Fred 51

Issue 51

Magazine

CA                    MY FIRST EVER PAGE!

Welcome to my first ever editorial. And a delight it is too, if
I do say so myself.

Right, sit back, put you feet up and prepare yourselves for
about two hours of reading....

Right, first things first. A horrendously large thankyou to all
those of you who voted for me. A big slap round the face for
those who were going to vote for me but forgot. A bigger slap
for those who wouldn't have voted anyway. Oh, and commiserations
to David and Stewart. I was quite impressed with the letter you
sent in Stewart, and I'll look forward to any contributions (or
hate mail!) from you in the future.

Sorry to anyone who wanted to meet me at the show. I hope
everyone had a good time. It's actually before the show at the
moment, but I'm pretty sure I'll get one or two show reports
which may get into this issue. If not, the next one. "Why
weren't you there?", I hear you cry. Well, Colin Macd rang me
CA                SECOND PAGE OF MAGNIFICENCE

up and said, "Colin, I've bought you and Pete two tickets for a
week in Greece seeing as I'm so incredibly rich."

Only joking. Yes, I was in Greece, but Colin Macd didn't pay.
No, we booked the holiday about 6 months ago. I think this is a
good time to point out the sort of luck I have at times. You
see, all year, I've done nothing but sit at home, bored. I book
1 week, JUST 1 WEEK IN THE WHOLE YEAR to go on holiday, and they
plonk the SAM and Speccy show in the middle of it. What are the
odds of that, eh? Tish.

Never mind. I'm sure that those of you who wanted to meet me
would have been more upset if I had turned up. No, actually,
that's a lie. I'm wonderful. Anyway, it goes without saying that
I am never going on holiday again (well, not until next year)
and even if I win a cruise around the world, I will turn it down
just to make sure I'm at the next SAM gathering.

You know, I never realised what a liar I was until now...
CA                           NEWS

A Direct quote from FORMAT October 1994 Editorial :

"Some of you may already know that there have been a few
problems at Blue Alpha this year. First there was the move and
then without much warning, Adrian Parker left the company in
April. Mark Hall then had a major car accident early May that
caused a major hassle. But then, just as things were getting
back to normal, the worst news came. Mark was diagnosed with a
tumour near his brain.

Although at the moment Mark is fairly fit and well, he is now
undergoing chemotherapy which is keeping him out of the office
most Mondays and Fridays. However, he is doing his best to keep
things running and alternative arrangements are being made for
repairs during the period he will almost certainly have to spend
in hospital (possibly early next year). Both ourselves (FORMAT)
and West Coast will be doing everything we can to ensure service
is maintained for SAM owners.

CA                           NEWS

I'm sure all of you will join me in wishing Mark a speedy
recovery and I hope everyone will continue to support him and
Blue Alpha during this difficult period."


Best Wishes go to Mark from myself and all the FRED readers. Any
messages/cards sent to FRED will be passed onto Mark.

Obviously, this is a difficult period for everyone and both
Colin and I will try to keep you all informed about the
situation. If you have any enquiries about buying or repairing
hardware or questions about Mark, can you contact FORMAT. Their
phone number is

                    [redacted]




CA                 MY FIRST IMPORTANT SECTION

Revelation have now (or will have in a few days) released two
new titles. The first of these is called TnT and looks extremely
enjoyable. I've got a demo of it down here and I spent about an
hour playing the three levels over and over again. It is written
on Gamesmaster, but I didn't notice.

The game in itself is a little like the old Spectrum game
'Bombjack', but much more humorous, a lot more fun to play and
loads of levels. For those of you who have not played Bombjack,
here is a brief guide. You are a small character who has an
incredibly high jump. It's based in one screen, and you have to
collect the faces (which are constantly changing expression),
avoid the baddies and score as many points as possible.
Collecting all the faces means you progress one level.

The game, you'll be pleased to hear, is for 1 or 2 players.
Hurrah! Such fun with 2 players. There is key collision with
some keys, but you'll be pleased to know, we found two
combinations which avoided this problem.
CA                            NEWS

Each level contains its own humour.  The first level on my  demo
has the Mona Lisa as the backdrop, and  as  platforms,  she  has
been given a pair of glasses, a moustache and a cigarette! The
price is £9.99, but you lucky FRED subbers get it for £9. Do not
order this through FRED yet. It is only currently available
through Revelation. Their address follows.

The other release is Sophistry. This is Revelation's latest
licence. A conversion of the old Spectrum game, Sophistry uses
the SAM's capabilities to the whole through beefed up music (by
Craig Turberfield) and graphics (by Robert Van Der Veeke). I
haven't had a chance to play the game properly, but have had a
look at it, and believe me it looks magnificent. Yes, it is a
puzzle game, but one carefully chosen by Revelation as their
next big license. Included on the disc with this game is the
speccy version, so you can see the difference yourself. The game
is priced at £9.99, and, in true Revelation fashion, it's only
£9 to FRED subbers or INDUG members. Again, this title is not
yet available through FRED, so don't even try ordering a
CA                            NEWS

copy from us. If you are keen on buying either of these two
great looking games from Revelation, you can get in touch with
them through this address.

                      Revelation Software,
                          [redacted]

With Christmas looming over the horizon, no doubt you all want
Santa to drop a few SAM titles in your stockings. So, let me
remind you of some of the latest wonders he can pick up from
FRED.

