Description
Issue 45
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Brian McConnell | |
| Magazine | Show Report, Guide To Printer-Buying | |
| Letters | Legend Of Eshan Reviewed - Twice! | |
| Atoms | Andrew Collier | 2 Player Strategy/Puzzle Game |
| Interlaced | David Simmonds | Very Hi-Res Screens On Sam! |
| Gfx Utils | Matt Round | Image Processing On The Cheap |
| 2d Graph | Tim Paveley | Plots Mathematical Functions |
| Net | Tim Paveley | Text Pinched Off The Internet |
| E-Tunes | Bob Brunsden | Music Done On E-Tracker |
| Modules | Jon Hampton | Amiga Module Files |
| Retros | Matt Round | Playable Demo Of Thrust Clone - see Games that weren't |
| Annoyance | Dan Dooré | Memory-Testing Game |
| Data Manager | Paul Crompton | Simple Database |
| Disc Copy | David Handley | Copies Discs |
| Cprint | Ben Hockley | Displays Text At Any Angle |
Magazine
BM Editorial
Summer, my fellow SAMers, is without doubt here. The weather of
last Saturday's show gave a subtle hint but that was in
Gloucester, not Monifieth, and so doesn't count. More about that
fine day later though. No, summer can only be pronounced well
and truly with us now that I've had my traditional overdose of
UV rays in good old Monifieth; today was that day, and so summer
is here. Hurrah! and dig out UFOrb for another summer of
ambience!
The month of May also traditionally brings Highers, A-Levels,
and all the piddly little ones which seem important at the time.
Then you realise that a Standard Grade in English qualifies you
only for membership of the human race and wish you hadn't wasted
so many sunny hours studying useless and unimportant things. But
hey, I'm not bitter - they've put all _my_ exams in June now,
for maximum summer disruption. I'll take this opportunity to
wish those of you currently sitting your exams the best of luck,
and hope to see some of you at Dundee Uni next year. By which
time they'll hopefully get some air-conditioning...
BM Editorial
A rather important event took place in the weeks since I last
spoke to you - I refer of course to the 2nd Gloucester SAM and
Spectrum Show. For more details of this historic occasion, flick
forward a few pages, but for now I'd like to thank all of you
who took the trouble to nip down and see what it was all about.
The people I spoke to seemed most impressed by everything, and
that includes both visitors and stand-holders alike. As yet,
there is no 3rd Show planned, but who knows - perhaps we can all
go down and revel and delight this time in 1995...? We shall no
doubt be publicising such a show 8.5 seconds after Bob Brenchley
decides it would be worth having, so don't worry about missing
it!
On a very dull note indeed, I'm getting a little bored with
right-justified text all the time, and so to liven up my tedious
existence a little, I'm going to throw caution to the wind and
have (gasp!) JAGGY BORDERS! I apologise in advance for any undue
inconvenience, lack of sleep or downright terror this may cause.
- BRIAN
BM News
Legend of Eshan, the SAM's first Role Playing Game, is now out,
and you can buy as many copies as you wish. Should you wish to
purchase 10 copies of said item, we shall throw in a free label
for any blank disc you might have lying around.
No. Wait. Stop everything a moment. This is just getting SILLY!
You wouldn't believe the thing about low-flying antelopes I was
thinking about writing. Right. That's better. I shall continue
now....
You can buy Legend... from FRED for £14.99, with £2 off for FRED
subscribers (that's £12.99). We have some reviews of it in the
letters section, so you might like to jump there after this.
Possibly you always do that anyway, and in any case who am I to
order your FRED perusing? The game is, as I have said, an RPG,
and has been compared, very favourably I might add, to the
Speccy classic Lords of Midnight (which I have never played and
probably never will).
BM News
I can't say I'm a huge fan of RPG games. I've just bought a
couple for my Amiga, as they were selling very cheaply - an
A1200, well reviewed game for £5.99? 'Course I bought it! I have
to admit that I've played it for a total time of about 8 minutes
now. £6 well spent, I say! No doubt I'd be instantly hooked on
Legend of Eshan, but as Colin hasn't lobbed a copy in my
direction I can't comment. It does look pretty cool though (the
one screenshot I've seen, that is!).
Now some news which will have half of you saying "Happy happy
joy joy!" and the other half crying into their pints - Commodore
Business Machines, the company responsible for the C64 and of
course the Amiga, target of many a SAM owners abuse, has gone
under. Or gone into voluntary liquidation, whatever that may
mean. Colin told me it was bad though (between giggles), so
thinks are looking pretty darned serious for the Amiga, and the
CD32 which seemed a roaring success in the UK at least. It just
goes to show that it's not the computer but the marketing behind
it that determines whether or not the machine survives.
BM News
Something which is bound to cheer a few of you up is the news
that West Coast have produced another, brand new SAM!
Called the SAM Elite, this is basically a normal SAM with a
built in printer interface, and a slightly enhanced ROM. Don't
get in a panic about having to shell out £15 for this ROM
though, as it's only to handle the aforementioned printer
interface. Bundled with 6 games, this package is aimed at people
upgrading from consoles to a real computer! The games:
* Tetris
* Astroball
* Quizball
* Frog Squad
* Soul Magician
* Dragon Tiles
which you can obtain from West Coast for £5 if you really want
them. You'll probably have seen most of them before though.
BM News
It should be stressed that this is not a new computer, but a new
package. Your existing SAM is not now obsolete and out of date,
so please don't phone up asking how they could do it to such a
loyal market!
If you know anybody who's looking for a SAM, tell them about the
SAM Elite. It costs £200, and has a disc drive and of course
512k RAM.
Phone [redacted] (Format) for more details.
*****
West Coast have declared Lemmings to be "the best licence for
the SAM yet released." So to celebrate this, you can get
Lemmings now for the special price of £29.99! Oh all right,
£19.99... (Still £18 for subscribers, though!).
