Fred '92

As the scroller says, not so much a ‘best of’ as an effort to spread the word about all Fred’s releases up to the end of 1992. Includes demos of Waterworks, The Bulgulators, Dyzonium, Spell Master, E-Tracker, Impatience and Parallax.

Magazine

                          FREDitorial

If  you've  never  read  FRED before, then I'll give you time to
groan  about  the heading.................All done? Good - we'll
continue then.

Welcome to FRED'92 - the first compilation of FRED magazine for
over  a  year!  It's funny - in the first 14 issues, I get three
companies  wanting to sell a "Best Of FRED" disc then as soon as
FRED expanded into publishing, I have to do one myself!!

As  I  explained in the scroller on the main menu, this is not a
Best  Of  FRED as such but a chance for people to get an insight
into  FRED  -  the  company, the magazine and the software. This
disc contains demos of no less than SEVEN of the titles FRED has
released over the last 18 months.

Some  of  you  may  never have seen an issue of FRED before, and
most  of  you  probably have at least seen FRED at some point in
the last 30 months.

                    Where did it all start?

Before  I  go  any  further, I'll just introduce myself as Colin
Macdonald  ,  founder of FRED - and still very actively involved
in all the FRED projects.

Just  to  let  you  know  the  story  of  FRED,  I'll do a brief
rendition of the history :

May 1990 : First issue of FRED released. Neither this or Issue 2
were great successes despite being the first SAM disc magazine.

August 1990 : Issue 3 released - featuring the previously unseen
Tetris by Lord Insanity. The start of FRED's success.

December  1990  :  Nick  Roberts reviewed FRED in CRASH and as a
result, many copies of the first six issues of FRED were sold.

June  1991  :  I  am employed at SAM Computers Ltd for 3 months.
FRED now has over 100 readers.

                      The History Lesson

September  1991 : FRED's first commercial title, "Impatience" is
released.

December 1991 : FRED now has 300 readers and Impatience has been
a success - getting a 90% review in Your Sinclair.

January 1992 : Employed at SAMCo for 3 weeks.

February 1992 : Name changed to FRED PUBLISHING.

March  1992  :  Follow-up  to  Impatience,  "Triltex - The Later
Levels" is launched.

April 1992 : Employed at SAMCo for 2 weeks.

June 1992 : Start 2 month employment at SAMCo

July  : July 15th, SAM Computers Ltd goes into liquidation. FRED
now has 500 readers.
                      The History Lesson

August  1992 : FRED Publishing's first utility "Spell Master" is
launched and proves to be very popular.

September  1992  : The shoot-em-up "Parallax" is released. It is
received with mixed opinions.

October   1992   :   FRED  magazine  now  became  professionally
duplicated and on-body printed. An editor is employed to compile
the  magazine.  FRED's second shoot-em-up "Dyzonium" is released
and goes down well.

November   1992   :   FRED   releases  the  super  pacman  game,
"Bulgulators".

December 1992 : FRED takes over Noesis Software and releases the
hit platform game, "Boing!". FRED now has 750 readers.

January  1993 : FRED releases WaterWorks and ETracker. Both have
been well previewed.
                      The History Lesson


And there you have it, the very concise story of the humble FRED
Publishing  -  missing  out  many  hundreds of the finer details
which were documented in FRED magazine at the time.

I  mean  -  there  was  the  dozens of computer fairs all around
Britain  that  I  attended,  complete  with  stories  of getting
arrested,  bored  and  very  very  cold.  There were 6 months of
antics  in  Swansea  -  being  tied to chairs in busy car-parks,
parcelled up and sent through the post (well...nearly!) and many
other Welsh tricks played on unsuspecting innocent victims.

I   could   elaborate  but  that would spoil the stories which I
hope  you have the pleasure of reading in the previous issues of
FRED magazine.




                         The Magazine

FRED magazine was the first disc-based magazine to appear on the
SAM  way back in mid 1990, originally priced at £1 a disc it has
since undergone two price increases and hundreds of changes (for
the  better!)  to  bring  it up to today. Issue 29 has just been
released  (mid-January)  and  already  work is steaming ahead on
Issue 30!

From  the very first issue to todays discs, the basic format has
remained  the  same  in  that  each issue of FRED supplies news,
reviews,  previews  and  screenshots.  Any  questions posed will
normally  be  answered  whether  you  can't get past Level 11 of
Prince  Of Persia , don't know what the flashing screen when you
switch  on  your SAM actually is, don't know what to do with the
Torch  in "Boing!", or just how to find out which version of the
ROM you have.

FRED  is  aimed  to educate you, as the reader, in being able to
understand  your SAM better - so you can get more out of it both
in work and in play.
                         The Magazine

FRED magazine itself is NOT run as a business. I do it for fun,
to meet thousands of new people, and so that I can keep a finger
on the pulse of computer entertainment. The recent price rise to
£2 may seem like it's impossible not to make money, but this was
only  to  cover  duplicating  and on-body printing expenses, the
cost  of  paying someone else to help with the magazine as there
simply  isn't  enough hours in the day, and of course to pay for
the contributions to the magazine.

From  day  one,  all  FRED  orders have been sent out as soon as
possible  (90%  are  despatched  within 24 hours!) and always by
first class post - nothing but the best for fellow SAM users.

FRED  is  not  a  serious  magazine. It is a fun magazine - only
because  I have fun producing it and people have fun reading it.
There  are  serious  articles,  programs and reviews to give you
the extra insight into your machine that no other computer has
ever, or will ever give you.

                         The Magazine

To  prove  my point, the programmer of two commercial titles has
been  writing  a machine code column ever since issue 6. A small
sample is included on this disc but in recent months this column
has taught how to add commands to BASIC, how to produce your own
WIMP  environment  and  the fastest ways to place sprites on the
screen!  As  a  less regular section, we occasionally have other
talented  programmers  writing articles which go down very well,
for  example  in  the past articles have been on the sound chip,
128K emulation, paging and many more.

And  for  all  you  non-technical  people  (like  me!),  there's
articles  on book reviews, music reviews, wrestling, a hilarious
take-off  of  Star Trek - and that's me just looking at the last
two issues!

As  I  said,  FRED  is  fun.  FRED contains more games than ever
before.  For  those  of  you  that  get  envious of Amiga owners
boasting  of hundreds of amazing demos you'll be pleased to know
that  there  is  an  on-going  battle between about a dozen FRED
                         The Magazine

contributors to see who can produce the best demo!! This results
in  some fantastic machine code demos - as I hope you'll see for
yourself.