Oh no! More Lemmings - If you haven't got the original yet, WHY
NOT? It's only the best game to come out on the SAM yet. And if
you do own it, 'Oh no! More Lemmings' is an absolute must. For
those of you who are holding back because they can't
CA           THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM...

complete Lemmings, don't! 'ON!ML' contains another great range
of levels, all with new obstacles and different graphics. The
puzzles have improved and the fun has increased. With more
traps, graphics and effects, this set of levels is not only an
add-on, it's a whole new challenge. At only £13 for subbers,
it'll keep you busy from Christmas until Summer. And probably
further, if you're as bad at games as I am...

Football League Manager - What can I say? If you read the review
of it by - darn, I've lost his name, hang on; ah! Dean Nicholas
in the letters section, no doubt you'll all be drooling the
night before it arrives on your doorstep. Stephen Pick has made
sure it looks good, and FRED have made sure it has the addictive
quality of Mars Bars (well, I LOVE them). It's just £12 to you
lucky subbers and is something you're parents, erm, Santa can
easily afford. Not like those rip-off console games (spit).

Waterworks 2 - Wow!  What a beaut (As my mate Carl  would  say).

CA              GET YOUR CHEQUE BOOK OUT DAD!

If you've played Waterworks, this will be the perfect game for
you. The levels provide that little bit more challenge, just to
keep the hardened games players on their toes. The options are
wider, the puzzles more complex and the gameplay more exciting.
Plus, the best thing about this game is that you can turn into a
JEEP! Wow. So, if your life lacks that bit of challenge, get
your order in for Waterworks 2. (You don't need Waterworks 1).

Oh, and if you haven't got Waterworks (and I'm probably only
speaking to a few people), what on earth are you playing at? Get
saving now. Just think, all those sickly sweets which you
digested for a matter of seconds before they have gone could
have been a SAM game, which you'd still be playing today.
Remember, it's only £15 for both.

AND THERE'S MORE - If you're not content with these three
incredible releases, then don't forget, we still have all the
old FRED software waiting to find a nice warm cupboard. Or if
you fancy some creative work to do, buy Gamesmaster or SAMPaint.
CA                            NEWS

A reminder now. Still available to those long-time dedicated SAM
owners are a few original gold SAM ASIC's. When Bruce Gordon was
designing the SAM and it's ASIC, MGT had to have some prototype
ASIC's made for testing, developing and the like. At a cost of
£50,000, there were 40 gold ASIC's hand produced by VLSI. Until
now, very few people have ever seen a god ASIC - only a dozen or
so actually own one. In conjunction with Bruce Gordon, the
remaining ASIC's have been framed with a plaque individually
signed by Bruce himself. At a cost of £80 each, they represent a
valuable SAM's collector's item. Remember, they ARE limited. No
more will ever be produced. They are also only being sold to the
long-time and dedicated SAM users. If you are interested in
acquiring one of the last few, please phone for acceptance and
confirmation that they are still available.

Appearance: Gold ASIC on dark green backing with gold frame.
Marbled effect plaque with gold writing explaining use of ASIC,
each individually signed by Bruce Gordon.  The size is
approximately 9 inches square.
CA                    IT'S ANOTHER TRUE STORY

OK. That was the news. Now, probably most of you are thinking,
"Who on earth is this strange lad who keeps wittering away.
You'd think he'd introduce himself. Hmm, that reminds me. Those
walls could do with a dash of paint."

Fair enough.  Here is a little more in depth guide about me.

It was a sunny day in June 1977. On the 30th, I was to be born.
I was born round about the age of 0. I'd be more accurate, but I
don't remember too much about it. Needless to say, my first main
memory was when my life began for real, back in 1985. Yes, my
first proper memory was my Dad bringing home a brand new 48K+.
The fond memories we have of not realising for about 2 months
that you could leave the first room in 'Booty', the joy we
shared from that really annoying screeching sound that
'Chequered Flag' made when you went round a corner too quick,
and of course the hilarity when 'Scrabble' (Still my brothers
favourite game!) accepted a rude word.

CA          SKIP THESE PAGES IF YOU'RE BORED STUPID

I went happily through school (mostly) and finally at the age of
12, I completed a game! Using a cheat.

A year later, I got a 128K. I learned to write small BASIC
programs which did absolutely nothing. Little did I know what
fate had in store for me.

Anyway, I went through school like a sad young child and became
sadder in the first year of High School when I ended up in the
same class as Peter Moore. This was probably where my life went
downhill. I stopped being a big swot. I then stopped being a
little swot. I became known as a bit of a fool. ALL PETER'S
FAULT. Just as I began to regain control of my senses, Peter
introduced me to someone in the year above. Someone he felt
sorry for because he had no friends. Someone called Graham
Goring.

My life continued downhill.

CA                     WHAT A LIFE

The few 'normal' friends I had were scared away by Graham or
killed by Peter's bad breath. Despite this, I survived.

I was 14 when Graham announced he was getting a SAM Coupe. Oh,
how I laughed. I laughed even more when Peter decided he was
going to get one too. Oh, how they laughed when Graham talked me
into buying one (I still don't know how he did it).

And so, at a Birmingham 'All Formats' show, I was handed a SAM
by good old Alan Miles. I gave Colin Jordan (remember him?) my
money and spent hours carrying a massive white box around with
me. I got home and (and here comes my luck again), it was in
black and white. The picture that is, not the SAM. Much to my
relief, so was Peter's. Ha ha. We both sent them back to be
fixed and after a few weeks they were returned. How I marvelled
at the wonderful graphics of 'SAM Strikes Out!'. How I ooh-ed
and aah-ed at the demo by Masters of Magic. How I laughed when
Peter told me his SAM still didn't work!

