Fred 65

Issue 65

Magazine

CA                         Editorial

Welcome once AGAIN to another zip zap, lightning speed,
angelically good, Big Daddy full issue of FRED.  Sixty five, eh?
Time to retire!  We did offer to let FRED rest and hand down the
whole operation to FRED Junior, but FRED insisted he could carry
on and Colin couldn't fit the new logo onto his swanky headed
note paper.  I also pointed out that if we had FRED Junior as
the title, I'd be writing more text, hence using up more bytes
of disc space and FRED Series Of Disc Mags would not be able to
cram as much wonderful stuff on.  But I just got laughed at.

Apologies go out to those poor people who didn't get FRED before
Christmas (which includes me).  Fortunately, this wasn't my
fault entirely because by the time the FRED master disc got to
the duplicators, it had developed a sector error.  Good old
Colin did his best by immediately running down to the post
office (shouting a number of expletives - not a good example for
the younger generation) and posted off a new disc first class
recorded delivery super-duper guaranteed post.  But it didn't
work.  However, this one should reach you before next Xmas...
CA                        FREDitorial

Despite not getting FRED, I hope that everyone had a wonderful
Christmas (or a wonderful December 25th if you don't celebrate
Christmas).  No doubt everyone is having a very bloated January,
and I bet a few of you are secretly having to eat a little less
after a touch too much turkey and beer.  It's funny how when
you're in the shop, the turkey doesn't look that big at all
compared to the others and you insist to your mum/wife/self that
it'll fit in the oven, only to find that when you get home it's
actually massive and you've now got to rip it's legs off and put
them by the side of it to get it in.  And of course, you then
have to eat twice as much as you intended to get value for
money...

A guy who I know told his kids on Christmas Eve that there had
just been a news bulletin on the television saying that Santa
had crashed on the M1 and despite doctors' efforts, he had died
an hour later in hospital!  He then had a lot of explaining to
do to his wife who had two screaming kids wrapped round her
legs!  Ho ho ho, such Christmas spirit.
CA                     Festive Merriness

I was given a big bag of mince for Christmas.  I don't think my
mum really understood that I was really after a box of
Matchmakers (groan).

I was also given a belt for Christmas.  I've still got the
bruise (groan).

I should really apologise for those jokes shouldn't I?

I've just been given a subtle reminder to save every ten
minutes.  The power just dipped.  Darn cold weather - not only
do I freeze to death, but if I lose power, I'll be forced to
ignore FRED and I'll probably end up doing work towards my
degree (!). And all we've had down here is about 5 seconds of
snow (which I slept through).  It's just not fair - everyone
keeps ringing me up and telling me they've been building snowmen
(Colin M included) and all we get here is cold weather on its
own, which is no fun whatsoever.  Humbug, humbug...

CA                       Beheaditorial

Some super good news now - I've at last got a second drive.  I
managed to pick one up second hand at dirt cheap prices from
some guy from "Up North".  Absolute bargain, and the best thing
about it is that it's got a different coloured light to my other
one!  Woo.  If I turn my bedroom light off, it's a little like
Blackpool illuminations, but without the trams.

Erm, this change should improve the efficieny of producing FRED
and will hopefully speed up the process of making the magazine.
The move is designed to benefit the readers.  (Well, everyone
says that when they make any changes).

What about this new phone thingumy Big Mac has installed, eh?
It's a bit posh, FRED having a secretary.  Although the silly
woman won't know what FRED is.  Still, let's hope that this PC
thing is a huge success, and Colin M makes lots of money.  Then
he'll pile lots of it into the SAM, and we'll all be laughing.
Not that we won't be anyway.  But if he does we'll all laugh so
much our sides will ache.  Hmm.
CA                   New Year's Resolutions

Just to go with tradition, Colin M and I have each made three
New Year's resolutions.  See what you think.