As Software Manager for Revelation Software (and by running FRED
Publishing!)  ,  I  know  exactly  what  is  going on in the SAM
software  scene  -  thus  allowing  EXCLUSIVE news to be leaked,
allowing  EXCLUSIVE  screenshots  into FRED and, most popular of
all, allowing EXCLUSIVE demos of all the latest games!!!!

Naturally,  being a FRED subscriber can save you vast amounts of
money  when  buying  not  only FRED and Revelation products, but
many  more  included. For example, this Christmas if subscribers
had ordered one of everything on the price list, they would have
saved almost ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY POUNDS compared to the prices
the  goods were sold normally!! I will admit, this was a one-off
Christmas  sale,  but  normally  whenever  a  FRED or Revelation
product is released it is offered first to FRED subscribers at a
discounted price!!!
                         The Magazine

Every  issue of FRED contains a wide variety of programs - using
up  every last 'K' on the disc! For example, these are just some
of  the  utilities  that have appeared in recent months : A full
machine  code  monitor  for debugging your programs, an STD area
phone  code  finder,  an  assembler,  a  dissassembler, a simple
accounts   package,   a   poolschecker,   a  fully-fledged  word
processor,  a spreadsheet, numerous different databases, fractal
and 'life' simulators..........

There  is  also  always  a  lot of games and demos : on the last
four  issues  there  has  been no less than TWELVE games ranging
from  Hangman  and  Snail  Racing  to  Fruit Machines and Puzzle
games!

You want demos? You've come to the right place. For example, you
could  follow  the  exploits  of 'Zebedee Green' as seen on this
disc  -  there have been numerous hilarious adventures involving
him,  and many more including music demos, the ever popular "how
many  things can you get moving on the screen at once" demos and
                         The Magazine

many more varients.

In  fact,  I  wish I could fit a few more of them onto this disc
but  it's  packed  full  as  it  is  -  and  that's  with almost
everything compressed to the limits!

What more can I say?? Nothing - so here's a few quotes about the
magazine :

"Ridiculous value for money" Bob Brenchley - FORMAT
"A veritable bargain" Your Sinclair
"I recommend you get a sub today" Graham Burtenshaw - Enceladus

That's it folks! All 29 back issues are available for £2 each or
£20  for  12.  Similarly, a years subscription (12 issues) costs
just £20. Easily reclaimable through the dozens of discounts and
much better value than ever seen before.


                         Disc Contents

OK, by now you'll be getting bored and wanting to know what's on
this disc for you to play around with!

Screens  :  a  compilation  of  some  of  the  screens that have
appeared in FRED recently.

WaterWorks : As I write this, WaterWorks was only released a few
days  ago  and  already it's set to become a hit!  The object of
the game is to escape each level by collecting a key and getting
to the door. This is achieved by manipulating water using pipes,
nozzles,  taps, pumps and switches. In this demo you only have a
few pieces of pipes and a nozzle. The pipes are self-explanatory
but the nozzle is used for letting the water flow from them. The
other  thing  you  might  need to know to help you complete this
demo  is that some things can be activated by waterswitches ie a
device that activates something else when water flows into it! I
won't  say any more because it would spoil the demo but I'm sure
you'll enjoy it!

                         Disc Contents

This  was  a pre-release demo version of WaterWorks and as such,
the  music  was  not included at the time. The final version has
some great music (two of the tunes are in the ETracker section!)
and  no  less  than  20 levels - all of which can be accessed by
passwords!

WaterWorks  costs  £9.99 (discount available to subscribers) and
has already been released.


"The  Bulgulators"  is  THE  pacman  for the 90's! Featuring 100
levels  of  slick action this is proving to be popular. Not only
does  it  include the usual pac-type puzzles but as you progress
through  the  levels  you come up against locked doors for which
keys  must  first be found and walls which can be passed through
one  way  -  but  not  the  other!  "The Bulgulators is a highly
playable game ... plenty of merriment ... fun" : Your Sinclair

Unfortunately, the demo is not playable so just watch.
                         Disc Contents

Programmed  by  Spectrum  /  SAM programming whizzkids 'ESI', it
provides  hours  of classic entertainment brought up to date for
just  £9.99  (discount  to  subscribers)  and  has  already been
released.


Ah....my favourite "Dyzonium" ; the first shoot-em-up on the SAM
to be well received!!  Again, it's another non-playable demo I'm
afraid but I'm sure that won't put you off it at all. The object
of  the  game is to collect all the Dyzonium crystals in each of
the  ten  levels - whilst avoiding the nasties and collecting as
many  of  the numerous power-ups as possible. There's ten levels
in  all  but  this  demo  shows  a clip from just a few of them.
"hugely destructive ... Original and fantastically playable ..."
82% : Your Sinclair

From  the author of MegaGamed "AstroBall", Dyzonium costs £9.99,
is released and there is a discount to subscribers.

                         Disc Contents

Spell  Master is the next demo on the disc - and one that I know
anyone  who  ever  uses a word processor will be impressed with!
The  demo  is  "usable"  and will explain a large number of it's
features  in  the text itself but I'll just run through a few of
them ;

Spell   Master   will  accept  text  files  from  Outwrite,  The
Secretary, Tasword - and any Spectrum Word Processor which saves
out  text  as  64  column  lines!  To  spell  check, you can set
Autocheck which spell checks AS YOU TYPE!! You can spell check a
single  word,  or  you  can spell check from the cursor onwards!
Once it finds a spelling mistake (not very often - it has 80,000
words  on  a 512K machine and 30,000 on a 256K machine!) you can
either add it to your own dictionary, change it or ignore it! If
you  change  a word, Spell Master will take care of reformatting
and justifying the paragraph for you!

The  built-in  word  processor  doesn't  have  any frills (hey -
you're  getting  a  spell  checker,  not  a word processor), but
                         Disc Contents

amongst  other things it does : justify, word wrap, full insert
/  delete modes, centre / left/right justify, jump to top/bottom
of text, tabs etc etc

In  case  we  still  haven't persuaded you, you'll be pleased to
know  that  the  80,000  words  are not wasted just on the spell
checker  : you have two bonus programs also built-in! An anagram
solver and a crossword solver!!

If  you  so  desire,  you  can  browse  through all 80,000 words
adding,  deleting,  changing  or  just looking at any words! You
have your own USER dictionary so you can choose what extra words
you  want  to  have  loaded  in - and these are even used in the
anagram/crossword solvers!!!!