MR EVEN SKINTER: buying a printer!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
with Matt Round
Yes, it's another buyer's-guide article for all you people who,
like me, occasionally have more money than sense! You'd think
the guy in the local computer shop would love it when I went to
buy things, but ever since I mentioned the SAM he hasn't been
the same - apparently he used to be a dealer, and it didn't go
too well, so he now turns slightly pale if it's mentioned!
After simultaneously saving my eyesight and emptying my bank
account by buying a new TV, the next thing on the shopping list
was a new printer to replace the Citizen 120-D I bought with my
SAM. I liked having a printer that's compatible with just about
everything, and using the NLQ fonts in the PCG DTP pack gave
quite good results, but it was time for it to make way for
something much better...
MR Guide to Printers
I had around £230 to spend, which meant I had to make a choice
between the two types of printer in that range:
* 24-pin Colour
Several manufacturers make these (Star, Seikosha, Panasonic
etc.), and all are basically the same and cost £200-250. The
resolution is quite high, but as with all ribbon-using printers
it's not easy to get dark, even print. You can do good colour
screen dumps with the right software, and some have a few
scalable fonts built-in, so if you've got a versatile
word-processor you can set it up to use those.
Running costs are low, especially if you don't use colour much.
Dot-matrix printers tend to be quite large and 'clunky', and
colour ones are no exception!
MR Guide to Printers
* Inkjet/Bubblejet
These printers work by squirting ink at the paper, and have made
monochrome 24-pin printers virtually extinct. They're smaller,
much quieter (the only noise is from the mechanics of moving the
paper and the print-head) and give a deep, even blackness, but
are more expensive to run (ink cartridges are £12-17, which
works out at approx. 5p per page).
Lots of manufacturers make them (there's the Epson Stylus 800,
Star SJ48 and one from Olivetti that looks like a bread-bin!),
but only two good 'uns were available in my local shop:
MR Guide to Printers
1. Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 310 (portable). A while back, HP
surprised everyone by producing cheap, high-quality printers
rather than the expensive, high-quality ones they'd been
flogging to gullible corporations. There's a wide range of
Deskjets, and older models are around at lower prices. All
produce 300dpi (dots per inch) output, and features include
several fonts, but of course you'd have to specially configure a
word-processor to make use of such things. The DJ500C offers
great colour at £300 or so (again, you'd need special software
to make full use of it), and the mono DJs with built-in
sheet-feeders are around the £260 mark.
The printer my local shop was trying to get me to buy was the DJ
portable, for £233 (expect to pay £20 less mail order). This
doesn't have a sheet-feeder, but is compact and offers the same
quality as the other models. I was tempted by it (I've used
Deskjets before and was quite impressed), especially when I
heard that a colour kit would be available for around £60.
MR Guide to Printers
2. Canon BJ-10SX. This is another printer which can be made
portable by installing a rechargeable battery pack. The
print-head is incorporated into the ink cartridge, which may
seem wasteful but ensures you never end up with a worn-out
print-head! It can emulate the IBM Proprinter X24E, Canon
BJ-130e or Epson LQ-510, uses 360dpi resolution, and doesn't
have a sheet-feeder.
There are no scalable fonts, but the sharpness of the output is
superb, so this is very much the kind of printer which really
shines when used with things like Windows (which generates fonts
itself and merely uses the printer as a dumb graphics-drawer).
Costs £210.
I ruled out the 24-pin colour printers almost immediately. Yes,
colour screen dumps would be nice, but I'd had enough of
screeching dot-matrix printers, messy output and big, clumsy
machines... I wanted something that isn't the printer equivalent
of an Eastern-bloc diesel tractor!
MR Guide to Printers
Choosing between the others was far more difficult. I knew I
couldn't go wrong with the Deskjet 310, and could upgrade to
colour, but liked the higher resolution of the Canon.
In the end, I decided by thinking about what it had to print
from. I wanted to use it with my SAM, and although Wordmaster is
reconfigurable (it's really only a Spectrum program, but
unfortunately is still the only 'proper' word-processor on SAM).
I'd like to be able to use programs which assume you're using an
Epson FX compatible printer. I may be getting a PC in the
future, so I also wanted to be able to get good results from
Windows applications. The Canon BJ-10SX offers limited Epson FX
emulation (things like bold, underline, italics etc. are OK,
graphics compatibility is patchy) and superb 360dpi output, so I
handed £210 to a spotty trainee and walked away with a rather
small box...
MR Guide to Printers
It's now a fortnight later, and I think I made the right choice.
It takes up very little room on my desk, the design is lovely,
and the top cover keeps the dust out. It took a long time to set
the DIP switches (you have to work out which mode, font, etc.);
I ended up opting for Epson LQ emulation, which means I get
limited FX compatibility (but to use the very high resolution
graphics modes I'd have to change the settings).
The two fonts available in LQ mode, Roman and Sans Serif, are
nicely designed, and the resolution is even better than I'd
hoped for- you really have to strain your eyes to find anything
remotely resembling a jagged edge! I only have one gripe - it
causes nasty crashes if connected to the mains when my SAM is
already on... even my electric heater has never managed that!
MR Guide to Printers
So, if you don't want colour, and don't want to have to write
your own word-processor, the Canon BJ-10sx is a good buy, and
gives you quality only bettered by good laser printers.
Matt Round/'Malevolent'
STOP PRESS(!):
Screendumps from Flash! and SAMPaint *WON'T* work, but the DUMP
utility in MasterBASIC works unaltered. So you CAN do graphics
without special routines, but it costs a fortune in ink and is
at the resolution you'd get from a 9-pin dot-matrix!
*****
COLIN'S NOTE: We are working on the SAMPaint compatibility
problems with Canon printers, and we'll let you know as soon as
we get something sorted out. Also, for best results you should
load SAMPaint from MasterDOS or SAMDos, but NOT MasterBASIC.