ANDO

1. Work harder on FRED 
2. Write a game (stop laughing)
3. Get up for breakfast at university (maybe a little
   unrealistic)

MACDONALD

1. Cut down on alcohol.
2. I mean, not stop, just cut down a little bit.  You know, just
   not drink at, say, Breakfasts.  On Wednesdays.  In March.
3. You have to be careful with these New Year's resolutions, you
   can sometimes say things that sounds as they shouldn't.
   Gulp.

CA                           News

This month, we have a mixture of good news, good news, bad news
and good news.  I'll start with the bad stuff, then you'll all
have forgotten about it by the end.

The FRED packs that we were hoping to produce have fallen
through due to lack of orders.  It's a shame, because I
personally would have loved to have seen lots of FRED specific
things, and I know Colin M felt the same.  It's a bit of a kick
in the face, but that's life...?

However, as I put hours and hours (and hours) of work into the
Best Of FRED disc, we're still going to push that.  It's a
wonderful disc - essential for your collection if you ask me.
You'll love it.  And all you have to do is send £2 to the usual
address and you'll own it.  It'll make my effort worthwhile and
make your disc box look a zillion times better.  It's the best
disc I've ever seen for it's price, and what's £2.00?  Go on!
Write that cheque now before you forget.

CA                           News

Moving onto some much better news, FRED has done another
mailshot following the success of the first one, and we're
pretty pleased with the results - 50 new subbers!  Welcome to
every single one of them - you really don't know how much you've
missed.  Still, it's great to have you all back, and I hope you
like what you see.  There's a great deal more happening now than
there was two years back, especially with the release of SAM C,
Lemmings and of course, the hard drive.  I'm sure you'll all
catch up in time (with the help of the FRED pricelist?!).

A bit of superb news now (but in a bad sort of way!).  The hard
drive packs that FRED is selling have sold a LOT quicker than we
expected and as a result, if you order a hard drive from FRED,
there could be a delay of up to a week before you get it.  Colin
M has been overwhelmed with orders and is struggling to keep up!
Not that we mind, of course!  This is a good sign and just goes
to show that people still have lots of confidence in the SAM.
Keep those orders rolling in, and we'll try and ctch up as soon
as possible.
CA                           News

As you may remember, Colin Macdonald wants to release a book
about the SAM - mainly about the history of it and people's
experiences.  However, at the moment, he is having trouble
finding information about the beginning of the SAM.  If you have
any information, letters than MGT sent out, cut outs from
magazines, etc. then they would be gratefully received.
Naturally, we will return anything you send in as soon as
possible.  Colin is also looking for the first four issues of
Turbo magazine.  If anyone can help, they will be worshipped for
many years to come (or just thanked if they prefer).

Lastly, we have some late news that because of the success of
the hard drive, FRED are hoping to release a games pack.  This
will consist of a number of currently available games that have
been converted for use on the hard drives that we are selling.
The pack will hopefully be available next month, so look out for
more news on that.


CA            Discontented?  I should hope not..

This month, the wonderful slot D contains an improvement of
SAMDos.  It's called QDOS and is written by Simon Cooke of
Entropy fame.  Basically, it eliminates the bugs of SAMDos and
makes sure that the SAM immediately knows which peripherals are
attached at the time of BOOTing.  Wonderful, and very useful!
Cheers, Simon.

Following that, we have Statues of Donuts.  This, for the less
SAM educated out there, is a bit of a mick-take.  Simon Cooke,
writer of QDOS, has been working on a megademo for a number of
years now called Statues Of Ice and is famous for not finishing
it.  Therefore Lee Willis has written Statues of Donuts, partly
to show off what he can do and partly to "extract the urine".
The graphics and big scrolly are done by Stephen Pick, legendary
number one graphical smart-arse on the SAM.  Thanks Steve and
Lee.

Sweete For My Sweet is a wonderful little game by MJD
Productions that has been written in Gamesmaster.  It reminds me
CA                       Disc Contents

of the older games like Chuckie Egg 2, but I don't know why -
it's nothing like it.  However, it is very playable and has a
well worked out difficulty level.  It's great to see a new face
writing Gamesmaster contributions.  My undying thanks go to the
secretive man behind MJD Productions, and may he keep on
contributing for many years to come (yahoo).