SpellMaster  was released in August and has already sold several
hundred   copies.  It is still on sale ONLY from FRED Publishing
at  the  giveaway price of £14.99 - there are some snippits from
reviews over the page ......
                         Disc Contents

"simple  and  logical  controls  ... it is a good programme, the
crossword  /  anagram features give value for money, so the word
processor  is really a free extra. I recommend this programme to
all  SAM users, if you only write the occasional letter or write
screeds  this  programme  will  speed  things up and make letter
writing much easier" : SAM Supplement, December 1992


"At  £14.99  Spell  Master is excellant value for money. Whether
you  are  a  serious  writer who can't spell, a good speller who
can't  type,  or  a  crossword/anagram addict, this program will
make  your  life  easier." : Carol Brooksbank in FORMAT, October
1992


So  you  see  why it's proved so popular so far! There have been
many   letters   (without  spelling  mistakes!)  from  satisfied
customers  saying  how they wondered how they ever lived without
it - I hope you soon become one of them.
                         Disc Contents

The  next  item on the disc is the wonderful machine code column
written by Steve Taylor - author of the bestselling "Impatience"
and  it's  follow-up,  "Triltex - The Later Levels". He has been
doing  this column ever since issue six, and has progressed from
the   simply   rules  of  assembly  language  (as  seen  in  the
demonstration) to many, many complex routines that are even used
by today's professional SAM programmers!!!


After  this are some samples of music created with the wonderful
ETracker.  This is the ultimate music program for SAM, and after
looking at many other music utilities on other formats, it seems
to   be   THE   BEST  MUSIC  PACKAGE  FOR ANY 8-BIT COMPUTER. It
even produces tunes better than some on the Amiga and Atari ST!!
Naturally,  we  wouldn't  expect  you  to believe our hears - so
believe  your  own!! We've packed as many tunes as possible onto
this  disc - this collection includes these people's first tunes
created   on   ETracker.   These  people  are  not  professional
musicians, they just followed the manual - and you can hear for
                         Disc Contents

yourself  what they came up with! If you own Sound Machine, then
ETracker  is  the  perfect  upgrade - the manual does not bother
explaining the principles of music to you, it just tells you how
to  work  the  program!! Many people were annoyed with the sound
machine's  file  lengths  (50K),  however  an  ETracker  tune on
average  takes  up  2-4K  !!! You can see for yourself simply by
looking at the length of the files on this disc! I would like to
point  out that all of the tunes on this disc were created using
a pre-release copy of ETracker. It has since been improved.

ETracker  comes with the manual and accompanying demo disc which
let you load up the files provided so you can see how everything
interacts  and  lets you work through the manual learning how to
use this wonderful package to it's fullest capabilities!

On ETracker you can edit individual channels : so you could have
drums  on  one  channel,  steady  white  noise  on another, high
pitched  notes  on another, low pitched playing on another - and
you'd still have two channels free!
                         Disc Contents

You  can  fade  the  volume  from left to right speaker and back
again, copy relative or absolutely as much or as little from any
channel  to any place in any other, run the full 6 channel tunes
under interrupts in either Basic or machine code, even have your
music  used in commercial games - the music for all the new FRED
and  Revelation  releases  is  being  written  using ETracker eg
WaterWorks, Bulgulators and Wop Gamma.

If  you've  ever  wanted to have complete control over the SAM's
wonderful  sound  chip  but were baffled by the technical manual
and  dissapointed  by  The  Sound Machine, then ETracker is your
chance to let your fingers run free!

We  hope  you  like the tunes compiled on this disc - there have
been  numerous  over  the  last  few months of FRED magazine and
there  are hundreds more. ETracker costs £29.99, although it's a
lot  compared  to  other  SAM products, ETracker is in line with
Amiga packages - and for that it's dirt cheap!!!

                         Disc Contents

Next up is the demo of FRED's premier release "Impatience". This
game has sold over 400 copies in the last 18 months and is still
selling  well!  It  received  90%  in Your Sinclair and had very
complimentary  reviews  in  Crash, Sinclair User, Enceladus, SAM
Supplement,  ZAT,  SCPDU.....to  name a few! Unfortunately, this
demo  was  written  several  weeks before it's release and I can
promise   that   the   graphics  and music have been improved (a
huge improvement made to the music I guarantee!). Ideally, it is
suited  for the SAMCo mouse and will default to that if you have
one  plugged  in  -  although  it  will  work with QAOP & SPACE,
cursors, joystick keys - and of course the joystick (or even the
joymouse!)

The  full  instructions  are included in the demo, but basically
what  you  have  to do is simply click on matching tiles to pair
them off.

The  demo on the disc is of "Triltex", just one of the two games
on  "Impatience". The other game is essentially a board game for
                         Disc Contents

two players, but a lot of fun can still be derived from it.

Impatience costs just £9.99


"Triltex  -  The Later Levels" is another 24 levels for those of
you  that found the original levels on Impatience too difficult.
You  must  own a copy of Impatience for these to work however as
it loads directly into it.

This  costs  just  £4.99  and again, is available only from FRED
Publishing.


While  I  remember, the screens are just a selection of pictures
from  recent  months  -  there  will also be some screenshots of
"Boing!"  in  there, they're the ones with the little green blob
that  jumps  about, avoids aliens, solves puzzles and is not the
slightest bit similar to Dizzy.       Weeellll.......
                         Disc Contents

Now  we  have  Parallax,  the  first  ever  MODE  4,  16  colour
shoot-em-up  to  appear  on SAM. Sadly receiving bad reviews but
still  selling  reasonably well, the first end-of-level guardian
from  Parallax  is  featured on this disc. Keys are 6789 & 0, or
joystick,  and before you play you will be asked a Multiple Type
and whether you want a speed up - experiment!

Featuring  hundreds  of  alien  wave  forms  and 12 huge levels,
Parallax will keep you busy for quite a while.

Programmed  by  ex-Master  Of  Magic,  Neil Holmes with music by
fellow Stuart Leonardi, Parallax costs £11.99


Unfortunately,  this  game  will  not  play properly if you have
installed SC_Autoboot.



                         Disc Contents

Hah  -  I  told you about the fun on FRED, so here it is! If you
like  Terry  Pratchett  or  Douglas Adams type books - or if you
just  have  a  good  sense of humour, then Rachel is for you! On
this  disc  is  the first of a twelve part story of a search for
lost  cows!  If  you have a sense of humour - read it, otherwise
you'll call it "stupid and pointless".

