Fred 19

Issue 19

Magazine

                         Welcome Back!!

Oh Dear! It seems like I've been away from FRED for ages - as
many of you will already know, I've been working at SAMCo again.
This time I just "popped down" for three weeks but I hardly sent
out any orders over that period and certainly didn't do any of
this issue!

  So now I'm back I'm confronted with a mountain of mail to
sort, an issue to write and an Amiga with over 150 discs to play
with...Yup, I plumped for the A***a most of the time! I have
however processed most of the orders and this issue is being put
together - from start to finish - in what must be record time!
Already it's nearly complete and I've only been on it for 12
hours! So it shouldn't be too late in going out (like FRED18 was
- sorry everybody).

  Incidentally, if you want a proper FRED18 label, then the next
time you write to me, ask for one provided I'll be writing back
(ie not with an issue about to go out) or enclose an SSAE. I'll
even try to bring a few along to the next few shows I attend.
                          FREDitorial

  I suppose you'll want to know just which shows I will be
attending? I will go to all London, Birmingham and Glasgow shows
but I can't guarantee going to any of the others because a) it's
almost impossible for me to go to two shows in one weekend - as
they all are these days and b) some locations are a nightmare to
get to by public transport!!
  This issue's editorial will be very brief for numerous reasons
which I'll explain :

1 : Certain parts of this disc take up rather a lot of memory
(look at the directory!) and so I've got to cut back on text,
having said that I've suddenly had a "flood" of letters and
reviews which take up a LOT of space!

2 : As I explained, Time is of the essence and if I want to get
this issue out only 1 week late, I'll have to finish it in the
next 18 hours!

3 : There's not very much to talk about anyway.
                              News

  Colin Jordan has been working on an Adventure Creator System
over the last few months, and so far it looks very impressive!
All I was shown was the editing facility but it covered
everything I could think it needed to as well as lots more!
Hopefully, I'll get some more technical information about it for
next month.

Did you know that there was an arcade game creator in
development? Yes?, well I bet you didn't know there were TWO!!
Yup, Dr Andy Wright is doing one and Glen Cook is doing the
other! I can't comment on Andy's at all but Glen's is amazing!
In his demo he has almost 20 independant sprites, almost every
type of movement you require and it's all run from BASIC! He
uses m/c routines called from BASIC so that it runs almost like
a 100% m/c program but can be programmed using BASIC, along with
a few extra commands! He will be releasing it himself under the
label , Glenco for about £24.99. The demo will appear in issue 2
of the SAM Newsdisk. Andy's will not be ready for a few months
yet and erm...that's all I know about it!
                          FREDsoft...

Thanks to everyone who's suggested games for FRED to do, I'll
get the ones that are being done at present out of the way then
move on to some of those.
  You'll all be pleased to know that "Triltex - The Later
Levels" is getting near it's release date. I still expect it
to be released by the end of February but I'm having a few
difficulties in aquiring suitable packaging.
  I still havn't decided whether it'll go into the shops or
whether SAMCo will stock it, but it'll most definately be
available through me! For an extra 25 levels as well as a new
logo (where the spinning one is at present), all you've got to
pay is £4.99. The Later Levels will be a complete product - with
packaging, inlay, instructions and of course, the disc !!

WILL I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL GAME ?

Yes, what you'll do is load up the original Triltex, then type
a in certain password, insert the Later Levels disc and your
levels (with new logo!!!!) will be loaded up and run !!
                          FREDsoft...

Remember folks, Triltex was one of the games on the double pack
called Impatience - you mean you don't have it? That won't do!
I'll tell you what, for just £13, I'll sell you Impatience AND
The Later Levels disc! That's a saving of almost £2! (or 13% if
you're mathematically minded!)
  Remember though, if you do buy more levels for Triltex (or if
you buy the original) you will not have time to play any other
games! One user approached me in Glasgow and complained about
Impatience - "I haven't been able to get near the computer in
three weeks because the wife has been playing Triltex". Either
be (very) prepared to face the tiles of Triltex or stay WELL
clear....
                             Prices
                             ======
             Impatience                   -  £9.99
             The Later Levels             -  £4.99
             Impatience & Later Levels    -  £13

Orders for The Later Levels are now being taken.
          Misc. ('coz I can't spell the whole word...)

As I probably mentioned last month, ZAT magazine no longer
operates from the PO Box number they previously used. If you
wish to contact them, here is the new address : [redacted]

BG Services have released their CP/M emulator, Pro-DOS. For more
details, read SAMCo's Newsdisk !!!!

Contact, PD library and publishers of a monthly newsletter will
officially cease trading as of 1st April 1992. With them and
Fastline "gone", it leaves a gap in the PDL market. Suggestions
have been made that FRED should fill that gap - is it a good
idea or not???

Although there has been a great response to my last enquiry, I
am still looking for opinions as to whether the price of FRED
should be increased to £2 thus allowing me to pay contributors
for anything included on FRED - what do you think ??

                   The PBS is now available!

As many of you will have seen from their attendance at the
previous two All Formats Fairs, Hilton Computer Services have
released their long awaited "Personal Banking System". In
another recent press release, they listed some of it's features:

* Automatic posting of standing orders and direct debits for any
frequency and for a set number of payments.

* Extensive, flexible enquiries eg how mich have you paid to the
supermarket each month or how much to run your car.

* Forward projections to enable you to plan how much money you
have left to live on ....

The list goes on for a bit, so for more details (as well as
details of a Casino program they have planned)  write to Hilton
at : 3 Suffolk Drive , Guildford , Surrey , GU4 7FD.

