Fred 18

Issue 18

Magazine

                           Editorial

  Happy New Year to everyone!! It's 1992 - the year of the FRED.
Well...   Lets  hope  it's  a good year anyway. To start off the
year which is the start of Europe and "the end of the recession"
here's  a little warning : no more Amiga owner jokes OK? I don't
mind Amiga USER jokes, but not OWNER jokes. The thing is, at the
last London AFCF (All Format Computer Fair), there were a lot of
Amiga A500's on sale for rather low prices, being the traitorous
person  that  I  am, I bought one. I have been to confession and
said ninety seven Hail Marys and all that but it's no good, I've
still  got  it.  So,  you might be calling me a traitor right at
this  very  minute  but  if  I said I had absolutely no plans to
leave the SAM but instead start using the Amiga to convert games
FROM, I think you should be giving me a round of applause.

  Sadly, as per usual, I can't give ANY details of games I plan
to  convert  so  PLEASE don't plead with me to tell you when you
phone me - 'cos I won't!


                           Editorial

  On the brighter side however, Impatience has now covered it's
costs  although  I don't have the XR2 yet. And you all know what
this  means  don't  you?  Yes,  it means that ol' Col's got more
projects being developed (I would say right at this minute but I
just  phoned one programmer and he's out and apparently won't be
in  a  fit state to talk to me until late tomorrow afternoon !).
The  first  thing that most people have asked for is ..... extra
levels   for   Triltex.   And   so,  they  are being done at the
moment. The packaging is not definite as yet, but I am hoping to
case  it in the small plastic casing you see 16-bit budget games
in,  but  there  should be more than simply a disc with a label.
The  price? To my loving FRED readers it's only £4.99. A measely
price  to  pay  for hours and hours more of bafflement AND a new
logo  thingy!  Yup, you'll need your original Impatience disc to
load  up  Triltex  and  then  you  can  load in the new data !!!
Fantastic isn't it ? We (as in me and the various people working
on  it,  although it's Mr Taylor that's doing all the coding and
designing  again)  hope to release it hopefully in about a month
to  six weeks time so don't place your orders yet as there'll be
                           Editorial

more  news  next  month  on  the  final  release  date unless we
encounter some MAJOR (beggin' your pardon, John) problems.

  As you will already have guessed, "Triltex, The Later Levels"
is not the only FRED release planned, no siree, FRED has several
other programmers lined up for games. Sadly, things are a bit in
the  early stage so there aren't any contracts signed yet so I'd
better  not  say  anything.  However , what I will say is that I
hope  to  have  about  FOUR releases by the Summer, hopefully at
least  one  of  them  will  "hit  the  shops"  by  Easter but no
promises!  Whatever  gets released, you'll hear it first in FRED
and wherever possible, FRED readers will get a demo to boot.

  As FRED Publishing expands, you will see larger write-ups in
magazines  with  advertising  in  some  of  the  "glossies"  and
naturally,  some  bigger  and better compos! If anyone has ideas
for  compo  prizes I'd love to hear them (but I won't be able to
afford another "lifetime sub to FRED" again for a while).

                           More Pleas

  On the subject of this sort of thing : if you know someone who
can  programme  the  Z80  to make it do things that would make a
toaster  jealous  (ie  if they've got a Speccy or SAM and can do
m/c pretty well) then get them to give me a ring and we can have
a  chat  about  things like ROYALTIES and COMMISION and MONEY in
general  - and with any luck, some of it could disappear from my
bank  account  into someone elses pocket! Give me a ring, send a
demo,  petrol  bomb  my Amiga, just let me know that you exist -
that  these Z80 programmers aren't just a figment of people like
Clive  Sinclair's  imagination (and what an imagination that was
ladies  and  gentlemen,  I mean he actually thought people would
drive  about  in  his C5 instead of using it as a heated slipper
while  watching  late  night  TV). I must apologize, it's one of
those "Oh my God, I think I'm about to explode moods" !!!

  Actually, instead of just pleading for coders, I'm still
looking  for game ideas so if you've got a few faves you want to
see  on  the SAM or if you've just invented the mega-game of the
year, get in touch and we'll em... do something with it?
                              NEWS

Ahem...there  doesn't  seem  to  have  been  very much happening
lately,  SAMCo  have  finally  gotten  The Sound Machine, Splat,
Hexagonia  etc  etc released but don't yet have plans for future
releases  other than those that are still under development like
Manic Miner.

  You will  be disapointed to hear that Alan Miles recently told
me  that  F16  Fighter  Pilot  has  been  scrapped  due  to  the
unreliability of the programmer. Naturally, refunds are in order
but  contact  them on [redacted] for details. Will FRED step in
and  save the SAM Flight Sim fanatics?? You'll just have to stay
tuned and wait and see !!!