The whole 12 parts of the Rachel saga are available on disc from
FRED for the price of £3.




From the same author of Rachel, comes the four FREDatives discs.
Featuring games, demos and utilities and lots and lots of music,
these  are  Andrew Hodgkinson's version of FRED. You can buy any
one of them for £2, or all four for £7 - again, only from FRED.


                         Disc Contents

Now  we're getting somewhere! Frog Squad is a game written using
BetaSoft's  GamesMaster.  It was written by Jeremy Wood who has
no  knowledge  of machine code - just a good artistic hand! When
it  first  loads  up  you  will  be  presented  with a scrolling
message, press SPACE to exit from this and load the game proper.

For  any of you that have never played Frogger (you sad deprived
people!),  the  objective is simple - guide your frog across the
road  (avoiding  cars)  and  river (don't fall in the water) and
into one of his homes at the top of the screen. Simple innit?

Control is by the cursor keys.

There  have  been  many  GamesMaster  games  on FRED over recent
months,  I chose to put on Frog Squad because Jeremy obvious has
a  flare for both GamesMaster and graphics. It had nothing to do
with  Frogger  being one of my favourite games. Honest. Come on,
someone  believe me? Well - maybe I lied just a little bit...but
the graphics thing was a good excuse wasn't it ?!
                         Bits 'n' Bobs

This  is  the section of the magazine where ANYTHING can appear,
usually  programs not big enough to get a main menu slot but you
get some wonderful stuff here :


Morton  Quality  by AXE : a humerous little demo featuring a new
character


Walking Man by Ben Wyatt : an example of how a few simple frames
can be combined to create a simple animation.


LogoMaker  by  Colin  Anderton  : lets you produce a 3D logo and
then  save  it off as a BLITZ array if desired. The default name
is  FRED,  but  by  flicking through the program listing you can
change it to whatever you wish.


                         Bits 'n' Bobs

And now two more BASIC games from Ben Wyatt :

SpaceWorm  2  is  a  wonderful  little Snake game where you must
guide  yourself  around each maze collecting points and avoiding
the mines, yourself and the walls.  Keys are QAOP.


Bugs2  is  a  rather original game. Using QAOP, you control your
little  bug and you have to jump on the rising columns and press
down  to  quash  them - unfortunately, you've got quite a few of
them to contend with, lucky you've only got to make it until the
timer runs out....!

But there's always another level!





                   Other Software - BetaSoft

So  now we've taken you through all the contents of the disc and
given  you  a  brief  resume of FRED. What else did I promise to
have  on  the  disc??  Ah  yes  -  the  other  things  that FRED
distributes.  You  should  have received an order form with this
with  a list of everything FRED sells, this is updated every few
weeks  so  if  you  don't  subscribe to FRED but want the latest
list, just drop us a SSAE at the usual address.

Firstly we have the BetaSoft products. As an official West Coast
endorsed company, all BetaSoft products come highly recommended.

MasterDOS costs £15.99 and is an extension to SAMDOS. Similar in
ways  to  MSDOS  is  allows  SUBDIRECTORIES,  a clock to be set,
RAMDrives to be set-up and dozens of other features.

MasterBASIC  is  ideal for anyone who ever programs in BASIC, it
adds dozens of new commands allowing simpler and faster programs
to  be  written  -  as well as programs that weren't possible to
write before! It costs £15.99
                   Other Software - BetaSoft

FileManager  is  a  database  system  coded  by  FORMAT's  Carol
Brooksbank.   It   requires  you  to  have  both  MasterDOS  and
MasterBASIC  and  either  the 1 MegaByte upgrade or two internal
disc drives. It costs £12.99

GamesMaster  is the ideal utility for all you people that always
wanted  to program but couldn't get the hang of BASIC or machine
code.  GamesMaster  lets  you simply and quickly design your own
games  -  once  finished the game is automatically compiled into
machine code and can be auto-run (like Frog Squad on this disc).
Your  own  music, graphics or even BASIC / Machine Code routines
can  be  incorporated  into  your games if you wish. GamesMaster
costs £24.99

Although FRED stock the above BetaSoft products, we do not stock
any  other  of  their  range,  and  we  do not offer the upgrade
service   that  BetaSoft  usually offer - if you wish to upgrade
from  an  early  version of a program to a later one, you should
contact BetaSoft direct.
               Other Software - Steve's Software

Steve's   Software  was  one of the first companies to release a
SAM   product   and  even  today,  they  are  one  of  the  most
successfull.

SC_Assembler  was  their first product. It is a fully integrated
Assembler  and Dissassembler - ideal for those of you fairly new
to  machine  code.  Also included in the package is the Spectrum
emulator, SC_Speclone. SC_Assembler costs £12.50

SC_Filer  is another incredibly flexible filing system which has
proved exceptionally popular. It costs £12.50

For Machine Coders of all levels, debugging is a nightmare - not
any more! SC_Monitor is a full Assembly language monitor to help
you debug and improve your programs - it also helps you see what
exactly  is  going  on  in  other people's programs!! SC_Monitor
costs £14.99


            Other Software - Enigma Variations Ltd

Enigma  were  the first software company to support the SAM, and
even today, their games are among the best. Unfortunately, there
is difficulty in obtaining some of their titles so we advise you
to phone Colin Macdonald on 0382 - 534201, to check stock before
ordering any of them. Just to recap though :

Defenders  Of  The  Earth  :  The first SAM game. Fast and slick
               platform game of the hit TV cartoon. £14.99
PipeMania    : Fantastic conversion from 16-bits. £14.99

MultiPack 1  : A football and a platform game. £14.99
Famous Five  : The first SAM adventure. £14.99
Klax         : Puzzle game. £14.99
Sphera       : SAM's first shoot-em-up. £14.99

Escape From The Planet Of The Robot Monsters : platform. £14.99

Mind Games 1 : Simple BASIC puzzle games. £14.99
Mind Games 2 : More of the same. £14.99
                     Other Software - LERM


Again,  one  of  the  companies at the forefront of SAM software
they  produced  the  first,  and  still  most  popular, Spectrum
emulator for SAM.


SAMTape  4M  is  the  latest  version  of their popular Spectrum
emulator - it emulates the "vast majority" of Spectrum programs,
lets   you  enter  pokes,  change  colours,  it  saves  them  as
compressed  files  to  save  memory  and  is ideal if you have a
Messenger.  Please note that FRED do not stock earlier versions,
and  cannot  offer  an  upgrade  service  - for these you should
contact LERM direct.