CA              THE LAST PAGE OF MY LIFE STORY

Last year, I decided that I wanted to do something more,
something better, something to make myself known. I decided to
write a 6th form newspaper. Oops. A letter from Peter that I
included in the problem page didn't go down too well with the
teachers and resulted in us both getting into some serious
strife indeed.
To make up for this, we offered to do coffee at Parents' Evening
and made a complete mess of the kitchen and ended up nearly
getting suspended. (I'm such a good lad normally)

Just as my life was hitting rock bottom, Colin Macdonald rang me
up and said that I was being considered for the job of FREDitor
after I had applied. Incidently, I only bothered applying for
the job because I was ordering some games at the time. Lucky,
huh? Anyway, the Angels came down, lights shone from above and
my little section appeared in FRED and a few wierdos voted for
me. So, here I am, ready to fill your issues of FRED with
delightful nonsense.

CA          OLD MACDONALD HAS A SAM (HO HO HO HO HO)

I must apologise if this issue is late, but please, hear me out.
I'm not just trying to follow in the footsteps of Brian, but it
is the 4th of November, the issue takes about a week to copy and
process, and I still haven't got the discs of programs...

Oh, well. You may well have noticed something different about
this little text reader. It's only a small difference, but I
thought I'd use it just to make out that I'm doing something.
Yes, this is a slightly updated version of the old document
reader, courtesy of Simon Cooke. There is a nifty change page
effect and you can go back to the help page. Ooooh. AND the
credits are different. True, it's not a major step forward, but
it's a start. What I would like to see, as I know many of you
do, is a new, super-deluxe text reader with different fonts and
maybe graphics (disc space allowing) and all sorts of funky
things. I've got a feeling that a few people have got a new
version in the pipeline. If you would like to see another, drop
Colin MacD a line and tell him want you would like to see in it.

CA            ISN'T THIS LAD EVER GOING TO SHUT UP?

Excuse me for going on, but the editorial was pretty short
before I put all the news in. Never mind, it'll give you
something to do when you get bored.

Remember folks that next issue is the Christmas issue. Yes, that
got you didn't it? With all the excitement of FRED 49 - Brian's
last issue, FRED 50 - big birthday issue, FRED 51 - my first
issue, we have another biggie! Four special FREDs eh? No, make
that 5. Issue 53 will be the new year issue. Blimey. Nearly half
a year of constant, pure excitement. How on earth do you cope?
Anyway, I'm getting a little sidetracked here. Why not help FRED
celebrate the best Christmas yet? Let's have some new,
wonderful, Christmassy items for FRED 52. I'm sure most of you
could knock up a Gamesmaster game, or a m/c demo. If you
can't,you could at least send me a joyful Christmas letter which
I can spend pages replying to (The letters section has to be my
favourite for editing). So, as soon as you've finished with this
FRED, go and do something for Christmas. Oh, and any presents
you want to send me, send via Colin.
CA                NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG, NAG...

Brilliant! My first real moan at everyone. I've been waiting for
this for ages.

Seriously, I've been sifting through the few discs that I was
sent from Colin. True, the people that sent us software are
glorious people and they have no doubt booked their place in
Heaven, but we really really NEED some more stuff. I know you
can do something. Even if it's only an article. Why not write
something and send it in? Look, I don't usually do this, but,
for this special occasion, I will. Here goes... (deep breath)

                             PLEASE

There, I said it. Now, it's your turn to make an effort. Why not
buy Gamesmaster! You've seen the wonderous efforts done on that.
Or SAM Adventure System? Or you could try your hand at BASIC
(It's free, after all). Or why not a letter? I'll even reply to
serious ones. Or a TUNE! Or an article. The list goes on. See
you next issue (WITHOUT FAIL!). Thankyou.
CA                       PUZZLE CORNER

Being pretty useless at logical puzzles, I thought it would be
nice to dump this on you. Read it and cry!!! Erm, I solved it
immediately. Yep, saw through it straight away. Honest.

Three young lads from Kent want a bike. They each have £10. They
go to a bike store and see a beautiful green and purple bike for
£30. So, they pay £10 each and leave with their bike. The
manager then realises that there was a discount on the bike of
£5 and orders his nasty, low-life assistant to give them their
fiver back. The assistant thinks, "Hmm, there are only three of
them and £5 doesn't split three ways very well. I know, I'll
give them a quid each and pocket the rest."

Now, with a pound back, the lads have paid £9 each for the bike
instead of £10. BUT(!), 3 times £9 is £27, plus the £2 the
assistant kept is only £29. What happened to the other pound?

I hope that has you thinking.  I may give you the answer next
month.
CA                       SHOW REPORTS

Right, I'm going to stay up all night for you just to get these
show reports in FRED 51. See what happens when you make FRED the
most up to date disc magazine?

On the next page will be a show report by either Graham Goring
or Colin Macdonald. There may even be one from both. Wouldn't
that be boring - I mean, nice?

Erm, I've got quite a bit of space to fill up now.

HOW
    AM
       I
         GOING
               TO
                  DO
                     IT????????????????????????????????????

Oh dear, Colin's going to blow a fuse when he sees that...
CM                        Show Report

I've been "ordered" to do a report of the recent Gloucester Show
by Colin, so to show my enthusiasm for writing I thought I'd
humour him - just this once, mind.

I must be about the worst person you could ask "how did the Show
go", because although I know that FRED did quite well - I just
about broke even - after I had to pay for a meal for the "FRED
helpers". The FRED launches - Football League Manager and Oh No!
More Lemmings went down very well, especially having the
programmers of both games on hand to give demonstrations and
answer queries.

Not wanting to sound as though I didn't enjoy the show, but the
best part of the weekend was just before we left Dundee.....