BM Comment On Printers
I may as well throw my tuppence worth into this printer thing.
I've got a Canon BJ-10ex, which is just the not-so-snazzy
version of Matt's 10sx. I've found the print quality to be
superb from my word-processing, and one of my computing
lecturers thought it was a laser printer's output.
The printer outputs an internal font, so you won't lose any
quality due to the SAM's relatively low resolution. What happens
is the SAM sends a message, "Print the letter 'A'" and the
printer squirts ink onto the paper in the shape of the letter A
which it had programmed in. All this happens very quietly and at
83 characters per second which is fast for Letter Quality, but
dot-matrix printers can often go twice as fast as this with a
corresponding drop in quality. I must say that I've never
actually printed any screens from the SAM on it, so can't
comment there.
Any other FRED readers with Canons like to let us know how
they've fared?
CM APRIL AWAY
In true tradition of my good self getting itchy feet around
holiday time, the first two weeks in April were to represent a
petit-break from Scotland whilst I run amock in various other
cities in Britain.
After doing two exams on 30th March followed by a small
celebration, I managed to struggle onto a London bound train
early the next afternoon.
First stop : Essex, Thursday night. After JUST making the last
tubes in London, arriving in Essex in the pouring rain did make
me think twice about the trip. Especially when I remembered
pulling out of Dundee in the blindingly bright sunshine..!
There was a little bit of running about a train station - along
platforms and up and down bridges to find the right train, but
it's the end result that matters, and of course, I did finally
make it.
CM Boring article ctd
To explain what I was doing in Essex : a good friend of mine
from Dundee, Allan, was staying with his sister in Essex for a
couple of weeks so we thought we'd meet up for a few days. The
quick-thinking of you will realise that I travelled 600 miles
just to see a friend who lives 6 miles along the road. But hey -
that's just me I guess....!
As I always am when I leave Scotland, I was appalled by the
early licencing hours - on Friday we were thrown out of the pub
by 10.30! We'd only been out for half an hour!
Naturally, being so close to London, we did try to go in and
"paint the town red" but even for Scotsmen, there's only so much
you can do in a weekend! Still it was a great weekend - and an
especially good start to the fortnight ahead.
Monday morning and Swansea was calling. Being myself, at
everyone and everything's beck and call - I got on a train.
CM Yawn - where was I? Wales, that's right...
As usual, from the train journey into Swansea itself you can see
the old SAMCo building and it was very nice to see that the big
SAM Computers Ltd sign still hung proud on the outside wall of
the building - maybe one day I should create a video of places
like MGT, SAMCo, Blue Alpha, FORMAT, FRED etc etc... then again,
maybe the demand would be far from high!
I spent the bulk of the first day getting organized for the week
or so I planned to stay in Wales - as well as phoning up
everyone warning them of my arrival.
First night in Swansea was spent with Charles Gill (SAMCo
repairs person - you might remember him as "Charlene Hill"...).
Perhaps I should have rephrased that as "First evening." He's
still doing well at college and I was pleased to hear that he
still uses his SAM and MIGHT one day even contribute to FRED
(shock horror!). We were also accompanied that night by his
delightful lady-friend Emma - who has too much money for her own
good!
CM ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz
The Colin Macdonald sleep-inducing story continues with Tuesday
where I was in the company of Paul Jenkins - employee of SAMCo,
SAMTech and most recently, Blue Alpha. Unfortunately for us all,
Paul has been brain-washed by Nilltendo and bought a !@#$.
Although he did reluctantly put his SAM up for auction and
allegedly received several thousand pounds for it. With the
money he bought a whole two games for his Nilltendo.
In the true Swansea experience, Tuesday night was spent on
Paul's couch - nice to see Paul's partying habits haven't
changed! At the time I was down he didn't have a job but the
latest grapevine rumours say that he has now found a company
willing to employ him - and it doesn't have SAM in it's name!!
Ever-willing to run up everyone's phone bill I phoned Adrian and
Mark at their new Blue Alpha office. A brief car journey later
and I was standing in the upteenth office to see SAMs built and
despatched - albeit "quite" a cold office, it's certainly big -
they've even got a map showing how to get around their office!
CM Zzzzz
After being driven back to the centre of Swansea, I made one of
my bi-annual visits to see Bruce. Although he himself doesn't
really have anything to do with the SAM these days he was very
interested in how everything was coming along and what everyone
was doing to continue supporting "his baby". Naturally, he was
very pleased at seeing Lemmings being finally released and had
he not been sent a complimentary copy, he would have ordered
one...
Thursday was spent up at Blue Alpha again - hey, it's a nice
place! Anyway, rather than play computer golf and Witching Hour
which we did on my last visit in September, we did spend a lot
of time talking about how and where everything was going. We did
make the mistake of going to a local pub for lunch. However, it
seems the word local is very true - when three strangers walk
in and the one with the Scottish accent orders three cokes we
got some very threatening looks. A hasty exit was made.
CM April visit
I did consider printing a joke about Adrian trying to show off
and then accidentally stumble into the bin (hence a kicked the
bucket line), but it would lose a lot in translation.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday were spent mainly with Charles and
Paul again - a mixture of films, snooker and curries.
There are some mildy amusing stories to be told about that
weekend, but unfortunately, they've got nothing to do with SAM
(well, it was my holiday...) and would probably sound pretty
dull when retold.
Monday : Adrian, Mark, Paul and myself went to the big ECTS
(European Computer Trade Show) in London and saw the latest in
cutting edge technology....or rather, a lot of very hot air and
promises that no-one will keep. Still, it kept us amused for a
short period of time!
CM April Showers
On Tuesday my other six monthly visit was completed - this time
to Bob and Jenny at FORMAT in Gloucester. This was spent talking
shop, as well as beating Bob at "Soul Magician" which appeared
on FRED43! Well, I would have looked pretty silly if I'd been
beaten at a game that had appeared on FRED wouldn't I?