Or get your copy (with a 75 page manual!) for only £19.95.
                        Another Compo ??

Yup, methinks it's time for another FRED "megacompo" - although
this time I'll make it slightly easier than having to complete
Triltex!
  Oh! Here comes Colin Jordan, programmer of Famous Five, Splat
and the Adventure Creator , "Hello Freditor" he says in a
grovelling kind of voice, "erm...you know how I composed the
music for Splat - the music that all the reviews are raving
about?" he continued in a big-headed sort of way. "Well, I
believe that FRED is the best magazine ever and I'd like to give
some lucky FRED reader some wonderful one-off treasures of
Splat".
  Erm, he didn't actually say that but what he did say was that
he is willing to GIVE away the ORIGINAL Splat soundtrack on
audio cassette that he himself composed AS WELL AS the entire
map (signed by Mr Jordan himself!) of the first seven levels
from the original game that he used to re-program the SAM
version!
  This is a totally unique prize - there is only one of each of
these items in existance, and they could be yours!!!!
                      How do I enter then?

Hah! We don't want any non-Splat players winning a prize of this
value do we? Anyway, the lucky people who bought Splat will know
how good the soundtrack is.

Throughout the game, there are several names or words that are
spelt within the landscape eg SPLAT on scenario 2. All you've
got to do, to get a chance to win one of these superb prizes is
find another word or name, write to me saying what it is and
which landscape / level it's on. Obviously the word SPLAT
doesn't count. What could be easier???

Answers should arrive on a seperate piece of paper at the usual
FRED address by Saturday the 14th of March. The lucky winner(s)
will be pulled out of a hat.

If that's not a good enough incentive to go out out buy Splat
then I don't know what is. PS : There's no prizes for spotting
the pun in the last sentance!

                    Morks Puzzle Corner no.3

I'm  sure your hair has grown in since last months puzzles. This
months will be worse (er... better). But first, the answers.

Answer  to  (1)  Not  really  much  of a puzzle, more of a maths
exercise.  The answer is 1995, luckily the Tibettin monks got it
wrong  (  you  know what these Tibettin monks are like, you just
can't believe a word they say! ).

Answer to (2) A kickself puzzle. The answer is that there are no
R's in "that"!

Answer  (3) You would expect the answer to be 1, as in 3 1 4 1 5
1 6 1 7 1  etc.  But  thats  the most obvious answer. The second
most  obvious  answer is 9. The clue was in the wording "as easy
as pie". As you'll no doubt know the greek letter PI is equal to
3.14159, so there you go!

Answer (4) Simple, the long length of material is a loop. If you
cut through it you still have one piece left!
                    Morks Puzzle Corner no.3

So how long is a piece of string? Yes,the question is aswerable.
The piece of string is twice the length of the middle to one end

Wipe  away  those  tears  and  attempt  this  next bunch of mind
benders. Warning - Not for those with a nervous disposition!

(1)  There  is  one word on this page that is spelt incorrectly,
can you find it?

(2) You can't choose your relatives...
If  the  only  sister  of your mother's only brother has an only
child, what would be your relationship to that child?

(3) Don't try this one at home kids!
A  man  standing on a railway line hears a train coming. He runs
for  safety  as  quickly  as possible. However, he first runs 10
meters along the track towards the oncoming train before getting
off  the  line.  If  he doesn't have a deathwish why would he do
this?
                    Morks Puzzle Corner no.3

(4)  Write  done  a word that reads the same forwards, backwards
and ( wait for it... ) upside down.

(5)   Can   you   find  anything  unusual  about  the  following
scentences?

        "A man a plan, a canal - Panama."
        "No misses ordered roses, Simon"
        "Was it a car or a cat I saw?"
        "Pull up if I pull up"
        "Madam, I'm Adam"

(6) A degree in Mathematics might be useful here.
Using  just one plus sign and a fraction, make six 1's add up to
12.

(7) More maths...
How  much  earth  is  there  in a freshly dug hole that is 34cms
deep, 24cms wide and 52cms long?
                    Morks Puzzle Corner no.3

This  months  classic puzzle is; how far can a rabbit run into a
wood?


Thats  it for another month. Next month I might consider delving
into  my  own  pocket  to  put  up money for a prize puzzle, and
believe me it takes a lot of effort for me to part with my green
stuff! Nanoo nanoo. Mork signing out...

CM : Hah! I figured out TWO this month! That's two more than
last month anyway!! For those who were sleeping last month, Mork
is the new name for William McGugan - so now I don't want to
hear his name mentioned again, just Mork!!!!

Just while I remember, someone suggested that my (CM) "codename"
should be Taggart... I can't figure out why??? But what does
everyone think? If you like it, say hello to Taggart in your
next scrolly / program. And if you don't - then you can be just
as boring as everyone else and call me Colin !!!!!
                        OK, here it is.

Now, I know without a single doubt in my head that as soon as
each one of you heard I was back at SAMCo, you thought "Great -
What are they going to do to him when he leaves this time!". In
great Welsh tradition, they managed to give me a sending off
present which I'm sure you'd all like to hear about - sadly, I
don't want to give those people at SAMCo the satisfaction of
reading about what they did to me.

Instead, I'll tell you that Batz n' Balls is nearing completion
and if you thought that Arkanoid was hard, wait till you play
this - your bat has inertia, the ball has a parabolic flight,
there are 150 levels AND I CAN'T DO LEVEL 3!! Apparently it's
pretty brilliant with the mouse as well.