Ice Chicken in slot G is a demo of a game, surprisingly called
Ice Chicken, from Persona - the software company that took over
Phoenix.  Anyway, it's an unplayable demo of the game, so, erm,
see what you think of it.

There's no interview this month, but that's becaue Anonimity is
back with another wonderful helping of his little stories.  As
ever, they're filed with fun and fantasy and fiction, so I hope
you enjoy them...

E-tunes are from Roger (I hope it's not spelt Rodger) Hartley,
and a wonderful six they are.
CA                       Disc Contents

Jellytext is, erm, from Matt Round.  I haven't got it yet, but
we all trust him (erk).

This month, there are two screens sections, but that's because
they're both so special. Slot C has some Alton Towers pictures,
scanned in and converted by Allan Clarkson, editor of Crashed,
and slot K (a bit like C) has piccies from the Gloucester show.
These have been scanned and converted by Andrew and Ian Collier.
There's a wonderfully artistic one of Tim Paveley and I leaning
up against each other.  Wow, artists may weep.  For those of you
who won't know who is who, this is a quick run-down of who is on
the screens (in the order they go in on the disc) - Paul
Horridge + David Zambonini / Roger Hartley + David Brant / Steve
Pick / Stefan Drissen + Dave Handley + Wayne Coles / Michael
Stocks + Colin Macdonald / Simon Cooke / Derek Morgan and Ian
Collier / Tim Paveley + Colin Anderton / Stefan Drissen.  The
Alton Towers ones have the names written on them (thankfully).

Incidentally, the screen viewer used by Andrew is available for
CA                       Disc Contents

use on FRED.  They do take a little longer to decompress, but
they load in one go.  Could I have some feedback on which screen
compression/viewing system to use - the old one, SAMPaint or
Andrew's new one.

Bits n Bobs has it's usual trio of things.  First up is an RGB
splitter by Graham Goring.  He's included full instructions so I
won't get it all wrong here, I'll let you read his bit.  Then we
have the competition winner (and not the only entry, honestly)
for the PC -> SAM text converter.  It requires Masterdos and
Masterbasic unfortunately, but does convert pretty well.  Thanks
to David Mariott for this.  Finally, we have another
contribution from Allan Clarkson, showing us how much he's
improved on his programming since last time.  Thanks, Allan.





CA                    Little Gamey Thing

After sorting out all the letters I've got from many months ago,
I've found a rather interesting little competition from Derek
Morgan that I'd obviously put to one side.  Anyway, it's dead
good, but I can't do them all.  I'll just run this competition
for fun, but if someone can send in the answers, I'd be
delighted.

                   NAME THAT COMPUTER COMPO
                   ------------------------

1. You will find it in a rainbow.

2. This one is not advertised.

3. A good year for Datson.

4. A Greek Philosopher.

5. The USA needs you.
CA             Er, um, oh dammit, I know this one

6. Air force big wig.

7. I'll do it and I'll do it now.

8. Hamlet's friend with no beginning.

9. Mr Trotter.

10. The dryest computer in Scotland.

11. This one could be a bit sweet for you.

12. A very keen computer that drinks lager.

13. Evil note leads to an animal's den. (see 5)

14. Adam's downfall.

15. It takes most of the month to reach the bed.
CA                     It's a toughie...

16. A cad returns to me.

17. It's not quite likely his best.

18. Initially it beats most.

19. This one's a planet.

20. Marks and Spencers is the wrong store.

21. The dog that went back to the future.

TIE-BREAK: The first computer.

If you get over 12, then write in and we'll give the winner the
title of "FRED's Biggest Smart Arse Ever!".  I'll give you until
67 to get the answers in because you'll need to think about a
few (and no asking adults for help!).