And then, on Wednesday it was time for me to hit the home
straight and head for Dundee. It was terrible - I had no money,
the weather was dreadful, I had to go back to College.
Oh yes - and it was my birthday on the Friday (15th
incidentally) so everyone else took me out and brightened up the
end of the week. Isn't life terrible.
I should apologize now for the delays a lot of things
experienced as a result of my fortnight away - but the pressure
of terminal exams (I did actually pass I found out yesterday -
shock of the century!) was just too much and in order to save my
sanity a break was DEFINITELY in order. And now, back to Brian.
BM Soul Magician Level Codes
Yes. It's a hard life being a FRED staff member. We get forced
on weekends down to Gloucester, one of which I shall tell you
all about after some level codes for our FRED 43 giveaway Soul
Magician. Thanks to Stu Sullivan for these (the rest will appear
next issue, Stu).
1 ABBASDEFGH 13 JRLMYVOQZN 25 FTRSTWSLGT
2 GFGFHSLBVT 14 FNCJCAXPQE 26 KRAISZJOMV
3 QCMSPAQXEV 15 IVENNGGYYK 27 MBDJKYNDAP
4 XKZEDTUJDG 16 HRRXSKIZNN 28 RZMTGOMCKD
5 NYMPJKBWZY 17 HSOZZWZRQQ 29 PKDMORVEPM
6 SQVVHHYULZ 18 IVKDRHSBFB 30 KOWSFRCDGY
7 IWRMRFHMJY 19 BZUFDXJNAE 31 RBVCYYZHFC
8 ELZUDYMYWE 20 BJXBPTHIOE 32 NKKGSMQRTB
9 EVZEYXPZHD 21 DSTSEYDJGJ 33 FHZCIVTRWJ
10 FCDJORSMJU 22 KPTMBRPRRS 34 CDDUWHXNUE
11 GTOXXYHSTT 23 ZTXSAMRYXS 35 HWFSONMDXG
12 XRENKJVTVF 24 YQPJWNUZJR
BM Lemmings Codes/Adventure Column
No, don't worry - we're not going to spoil the fun of this FRED-
tastic game. I'd just like to remind some of you that we don't
actually need the level codes sent in - being the publishers,
FRED does, believe it or not, HAVE a list of them already...
Thanks to those of you who took the trouble to send some in, but
it really isn't necessary.
*****
Before I get round to writing my Gloucester report, (and yes, I
know I do keep putting it off, but I'll get on to it eventually)
here is the first in a series of adventure game columns by Alex
Jones who no doubt knows all about the show as he was there.
Good on you Alex, and take it away.....
AJ Adventure Help Column
by
Alex Jones
_____________________
Welcome to the first adventure help section to appear in FRED.
When the Sam Adventure Club ceased publication I thought it
would be a good idea to continue the help section in a similar
vein to David Haire who did such a good job for SAC.
I am neither an expert adventure player nor a fountain of all
knowledge on adventure games so to make a success of this column
I need as much feedback as I can get from all you adventure
gamers out there - assuming of course that there are others
besides myself who subscribe to FRED!
I hope that you will send me any hints and/or solutions to any
games no matter how old and also any requests for help in any
adventure you are currently stuck in. You'll find my address at
the end of this section
AJ Adventure Column
To get started here is the first part of the solution to
"DAYS OF SORCERY"
You start in a small hut. Go northeast to the village square,
then east into the village hall. Listen to Gorath, then go west.
You will find you have now volunteered to investigate the mists.
Go north and east to the cemetery, and take the shovel. Go west,
south, and northwest three times into the forest, then go north,
northwest, south, west, and south to the witch's cottage. Ask
her about the wizard, she will give you a collar and tell you to
bring back her cat before she will help you.
Go north, west, and northwest. Examine the trees to find a
quiver.
Go north to the clearing, then continue north twice, east and
north. Take the fallen branch you will find there.
AJ Adventure Column
Go west twice and north to the crossroads, then continue west
twice, south and east to the edge of the lake. Dig there and you
will find an oil lamp.
Go west, north and east twice to the crossroads, then continue
north twice, east, south, east three times and then north to the
south gate of the city. Wait for the leper and ask him about the
city, he will tell you of a secret entrance.
Follow the leper to the clearing, then examine the grass (which
is not mentioned in the location description) to find a trapdoor
*****************
OK, that should get you started I'll continue with the solution
next issue. Now for some help wanted. I'll start with some
requests of my own and hopefully next month will see some of
your questions, hints, tips etc. printed.
AJ Adventure Column
1) In the "JADE STONE" how do you get past the robbers without
losing all your possessions?
2) In "PENELESS" how do you get past the troll?
How do you open the iron door?
*******************
That's about it for my first attempt, as I said earlier the
success of this column depends on how many subscribers to FRED
play adventures and how many of these are willing to make the
effort and write in.
The address for your letters is as follows:-
[redacted]
BM At Last! Show Report
All right. You've been patient people, so here's the full, only
slightly censored version of our Gloucester expedition and show.
First of all, I'll introduce our merry little band. You know
Colin and myself, but probably not our kind volunteer for
driving Gavin Jack or our beer-seeking, mobile phone-wielding,
"U Are The Best Thing"-singing companion Allan Dalgarno (whose
surname I've just had to take a complete guess at. Sorry if it's
wrong Allan!). Neither of them has the slightest involvement in
SAM affairs, but we needed somebody to drive us down and help
with the reduction of Gloucester's alcohol supplies so down they
came!
We left bonnie Dundee at about 10:45pm on Friday night, after
giving Gav time to study for an imminent exam. This gave the
three of us a chance to sample the wares of a couple of Dundee
pubs (which was a totally new experience, honest) and make a few
people very jealous of our weekend (and car - we got a shot of a
nice big red Peugot 405. Joy!)