About an hour before leaving, we were having "just the one pint"
to steady our nerves before driving down (except for Gavin - the
driver), when one of Dundee's most hated nightspots went up in
flames across the road - this is the place which was continually
CM                        Show Report

being closed down for violence in and out of the club, and
recently lost it's licence because of this. Shock horror, when
the place is closed, a viscious fire starts up, lasts for hours
- igniting gas mains and damaging nearby buildings - and it's
completely destroyed. Burnt to the ground.

I'd be lying if I said it was sorely missed - something made
fairly clear by the hundreds of people who gathered to watch the
fire - and spent the best part of two hours CHEERING as
different parts of the structure collapsed! Not being that sort
of people, we didn't join in....

Anyway, back to the story. Although he promised to attend, Brian
McConnell had to back out at the last minute. This meant that
the empty space in the car had to filled by another "non-SAM"
person - Ross. You may remember last time, two 'young' gents
helping last time (Gavin and Allan). Sadly, I haven't been able
to lose them yet, so they came down to the Show as well. It's
just a shame none of them have a SAM!
CM                        Show Report

The show's attendance was down slightly on the last two but
people certainly seemed happier with the day. Instead of
everyone coming at lunchtime, which happened both times
previously, the attendance was spread out pretty much over the
whole day.

Being "a one man band" as FRED, I'm really the only person that
can answer FRED questions so I'm usually kept really busy
throughout the whole show - and this time was no exception. I've
yet to have breakfast or lunch during one of these shows!

It was nice to see a lot of the FRED subscribers turn up and say
hello, although it's difficult remembering everyone's name and
face - so I apologise to those who I un-subtly asked "who are
you again?". I was thinking about persuading FORMAT to get
everyone to put on name-badges as they cam into the Show....
anyone else think it's a good idea?


CM                        Show Report

I can't really comment on the other stands at the Show because I
never got a proper chance to walk round. I know that Steve's
Software was there with his new SC_Word, Jupiter Software have
just launched a new budget label "Zedd-Soft", Woodpecker discs
seemed to do very well with their range of peripherals, and erm,
discs! Nev from SD Software was showing off a new MIDI package
for the Spectrum. Also in attendance were West Coast Computers,
Revelation Software, FORMAT (of course!), Phoenix Software and
many others that I've forgotten - I apologise!

A lot of the FRED regular contributors turned up : Chris White,
David Handley, Craig Turberfield, Stefan Drissen, Robert Van Der
Veeke, Andrew Collier, Matt Round, Steve Taylor and again, many
more who I've forgotten!

David Zambonini (he of the Chaos demos), turned up to donate a
quantity of some stuff ("All-Ko-Hall" or something) to the
ex-editors fund. I believe it was well enjoyed.

CM                        Show Report

I should also thank Mr H.Gay for turning up at the FRED stand,
handing over a 4-pack of beer on the pretense of it being too
heavy to carry around the Show! Once again, I would like to
thank you for that - it certainly made relaxing at the end of
the day easier!

I don't know (!!) where everyone is getting these dreadful
impressions of the FRED staff. But if it makes people happier to
ditch their full bottles onto us, we'll survive somehow.....!

The bulk of the Show was a blur to me - I spent most of the day
chatting to people and answering questions, but that's about the
one thing I am good at so I enjoyed myself!

I'd like to thank everyone for coming to the Show and saying Hi,
I hope I'll see everyone again soon.

On the "after-show-report" scene, I will just give you a quick
rendition of how I was very nearly brutally murdered the morning
CM                        Show Report

after the show...

After a celebratery night on the town in Gloucester, and getting
back to our B&B at some ridiculous hour I would have thought I'd
have had a good night's sleep - considering I'd had no sleep the
night before in the car down, and that I was exhausted after
being on my feet all day.

But no, to break with tradition, my internal alarm clock
decides it wants to wake me up at 9.15 AM - on a SUNDAY! But
hey, I'm not one to waste a morning so I tell the others to be
ready to leave after I come back from a walk around the scenic
parts of central Gloucester.

Upon arriving back at the B&B just before 11 AM, I'm politely
reminded that I forgot to turn back my clock and what was I
doing waking everyone up at 8.30 on a Sunday morning!

It's just as well I can run pretty fast!
GG (Graham Goring)       SHOW REPORT 2

 Well! What a show! Quite simply one of the most luvverly days
out of my life! But, if you missed it then here are the edited
highlights... (not including DAVID JONES's appearance!)
 Well, we where late for the show, about an hour late in fact,
mainly due to freak events of nature (namely Will and Andrew)
who forgot minor little details. Such as jobs and cars and such
trivial little things. Bad start, and it worse before it got
better. Y'see, when we arrived it was raining, and we had to run
from the car park to the village hall in the torrential rain
(okay then, light shower). But when we got in it was fabulous,
lot's of erm, "famous" people were there including Ian Collier,
Steffan Drissen, Simon Cooke, Colin Piggot (I think...), Wayne
Coles, Ian Slavin (correct me if I'm wrong), Steve Taylor
(pretty darn certain) and all the publishing big-wigs flaunting
there latest products. I myself got asked to maybe write a book,
by the organiser Bob Brenchley, though I'm not allowed to
disclose the subject matter at this time (pornography laws and
all that, tsk!).
 Well, you ask, what would you personally say was the highlight
GG                       SHOW REPORT 2

of the show? Well, apart from the all-star FRED product line-up
(suck-up), there was a new and improved sound-chip thingy that
played the MODS at damn near CD quality sound (maybe I
exagerrate). It was also quite funny watching all the coders
running around trying to commandeer SAM's so that they could
show off their latest demo, of to copy some discs for someone.
 On sale was quite a bit of everything, Derek Morgan was there
selling lots of PD disks at the bargain price of £1.50 each, and
there was a big selection of them, stupidly I chose one of the
worst though...
 FRED was there in force, occupying it's normal stand by the
door, ready to wrench the money from the sweaty palms of the
show-goers, in exchange for all manners of exotique delights,
such as SAMpaint at the bargain knock-down price of £20, Oh No,
More Lemmings, a Lemmings expansion kit at the measly and
insubstantial price of £13 (or less, I'm, er, not sure)
Waterworks 1 and 2 for just £15 the pair (I myself was tempted
by this and it's all I can do to tear myself away from them to
write this article, they're damn good!), and many others...
GG                       SHOW REPORT 2