CA                           Merci

Editor:          COLIN 'coffee addiction' ANDERTON
Bloke in charge: COLIN 'beer addiction' MACDONALD

                      *   Thanks go to    *
FRED 66 will be out   *                   *
  15-18 February      *  Bob Monkhouse    *
                      *  Allan Clarkson   *     Don't forget
 FRED Publishing,     *  Roger Hartley    *      to buy the
 [redacted]           *  MJD Productions  *     BEST of FRED
                      *  Andrew Collier   *         disc
                      *  Ian Collier      *
                      *  Dave Mariott     *      Just £2.00
                      *                   *
                      *  Anonimity Smith  *
                      *  Simon Cooke      *
                      *  Derek Morgan     *
                      *  Lee Willis       *
                      *  Steve Pick       *
                      *  Matt Round       *
CA                           Sorry

This editorial seems a bit short this month.  Although I don't
know why.  I've written as much as usual.  There aren't any
articles though.  I have been asked by various people what
articles I would like them to write.  Obviously I don't know.
It would be nice to have a couple of technical articles again,
so if you can think of any articles you would like, then write
in and I'll try to arrange it.  Just think, you'll be able to
sit there and say - that article is there because of me.

And with that, I'll see you all next month.  Byeee.

Letters & Reviews

                  Letter From Andrew Chandler

Dear Colin,

    May I first wish you and all the other SAM owners a Merry
Christmas and a Happy New Year.

    I am actually writing with a few bits of information on the
EDDAC and associated Modules.  I have built the EDDAC (finally)
on Veroboard (much easier than Stefan's notes) and I recommend
it to anyone with experience of Veroboard.

    Even if anyone is thinking about building the circuit
Stefan's way I have a few modifications which will improve its
performance:

Firstly, place a 100nF capacitor across the power supply lines
(from +5V to Gnd) - this helps to reduce noise.

Secondly, place a 100nF capacitor from the select output from
the computer (pin 1 on 74LS14 chip) to Gnd - this also helps to
                  Letter From Andrew Chandler

prevent miss-triggerings.  If you do this, you can get away with
using a 74LS04 if you can't find or get hold of the above chip).

Thirdly if anyone wishes to drive amplified speakers with the
EDDAC, they will find the output power is VERY low, so they can
add the circuit which I have drawn below...

[Not likely! - but if you do want it, send an SAE to the FRED
address, and I'll post a copy on - CA]


As I may have mentioned, my company wanted me to build a project
and I decided an 8-bit sampler and playback board.  Well, you
may (or may not) be pleased to hear that this is progressing
nicely.

There is a "rumour" going around that Solar Flare may be
programming a Solar Tracker that uses Samples.  Well, if it
works (and I have only tested 50% so far), this could be what
                  Letter From Andrew Chandler

he is looking for.

So far I have costed it to approximately £30 or less (without
case - mono version) and so could be within price range for the
project.

I'll keep you posted with any developments.

                        Yours Sincerely,

                        Andrew Chandler

P.S. (No PS's this time).






CA                 Reply To Andrew Chandler

Happy New Year to you too!

Thanks for the information and things on the EDDAC.  It's good
to hear that someone is still playing with it.  For those of you
who are unaware, the EDDAC is a chip that Stefan and friends
designed that gives the SAM better sound capabilities.  In issue
51 of FRED, there were instructions and pictures to allow you to
build your own and then a couple of issues later, we included a
more advanced MOD player for it.  It can be built for under a
tenner apparently.

Good luck with the sampler.  Keep us up to date with any
developments.






                    Letter From Wayne Coles

Dear Colin 'A',
         You thought you got away with it didn't you?  But NO!
Here I am to reply to the reviews of my programs.

First off, the Innocent Collection review by Dean Nicholas.  A
bug in one of my programs?  NEVER!  I quote "one of the main
objects cannot be found".  Utter tosh (steady on!).  I assume he
is talking about the rope?  Which can be found by searching the
roses in the garden.  I'm sorry Dean, but breaking into the
program is cheating.  Trident is aimed at beginners, that's why
it's so small.