BM Show Report
And so, armed with only five packets of Spearmint Polos (brill
sweets - try a packet) and four Red Bulls (to give us wings!)
the epic journey began. Stereo on, all psyched up and ready to
go, we started towards Perth, and Colin and I promptly tried to
get some sleep. Well, it was late, and we are both usually
tucked up in bed by 8:30 on Friday nights, so you can
understand....
After what seemed like mere minutes (approx 400,000,000 of them)
we arrived in Gloucester. And did we find red carpets? Streets
lined with cheering crowds? Did we 'eck. We did find that all
the fast food places were closed for 2 more hours, though, which
was just perfect. After listening to tapes in the car and
watching the staff blowtorch rejected gherkins of the tarmac for
what seemed like days, MacDonalds opened. Hurrah! we cried, (or
words to that effect) and strode in, only to be told that we
couldn't get any hamburgers or Big Macs until 10:30. Smart.
Being the naive young fools we were, we ordered the MacD
breakfast. For the first and last time in my life. Oh dear.
BM Show Report
It was not good. The egg looked like a tapeworm with jaundice
(not that I'd know or anything). Yuck.
Moving swiftly on, we hurried onwards to the show venue. I had
been told that this was a village hall, but the place was
actually a fair size. It wasn't Wembley, but it was bigger than
I expected from the term "village hall." Luckily there no bars
in the place so we got some sense out of Colin...
After meeting a couple of people (I'll give mentions later) it
was time for a swift trip to the bathroom to get washed and
change my by now none too pleasant clothes into the official
FRED outfit - a Ren & Stimpy "Happy Happy Joy Joy!" T-shirt.
Joy! That phrase, I may add, quickly became the official slogan
of the trip. And indeed why not?
There were literally lots of people at the show, and many names
with which you will all undoubtedly be familiar. Just some of
BM Show Report
the companies there were FRED, FORMAT, Steve's Software, Blue
Alpha, West Coast, Revelation, SD Software, Flexipage, Bill
Richardson, Woodpecker Discs, ZAT, and a few Spectrum stands.
There were a couple of SAM PD stands, including one - I could
never work out who was running it - attended by apparently AXE
and Derek Morgan in turns. Or something. There was a Speccy
games bring and buy sale, plus numerous "general" things, like a
stall selling CDs.
A refreshments counter was an important part of the proceedings
- I may not have yet mentioned that this was one very hot April
day. Easily 20 degrees centigrade, probably a lot more. Hot. We
are lucky to get that in July up here (although today and
yesterday have been excellent here - suntan time folks!).
The show, to put it simply, was busy. At the All-Format shows
I've been to (yes, both of them!) things usually tailed off
about 1:00pm or earlier, We did think this one was doing the
same, but it must have been a lunchtime thing.
BM Show Report
The afternoon was almost as busy as the morning. Most
unexpected, but hardly unwelcome! Having a stand right next to
the entrance can't have hurt the FRED coffers much either...
So. How did FRED do at the show? Well, I think Colin covered the
various costs involved, which hopefully means FRED plus guests
will be at the next show - providing Bob Brenchley (who very
kindly let me have his copy of the CTW with the letter I did for
Colin in it - thanks Bob) decides that another one would be
feasible, of course. I think they're considering one for next
Easter, but needless to say advance tickets are NOT available
yet!
I think the other companies present did pretty well; in the SAM
world nobody's going to become millionaires, but provided people
can come out in the black there's no reason why the SAM can't go
on and on and on and on and on....
BM Show Report
Thanks to everybody who turned up to the show. We all appreciate
the bit of effort. It was very hectic, and I kept being
introduced to people all the time, trying to keep several
conversations on the go at once. I'll therefore apologise to
anybody who felt they were abruptly abandoned in mid-flow,
although I hope I didn't do that too often!
There were a couple of people who couldn't make it to the show,
but hundreds did get there. Big hellos to:
AXE (cheers for the mods and disc box - tres chic)
Graham Burtenshaw (the world's #1 SAMPaint demonstrator)
Simon Cooke (sorry I missed your little doobrie)
Stefan Drissen (how did the trip back go? Good polos, yeah?)
Bob Brenchley (thanks for organising such an excel. show)
Mark Hall (glad to hear you got rid of a few SAMs)
Derek Morgan (PD getting bigger I hope)
Steve Taylor (surely sick to death of Driver hints & tips)
Tim Paveley (who waited about a month before announcing himself)
BM Show Report
Robert Pain (we demand a letter, Rob. Get to it!)
Marc Broster (I'll get that sprite down to you, honest!)
Wayne Coles (keep working on Gallium, and who knows?)
Craig Turberfield (I still say Genesis are crap, but never mind)
Andrew Watkins
Stu Sullivan
Alex Jones
David Handley
Steve Nutting
Roger Jowett
and everybody else I spoke to. I'm sorry if your name doesn't
appear here, but I've spent ages trying to remember who else I
met and my mind's just gone blank.
Before I finish, let me offer my fullest apologies for not
living up to the image of the typical computer fanatic! I know
many of you expected a long-haired, bespectacled, death-metal
T-Shirted shortish youth. I may make an effort for another show!
BM This Again
This is the last time we'll be mentioning this, but it is quite
important so it's worth bringing up this third time - I am
giving up my editing FRED, and we need somebody to take over the
responsibility.
We need somebody who's at least capable at written English, but
it's not a problem if you're not educated to Degree standard
journalism! The most important pre-requisite is probably
enthusiasm about computing in general, and of course the SAM
itself. A small capability in SAM Basic will be helpful to say
the least, but you don't need to be a machine code genius.
You MUST be able to spare the time. We can't stress this enough.