You  will  have noticed the company Noesis mentioned in the menu
credits, well this is actually a software house. The first title
should  be finished by now and is SAM PRINT. This enables you to
design  posters, letter headings etc and dump it out to your Dot
Matrix printer. A review will appear shortly with full details.

                              Misc

  As I mentioned last month, ZAT's Dave Ledbury has gone done to
SAMCo.   Anyway,   ZAT's  address  has  changed,  so  DON'T SEND
ANYTHING  TO THEIR OLD PO BOX ADDRESS 'COS IT WON'T GET TO THEM.
The address to send your subs etc to is :

[redacted]

  Sinclair User managed to cock up the Impatience review
totally!  By  reviewing Triltex and Viking as two seperate games
they  were  awarded  81%  and  69% respectively which in my mind
gives Impatience 150% !! The highest rating SU have ever given !
Along  with  this,  old  Garfy said things like "the bombs don't
even  blow  up" which is not strictly true, well, it's more like
a  blatent  lie  as  I'm  sure all Impatience owners will agree.
Never mind, the CRASH review should appear soon.
                              Misc

  While I'm here  I  guess  I'd  better  do  some apologizing in
advance : for the lack of text and screens on this issue and for
the  possible delays you might encounter when ordering from FRED
in  the  following  3  weeks.  These are, as usual, due to exams
(plus  the fact that I don't have enough memory for many screens
this  month!) however they SHOULD be over by next issue by which
time  I  can  get  my  Amiga  printing  out  disc labels, my SAM
perfected  at  printing out address labels and should have a lot
more time to do FRED in... unless some wonderful project gets in
the way...... !
  I was going to put some samples by Jon Hampton on this month
but  I  couldn't get them to run in SAMDOS! If I think I can use
them in FRED19 I'll get in touch Jon!

  As reported last month, Adrian Parker (MD of Blue Alpha) is
now   employed  by  SAMCo  and  it  is  now  official  that  PBT
Electronics  have  purchased  the  rights to all their hardware.
Details  of  any  possibilities of price changes etc are not yet
available.
                              Misc

  A recent press release from LERM Software tells of numerous
new and improved features in their SAMDISK, including :

* Improved REPAIR and COPY features
* Format a disc with or without verifying
* A super fast Duplicator thingy which, with two drives, copies
 a disc "very quickly" because it only copies the relevant
 tracks - not the empty ones! If I remember correctly, there was
 a poke way,way back that let you do this...?
* The "File Information" now also tells you what MODE of SCREEN$
 the file is (if it's a SCREEN$ file obviously!)
* You can now rename the disc AND rename files.

The  price wasn't given but apparently it costs £7.50 to upgrade
from  Version 1 to 2. Having never seen the original, I wouldn't
know  if  it is worth spending that sort of money on a few extra
and  improved features but if you decide not to, just save up an
extra  £2.49 and you can buy a copy of Impatience! (well, it was
worth a try you must admit!)
                    Calling all Scotch folk

  There has been call for a Scottish SAM user group to be
organized  recently  so  myself  and  another  fellow  Scot have
decided  to  see  if  we can get something going. At present the
idea  is to book a hall say once a month and have a mini-Show to
help  cover costs eg small companies book stands for a small fee
and  the  rest  of the hire cost would be made up by an entrance
fee if necessary. The first hour or two would be allocated "Show
time"  to  allow the companies to regain their expenses and then
the  rest  of the day would just be spent as a get-together sort
of thing, still in the hall but with numerous SAMs set up giving
plenty of oppertunity for meeting new SAM owners and finding SAM
owners in areas near to you that you never knew existed before!

  Obviously this is just one idea of how it could be organized
but   if   you   are   interested,  tell  me  and  you'll  get a
"Scottish  SAM Group" newsheet or something similar. If you have
any  ideas  or  suitable  venues  you know of then please get in
touch.

                       It's hear at last!

  My printer has finally arrived and I've almost gotten used to
it  already  (only  4  weeks  later!). Hopefully, you could have
already  told  this  by  the label on the front of your envelope
this morning.
  If your address is wrong in any way then please tell me what's
wrong  so  I can correct it for future issues. To save me trying
to  remember  who's  subscription  runs out on what issue, there
should  be  a  number  either  after or under your postcode, the
first  four  digits  are your FRED subscription number, the last
two  are the issue your subscription runs out on - clever eh? If
things  go  wrong  and there is only a 2 digit number instead of
the 6, then that'll be the issue your sub runs out on.