Now then Mr 'A', watch out soon for my reply to your review of
JOYSTICK POWER (you'd better like SAMSprite too).

                        Ta ta,

                          Wayne Coles

CA                   Reply to Wayne Coles

Crikey!  Someone rattled his cage.  It looks as if Dean and I
are in trouble now...

In case you haven't seen the review of Joystick Power, I gave it
16% or something.  Looking back, I was probably being a bit
generous as well!  Only joking, it deserved 16%.  Ho ho.

You've got to remember though, that a review is only an opinion
from one person.  What they may say about the program could be
wrong, but it's the way someone feels when they play it, and
it's likely to be the same way others feel.  OK, so Dean maybe
got the rope bit wrong, but I understand how he feels (being
crap at adventures, myself).

Anyway, I don't know what Wayne's moaning about, I gave
SAMSprite 85% ages ago when a different company was releasing
it.  No go away and do 100 lines, Wayne!


                   Letter From Allan Clarkson

Hello Colin.

It's 2:22 am on boxing day morning (1995, in case you find this
disk in a couple of years and load it up) and I don't know why
I'm writing this to you.

I can't be bothered to write anymore right now. I'm going to
bed...  [What an enthusiastic letter writer... - CA]

Time passes...

It's now 11:22am Tuesday 2nd January (1996...wow).  I've got to
go soon to finish Crashed so I'll probably finish this off
tonight. I hope you appreciate all this. I was up 'till 4 last
night doing this disk. [He's talking about lots of screens, some
of which are on this issue - CA] All the screens are compressed
(SAMpaint format). There's probably over 1meg of data there. You
get £50 a month for putting 1meg of other people's stuff on a
disk, but what do I get for putting 1meg of my OWN stuff on a
                   Letter From Allan Clarkson

disk? Tish. I think you should buy me a pint (or five). At
Nottingham. And Gloucester in April. In fact, come up to Leeds
now and buy me some. Okay?

Don't forget to put the advert in this month. I'll send you
another for next issue (people ignore adverts if they're always
the same, y'know).

                        Yours lovingly,

                             Allan








                    Reply to Allan Clarkson

It's a corrupt world isn't?  Harsh doesn't even begin to
describe it.  However, you must remember that I'm a trained
professional.  If you dd economics at A-level, you'd understand
why people like me are paid more than others.  I had to go up to
Monifieth for 2 weeks to learn how to put FRED together, you
know.  It's not an easy job.

(Yawn, relax, spin on chair, change CD, drink coffee)











                   Letter From Richard Quirk

Dear FRED!
      I'm an old reader of FRED (long time ago, not old age)
and the last issue I bought was 35 many years ago when Brian
McConnell was editor!  Whatever happened to him?  I hope he
didn't die and I've said something upsetting.......

But I'm back!!!!!!!  I meant to reply to your first mailshot,
but for some stupid reason I did that thing where you just leave
it until the next day and seventy years later, you remember and
it's too late!  I've also got an Amiga [Spit - CA], but all
that's good for is playing Sensible Soccer!  The SAM has so many
friendly faces, and you won't find a disc magazine as
entertaining as FRED on the Amiga.  You're a really good editor,
Colin!!

Anyway, I just though I'd write and say Hi!  I'm off now to play
Lemmings (I can't believe it's out - and it's stunning).

                           Richard Quirk (back with a vengance!)
CA                  Reply To Richard Quirk

It's good to have you back - don't you ever even think about
leaving us again!

And thanks for the complements.  My head is touching the ceiling
now, but I think I can cope...














      SamSprite Review by Graham "Speccy Graphics" Goring

SamSprite! Sent down by the Gods on high to test the mighty
underpants of our bravest warriors! Tamed by the nasty Witches
of the mountains of Klontarg so that they might use it's powers
for evil gains! Sprayed generously with goats intestines till it
glowed with a force that was not of this earth!