If you think you're capable of filling this post, and it isn't
yet filled, (otherwise why'd I waste time and energy writing
this?) then get in touch. You know the number - [redacted]. You
can also write, perhaps including a sample review or editorial,
or a sample rundown of the disc contents. Show us what you've
got!
BM Disc Contents
ATOMS by Andrew Collier is a 2 player game, and while I've seen
a few versions on the Amiga, this is the first on the SAM. You
have to place atoms on the board, each player placing one at a
time. The object is to get the whole board displaying your
colour, or to wipe out the other player, whichever happens
first.
When it's your turn, you place an atom on a square. Depending on
its capacity, it will either explode, or increase by one. The
corner squares explode with the second atom placed, the edges
with the third, and the middle ones with the fourth. When they
explode, squares "leak" their colour (yours or your opponents)
onto the surrounding ones, also increasing their contents. Chain
reactions can occur in this way, which is kind of cool! It's
good fun just trying to get the whole board exploding, although
it takes SAM a while to work out what it should be doing...!
INTERLACED is a couple of interlaced (Gasp!) screens sent in by
David Simmons. They are rather impressive...
BM Disc Contents
GFX UTILS has some graphics effects by Matt Round, which perform
various tasks that SAMPaint doesn't have. And there aren't many
of them! Matt has written his own information thing, so read
that for more details.
2D GRAPH is a program by Tim "E-Mail King" Paveley which plots
graphs of mathematical functions. You can use the mouse or
joystick keys to move around his WIMP system. There's a built in
biorythm thing which predicts that I'll have a physical peak in
6 days. Whether or not that means I'll be able to get out of bed
before noon or not, I'm not yet sure...
NET this month contains a text file which I think the
aforementioned E-Mail King Tim sent me. It is deeply satirical
rather than belly laugh material, so don't worry if you don't
see the joke. If you've done any Computing at Uni or have a wide
general knowledge about computer systems you'll probably get it.
But maybe not. In which case, humour me and don't complain!
BM Disc Contents
The E-TUNES were sent in by Bob Brunsden and are Bob-alised
versions of easy-listening things. I think Whiter Shade of Pale
is a stunning song, which is partially why he gets a section to
himself. Hey, I'm the editor (for now) - I'm allowed these
little indulgences!
MODULES is back - tell me, what do you all think of these? Has
the novelty worn off or are you hungry for more? Four lovely
tunes this ish, sent in by the author of the excellent player
program, Stefan Drissen.
RETROS is Matt Round's demo of what will hopefully turn out to
be a FRED published game. That hasn't been decided yet, but
whatever happens, I guarantee you'll keep coming back to this
bundle of everything addictive ever invented. You use keys 6,7
and 0 (left right and fire if you have one of those new-fangled
joy-stick things) to move your ship left, right and upwards. The
goal is to collec the little flashing thingies and then escape
out the top of the screen. This is one very hard game!
BM Disc Contents
ANNOYANCE is a game from Dan Doore (BANZAI) and is for mouse or
keyboard owners. His original version was mouse only, which
among other things meant that I couldn't test it (being a
rodentless young tyke). This one works with cursors and ","
though, so I was able to see for myself where the name comes
from! I think it's best if you play it yourself...
In Bits N Bobs, we have three things: DATA MANAGER by Paul
Crompton, which is a small database program. It's menu driven,
and so shouldn't provide too many problems in the usage area.
Pressing ESC will return you to the program's front menu.
DISC COPY by David Handley is a disc copier which lets you copy
from any specific sector in any specific track (or is it the
other way around?) to another one further up. Handy for
corrupted discs, I'd imagine.
Finally, CPRINT by Ben Hockley is a procedure which allows you
to print text at ANY coordinate on the screen! Well smart.
BM Still Going...
This issue of FRED is, as the great Confucious may well have
said were he presented with a copy, blimmin' big. To compensate
for this, FRED 46 will be out three months late.
No it won't. Just me being funny again, ha ha ha. Magazines of
this sort are what we like to produce, and to do so we need
articles. If you have something to write about that is perhaps
too long to put in a letter, then send it along and we'll see
what we can do.
Similarly, we are once again in dire need of contributions.
Usually when we put in heart-felt appeals for programs we get a
flood of them for the first fortnight after publication, then
they dry up completely, and we're stuck again! We are in
constant need of proggies, tunes, games, screens and also
letters! EVERYTHING in fact! Help! Remember - you get a bit of
dosh for main menu things.
BM Credits
Editor: Brian "Thank **** - finished at last" McConnell
"Thankee-kindly, your lordship sir"s to:
Bob Brunsden Paul Crompton
Matt Round David Handley
Andrew Collier Ben Hockley
David Simmons Alex Jones
Tim Paveley Stefan Drissen
Banzai Andrew Hodgkinson
Wayne Coles Jon Hampton
Write cheques / send stuff to:
[redacted]
Letters & Reviews
Letter from Andrew Watkins
Dear Colin and/or Brian,
I would like to say that I did not think it would be possible to
get Lemmings this good on the SAM! After playing the Spectrum
demo of the game a couple of years ago, I was not sure what to
expect. Everyone responsible has done a great job - the game is
identical to the 16-BIT versions.
Looking to the future, I for one would buy Oh No! More Lemmings!
on the SAM if you are considering it. Now that the main game has
been written it should not take too long. Forgive me if I'm
talking rubbish though, I write as somebody with a very limited
knowledge of programming.
Reply to Andrew Watkins
I was considering making this a letters section from only those
who attended the show. I changed my mind about this though,
because we've only got two letters from show-attendees and that
would not make for a stunning Letters section. I will however
let Andrew Watkins get his letter in first as a reward for going
to the show [woah, what a reward! We're so jealous! - The rest
of the letters section].