SAMDisk 2 is for managing your discs. It lets you format part of
them, verify them, perform track repairs, copy files faster than
before and much more. This disc manager and doctor costs £11.99
                                                               .
                 Other Software - Hilton & BGS

Hilton  Computer  Services have produced their "Personal Banking
System" on numerous systems ranging from the ZX81 to todays PCs,
SAM included!

If  you  have a lot of banking to do, why do it all on paper and
make  mistakes  when  you  can  do  it  on  a  program  designed
specifically for the job?

Hilton's PBS costs £19.99

BG Services produce "Pro-DOS", the CP/M emulator for the SAM. It
runs hundreds of CP/M programs and there has even been a Pro-DOS
PD  Disc  library set up, so if you want access to classic games
and useful utilities, ProDOS is for you!

ProDOS costs £30.99



                   Other Software - Chezron

Chezron  have  been  producing Outlet drive magazine for 6 years
now  and they have two word processors to add to the feathers in
their belt.

OutWrite  V2 is the follow-up to the hugely successful Outwrite,
and  is  a  complete  word  processor capable of block commands,
printer/control  codes,  Search/Replace  and  hundreds  of other
useful  word  processing  features never before seen on the SAM.
Also included is a simple Spell Checker.

OutWrite V2 costs £19.99

"The  Style Writer" is for all you lucky people who own printers
-  it,  again,  is  a  word  processor  but  it  allows  you  to
incorporate graphics into your files to jazz up your letters!

Style Writer costs £9.99


                Other Software - Glenco & Noesis

SCADs (SAM Coupe Arcade Development System) is Glenco's premier
release on SAM after their reign over the Amstrad market.

Like  GamesMaster,  SCADs  lets  you  produce  your  own  games.
Fortunately   for  everyone,  the  similarity  between  the  two
packages  stops  there.  SCADs  adds  commands to BASIC allowing
machine code routines to be directly accessed, therefore all you
have to do is write your program in BASIC using SCADs' dozens of
extra  commands  to  write  your  hit  game. SCADs comes with an
extremely professional 200+ page manual and is mouse compatible.

SCADs costs £24.99

SAMPrint was "Noesis Software"'s first release and received rave
reviews  everywhere - only for people with printers, it lets you
create  posters,  cards or leaflets using the fonts and clip art
in the program - or you can use your own!

SAMPrint costs £14.99
                    Other Software - Axxent

Run  by  Revelation's ex-Software Manager and writer of Enigma's
Famous  Five Adventure, Colin Jordan, Axxent is a relatively new
company dedicated to adventure products for the SAM.

Their  first  release was SAS (SAM Adventure System). This fully
comprehensive  package  allows you to write your own adventures!
Complete  with an A4 manual, you'll be able to knock up your own
Dungeons  and  Dragons story lines - and perhaps get paid to get
them  published....already the first SAS adventures have started
to be released.

SAS costs £30.99

Their  second  release  is the graphic adventure "Sheriff Gunn".
Become  a  Sheriff  in  an  old Western town and solve the towns
problems - or will you be shot first??

Sheriff Gunn costs £11.99

                      Hardware - printers

We  have  tested  out  numerous  printers for quality, price and
reliability  and  have  found the following to come up trumps in
all areas, they are all Citizen printers (the company that makes
SAM's drive) and all are recommended by FRED for use on SAM :

Citizen  120D+ : Most popular printer because of it's low price.
It produces 9 pin high quality output. Costing only £149.99.

Citizen  Swift  9  :  A  very  nice printer for the price, again
producing  9 pin high quality output but with colour facilities.
Costing only £229.99

Citizen  Swift  224  :  The  budget  printer for those that need
superb 24-pin print quality AND colour ability. Cost - £279.99

Citizen  Swift  24e  : The "creme de la creme" - 24 pin, colour,
LCD  menu  functions,  suitable for all types of printing, comes
with  8K  of  Memory (upgradeable to 40K). This printer produces
our price lists - take a look!  Costing £349.99
                       Hardware - Other

We  also presently stock good quality Mouse Mats at only £3 each
and Anti-Glare 14" Monitor Screens - for those of you that spend
many  an hour in front of a monitor, this will reduce the strain
on your eyes - for just £14.99






FRED  also  normally  stock  all other SAM hardware, although at
time  of  writing  we  only have limited stocks. Please phone to
confirm  stock and to reserve before ordering any SAM interfaces
to avoid dissapointment.





                         FRED Policies

All items on the order form have been released and are in stock.

Almost   90%   of orders are despatched within 24 hours by FIRST
CLASS  POST - although please allow 14 days in case of a problem
with the supplier.

All  items listed above will run on a 256K or 512K SAM with 1 or
2 internal disc drives unless otherwise specified.

Please  quote  your FRED membership number (if you have one) and
write your address clearly on any correspondance.

Orders   are  accepted  by  Cheque,  Postal  Order,  EuroCheque,
International  Money Order and cash. Please secure any cash sent
as responsibility cannot be taken for orders not arriving.

Overseas : Software only, sorry. EC add £2 to total. £5 rest.

If you want something that's not on the list - drop us a line!
                       STOP THE PRESSES!

Only just in!!

FRED has taken over Outlet!!

Outlet  has  experienced financial problems in recent months, so
FRED has stepped in. Outlet will now be incorporated into FRED -
subscribers   to   Outlet   will have their subscription changed
into a FRED subscription.

In the next few months, we will be working on taking the best of
both FRED and Outlet to make one great big, bestest magazine for
the SAM!

Full  details  on how to obtain Outlet products (eg back issues)
will appear in FRED in the near future.

We   would   be  interested  to  hear  from  anyone  considering
contributing  to either the FRED or Outlet side of the magazine,
remember - good money is paid!!!!!
                           ????????

"Well,  it's  time  to  say our goodbyes I'm afraid. It's been a
pleasure  having  you , I do hope you come again - you'd be more
than  welcome.  And  if  you  ever  want to know anything, don't
hesitate to write a letter or pick up the phone."

Above extract courtesy of The Nationwide Video Company Inc.

Sorry  about that - don't know how that slipped in there, but it
was  rather  appropriate.  I  hope you've taken the time to read
this  text  and that you will be enjoying a subscription to FRED
magazine,  if  you  do  want  to  know  something  -  just  ask!
Unfortunately,  as  it  has  turned  out this is nothing like an
issue   of   FRED,  but  if  you're  reluctant  to  take  out  a
subscription,  just send £2 for the latest issue - I know you'll
be impressed.