 Phoenix Software Systems where releasing a pack of goodies.
Among these were Syncytium, Booty (a  SCADs  speccy  conversion)
and Marbles Deluxe.
 Jupiter turned up, opposite PSS, with their decidedly SCADs
orientated stall, no less than six games from them...
 Of course FORMAT, th organisers, had a massive stall, so long
that it crossed the international date line, causing you to age
and regress by one day, simply by browsing. Of course, they had
aple supply of snap-up-ables on sale.
 As well as that there were quite a few stalls selling Speccy
games (and commodore and amstrad ones too, odd...) and one stall
that sold incredibly cheap disks, we're talking 20p for a 720K
disk, or 30p for a 1440K disk. Very cheap, perhaps there was a
reason. Though I think I can rule out them being international
disk smugglers...
 All in all, the show was damn fine from beginning to end, but
it wasn't quite as busy as the April 30th one though.
 Ah well, roll on next year, next show...

CA              AAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

NO!!! My first ever issue of FRED, and I've botched up big time.
Oh, how I'd love to swear.  It's only a good job I have control
over myself.  I'd already written the disc contents. What
happened is that I make two copies of the uncompressed editorial
- FRED51 and EDITORIAL. I load each one in turn, swapping round
so as to have an up-to-date backup. BUT, I LOADED THE WRONG ONE
AND SAVED IT OVER THE LATEST VERSION, MEANING I'VE LOST ABOUT 2
HOURS WORK.

I really don't feel like doing those darn disc contents again. I
apologise to anyone if I'm not too complimentary about their
item, but I was the first time, so sorry. It's very good really.




                        GOD, I'M A FOOL


CA                  DISC CONTENTS - TAKE 2

The screen$ this month were sent in by Scott Inwood.  You'll
also notice a couple of screens which you have seen before.
These have been accidently put on, and it's not just some cheap
stunt to promote the best game ever (and the extra levels for
it).  Honest.

Spectiles is done by Banzai - Dan Doore. You may notice a few
subtle mentions about issue 50. Sorry it wasn't in issue 50, but
51 isn't far off. It's one of those turn-over-the-matching-
tiles games, but this one will warm the hearts of every player.
Yes folks, it stars some of the classic Spectrum heroes, such as
Willy (from Jet Set), that woman who tells him to shoo, and all
manner of spooky people who I can't remember their names. Play
it and say, 'Wow, it's Ujimyflip'.

Next is a Rebelstar type game by James 'F.L.A' Curry. I'm afraid
the computer is as thick as 2 short planks and can't play this,
so you need a friend; or a teddy bear. That's what I use. One
player controls the attackers, one player the defenders. It
CA                       DISC CONTENTS

has got instructions, but here's a brief rundown of the rules.

Annoyingly, the keys are QZOP(Up, Down, Left and Right) and S is
fire (God knows why). D opens or closes a door, F ends the turn
and I displays info about what it is on. Use S to select your
man, the QZOP combination to move him, S to fire and F to finish
the go. Player 1 controls green (!) humans, attack droids and
robot things. As is usual with these games, he has two missions,
either destroy the enemy's defences or units. Player 2 has to
destroy player 1's units. Simple, huh? It takes a while to set
up, but bear with it, it is a good game when you get into it.
And may the best teddy bear win.

Interlaced was sent in by David Simmonds.  I used this because I
was running out of disc space and because Kirk has a rather
funky hairdo.  I'm thinking of doing my hair like that...



CA                       DISC CONTENTS

EDDAC is by Stefan Drissen and is really only for those who are
solder boffins or madmen. Basically, it is a set of detailed
instructions for building a pretty powerful sound interface
allowing near-CD quality music to be played by your SAM. And the
cost - about £10. The original was going to be built and
marketing by Edwin Blink and Stefan himself, but Edwin having to
move abroad means that Stefan was unable to do it by himself and
instead gave the blue-prints to us. I hope you don't mind me
changing the main program Stefan, but I had to in order to be
able to use compressed screens. Neither FRED nor Stefan accept
any responsibility for damaged SAMs when trying to put this
together. If anyone builds it, Stefan has written a MOD player
for it. Send a disc and SAE to Colin Macdonald for it.

Next we have a set of articles by Graham Goring. I haven't got
any NET down here, and I came across these articles by Graham.
In true Graham fashion, they do go slightly over the top. I hope
everyone can take them in the light they are intended and enjoy
them. If anyone thinks they can write any humorous
CA                   DISC CONTENTS (Still)

articles like these, send them in.

E-Tunes this month are by Lee Willis and Peter Moore. I'm saving
the Christmassy one for FRED 52, Lee. Think you can rustle some
more annoying Christmas tunes for FRED 52? Don't Christmas tunes
really get on your nerves? Mine too, but I can't help but love
them.

MODs will get decided on at the last minute. I'll thank you next
month if I use your MOD.