 Those are three lies I could have used. But I didn't. And why?

 I'll tell you why. Because I respect you readers of FRED. I
think you deserve a little more than to be fobbed off with
bizarre claims from the back of packages. Oh yes.

 So it's not sent by the Gods, so it hasn't been tamed by the
Witches of Klontarg, and so what if it doesn't plop onto your
doormat reeking of goats guts? If you ask me that's good. The
last thing I want a computer program to do is make a mess of the
hallway carpet.

 What I want a computer program to do is to make drawing sprites

easier on the Sam Coupe. Easier than, say, drawing then using
Sam Paint. And that's pretty easy, mark my words...

 Of course, I suppose it could be said that this review was
always going to be a little biased seeing as I did suggest quite
a lot of improvements for Wayne Coles to make to his original
program. For instance, toggleable cursor speeds, easier grabbing
utilities, more keyboard shortcuts etc etc.

 It's come on a long way since the November show launch version
(which you can upgrade from for free), niggling little problems
hve been ironed out, and lovely sweet toothed new features have
been bolted on to it's rusted iron behind.

 So it's great. And it's for drawing sprites. What more can I
say? Not much really. You can manipulate the images in a variety
of ways. You can define animation sequences easily and alter the
graphics in them as they animate at the side of the screen (thus
enabling you to decide whether the frame you're altering fits in
or not). You can grab images from screens oh-so easily. And of

course you can flip/turn/mirror/scroll pictures at the tap of a
key. You can store the equivalent of five screens of graphical
and mask data in memory at once and 4 different palettes. And
it's all accessed via an ultra-easy to use wimp system.

 So, if you're wanting to design sprites of the 16x16 or 8x8
(later updates will allow different sizes to be edited, but
trust me 16x16 and 8x8 will do for a vast majority of uses)
size then you can't do better. It's bootiful as Bernard Mathews
would say, or f*****g bootiful as Bernard Manning would say.

 You can't buy better on the Sam. Oh, and it comes with programs
to help you integrate the sprites into your own programs, too.

 Oh, and a load of sample sprites, some of which are by me.

Ease Of Use  - 92% - There's nothing you can't access easily.
Presentation - 90% - Crisp and clear, you won't get lost.
Overall      - 91% - Perfect for the job in hand. Honest.


I should point out at this section that this mark makes it
viable for a Gold FREDal. I should. But I won't. Because gold
FREDal is about the worst sounding and ill concieved name for an
award I've ever heard. Thankyou.  [OI! I made that up, it's a
wonderful idea.  "Gold FREDal", it just rolls off the tongue.
Now you make sure you use those terms in the future, young man.
I don't know, this insolent youth of today - CA]

SAMSprite is available from FRED Publishing, so get it ordered
now!










              Review Of Crashed By Colin Anderton

Before I start this review, I should just point out that if I
don't make it to the end it's because the film 'Birds' (I think
it was called that) is happening outside my window.  There's
about a million birds flying about and four have hit my window
already.  Go away.

I was sent copies of Crashed and Zodiac to review on the same
day, so I was a bit stuck choosing which one to do this month.
I can't do both because then it's just a direct competition.
However, I'm going to review Crashed purely because it's first
in the alphabet.  Sorry Zodiac, you'll be reviewed next month
without fail.

Crashed - first impressions are very good.  It's got a really
well done front cover, which is actually much preferable to look
at than the last few Your Sinclair magazines which had them
awful three colour drawings on.  This one has a piccy of Santa
riding his reindeer, so you can guess it's the Christmas issue.
There's loads of different colours and it gives the mag a

professional look.  However, it is issue 13, so that's a bit
dodgey.  Anyway, you can't judge a book (or SAM & Speccy
magazine) by it's cover, so let's take a look inside.