I hope this disc is of use to you, and I look forward to hearing
from you in the future.

                     Sniff Sniff , Sob Sob

Bye!


This  disc  and all it's contents are copyright 1992 , 1993 FRED
Publishing  unless  stated otherwise. Copies of this disc may be
made  -  provided  they are in full. Copies of just part of this
disc are illegal and offenders will be prosecuted.


FRED  magazine is a division of FRED Publishing, which is run by
Colin Macdonald. He can be contacted at the address below :

           Colin Macdonald
            [redacted]

Letters & Reviews

                            Letter 1

                         Calvin Allett

Dear Colin,
           I am writing for a couple of reasons, the first being
in  regards  to  the  anonymous letter you featured in issue 20,
sure  the  SAM  isn't as fast as the 16 and 32 bits of the world
but  if programmed correctly it could be almost as fast as an ST
for  quite  a  few  things, the SAM is never going to be able to
beat  the  Amiga  at  speed  even if SAMCO did bring out an 8Mhz
processor, the Amiga is just too well equipped.

With  an  8Mhz  processor that would match the Amiga's speed but
what  about the Amiga's custom chips Denise, Paula and Agnus not
to  mention  its  Blitter,  the  Amiga  can  put  on  some  very
impressive  graphics  and  sound demo's without hardly bothering
the main CPU, how can an 8 bit processor compete with this.

The best thing for SAM owners to do is just compare the SAM with
the  SAM, for years in the press people have moaned on about "My
ST's  better  than  your  Amiga" and vice versa and this kind of
behaviour is just pointless.

Instead  of mentioning all the ways the Amiga beats the SAM what
about  all  the ways the SAM matches or beats the Amiga, the SAM
is  now  capable  of  having  eight times as many colours as the
Amiga, the SAM has a faster disk drive, More channels for music.

The  very  first soundtracker (named E Tracker) program is to be
released  soon  for  the  SAM,  I'm  not  quite  sure  what  the
specifications  are but on the Amiga and other computers some of
their Trackers are able to mimic double the channels, this gives
the  Amiga  8  channels,  with  time we'll probably be seeing 12
channel  music  packages for the SAM and it's when software like
this is released when people will sit up and take notice.

If  you  were  to  measure  how  far a computer can be pushed in
percentage  then  I'd  reckon the SAM hasn't even been pushed to
25%  of  it's  full capabilities yet and it's all to do with the
programmer's,   there   just  arn't  enough  good  machine  code
programmers   on   the  SAM  yet,  sure  we've  had  some  great
programmers  moving  onto  the  SAM  scene from the Spectrum and
the've  produced  very  pleasing  results, and that's with their
first  attempts  but we need more, much more if the SAM is going
to  succeed  and  if  people  from 16 bit computers are going to
start and dabble with the SAM.

He  also  mentioned the SAM becoming like the PC for gadgets and
incompatibilities,  I  don't  agree,  the only trouble there has
really been so far is the ROM.

Sure  there  are  lots  of  bolt ons for the SAM but these don't
really  pose  any  problem apart from having things sticking out
all  over  (Ohh  Err), the PC is much different and the problems
are mainly with clock speed and Display cards, the main card now
for  the  PC  is  the  SVGA  following  with  VGA  right down to
herculees  etc, as it's not very likely for SAMCO or anyone else
to  start bringing out better graphics boards or processor's for
the SAM I don't thing we really need worry.

Apart  form the PC I don't think any other computer could really
be improved that much without making a total mess, Amstrad tried
it  with  the CPC's and didn't really succeed, they gave it 4096
colours,  sprites,  DMA but only for cartridge games and so only
really  succeeded  in  killing off a lot of tape software before
it's  time, and they didn't really think they could compete with
Sega and Nintendo with a Console/Computer.

So there isn't much chance of the SAM's chips been souped up and
I  doubt whether that many users would be willing to get the old
Soldering iron out every time something new came out.

The  only  real  problem with the SAM is the fact that it hasn't
got a built in printer port (in this day and age!).


BRIAN  -  Thanks for the letter. We at FRED could not agree more
with  those  sentiments.  The  fact is, there's no way that 1000
people  are  going  to come up with a spare £50 for the proposed
new  ASIC  chip.    I  also  agree that there's a long way to go
until  the  SAM  reaches  its full potential. The Amiga is still
pushing  forward  its  standards  after  all these years, so why
should the SAM be any different?
                           Letter 2
DEAR COLIN

            Just  to let you know I  wasn't that against the 50p
price rise, its just that so many magazines put up their  prices
and its just I've been getting peeved off with it all...
   Can you send  back old issues of  FRED and get them replaced?
Not that I hate  them, it's because  a few have annoying  sector
errors, and they always seem to be on the Screen$.
   A couple  of months back, FRED's  software releases contained
such delights as a  RPG, a beat-em-up  and a soccer game.  Where
are they?!?

                 DARREN "Cheese helmet" HUBBARD

BRIAN  -  Glad you approve of the price rise... By all means, if
your  FRED  has  developed a sector error just send us back your
ORIGINAL  FRED  DISK  and an SAE and we'll replace it completely
free of charge. More about FRED's software plans later on in the
section though.

                           Letter 3
Dear Fred,

Here are some comments about some of your games I have bought :

Dyzonium

It's games like this that make you happy that you don't have to
pay £40-£l65 for a game.

FRED Publishing's finest so far.
At £9.99 I would recommend this game to anyone.

90%

Parallax

The most overhyped load of c@#p since Sphera.

The sound and end of level graphics are the only good thing
about this game.
Playability? What playabilty - it's the same all the way through
and the keyboard control is rubbish.

The multi-load system is a nightmare even if this pathetic game
did take up 256K (which I doubt) why not use the 512K?

Well done on cutting the demos down to rolling demos with some
music etc taken out. I think these are more likely to sell the
game.

Well done on putting extra things on the Dyzonium disc like
demos - it gives better value and promotes products well.
WaterWorks looks like it could be a classic with some decent
music and a little polishing.

What happened to :

The beat em up.
Kick Off clone
The Tower
Lord Insanity
Franky Fuka
Lemmings

Yours sincerely, Matt Davies


CM : Glad you liked Dyz Matt. Parallax originally took up 3
discs but we managed to compress it down to just 1 disc!

Beat em up - possibly still on

Kick Off - indefinetely postponed due to technical problems

The Tower - We're discussing the continuation of this one

Lord Insanity - still coding away furiously on SAM

Frantisek - erm, don't know - haven't spoken to him for ages

Lemmings - ??????????????