Bowin And The Count Dracula has been delayed because people like
my good self and Codigo in Spain thought it was rather poor
(there, did it without swearing!). So, the programmer (who
happens to be Portugese!) is re-writing most of it! Further
details will probably appear in the next Newsdisk.
                      The Swansea Report

  It's not working is it? You all want to hear about my last few
days and I'm trying to make you forget it by telling you all
about SAMCo's forthcoming products. Oh well, here goes....

  It all started on my second last day (Thursday), when a few of
us happened to go out for a drink at the Hilton Hotel, all was
fine until we left. I was somehow seperated from the others and
as I walked toward SAMCo, a SAMCo worker drove past and waved
goodbye in an unusually friendly fashion.

Next thing I noticed was the car slammed on the brakes and three
guys jumped out and started running straight at me!! Naturally,
I ran as fast and far as I could right around the Hilton! And
then I was chased all the way back again! By this point I was,
to put it mildy, totally knackered, so I gave up. All three
ex-friends then walked straight past me and back into the car -
which was ever so slightly frustrating!!


                       The Swansea Report

  The next day was the one I was not looking forward to. Until
lunchtime everything was fine - people were only making snide
jokes about it, naturally making sure I heard them - the sort of
thing that had me jumping everytime someone walked into the
room. After lunch I felt considerably better and actually
managed to do some work! Adrian Parker was to be taking over
part of my job once I left so it was no surprise for him to
requst a meeting with me in the shop (it was usually quiet).
After making sure he went down the stairs first and peering
round every corner until I was sure no-one was lying in wait for
me, we eventually reached the shop. As you may remember from
last time, it was in the shop that I was "caught" before so this
time I made sure it was safe. After I checked that the door was
unlocked (for a quick getaway) and that there was no-one in
sight except Adrian I made the mistake of saying "Phew! Last
time I was in here I was jumped!". Just at the last word, I felt
an arm round my neck, I slammed myself backwards with the effect
of felling both myself and my assailant (funnily enough it was
Chris White again!). Just then I figured out what had happened -
                       The Swansea Report

he had been hiding in the toilet waiting for me! The next thing
I knew was SIX guys jumped in and somehow managed to pin me down
- by some sheer fluke , of course, normally I would have just
got up and walked away! It turned out that there had been FOUR
people hiding in the toilet for me!! And as bogs go, it's pretty
small (no, I wasn't going to say "wee" instead of small!). Now,
I'm sure your all familiar with the big sacks the post office
use? Yes?, well I was given the unique oppertunity of examing
one - from the inside. One over my head down to my waist and
another over my legs which was tied to the first one.
  Result : I could hardly move a muscle!

  At this point, I began to wonder if SAMCo have some peculiar
fascination with car parks. It's strange y'know, there I was, I
could barely move or see and yet I was carried off right into
the middle of the car park. Eventually after much wriggling and
struggling I managed to stand up, as soon as I achieved this, I
was promptly carried off and dumped in an empty bin (you know
the ones of wheels that are about 6 feet tall). Normally, this
                       The Swansea Report

situation would be amusing - hilarious even, except I was in the
bag which was in the bin. And that was not amusing. However,
everyone who looked on as I feebly struggled to get out thought
it was brilliant.

As compensation, I was bought a few drinks over at the Hilton
later that day. My last drink was a coke and someone had the
good idea that everyone should down their coke "in one". Not one
to turn down something like that, I complied only to discover
that it was not Coke, it was not even Coke with a dash of Vodka
- it was Bicardi with a dash of Coke !!! No wonder I slept for
most of the 17 hour jouney back home !

I would like to recommend that anyone else who goes down to
Swansea either doesn't leave, or leaves at VERY short notice...

I would also like to recommend that no-one from SAMCo ever comes
up to Scotland - if they want to get back to Wales alive!

              We've got such a packed disc today

At time of writing I can predict that there will not be many
screens due to lack of memory but I'm sure the rest of the issue
will make up for that...

The Masters Of Magic are back! With what must be one of the best
demos around, they show you what they can do with their first
expedition into machine code. And if you thought ESI's message
when you press and hold the reset button was good, try this one!


Some lucky FRED reader recently phoned up and left a message
requesting a spreadsheet on FRED, no sooner said than done!!
Steve Taylor actually wrote this months ago as he explains in
his many,many rem statements but only recently rediscovered it
and decided to get it put in FRED.

Oh no! Not another musical demo! Yes, And I know you all love
them! This one is a FRED demo so all you other disc zines that
want to fill up space can use this one if you like. It features
                   Le Contents pour la disc !

original music, a palette line scrolly, an animated bloke at the
top of the screen as well as a VU graph!!
  Remember SAM Jotter by Mork? Now, Eugene Russel has come up
with a few changes and transformed it into a fully fledged word
processor!

Ian Slavin returns with his comical "Psycho Dizzy" in which you
can briefly follow the exploits of Dizzy and the Yolk Folk.
  Several people have been sending in music done using the Sound
Machine, Ian Slavin sent in no less than five brilliant pieces
all with pictures! Due to memory restrictions, here's just two
of them but I think you'll agree they're pretty impressive!

The scrollies have been building up lately, so "Super Scrollies"
comes to the rescue and lets you play with various scrollers by
Xtreme , Banzai and Phantom.