Inter-Race is a beautiful looking gambling program by none other
than Graham Goring. Yes, a few of the names are pushing it, but
I'm sure you'll agree the game is beautifully presented. I'm
pleased to say (ARGH) that the keys are QZOP and S. Any more
games with those keys, and I'll ban you permanently.

CD is a nice little Spectrum demo conversion by Martyn Green.
It's just a basic scrolly and music, but there are a few nice
CA                      NEARLY DONE...

tunes and the scroller does some strange things.

Adverts are the same cobblers, but I'm planning on having a few
new ones to sparkle up next months little section. I bet you
can't wait. Who am I kidding?

Three Bits n Bobs this month from Matt Round, ME and Michael
Capstick.

Matt Round has done a program which will bore the, um, feet off
you people who say, "Ooh, Maths. I never have liked that. It's
just numbers." However, us maths worshippers will find this most
interesting indeed. It's a mathematical model of the progression
of this ant, and really could be intersting. I sat watching it
for hours. Did my eyes in, though.

A rather nice chap called Colin Anderton has sent in this next
lovely donation. It's a measure of how big a slob you are and is
done by you TRUTHFULLY answering questions. I ripped it
CA               LAST PAGE OF CONTENTS.  HURRAH!

straight from a newspaper which had got all their arrows the
worng. It's useless, I know, but I wallow in the fact that I'm
much less of a slob than Pete or Graham (and no doubt Col Macd).

Finally, there is a program from Michael Capstick. Yes, it is
another of those Light Cycle games, but this one is quite fun in
one player mode - something you don't normally get. So play it,
and stop moaning.


Right, that was nowhere near as long or as friendly as my last
set of contents, but I think I did quite well. It's 11:30pm you
know and I'm supposed to be going out tommorrow night as well.
Oh, how do I cope?

Right, I hope you've enjoyed reading my editorial. Get your
orders in for Christmas and I'll see you all next month, with a
very special utility on the main menu... You can either wait
until next month to find out or read the letters section.
CA                    THANKS VERY MUCH

Editor: COLIN "I'm a work-a-holic" ANDERTON

Thanks to :

    Dan Doore         James 'F.L.A' Curry
    Stefan Drissen    Martyn Green
    Dean Nicholas     Matt Round            FRED PUBLISHING,
    Michael Capstick  Graham Goring         40 Roundyhill,
    Peter Moore       Lee Willis            Monifieth,
    Andrew Collier    Scott Inwood          DUNDEE.
    Simon Cooke       David Simmonds        DD5 4RZ
    Lewis Farmer      Martin Fitzpatrick
    Robert Van Der Veeke                   (01382) 535963
    Colin Macthingy   Everyone else

  DON'T FORGET THE GREAT SOFTWARE FROM FRED YOU COULD HAVE FOR
                      ***  CHRISTMAS  ***

           Nothing follows, but next month, I promise
CA                 I HOPE NO WOMEN READ THIS

Here's a couple of jokes that are guaranteed to offend.  That's
why I didn't advertise them.  I personally think they are
offensive and should not be passed on by anyone.

Q) What do you do if the dishwasher breaks down?
A) Slap her!


Q) Why do Welsh policemen hang around in threes?
A) One to do the reading, one to do the writing, and one to look
    after the two intellects!


Well, that's all for now.  Any other jokes I know are too
obscene for most of you, so I'll leave them.

Goodbye until next month (If I still have a job)

                                          COLIN ANDERTON

Letters & Reviews

                   Letter from Dean Nicholas

Dear Colin,
           Just  thought I'd  drop you a  line about  FRED 50, I
think that this was definitely the best FRED yet!I especially
enjoyed DWC, which is probably the best demo FRED have ever
featured!Also, DERF was really great, those jokes about SCUM!
were brilliant.Matt Round, you are surely FREDs greatest
contributors ever!

Congratulations to you, Colin Anderton, for making it as the new
FREDitor.I hope that you will take Brians place well, however I
have one request;could you please try and continue the music
section, I could even do some more music reviews myself!
Hopefully, you will decide to continue it.

Finally, I have a suggestion.Howsabout you start featuring news
from other companies in the SAM world, such as Phoenix Software
Systems, Zedd-Soft, SAM PD and others.I mean, at the second SAM
show in April the absolutely amazing MiDGET was released and in

                   Letter From Dean Nicholas

the time since then you haven't even mentioned it at all!So come
on, give us FRED readers more news!

One last point, could you please consider producing a 'Best Of
Machine Code' disk featuring all of Stevie T's M/C courses up
until the latest Issue.I ask this, because I am trying to learn
M/C, and have not got the first 13 parts of it, it is a bit of
waste buying a whole mag just for one program!

Oh well, I may as well end this now.In case you didn't read the
disk label, there is another file on this disk called "Review"-
It is a review of one of FRED's latest games, Football League
Manager (released at the 3rd Gloucester show- alongside the
brilliant Oh No- More Lemmings) I hope you will include this on
the disk.

                   Keep up the exellent work,
                         Dean Nicholas

CA                  Reply to Dean Nicholas

Wow!  My first ever letter to reply to.  Cheers Dean.

Thanks for the confidence booster. It's very late at night and
it's just what I needed. You know, editing a disc magazine
doesn't help your black coffee addiction. I'd drink something a
little stronger, but my replies may get a bit, er, strange.

Music - ouch. You hit a sore point there, Dean. Much as I have
loved Brian's music section and would read it all taking little
notice, I'm not what you would call THE most up to date person
when it comes to music. However, I will try and get Brian to
keep it up. I'm sure he'd love to. Meanwhile, if anyone else
wants to contribute to the music section (or write their own
completely different section for that matter), get it done and
whip it in the post. I'll stick anything in from George Formby
to Pantera. (Except Take T**t. Bleargh!)