B Spencer             Dyzonium Review

If  you've  been  put  off buying this collect/shoot-em-up (as I
very  nearly  was) by the Newsdisk playable (?) demo, then think
again.  The  released  version  has  improved  graphics  and the
difficulty  is  set  at a more reasonable level. In fact, with a
little practice, it shouldn't be too long before you're on level
2   where   things   get  a  little  more  hectic  (including  a
particularly persistant & indestructable little alien that keeps
following you around and getting in your way).

Hints : Don't rush (there's no time limit)
        Use the map (it's there to help you)
        Don't waste your power-ups, especially your smart  bombs
(these could mean the difference between an easy pick up and the
'Game Over' message appearing)

Verdict  : The graphics & speed aren't anything special but this
is  more  than  made up for by the excellant playability and, at
the end of the day, this is the one thing you cannot do without.
Recommended.
D Marsden           Another Dyzonium Review

This game is too much like a PD game, and why when the coupe has
128  colours  did Balor Knight use white on black? So there is a
bit of colour on the space ship but that's about it. What is the
point  in  using  3 or 4 colours on a space ship that's so small
when  most  of the screen's just black? Even the spinning coffin
isn't  filled  in.  Though  the  game is easier than the demo of
Plasmoid  I  played  it  stills  seems  to be very hard and very
boring  to play. The energy bar makes it very easy to get killed
in  one  go  making  it  impossible to get anywhere. It's nearly
impossible  to make the ship move in a straight line and cleanly
turn. Yet all is not lost the music is very funky and well done,
the  intro  is  very  detailed  and  I  loved  the  way the ship
explodes.

I  loved  Impatience  and still play on the later levels. I also
liked  Parallax  but Dyzonium wouldn't even make a good Spectrum
game.  I  think  FRED  at  least  in this case should never have
bought  the  license  for  this  game. But as you did I think it
still needed more work done to it - colouring the coffin, bigger
more  detailed  graphics  and  making  the  first  levels  a lot
smaller.  Sorry  for  being critical but I don't think this game
has  done you any good at all and I would really like to see you
do well and this sort of game will only give you a bad name.


CM  :  It  is  extremely  difficult  to program a fast game like
Dyzonium  to use more than 16 colours on screen. The main sprite
is  16  x  16  pixels  which is the most common size for sprites
across ALL computers. You complained about the lack of colours -
and then said the ship used too many colours??

The  spinning  coffin  is done in line vectors - something never
done  on  SAM  before,  it is not supposed to be coloured - that
would  be  easier.  Line  vectors  are  used in the latest games
across all formats.

You  didn't  like  the energy bar? If we'd used lives, you would
have lost one and gone back to the start of the level as soon as
you  touched  an  alien,  making it far too difficult or if we'd
given you more energy it would have made the game too easy.

Thanks  very much for your comments - I know I didn't agree with
them  but  from  the  way  everyone is talking about the game it
should  get  good  reviews.  It's  also proved very popular - it
could well be one of the best selling SAM games in a long time!


Next  we've  got  the  review  you've  all been waiting for: the
review  of  the  PRODUCT you've all been waiting for!! Yes, it's
our E-Tracker review, written by Andy Monk who's responsible for
this  month's  excellent  E-Tunes  (so  he should know what he's
talking about).









ANDY M                      E-TRACKER

Well,  what  can  I  say  about  E-Tracker? I could start off by
talking  about  the  technical  features of this wonderous music
package. But I won't, just for the beginners out there!

E-tracker  is,  when  it comes down to it, the Sam equivalent to
Soundtracker  on the Amiga. That program started off a long line
of  similar  utilites with 'Tracker' as the suffix to the title.
Could we suddenly be swarmed with tracker programs on the Sam?

Anyway, on with the review:

E-Tracker  allows  you  to  use  the SAA-1099 sound chip to it's
utmost.  All  octaves (2048 tones) can be reached. Total control
over  both  the left & right speakers. All noise frequencies and
mixing  combinations.  Literally  thousands  of  sounds  can  be
created  using the instrument editor. But it doesn't stop there,
you can overlay any instrument with what's known as an Ornament!

What do we use it for?

Well,  E-Tracker is ideally suited to games music, but of course
it  can  be  used  for  absolutely anything so, as they say, the
choice is entirely up to you.

The instruments that E-Tracker uses are made up of elements. The
maximum  number of elements is 256, but for each element you can
have   a   pitch,  noise/tone  mix,  noise  frequency,  seperate
left/right  volume  control.  After  that you can loop a certain
part  of the instrument endlessly if you wish! The only niggle I
have  about  instruments  is that you can only have a maximum of
36.

Luckily  there's  something  to  triple  the  versatility of the
instrument.  The  Ornament editor is a simplified version of the
instrument  editor.  It works that when combined with any of the
36 available instruments, it will increase or decrease the value
of the instruments pitches.

ESI  are  using  the tried and tested means of displaying music.
It's represented as something like:

C-3 4221

This would represent one channel playing a flat 'C' at octave 3.
The  4  numbers  are  Instrument, Ornament, Command, Value. Yes,
E-Tracker  uses  special commands to increase the versatility of
instruments  and  ornaments  being  played.  The digit after the
command is the value for the command. For example command 4 with
a  value  of  10 would allow that the note on that line a volume
reduction of 10. Useful for echoing sounds etc...

After  using  E-Tracker for about three weeks, I have produced a
few tunes some of which may be floating around on this Fred. See
what you think.                            (THEY'RE GREAT! - ED)

Now  after  all  that, I'm sorry to have to say that there are a
couple  of  improvements that can be made to make E-Tracker even
more amazing than it already is...



Mouse/Pointer control would've been nice,
Copying patterns/tracks could be easier,
Erm, nothing else...

Anyway,  I  was  supposed  to  compare E-Tracker with the 'Sound
Machine',  but  because 'E-Tracker' is obviously better than the
'Sound  Machine' and because there IS NO comparison, I won't. If
you  like  producing music or are into computer generated music,
or  you're  even  a fan of the old speccy stuff, I strongly urge
you  to  buy  this  for  christmas, at £29.99 it definitely is a
bargain!

My ratings are:

User-friendlyness:  88 %
Presentation     :  65 %
Lastability      :  95 %
Versatility      :  98 %
Efficiency       :  95 %

Total rating     :  92 %

Brian : So there you have it. ETracker is brill. But that's from
an  expert;  if  you  bought  ETracker  and  had had no previous
experience,  please do write and let us know what you thought of
it.  Perhaps  a  review by a complete beginner would help give a
complete picture of the package?