This months menu was by Ian Slavin - by the way, I'm running
very short on menus (ie that was my last one!)
                           Ordering

When placing an order, please send all orders to FRED at the
usual address. If you have a contribution or letter then address
it to me, Colin Macdonald. This way, if I go away for a while, I
can get someone to sort out the orders without worrying about
them reading my personal mail. Incidentally, cheques can be made
payable to FRED or Colin Macdonald. I'm trying to get an account
which can pay in cheques to FRED Publishing and let me take
standing orders but you'll have to wait for those.

Each issue of FRED costs £1.50, all back issues are available
and are normally all in stock. Issues 1 & 2 now come on one disc
and Issue 11 takes up two discs (ie £1.50 for each disc).

£15 for 12 issues - applies to back issues as well as subs.
£8 for 6 issues - also applies to FREDs past and future!

All orders despatched first class (as they always have been) and
some 90% of orders are despatched the same day (with exception
to overseas customers).
                 Desperately seeking EVERYONE!

  FRED is still on the lookout for anyone who has a little bit
of talent hidden away inside them - I mean, look at the number
of people that wouldn't be known to you today if FRED hadn't
been around!! Quite a few names spring to mind!

  Anyway, if you've done a few snazzy pictures in your time or
reckon you've got potential as a musician because your Sound
Machine music is just soooo good then get in touch - I could
make you some money as well!

  Naturally, I'm still interested in original game ideas (eg
Lemmings 3 perchance) which FRED could publish so get writing!

  Regarding magazine contributions - if you've done anything
that you reckon someone else would like then send it in to me,
if I feel the same way I'll stick it on FRED. NB : As I don't
make any of the folding stuff out of this magazine, neither will
you but commercial publishing is a whole new ball game...

                            Credits

I would like to thank the following people :

Neil Holmes - demo                  Stuart Leonardi   - demo
Wizard      - FREDsheet & m/c13     The DVB           - demo
E. Russell  - SAMJotter,Disc Doc    Xtreme            - scrolly
Ian Slavin  - music,menu & demo     Banzai            - scrolly
Colin Jordan- compo                 Phantom           - scrolly
Mork        - puzzle page           CID               - piccy
Andy Jones  - reviews               Roger Hartley     - reviews
Matt D      - reviews               Alan Miles        - a job!
Paul J.     - putting me up         Charley G.        - the w.p.
Markey Mark - NOTHING               Uncle Bruce       - SAM  !
Adrian P.   - the lifts             Louise            - ???

FRED20 will be out the first week in March, priced at the usual
£1.50. The address is on the back of the label and if you don't
have a label then STOP PIRATING SOFTWARE AND BUY IT !!

Letters & Reviews

                       Letters / Reviews

Welcome to the letters and reviews section which is still a
seperate item on the menu for no reason at all but every other
disc magazine splits it's text into dozens of little pieces
which gets very irritating, so if other magazines irritate me,
why can't I do the same???

OK, after that drivel, here's the contents :


Page 2  : Howard Price
     6  : Matt. D.
     8  : Terry Filby
     10 : Hexagonia review by Andy Jones
     12 : Sound Machine review by Andy Jones
     17 : Splat review by Matt D.
     19 : Hexagonia review by Matt D.
     21 : Sound Machine review by Roger Hartley
     30 : The End.

                        Howard Price (1)

Dear Colin,
          Just a shortish note (which wasted me a whole disc) to
clear up a couple of loose ends which have built up.
        First,  Dan  Doore's  whatsit about scrollers. Yup, he's
absolutely correct, and there isn't much more to say that except
sorry if you're a bit miffed at me saying that, all those months
ago...

     Second, the price raise. I would certainly like to see more
M/C  stuff  in Fred, as it seems that the "in" disc mag in Brent
Steven's mind is Enceladus, and he's comparing the two together.
That's why he gave Fred 7 an award, but the more recent and more
promising  issues  like Fred 15, good. So by all means raise the
price and pay the contributors, 'cos you'll be giving less
competant programmers, like myself, the urge to try and become a
Simon  Cooke (talented git) or a Lord Insanity (ditto). The more
competent coders can get samplers, sequencers etc with their new
dough  and  at the very least feel they're getting something out
of spreading their stuff.
                        Howard Price (2)

        Third,  just  a  little  point,  but one which an Outlet
contributor  might get very annoyed about. In Fred 18, there was
a  (good)  piccy which says it's by me. IT'S NOT. I only used it
as  material for showing off my (naff) slideshow proggie. So now
no-one can accuse me of ripping off that...
        Oh  yeah,  my  choice  for the next game for Fredsoft to
convert.  Do  Sonic  the  Hedgehog. If anyone disagrees with me,
(ie If  it's done there will be mass murder) send a letter bomb,
and, after it's blown my hair back, I'll consider its potential.

    ....For blowing up Simon Cooke, that is. What a great menu!!
I  really love it (do some more) but now I have decided to lynch
him...(Now maybe he can give some others a chance!!)

       And next.. this really ought to go in a PS but the reason
which lots of people think Fred still costs £1 is 'cos you
advertise  it  in  Format for  a  quid!!  I  wonder how much you
could've  lost  from  sending  people  discs  for 100 tiny pence
instead of the now usual price...
                        Howard Price (3)

      Right, a idea for a game. You also said somewhere that you
would  like  ideas  for  new  games.  Howsabout an intergalactic
trader,  maybe  a  bit like Awesome, a bit like Trader (that old
speccy  game),  with  bits in it like Space Harrier or Shadow of
the  beast??!!  Yes,  I know it'd be really good, really hard to
program, play, would take years to code etc... Anyway, I'd do it
for you if only I could code in M/C..(my SC_Assy is still bust.)
        And  onto  his final bit (at last!). Yes. Ah.. The Sound
Machine. What does it actually do? I was contemplating buying it
at the Jan 18 All Formats, but I was a bit unsure if the product
was  a  music program that saved a Frantisek Fuka type code bit,
or  a  strange  code  file with bits all over the place. Can you
please tell me what is happening?!