Glad you liked issue 50. DERF (FRED backwards to those who are a
little slow) was indeed a rather great game. I can only get
CA                  Reply to Dean Nicholas

to issue 43, but then again, I'm not a computer game addict like
Colin Macdonald. The only problem with issue 50 is that everyone
put lots of effort into that and I'm left a little short for
this issue.

Regarding news about other disc mags and their products, we will
of course keep you in touch with all definite releases from all
software companies when they come. However, regarding MiDGET, I
do have details on it, but things are changing all the time. It
has certainly not been released yet, and it is likely to be a
long time before we do see it. It's better for everyone if we
wait for definite news, n'est-ce pas?

The "Best of M/C" idea sounds good.  I'll have a word  with  the
boss, and if it doesn't require me doing too much work,  it  may
well go ahead.  Your review is later on.  Many thanks.



                   Letter from Graham Goring

Dear Colin (Anderton),
 Why am I writing you a letter? You only live five minutes away
from my house.

                        Yours sincerely,

                      Graham Norris Goring




                    Reply to Graham Boring

Dear Graham,
 Why?  Because it fills my heart with joy just to see your typed
letters every month.  Besides, I'm at least ten minutes away.

                            Colin.

                    Letter From Lewis Farmer

Dear Colin,

First, I would like to say how completely gobsmacked I was at
the Gloucester Show, when you came up with my address off the
top of your head in response to 'Lew Farmer'!

If you remember, I asked you why the 'FRED' in Fred Publishing
and you said it was too long a story for you to go into it there
and then. So here I am asking you to tell us all the story in
reply to this letter. I'm sure there's plenty of other readers
who would also be interested.

As you can see, I have written this letter using the Notepad
processor from issue 36. I wanted to increase the time for the
system variable REPDEL, so I added to the basic program -

35 Poke &5c09,100


                    Letter From Lewis Farmer

No joy! Still a very short delay on key repeat, and print peek
&5c09 returns '5'. Is there somewhere else in the program I can
put this command to make it effective?

                         Lewis Farmer

[I'll let Colin MacD reply to this. Not that I had a choice. CA]


CM                   Reply to Lewis Farmer


Hah! Thought you'd be impressed! From sending out hundreds of
issues of FREDs for the last four and a half years, I do get to
know a lot of the addresses of subscribers off by heart, so I
like to show off my amazing memory skills at these shows!
Perhaps I should run some sort of "challenge Colin" event at the
next show?

CM                   Reply to Lewis Farmer

Sorry, at the Show I thought you meant the story behind FRED -
why I started and how things progressed in the early days and
all that. This is a story I will write some day, and with any
luck I might even find someone remotely interested in reading
it!

When I first got my SAM, in May 1990, there was no software
available, so I started messing about with simple programs and
writing reviews of Spectrum games. This all sort of came
together into the first issue of a magazine. Now, not being the
most imaginative person in the world I was stuck for a name.
Partly because I thought it complimented the name of the
computer, and partly because it was such a common name that it
was kind of different, I called it FRED. Although I did try to
work out what it could stand for, most attempts were pretty poor
- "Funny & Readable Excitement on Disc" , "&!#$$#@ Ridiculously
Expensive Disc" - perhaps not, although I was giving away FRED
free at that point. Just as well too - have you SEEN issue one!?

                   Letter From Stefan Drissen

Hi there Colin & Colin,

How are you all doing up there in sunny Scotland?  FRED 50 was
rather great.  I loved DERF, it should have contained a warning
though: "Students who still need to study should not load this
game thinking they will be able to study after playing just one
game."  My highscore is an average circulation of 814 with
unfortunately a loss of some 1400 pounds (talk about a wicked
tax inspector).

I like the Sci-Fi stuff, it is a lot better than the net
rubbish.  Choas 2 was very impressive too.

Anyway, why am I writing?  Definitely not for the fun of it (or
am I), at the Gloucester show Craig Turberfield asked me if I
could go along and write an E-Tune decompiler so that he could
see how Andy Monk does his very cool sounds.  There had also
been several requests earlier by various people for a
decompiler, so who am I not to listen to public opinion?
                   Letter From Stefan Drissen

So I threw a few bits and pieces into Comet and voila, out
popped the D-Compiler.  *dream mode off*  After a whole load of
hassles the program finally did what it was supposed to do
properly.  And there I was thinking I could get if finished in
an hour or two.

Now for my list of goodies for the forthcoming main menu items,
in the following order: Waterworks 2, Oh no more lemmings, FLM.
I doubt that the EDDAC info and this will cover all those
products though so I'd better get coding.  Any ideas for SMALL
projects would be welcome, since I will now be concentrating on
developing the MOD code.


Cheerio,



Stefan Drissen
CA                  Reply to Stefan Drissen

Hello Stefan. Many thanks for the E-tune decompiler. Almost
certainly, millions of SAM owners all around the world will be
drooling over the news of this. I am. For those of you who are
dying to get their mits on it, IT WILL BE ON FRED 52. I've
already finished FRED 51, so you'll have to wait for this very
special Christmas treat.

Well, Mr Anonymity Smith, you heard the man. I've found out who
he is and been in touch with him and we are going to get another
dose of his sci-fi next month. This month, I'm afraid you'll
have to put up with Graham Goring's rather strange section. I
bet you're all desperate to know who Mr Anon Smith really is...