The rest of the magazine is in black and white, but this was to
be expected.  I should have mentioned that it is an A4 magazine
for the SAM & Speccy and comes out monthly for £1.00.  Sorry,
bad reviewing, slap in the face.  The original idea of Crashed
was to take over from the now dead SAM & Speccy magazine, Crash.
Nothing went to plan for the old editor, Mark Sturdy, and he
ended up doing it all on his own.  Slowly, he got help from
Allan Clarkson and a few contributors and then a few months ago
Allan took over the magazine.

The contents page and editorial are really well set out - it's
slanted, text in boxes, little graphics circles and squares and
it's clear that it has been done on a very expensive DTP.  The
only thing that lets it down is the photocopy quality.  It's not
BAD, it's certainly easy enough to read and is probably one of
the better photocopied magazines I've seen, but it does suffer

sightly from this process.

At the top of the third page, Allan writes a little editorial
(some people have it easy - he writes five paragraphs, I have to
write 20 pages.  Tish).  Below that is the contents,
highlighting regular columns and special features.  Allan tells
us that Simon Cooke will be resurrecting Spec Tec Junior in a
months time.  The magazine does seem to want to be the same as
Your Sinclair was, so why it's called Crashed and not Your
Sinclaired, I'll never know.

The whole magazine is really well set out - I've said that
already, but it's surprising what he's done.  There's even snow
on a few boxes this month.  In keeping with YS, Crashed has
it's own cartoon, Bodge Fredd.  This, thankfully, is nothing to
do with me making a mess of an issue of FRED, but a mick-take of
Judge Dredd.  I don't get it, but I've never really watched
Judge Dredd.  I'm sure it's funny!

There's also a tips page, a letters page (which includes a

letter from Pamela Anderson (!)) and then a two page review of
the Edinborough show, complete with pictures.  The photocopied
photographs haven't come out too well, and you need to read the
words below to realise who some people are.

Following that is the second part of an interview with Bob
Brenchley, which is reasonably interesting.  This interview is
better than one I read with Simon Cooke about six months ago
where he was asked very little about computing and more about
what crisps he liked.  Most interesting is Bob's theory that YS
and SU fell apart because they treated everyone like kids.
Interesting, but is it true?  It just goes to show that what we
need is some response from readers.  For all I know, FRED might
be doing the same (!), but does it bother people?  If it does,
write, otherwise things will never change.

Then there's a few speccy reviews, and an apology for giving
a friend's program 0% as a joke, when it was actually someone
else who had written it!  Ho ho ho.


The reviews are a little too short, and don't explore what the
game has to offer and what it's strong and weak points are.
I'm pleased to see that not all games are given over 80% - that
has to be the most irritating thing ever.  50% should be average
for a game in my opinion, otherwise there's no point giving
things high marks.  Crashed seem to share this view (I think).

There are a lot of old Speccy game reviews in this issue, and no
SAM reviews, but hopefully this isn't consistent.

All in all, there are 20 pages to Crashed, which isn't bad for
an A4 magazine that currently has a low readership.  Although it
caters for the SAM & Speccy, I don't think it can compete with
Format because they are so different.  It could well pull a few
readers away from Format, but those who read Format would rather
read a sensible mag.  It's refreshing to see a professional
looking magazine produced - I know in the early days of Crashed
it looked like just another poorly photocopied effort not worth
bothering with.  However, since Allan took over production of
it, it's improved in leaps and bounds and is well worth a look.

The humour is very much the same as FRED's style and the reports
that Allan writes are entertaining to read.

It has it's down sides - the photocopying could be improved, and
there's a few too many spelling mistakes.  However, I do get the
feeling it's going to continue to improve with Allan at the
helm, and at just £1.00 an issue it's worth a look.  The only
danger is that it'll fall into the SAM Prime trap where due to
too much work, the magazine doesn't come out on time and readers
get irritated and don't re-subscribe.

Hmm.  I should think I deserve a few free issues for that
review.  I've actually been quite nice.

Crashed is available from:-    CRASHED,
                               [redacted]