    And finally, that's it.

        Yours Faithfully,

                    Howard Price
                     Reply to Howard Price

  To start with, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with you
regarding the SCPDSA, because of this and their poor service, I
have decided not to allow any FRED discs from FRED18 onwards
into the SCPDSA catalogue until the service improves.
  Almost everyone has recommended that I raise the price to £2
and start paying contributors, however, I'll have to wait a few
months until I stop getting people thinking that it's still £1!
Incidentally, the Format advert has now been changed to a rather
snazzy advert with the new price etc on it. And who do I have to
thank for that? The generous Mick Steele, that's who! He kindly
did two adverts for FRED (because he thought the existing ones
were pathetic!), so if you see another professional ad floating
about in other paper based zines, you'll know who did it. Thanks
again Mick!
  Thanks for the game suggestions, they will all be considered,
and hopefully some of them will be done! As to Sonic - you've no
chance! Forgetting the HUGE licence for a mo, the amount of
scrolling involved is phenomenal and the coupe is rather poor at
doing large amounts of scrolling. Thanks anyway.
                           Matt D (1)
Dear Colin,

 Firstly  I would like  to congratulate  you on  ish 18 of  Fred
which I felt was the  best yet. The reason I'm writng to  you is
that I  would like to know  if Holland is some  sort of computer
programmer factory. I  say this because even though  Holland has
only a  fraction of the number  of SAM's of Britain  it seems to
have all the top machine code programmers. Yes  I know there are
people like Cookie and The Wizard but look at Holland, they have
LORD INSANITY, EDWIN BLINK,  BUTTERFLY ,THE DVB and TOON  that I
know of and all of there work is prety amazing. Or is it that us
British are too  thick to  understand machine code  or just  too
embaressed to send are programs off to P.D. libraries, I'd  like
to know what  you think of this.
  Anyway changing the subject I think charging £2.00 so that you
can pay program contributers for there work is a great idea and
I think it will make the quality of Fred even better. Would this
mean that Fred would no longer be public domain though? Not that
it would make much difference though. Could I also just say how
p****d off I am about the SINCLAIR magazines though as I think
                           Matt D (2)
they are taking the coupe owners for a ride. Your Sinclair is
meant to have a SAM page yet leaves it out regularly as is the
case with Sinclair User. The only loyal SAM supporter is Crash
and from now on that is the only mag I am going to buy unless
things change. Couldn't they make a SAM only mag but only for
subbers as I'm sure every SAM ownere would subscribe and money
wouldn't be wasted puting it in the shop.Any that all I've got
time for cos me dinners ready.
                                 MATT "THE HOOK" D
Dear Matt,
          You're write about the foreign programmers, although
it is true of every computer - on my Amiga (spit!), 90% of the
demos are foreign. I think it's because the British are greedier
and expect to get paid for any work they do. (FRED must be the
exception to the rule!)
  Crash has been a loyal SAM supporter, but, staring into my
crystal ball, I can tell you that the SAM coverage in the 3
Speccy mags will pick up dramatically very soon....
  For a magazine to go on the newstands, it has to sell a
minimum of about 40,000 - and there's only 9,000 SAM owners !!
                        Terry Filby (1)
Dear Colin,
         As you said in the last FRED that you hadn't had many
letters,   I've   decided  to  send  my first missive (on disk),
that'll teach you!

         I always find FRED very enjoyable, even though I'm not
really  turned  on  by  games apart from Adventures. I also like
Demo's  and  Music (classical!) and the more serious side of the
Sam.  I have recently received Pro-Dos, and, in my opinion, it's
the best thing, so far, that has happened, software-wise, to the
welsh wonder!

Apart  from  the fact, that, at a stroke (of the Boot Disk), you
have  accesss  to  thousands of PD progs of all kinds, including
games,  you also have CP\M on the Coupe, something, that, when I
bought  it,  I  hadn't considered. I have used CP\M + on various
machines  over  the  years,  so, when I heard Pro-Dos was coming
out,  I  couldn't  wait  to  get  it,  and  now I have, I really
believe,  that whatever your interests, if you have a Sam Coupe,
you must have Pro-Dos!
                        Terry Filby (2)

Apart from Utilities, on the £1 PD Disk, available with Pro-Dos,
are:   Colossal   Cave   Adventure,  Island  Adventure,  Othello
(Reversi), Quatris (like Tetris) and Startrek. Get it!!!

The new Sam Newsdisk, is also, in it's own way, a winner. I hope
it does evolve to being a mag on the newstands!

Keep up the good work,
                       Terry Filby

Dear Terry,
            Thanks for writing and I'm glad that you like FRED.
Although I haven't seen Pro-DOS yet, I'm looking forward to it
even more now (unless you've been paid a fiver for complimenting
it so much!).

The SAM Newsdisk does seem to have gone down rather well,
although it may expand rapidly, I doubt if we'll see it on the
newstands for some time.
                   HEXAGONIA-REVELATION-£9.99            Andy J.