Yes, indeed Stefan, we do want lots more stuff from you. I'm
sure that you don't just do it for the software though. Ahem. I
had a small idea. How about a 3d landscape game where I'm the
hero and I have to rescue millions of females in distress? Or
maybe not. Oh well, thanks for the D-comp and we'll see you soon
with even more heart-stopping programs.
                 Letter from Martin Fitzpatrick

Dear Fred
          Top Of The Morning To Ya!

T'right? - Sorry about the sad accent....But thats the way it is
in North Yorkshire.....According to someone I know, apparently.
But he's also the on who thinks that on his days of from school
he lives under a truck which has a TV, Microwave, Electric
Cooker, and Mega Drive all running off one battery - That (just
to top it all) never runs out......Very disturbing!

Well now that the intro is finished I suppose I should get on
with the letter...

Serious bit now....

You may or may not know, I run a software company.
I can program pretty well in SCADS basic and I'm not too bad at
putting a few sprites together.....

                 Letter From Martin Fitzpatrick

But, since I'm all on my own and get a tad lonely (sniffff!) I
was wondering if there was anyone out there who would like to
join my band of merry(?) men on the lifelong quest for peace,
justice, and decent games on the SAM.

So how about it then? If your one of the following (or anything
else that might be useful - except a cucumber, I dont like
them) then give us a bell, or write to me at the address at the
end of this letter....So heres the list.....

Macine Coder
BASIC Programmer
SCADS Programmer
Games Master Programmer
Computer Artist
Games Designer
Computer Musician
Games Tester

                 Letter From Martin Fitzpatrick

Well I'm sure you all fall into one of those catagories...Dont
You? Send samples of your work please.

Address at the end of the letter.

Well since I've just been called downstairs for food, I regret I
will have to leave you now....With this little bit of useless
nonsense....

Breifly, Breifly, Top Of The Breifly, Breifly Pleasant.....

Great Huh? My address is.....

[redacted]

                 Letter From Martin Fitzpatrick

[redacted]

Oh and, I want t MCode so is there anyone who knows some good
books on it.....Or, which issues of FRED have the MCode
tutorial.

CA         (Rather Short) Reply to Martin Fitzpatrick

You'll have to introduce me to this person who lives under a
truck. He sounds a good bloke. Say hello to him from me.

I Ummed and Ahhd about sticking your little plea in FRED. I
decided in the end that I can trust you, so that if you get a
team of fine young coders, you'll send all your stuff to FRED.
Otherwise, I'll get a touch angry...

As I've said, we may compile the m/c articles.  Watch this space
for details...  (I can feel lots of work coming on.)
DN             Review of Football League Manager

from FRED, coded by David Handley.Reviewed by Dean Nicholas.

This  was one  of FREDs two  new games software  released at the
Gloucester show (the other one, of course, being Oh No! More
Lemmings) and is the second footie management game to appear on
SAM.The other was Football Director II by DH Games, which I
never bought because they charged 20 POUNDS for it! (You can get
Lemmings for less than that!) The only other football management
games I have played are most of the Football Managers on the
Speccy, so this was quite a change for me.

  The first thing you notice upon loading up is the presentation
It really is great.From the loading screen, to the bit where you
choose what the manager looks like, and the main options screen,
the presentation just shines through.Well, what would you expect
when you hear that the graphics are done by Steven "Picasso"
Pick?All this came as a shock to me, because I am used to the
c*#p quality graphics on the Speccy.

  Now, onto actually looking at the game.There are just so many
options, I just can't remember all of them.There are about 100
teams to choose from, and even more players, each with their own
personal name, picture,age and other stats.There  are  two  main
option screens, from which you can  do  some  of  the  following
things:

ADVERTISMENTS/SPONSORS:You choose which adverts to place round
the side of your pitch (from ones such as FRED, Revelation, SAM
Prime etc.) and also see who wants to sponsor you.

BANK:Take out a loan to buy players etc.

BUY PLAYER:Pretty obvious, really!

LOOK AT TEAM:Here you can rearrange your team.

LOOK AT FIXTURES:See who you are playing next.

LEAGUE:See who well you are doing.

UPGRADE GROUND:You can upgrade your ground to a maximum seating
capacity of 40000.

TRAIN PLAYERS:Again, obvious.

CHANGE TICKET PRICES:If you put them up, less people will come!


There are also a few others which I cannot remember.
Now, after you have sorted out your team, you can go into the
match.The screen is then divided, with the top half showing a
picture of the pitch, and the bottom showing the score and 8
boxes.When people score, their pictures are scored in these
boxes, along with the time that they scored.When it is kick
off,a ball appears on the pitch.This represents roughly where on
the pitch the ball is.Holding down the left mouse button (did I
mention the game was mouse controlled?) will bring you to a
menu, where you can change the style of playing your  team  does
from a list of Long  Ball,  Passing,  Attacking  and  Defending.
Holding  down  the  Right  button  will  allow  you  to  make  a
substitution.

As I mentioned before, the graphics and overall presentation is
spot on.The music is a nice piece of footbally-type music
created on ETRACKER.Oh, one thing I forgot to mention, was that
you can create your teams first and second kit.While it doesn't
matter which you use, it is still a nice touch.

Right, overall verdict time.As you may have gathered, I really
like this game.In fact, I'd probably go as far as to say that it
is my favourite game on the SAM (well, either FLM or Lemmings.)

                       GRAPHICS:94%
                       SOUND:70%
                       PLAYABILITY:90%
                       OVERALL:93%

Actually, there is one slight problem with FLM.The instructions
given are a bit pathetic, they don't tell you what any of the
options are, so you have to spend a little time working out what
is what.However, this is only one tiny niggle.Everything else is
perfect!        [Can't argue with that - buy it now!  CA]