We're glad you like Lemmings, and while we can't really say it's
identical to the 16-BIT versions (there are no sampled screams),
we appreciate the comment! Oh No! More Lemmings! IS a
possibility, but at the moment it's no more than that. It very
well could become a reality, but unfortunately Psygnosis are not
too eager to give us any more licences until Lemmings sales get
into double figures (ahem). You readers may be getting sick of
us telling you to buy Lemmings all the time, but this is the
game that could make the SAM. Please buy it - we guarantee you
won't be disappointed.
- BRIAN
Letter/Plea from Mark Sturdy
Dear Colin and Brian,
Please find enclosed a promotional issue of CRASHED, the new
general interest SAM/Spectrum fanzine. It is in essence a cut-
down version of the forthcoming first proper issue, sent out to
various SAM- and Spectrum-related companies.
I would be grateful if you could give CRASHED a quick mention in
your news section, and perhaps send the odd review copy of your
stuff...?
CRASHED
[redacted]
Reply to Mark Sturdy
Hi Mark. Nice solid looking name you've got there. (Sorry! :o) )
CRASHED is, as you will know if you bothered reading any of the
previous page at all, a new magazine for the SAM and Spectrum.
The preview issue which Mark sent up was a slightly thin 12
pages long, although I expect the real thing will be (Coke?)
a bit thicker.
This preview consisted of a news column, a list of important SAM
and Spectrum addresses for easy reference, a couple of
(Spectrum) reviews, a techy page with some twiddly bits of
mainly irrelevant (to SAM people, anyway) but interesting tips.
The highlight of the magazine is a very interesting interview
with the editor of that once great, but now dead, magazine Your
Sinclair - Mr Jonathan Nash (used to be Jon Pillar). Most
intriguing.
- BRIAN
Letter from Wayne Coles
Dear Colin or Brian,
First of all, thanks for including my INNOCENT demo on FRED #43.
I was well chuffed all day (and I still am) but my programming
has progressed quite a bit since I did that and I cringed at the
amount of blank space on screen.
Anyway, I've just started work on an arcade type game (a shoot
em up, to be exact) which desperately needs a good graphic
artist. I've been told that if a publisher likes the look of a
game (ie you!) they will get in touch with a graphic artist and
musician to help with the game - is this right?
Reply to Wayne Coles
This letter is from another show-attender. Can you spot the
pattern emerging, readers? I imagine the questions asked in this
letter will be ones to which a good deal of you would like to
hear the answers, so here they are:
Unless a publisher specifically commissions a programmer to
start on a game, it's up to the programmer to convince him that
the project is worthwhile. To do this, any games sent in for
possible publishing should be as far finished as possible. Don't
worry about cosmetics until they're the only thing left to be
added. A good game will be able to impress on gameplay merits
alone in the hands of any half-decent prospective publisher. It
is not fair to expect a publisher to organise graphics and music
on the basis of a tiny but stunning demo, only to find that the
"finished" game is not worth publishing. For this reason, FRED
likes to see prospective releases in pretty advanced states.
Finally, Wayne, we were both impressed by Gallium; BUT we'd like
to see a little bit more before getting others involved. - BRIAN
Letter from Gordon Henderson
Dear Brian,
I have had a problem with a database program I wrote about ten
years ago for a club membership list on a SPECTRUM/OPUS setup:
when I wanted to change the printer layout I LISTed the program
and changed the printer statements.
When I returned to run the program I always found some records
had been corrupted. When I read Scott Inwood's letter in FRED 43
it occurred to me that my problem might be the NMI button which
I used to access the listing. I have now added an item to the
menu which LISTs the program without the use of the NMI button
and the problem has vanished. Thank you Scott, I am very
indebted to you!
I would now like to know if I can put a POKE into the program to
disable the NMI button in case I press it by mistake. Can
anybody help?
Reply to Gordon Henderson
Well, to the best of my knowledge you were not at the show
Gordon, so I'm sorry but I can't help you.
No, you know I wouldn't do a thing like that. Not your joyous,
giving, caring sharing editor!
What you've got here is a Non-Maskable Interrupt - NMI. This
simply means that when it sends a message to the processor,
"Hey! Some bloke's pressing me!", the processor cannot ignore,
or MASK it, and so it must act on the interrupt. You can program
it to do whatever you like, and that includes carrying on as
normal, but you cannot stop the button from interrupting the
processor. Not as far as I know, anyway. Somebody like Steve
Taylor can probably write a program to effectively banish your
NMI to the Middle East, but I can't.
I guess the best solution is to sellotape a sharp spike to your
NMI so that you soon learn not to press it...
- BRIAN
DN Legend of Eshan Review
by Dean Nicholas
Revelation Software: £14.99, but £12.99 to FRED subbers
NOTE:- needs 512k to run.
This new game from Revelation is the first of its kind on SAM. I
am, of course, talking about an RPG. There was going to be The
Tower from FRED, but that project was scrapped. Now we have a
replacement. Anyone who has played Lords of Midnight or
Doomdark's Revenge will feel right at home in this game; the
methods used are extremely similar.But this is on SAM, so it
should be better, right? Lets see...
Upon loading up, you are greeted with a small text screen laying
out the basic plot and what your aims are.Then you are taken
into the game itself. At first, you control two people. These
are Eshan the Legend (the hero of the game) and Barton the
Marshall. Obviously, you can recruit more people as you progress
further in the game. There are also many more weapons available
for the taking.
DN Legend of Eshan Review
Another thing that strikes you is the graphics. They are nicely
drawn and well coloured.
The game is controlled using either a mouse or keys, and the
group of icons to the left of the main screen. They include
fight, a small map (included on paper is a more detailed map),
night/day, sleep, and the extremely important load/save - with
16,384 locations, the game would be impossible without that!
There are two ways to complete this game. The first one is to
rescue Avorell the Noble, who has been captured by Barquin the
Witchking, then return him to his castle. Or, you could simply
destroy the Witchking himself (not as easy as it sounds!) In the
same fashion, there are two ways to lose the game. If Eshan
dies, then the game is over. If the Castle of Avorell is
captured, then the game is also over.