 The idea of Hexagonia if you don't already know is to join the
atoms around the screen up and form a molecule.
 So far the only elements I've seen used are Carbon,Hydrogen and
Oxygen,but even with just these three elemnts the amount of
coumpounds you could make is endless.
 Now with this edition,on level three you have to form benzene
and on level six you have to form methylbenzene.Now I'm afraid
its time for a little History/Chemistry lesson.
 Now I'll try not to bore those of you that know very little
about chemistry,but in Hexagonia they use the misleading 6
carbon ring with alternate single/double bonds.
 This structure was sujested by Kekule in 1865,and was used
until the 1970's when it was discovered that this idea was
misleading.
 You may say that I'm nit picking,but I just thought I'd inform
you,about modern thinking.
 The graphics within the game are quite large & bold,and the
music is quite excellent,but what do you expect from Frantisek

                   HEXAGONIA-REVELATION-£9.99            Andy J.

Fuka,its nearly as good,if not equal to the music he did for
Triltex!
 What about the actual gameplay? Well to move the atoms about
you have to click on to one by prssing fire,and then push/pull
on your joystick the way you want your atom to go.
 To make things more interesting the atoms move in the direction
you pointed them in until the reach a wall etc.
 On the screen there are the walls,bouncey walls which the atoms
hit and rebound to where ever they came from,destructable walls
which,you can only hit a few times before the disappear leaving
an space and invisible walls which stop the atoms half way along
the screen etc.
 Now I'm afraid to say that I don't really like this game very
much apart from the music,some of you may like it,but despite
what Nick Roberts thinks I have to say I prefer Triltex.
 Though I have to agree that there is room for both in your
software collection if you mainly like puzzle games.

 Overall I think 'll give Hexagonia 68%
              THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99        Andy J.

 The Sound Machine is a utility written for the SAM Coupe,to
allow you to write and compose you own music.
 When you boot up you a presented with a screen showing SAM
playing one of those keyboard/guitar things.

 On the top left of the screen is an arrow,use your mouse or the
keyboard to click on to the arrow.You are then presented with
three little pictures,on showing a musical note for the music
editor,one showing a waveform for the waveform editor and the
other showing "Q" for quit.

 I feel that instead of all this,upon loading you go straight
into the music editor and then as a option within the music
editor,go into the waveform editor.To have them as one complete
program not two seperate programs.
 Upon choosing an option the required program is loaded into
memory.After loading you are presented with a screen,on both the
music editor & waveform editor,with all the usual options for
disc use i.e. Save,Load & Dir etc..
              THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99        Andy J.

 One annoying thing about this part of the program is if you
choose an option,say changing from drive 1 to drive 2,when using
mouse,you have to press a key after this has been done.
 Now for those,like me,who prefer total mouse control other than
giving file names for loading etc.,I find this a little annoying
why couldn't the author allowed a click on one of the mouse
buttons as Triltex does?

 To enter into the actual program you have chosen you have to
click on to another of those damned arrows on the top left hand
part of the screen.
 The actual music editor allows all the features that you should
require for making music,like copying a block etc.

 The actual way in which you write the music is quite good,its
on a grid,not a stave,showing all the notes in order,includind
sharp & flat notes.Not like "real" music where you have a "B"
flat on the same line as a "B" natural but with a funny sign in
front of it.
              THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99        Andy J.

 There is just one thing that I find annoying with the options
in the music editorthat is to scroll along you master piece to
add notes to the end etc.,you have to do it one half note at a
time,I feel it would be better to also offer the option of
scrolling a bar at a time,as well.
 The music is presented three bars at a time.

 There is not much to expalin about the waveform editor only
that you can play about with the waveform and freqency of a
note.The editor allows you to create 10 waveforms at once as
this is the number of waveforms you can use with the sound
editor,more than enough for most people,I should think.
 The manual is well written by Alan Miles.
 About half of the manual covers music theory,like reading
"convential" music of a stave.To me this was of no real use at
all as I can already read music,but to the beginner it is
important.I don't know if this is the same with everbody's
manual but mine wasn't even stapled,so it easily falls
apart,come on SAMCo what are you playing at?
              THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99        Andy J.

 At the end of the manual is section for programers,showing you
how to use the music within your own programs.
 So far I've only writtern one piece of music and thats Star
Wars.

 I feel that I have to congratulate the author Paul Angel in
programming such an excellent piece of software.It's just what I
think a lot of people have been waiting for.

 I also have to congratulate SAMCo for releasing it at such a
small price when then they could have easily sold it for £30 or
more.

 To think now you can produce you own music,make your demos to
stun the socks of any Amiga owning (ex)friends (Colin) who claim
that their beloved machine has the best music around.

 You could even flog your master pieces to Colin to be included
in future software releases.
              THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99        Andy J.

 On the disc are a few demo for you to listern to,now if you use
a Disc Doc on your disc,I recommed the Directory Manager on FRED
17,you sould find two files called Demo 1 and Demo 2 have been
erased,tell the program that they are code files,and it will
unerase them for you,and there you are two new demo to listern
to.The reason I recommed Directory Manager,is because my 007
Disc Doc said that the erased files were 128k Snaps.

 This is a crucial piece of software if you want to produce your
own music,and even if you don't!
 I recommeded it strongly to anyone and everyone.
 Especially any budding Mozart or even Frantisek Fukas!

 The Souud Machine is available for £14.99 form SAMCo at their
usual address.

 If this was a game I would have award it well over 90%!


MD                        Splat Review

  This is  the first of  Revelation's "CLASSIC"  range and costs
£7.99 which  I  believe is  £2.00  cheaper than  was  originally
planed. The  idea of the game is  to guide the hero  of the game
called "ZIPPY"  around a  forever moving  maze without  crashing
into walls and spikes or drowning yourself in water.You can gain
yourself points  by eating grass  or plums and also  some of the
coloured  background gives  you points as well. The  first thing
that  struck me when I  recieved Splat was  the apparent lack of
instructions  and this  was because they  were contained in  the
program (a good way  of saving money I suppose).

