The graphics have been ported by Neil Holmes (with additional
ones by Doug Holmes) and they are fantastic. I promise you that
you will NEVER see such good graphics in a game as this one on
the Coupe. Superb animated backdrops and sprites.
Sound is provided by master tunesmith Craig Turberfield, and is
also first class, with many of the tunes from other versions
faithfully reproduced using E-Tracker. What all those people who
have already played Lemmings before are now asking is "How fast
does it run then?" There are two ways of looking at it: you can
jump in and compare it to the Amiga version and say "Hmm, not as
fast," or sit and think for a while and say "Thats not bad at
all for an 8-BIT processor."
While both are true, for an 8-BIT conversion of what was
DD Lemmings Review
---------------
designed to be a 16-BIT game, Chris White has done remarkably
well. In the interests of fairness I gave a SAM Lemmings preview
to an Amiga and an ST owner, and both said it was a bit slower
than theirs, but they liked the music (The ST owner was VERY
impressed) and thought that the graphics were essentially the
same. The Amiga owner was shocked even to see it running on an
8-BIT machine!
Right, moans time. The font used in Lemmings is a bit hard to
read on a TV (I tested this 'cos I use a monitor normally), and
after speaking to Colin (or was it Brian - I can't remember) he
said that many different fonts had been tried but that was the
best. Fair I suppose.
The other minor annoyance is that the levels take a bit of time
to load (and palette interrupts go a bit mental) and decrunch,
but since there is music when decrunching I don't really mind -
it allows my brain to recover a bit.
DD Lemmings Review
---------------
Sam lemmings is a fantastic conversion and is a must in anyone's
disc box. PLEASE don't just look at the price (remember this is
a BIG license and the boys at Psycnosis want their pound of
flesh as well) as that doesn't even begin to reflect the work
put into this product. If you buy this, then it is possible that
many other big licences will come to the Coupe. Don't buy it and
you WILL be missing out on a fantastic game.
Overall: 97%,
Banzai "Seal of Approval" blah blah blah.
BM
Well, that's it for our April issues of the Letters section.
Remeber - we need YOU to write in!
Word of the week: snoooooork-eeeeee.