Finally,  here  are  some reviews  done by me. They're of Boing,
Bulgulators,   and   Revelation's   new   word   processor  "The
Secretary" (in that order).











BM                          Boing!

This  is  a  game very much in the Dizzy mould; you, as a small,
oddly shaped (green!) being must wander around a screen-flicking
environment,  collecting  objects  to  use  later on in specific
locations,  solving  puzzles  and trying to find as many jugs as
possible while you're at it.

One  major  improvement  over  the  Dizzy series is that it's no
longer  a  case  of  touch-one-baddy-and-die  because there's an
energy  bar  in  this  game.  I'll say here that I'm the sort of
person  that  usually  HATES  this  type of game; I can never be
bothered  trying  to work out what needs to be done, and usually
get  bored after a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, I can't say
"but  Boing  taught  me  the  error of my ways!" because I still
don't  like  this  sort  of game.  There's nothing fundamentally
wrong  with  the  game,  it's simply that I don't like having to
actually  THINK  about  what I'm doing too much.  I have, in the
past,  played  a fair number of these sort of games, and it must
be  said  that Boing! compares very well indeed with most others
of the genre.
BM                        Boing! ctd

The  graphics  are good, if a little "samey" throughout, but the
music is superb. It's nearly worth buying just to hear that! The
whole  program  is  strung  together nicely, though I would have
liked to have been told what the keys were by Colin when he gave
me this to review. I spent my first few games not knowing that I
could drop objects!! This might have something to do with my not
being desperately fond of the game...

If  you  do  like  Dizzy-type games, I'm confident that you will
like  this.  Bearing  in  mind the fact that I do not like these
games  at  all,  I'm  going  to  give  it  5/10.  If  you  think
differently,   though,  remember  that  you  can  send  us  YOUR
review...!






BM                        Bulgulators

A  strong  contender  for  "most  bizarre  title" award for 1992
(unless  Wop Gamma is released before January!), Bulgulators has
been eagerly awaited to say the least. A variation on the Pacman
theme,  there are numerous "twists" to the idea, such as one-way
walls  and  locked  walls  (which,  logically enough, need to be
unlocked).  There are a hundred levels to the game, which should
keep  most  people  going for a good couple of hours, along with
bonus  levels  every  so often, and thankfully, passwords to the
later levels.

This  game  plays  pretty  much  as you'd expect; it's certainly
competently  coded.  There  are  a  couple  of  problems though.
Firstly, when you change direction 180 degrees (ie from straight
up  to straight down) there's a slight delay which all too often
results  in a lost life. It's not TOO bad, but it can be a pain.
The  second  major problem is the colour scheme! Aarrgghh!! Some
of  the  mazes are truly revolting, and add to the difficulty no
end. This might be due to my colour-blindness, but I don't think
having  normal  colourvision is the problem, because I put my TV
BM                      Bulgulators ctd

on  black  and  white and it still looked vile! The walls of the
maze are very simple, just white lines 2 pixels thick, and these
do  tend to get "lost" against some of the brighter backgrounds.
Same  with  the dots, which can make for a very confusing level.
Add  in the intentional "problems" and things get very difficult
indeed!

These  painful-to-look-at  levels  don't  occur  often enough to
really  spoil  the  game,  though, and it's just a minor niggle.
Something  else  which  annoyed  me was the fact that I couldn't
guess the passwords!

You  might  be thinking that a maze game isn't the sort of thing
that  can  keep  you  playing for long, but believe me, it does.
Even  with  the odd horrible background! The difficulty level is
set  about  right;  you  can't just zoom off to level 20 on your
first  game,  but  you should be able to progress easily enough.
Overall,  I'm  giving  this  7/10. Neither graphics nor sound is
outstanding, but both are more than adequate.
BM                 The Secretary - Revelation

I've  been  waiting ages to see what this was like, and now I've
had a chance to mess around with it, I really don't know what to
think.  As far as options go, this has them in abundance.  There
are  much much more features than Outwrite has to offer, such as
line-drawing  and  box-drawing, both of which can be very useful
indeed for reports and things.

I suppose it's inevitable that this and Outwrite are going to be
compared  to eacher other; both were intended to become the best
SAM worprocessors, so for this review I'll base things on that.

The  main advantage Secretary has over Outwrite is the option to
alter  the  left/right  margins on the page. This allows a great
deal  more  versatility  as  you  can  probably imagine. You can
quickly  and  easily  alter  the ruler in terms of width and TAB
positions.

Both  this  and  new  version  of  Outwrite offer menus with the
various  selectable  options,  but  I'd say that Secretary has a
BM                     The Secretary ctd

better  user  interface  than  either  of  the Outwrites for the
simple  reason  that  you  can  use either the menus or, in many
cases, keypresses.

Both  packages  feature  built-in  help screens, which is a good
thing.

From  what  I've said so far, you might be forgiven for thinking
that  Outwrite  is  now obsolete. Sadly, you'd be wrong. For all
Secretary's  advanced  features, it suffers horribly in terms of
speed.  For example, in Secretary there's a "proper" insert mode
where  entering  a character causes the whole paragraph to shift
along.   This  works,  but  unbearably  slowly.  Even the normal
word-wrap  feature  works  much more slowly when an altered page
length  is  being  used.  This might not seem important, but for
long documents can be a hell of a nuisance.

Something  else  which could prove too much for the Secretary is
the  fact  that  all the other word processors use the same file
BM                     The Secretary ctd

format;  You can load Tasword II files easily into Outwrite, for
example.   Secretary  uses  a  slightly  different system which,
while  technically  superior,  tends  to  make  life  a bit more
difficult when swapping between programs.

If  you  haven't already got a word processor, and so won't have
these  compatibilty  problems,  then  you would probably be well
served by Secretary, especially if the presentation is something
which  is likely to be important.  I think that for FRED writing
though, I'll stick to Outwrite.

To  the marks then; 7/10.  It would have been more, but the loss
of speed really is a nuisance.






                           Next Munf


Remember, FRED29 will be out around the middle of January. The
deadline for this issue is the 30th December - so get
scribbling!

FRED29 costs £2. Orders can be accepted in advance or once it
appears, but you'd be better off with a FRED subscription - only
£20 for 12 issues, giving you an automatic saving of £4...

Remember, all the special offers detailed last month STILL
STAND, any new offers will be listed on the Newsletter.




FRED Magazine and it's contents are (c) 1992 FRED Publishing