The second was there is no title music to great you upon loading
the game and considering the amount of K left over I don't think
this is much to ask. On starting the actual game from a choice
of three scenarios the screen scrolls to the start and the music
begins.Now I might be being picky but I think the graphics could
be improved a lot, after all the reason most people bought a SAM
is for better graphics and sound. There is no animation of the
main charater or anything else for that matter at all and it
                          Splat Review

makes the game look very budgety. The music is fairly good but
by no means as good as some that I have heard on the SAM.
Gameplay I feel is more suited to a younger player as the only
real objective is to keep yourself at a certain part of the
screen until you have lasted long enough. The sampled "YIPEEE"
on the completion of a level goes some way to enhance the game
but otherwise this isn't that much better than the spectrum
original which you could get for under two quid now. Overall if
you had the choice between this and Impatience I'd go for
Impatience every time. Sorry Revelation.

GRAPHICS     40%                   SOUND      70%
PLAYABILITY  60%                   VALUE      60%
OVERALL      55%
                                   Reviewed by Matt "The HOOK" D

CM - Remember though, that getting someone to write the music is
expensive. Anyway I'm pleased to hear that you liked Impatience
- but are you man enough to try the "Later Levels"???
MD                      Hexagonia Review

 This game  is brought to you by REVELATION for £9.99   and  has
come from Frank Fukas programming team in C'lovakia. The idea of
this game is to move atoms into the correct position as shown on
an information screen which can  be viewed by  pressing "I". The
problem is once you start a molecule moving, it won't stop until
it hits somthing. This could be the  barrier,another molecule or
one of the special features like rebounding blocks or  invisible
blocks.

The graphics are clear and well drawn but I feel some
backgrounds could of been added to liven it up a bit. The music
on the title screen is very good but during the actual game
there is no music and few sound effects. There are two levels of
difficulty to select from before you load the main program for
the novice and the expert (and when it says expert,it means it!)
When you have completed a level you are given a password so that
you can come straight to that part when come to play again.
Overall this game is fairly good but as with most of the other

                        Hexagonia Review


games you can get on the SAM you feel it could have been a lot
better with a bit of polishing.

GRAPHICS      70%                  SOUND     80%
PLAYABILITY   85%                  VALUE     80%
OVERALL       80%



REVIEWED BY MATT "THE HOOK" D








Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

   I'd been waiting ages for something like this to come along,
so imagine my excitement when I saw SAMCO were selling a music
prog for a mere £14.99. I must admit that this is the first time
I have ever used a music prog, and I never took any notice
before so I'm not really well equipped to review something like
this. I'll do my best!
   Anyway, when this popped through my letterbox (figure of
speech, the postman had to knock on the door because it wouldn't
fit) I was eager to have a good look. The first thing you notice
is the packaging - it's different! It was in a very large box
with a very thick (if slightly cheap looking) manual and on two
discs. I was slightly disappointed to see that one of these
discs was a blank for your own compositions, but there you go.
   The manual itself is very well written, but as I said, it
does look a little cheap. It isn't glossy as I have come to
expect, and looks like it has been produced on a SAM. It tells
you everything you need to know about The Sound Machine, and
tells you a little about music. Don't be put off, it is only a
little, and won't bore you to death. It also shows you how to
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

use your music in your own programs, but ideally you will need a
music driver as copyright prevents you from using the one from
the disc.
   On loading you are presented with a pic similar to the one on
the box; SAM playing an instrument which can not be described!
You select whether you want to load the music editor or the
waveform generator. This is all windows (not quite WIMP, but
very similar) and although I haven't got a mouse (yet!) it
supposedly can be used. If you haven't got a mouse you'll have
to settle for keys Q,A,O,P and M, which most people will find
very comfortable anyway.
   Presentation is similar on both programs, and is very nice.
Both are very simple to use, and very similar in appearance,
especially on the "file handling" screen. They also both come
with small demos on the disc. The music editor has a few tunes
to be loaded, and there are some waveforms for the generator.
Neither are really stunning, but just seem there to show you the
use of the programs. I still find this very useful though, as I
have little or no musical talent!
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

   Right, so what can you actually do with the thing? Plenty!
The music editor is excellently laid out, with everything you
could expect a music editor to have. You have complete control
of all six channels, ie whether you want tone, noise or both on
them, what waveforms (more on this later) you want them to use
etc. You can play the music from wherever you want in the piece,
state which channels you want to use (may be good to see which
channel has a wrong note on it somewhere) copy block, cut block,
erase block (be careful!), erase channel, erase all channels (be
VERY careful!), alter tempo, insert rest, delete note and much
more. 'What's all this block business?' I hear you ask. Well,
you have two markers, and this is extremely useful for when you
want to repeat part of a track. You set the first start marker,
then move along to select the end marker. With a single click,
all the notes in that block will be duplicated wherever you want
to put them. This will copy everything in the block, on all
channels. For a single channel, you can use a macro. This will
store everything on one channel in a definable area and again,
you can put it wherever you want. These are easily recalled, and
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