This game is extremely challenging.You will probably get
frustrated sometimes by it, but will still come back for more.
DN Legend of Eshan Review
It has an extremely addictive quality about it.The most annoying
thing is when somebody like Eshan loses his horse, he becomes
incredibly slow. However, this really is a great game.
Now, onto the bad points: sound, or rather lack of it. At the
start there is a nice tune, but in the game this just
disappears. I realise that this is because of the size and
complexity of the game, but a few sound effects would have been
nice. Also, nights take a long time, but this cannot be helped.
Now, onto the subject of tips. I believe that in the game I am
currently playing, I am quite far. I have rescued Avorell, and
we are heading back to his castle. I am commanding about 25 men,
mainly Orcs! This is because I have found the Ring of
Persuasion! Where? Well, I'll just say near the forest of
Maranell. Also, don't forget to visit Kol for something good...
DN Legend of Eshan Review
Back to the review,its final verdict time.
GRAPHICS:88%
SOUND:20%
ADDICTIVNESS:90%
VALUE FOR MONEY:90%
LASTING ABILITY:95%
VERDICT:94%
A really great game, I hope we continue to see more of these on
the SAM!
MR Legend of Eshan Review
by Matt Round
Product: Legend of Eshan
Author: John Eyre
Publisher: Revelation
Price: £14.99 (£12.99)
Requires: 512K
I think Colin must be turning into some kind of psychic Santa(!)
- on the very day I was considering ordering this game, it
arrived in the mail for me to review! Along with the rather
fetching green disk was a matching instruction leaflet (colour
coordination, eh?) with information on one side and a map on the
other. Being one of those impatient people whose religion
forbids them to properly read manuals before proceeding, I
booted up the game and entered the land of Avinell...
MR Legend of Eshan Review
To cut a long story short, there's a bad-guy who's kidnapped a
good-guy, and you have to kick some butt. The game consists of a
series of moves; you make yours during the day, the bad-guys
move at night. You initially have only two characters, Eshan and
Barton, and so must recruit others. Characters are often
accompanied by several hundred warriors, and many have a home
fort of some kind. You could classify this as a war-game, but
the setting and characters lift it above being simply about the
maths of pitting imaginary armies against each other; it's
probably best described as a 'strategy-adventure'.
You get a perspective view of one of the 8 possible directions,
showing trees, buildings, mountains and so on, along with
close-ups of any objects or characters which are right in front
of you. The scroll at the bottom of the screen displays
information. A row of buttons controls direction and movement,
and icons perform all other operations (SAVEing & LOADing,
looking at the map, selecting a character etc.). Control is via
a pointer, using joystick, cursor keys or mouse.
MR Legend of Eshan Review
So, you go about playing the game by selecting your characters,
looking around, moving them, and perhaps trying some recruiting
or attacking. As you move a character, the sun moves across the
sky until time is up and night has fallen. When you've done
everything you click on the NIGHT/DAY icon and wait a short
while as the computer works out the nocturnal goings-on.
Before I move onto what I think of the game, I'm going to have
to mention the similarity to Lords of Midnight. The story's
different, the graphics are different, and much of the gameplay
is different, but the core of the game clearly comes from the
old Speccy classic. In a way that's a shame because even with
just a few more superficial changes it could've avoided direct
comparison, but Eshan is clearly superior. If you've played LoM
you'll have a slight headstart, but don't be put off if you've
never seen a similar game.
MR Legend of Eshan Review
It took me a while to get into the game, mainly because of the
'fog-of-war' approach it takes; the only views you get are
through the eyes of your characters, so you have to be able to
keep track of things and coordinate the troops largely by
recognising parts of the countryside. There is a map in the game
which shows the position of the current character, and the map
on the instruction leaflet is good, but you generally rely on
looking around. Those who like their strategy games to be
'transparent', like a game of chess, with a clear overview of
the proceedings, may find it awkward, but I like it - you have
to explore and navigate as if you're really there, and can get
quite immersed in the game.
The perspective view is excellent (it's clear without being too
'cartoony'), with everything shrinking nicely into the distance.
The graphics for the characters are quite varied and good, the
screen layout is uncluttered, and the font used is ornate but
readable.
MR Legend of Eshan Review
The only graphics I don't like are the plain night-time screen,
and the title screen, which is a bit timid (it would've been
nice to have a bolder logo and perhaps have the story scrolling
up the screen). The only sound is from a couple of reasonable
tunes by the prolific Andy Monk.
As with SAMPaint, Driver and Lemmings, it's best to use a mouse.
I know everyone keeps saying this, but I very strongly recommend
that you get one if you haven't already. With keyboard or
joystick selecting things is a little fiddly. For example, to
change to another character (which is something you have to do
several times each turn) you have to click on the appropriate
icon, then click on the character you want, then click on OK. In
a game you play for several hours it adds up to a lot of faffing
about!
MR Legend of Eshan Review
Basically, I'm impressed. As often happens, I had fairly low
expectations, and was surprised to find how polished the game
is. All the recent big releases have had bugs of some sort, but
so far all I've found in this game is a typing error or two!
John Eyre obviously knows his way round a Z80, and has put in a
lot of effort. Neil Holmes' graphics aren't stunning, but apart
from the occasional bit of dull design he's done a good job.
It's simply a good game, and I look forward to a sequel!
Isn't it about time FRED or Revelation released some rubbish?
After all the great reviews for SAMPaint, Driver, Lemmings and
now this, it's getting difficult to think of ways to praise
products without sounding like Colin's either paying out vast
sums of money or threatening to publish some dodgy photos!
OVERALL MARKS: 92% for mouse owners, 81% for the rodentless.
Matt Round/'Malevolent'