can also be saved to disc (want that drum beat for your new
piece? No problem!)
   The system for writing your stuff in the first place is
ingenius. At the side of the screen is a keyboard, about half a
screen high. Next to this is your editing area. On here you put
your notes, and the computer plays them as you enter them. It
plays all channels that are on that spot, so you'll know
instantly if something just won't sound right. To go down
further just alter the octave you are playing on. At the bottom
of the screen is a much larger keyboard, and an indicator shows
the octave on this larger keyboard. This prevents a lot of
confusion. The main controls (now I'M confusing everyone!) are
like those on a tape deck; fast forward, rewind, play, stop and
pause. Great idea in my opinion. As you fastforward or rewind
the music scrolls along rapidly, and the pointer moves straight
to stop, so there's no hassle there.
   It's when you actually play your piece that you see where
this program has been worked on. Some volume indicators (similar
to those on FRED 18 menu) show how loud each channel is playing,
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

and all the notes show on the keyboard at the bottom. You can
stop the music at any point, make it loop round continuously,
make it play then let certain channels only play continuously or
whatever. You can even play portions of the track backwards!
   Some of you will no doubt want to know a little about the
storage, so I'll say A LITTLE. You can store up to eight macros
at one time, ten different waveforms, a HUGE piece of music can
be written (taking up well over 40K!), 4/4 or 3/4 time displays
can be selected and you can even use the computer keyboard as a
real time keyboard! Nice one.
   I think this program as a stand alone program, especially for
such a price is excellent. However, the waveforms are preset to
practically Spectrum BEEP levels! To give your music real
feeling, you will have to go onto the other program on the disc;
the waveform generator. There is no need to reset for this, as
you simply select quit on the file handling menu, and this will
take you back to the main menu where you can select the waveform
generator.
   Some of you will know exactly what this one is for. Have you
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

noticed on music demos they use totally different sounds? Now
you too can create your own. There are two main features of this
for designing your own sounds. The first is the amplitude
envelope. This is very straight forward, and has various presets
for you to try out. You work on the "attack and decay" idea
here. For example, a drum is a sound which is at first loud,
(attack) and then fades (decays) very quickly. Some sounds are
near constant, for which you can keep the amplitude envelope at
one volume. The other is the "frequency envelope", and is
extremely useful. Real instruments are not 'pure' frequencies
like a computer is. The sound will fluctuate slightly at least,
and that is what this is for. You may have noticed some music
demos have a strange 'wobbly' sound to them, and this is an
effect easily created with the frequency generator. The idea is
this: There is a box in about the middle of the screen, with a
number of sliding switches at the side of it. In the box is a
line going horizontally straight through, at a point simply
labelled "0". You can move these switches, and part of the line
will also move. By varying how the switches are positioned
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

(there are LOADS of possible combinations) you can vary the
shape of the sound.
   Once your sound is designed, you can play an octave in this
sound at differing speeds. This allows you to see exactly how
good this will sound, and can be played at any octave. If this
is not good enough for you, you can also play a single note, and
vary the pitch too. You can even decide within this program to
play noise, tone or both with all these options; extremely
useful to cut down on swapping. That is, you will not need to
return to the music editor simply to hear how it will sound with
noise at a high frequency, it is all catered for in the waveform
editor too.
   I could go on forever about this program and all the features
it supports, it is that good. Some of you may be put off by the
long review, and think it sounds extremely complex to use; IT IS
NOT COMPLEX. User friendliness is retained throughout, whilst
still containing some very powerful tools which will be for
everyone from people with great musical talent to people like
me. Even I could rattle off something remotely musical and that
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

is saying something! You can even load in a tune then load in a
whole new set of waveforms and play it in totally different
instruments.
   You may have guessed that I like this package. It is easy to
use, whilst being powerful enough for advanced musicians at the
same time. Sadly, I have had to make this a long review simply
to give a half decent picture of what it is like. Hope you are
still awake!
   Sorry, but now I have to put in the few negative points
(they've got to go somewhere to make this a fair review). The
programs are seperate, and have to be loaded seperately, even
on 512K machines (guess who's just upgraded!) I felt that at
least on 512K machines they could have been integrated and both
held in memory. Also, it has a tendency to bug up completely if
you type in a filename incorrectly. I have never had it bug up
otherwise, so don't let this put you off. The pointer is a
little slow, but I'm sure this won't be the case for mouse
users. Finally, no matter how short your tune, it saves a
massive 48K + chunk of memory - so you will rapidly fill discs
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review

with it. This is not the case with waveforms though, so no
worries there. Some may consider only having ten waveforms a
major negative point, but I think it would only cause a lot of
confusion, and think ten is more than enough for most music.

   Don't let these few minor qualms deter you from buying an
otherwise fantastic piece of software. It is excellent, and I
can thoroughly recommend it to anyone. You won't be hearing from
me with great tunes, because I can't write them! But believe me,
anyone can come up with something half decent and I hope the
mags get behind this software to get more music demos out. It is
well worth £15 of anybody's money. Even if you can't write
music, you will have lots of fun with this product.

   I can't really mark this in the same way as I would a game. I
can only really mark it in terms of of presentation, programming
and user friendliness; all of which it scores very highly on
with me. It's got to be a smash (does FRED have an equivalent?)
and it is!
Roger H          The Sound Machine Review


Presentation          89%
User friendliness     92%
Ease of use/results   90%

Overall:  92% : A top rate piece of software which everyone will
                enjoy using and get results - highest
                recommentation.

STOP PRESS: I've just had a go with a mouse and responsiveness
is brilliant. It is very swift with a mouse, and this makes the
marks even better!

CM - Oh my God!!!! Two absolutely reviews in one issue, and
they're both raving about the same product!!! It must be good -
I still havn't had a chance to even load up my review copy !!!