  While I'm talking about subscriptions, I'll tell you the
fabulously cheap rates you can aquire FRED at :

£15 will get you the following 12 issues, a saving of £3
£8 will get you the following 6 issues, a saving of £1

                           Impatience

Here's what the three Sinclair magazines said about Impatience :


SU - "fantastic pointer-driven gameplay, brilliant stereo sound
       and addictiveness on both games"
     "excellant gameplay...involving...superior graphics"
    When reviewed separately, SU gave Viking 69% and Triltex 81%

CRASH - "presentation is great, with slick, well-drawn graphics
        and music that begs to be turned up!"
        "Impatience is a good purchase...I'm sure there's room
        for both in your software collection"     74%

YS   -  "knuckle-gnawingly  hard!  It's also incredibly likeable
        with  presentation  buffed  to  a  shine  and  loads of
        friendly features."
        "So there you have it. A sizzler and a fairly good
        supporting act - a lot for your crumpled tenner. It's
        got to be a Megagame. And it is. Hurrah!"  90%
                           Impatience

  As you've already gathered, Impatience has TWO games on it!
Both  games  work with redefineable keyboard (the first m/c game
to  have redefinable keys!), joystick, Joymouse or SAMCo's mouse
(the  first piece of software to work with it and still the ONLY
commercial  game that uses it!).

  Hundreds of people have bought Impatience so far and have
been  "delighted",  "very  frustrated",  "immensely pleased" and
even  "infuriated"  with  their purchase!  With over 20 baffling
levels on Triltex to keep you burning the midnight oil, and head
to head battle on Viking against a friend during the day! Simply
send  a cheque/PO to FRED at the usual address for your very own
copy of this "amazing" game!!!!

  Impatience is available from your local SAM dealer (if they
don't stock it, send me their details and they soon will!), from
SAMCo, or from FRED itself! The cost is a meagre £9.99, how many
times to you see a game which is a first in many areas for under
a tenner? Not often - but here you get TWO games!
                          Cheat modes!

  As many of you will have guessed, there is a cheat mode to
Triltex  - but if you think you can con me into telling you what
it is then you're barking up the wrong tree, mate.

  However, I would be very interested if anyone came up with a
cheat  for Prince Of Persia - Chris White swears their isn't one
but  all  the  other  versions had one and he said it was a true
conversion...

  If you're stuck on the very last bitty of Prince when you have
to  fight yourself then here's how to do it : Drop your sword by
pressing  fire and down, then simply merge with him!! Run off to
the  left  and you've nearly completed the game! Simple once you
know isn't it.

  Naturally, if you know of any other cheat modes that havn't
yet  been  published  then  please  get  in touch - there may be
hundreds  of  people crying themselves to sleep at night wishing
they knew what it was...
                     The Puzzle Corner no.2

Right  then  puzzle  freaks  here's  the  answers to last months
puzzle corner, as if you need them!


Answer  to  (1)  You probably had some difficulty in doing this,
nobody claimed the prize. The answer is... there isn't one! It's
impossible,   there's  always  one last connection that will not
work. Give yourself a pat on the back for trying.

Answer  to (2) Fortunately this one is possible, how many of you
said 4 rungs? The answer is, of course, the water covers no more
rungs  at  all. When the water level rises so does the boat, and
if the boat rises the ladder rises with it!

Answer  to  (3)  Another trick question. The two coins are a 50p
piece and a 5p piece. One is not a 50p piece but the other is!

Answer  to  (4)  If only one statement is true then the rest are
false so the answer can only be (d)
                       Puzzle Corner no.2

Answer  (5)  to  The obvious answer is 5 cigarettes but when the
tramp smokes these he has another 5 cigarette ends left which he
makes one more cigarette out of. 6 is the correct answer.

Which  is  more  accurate  a  stopped clock or a clock that is 5
minutes  fast?  The  stopped clock is more accurate, it displays
the  correct time twice a day, the fast clock never displays the
correct time.


After  you've finished kicking yourself, on with the next lot of
brain teasers.

(1)  Bad news, a group of Tibetten monks have predicted that the
end of the world shall happen when New Years Day is a Sunday. Oh
dear!  how long have we left? ( You might want to write a little
program to solve this! )


                     The Puzzle Corner no.2

(2)  A  bit of a tongue twister this one; "Round the ragged rock
the  ragged  rascle  ran,  say  how  many R's in that and your a
clever man".

(3)  What is the next number in this series?  3  1  4  1  5
But  don't  give  the  most obvious answer, give the second most
obvious answer. And remember its as easy as pie!

(4)  In  my  hand  I have a long length of material. I cut clean
through it. I have not created two pieces with four ends but one
piece with only two ends. How is that possible?

This months classic puzzle is that age old question "how long is
a piece of string?".


CM  :  ON  THE SUBJECT OF THE ACCURATE CLOCKS - DEPENDING ON HOW
FAST  THE  FAST  CLOCK  IS,  IT  COULD  DISPLAY THE CORRECT TIME
SEVERAL TIMES IN A DAY ???   NOT THAT I'D BE PICKY !!
                            MORK!!!

  On the subject on nicknames. I haven't really taken to the one
Colin  gave me, "The Smarty". I just can't relate to it. I don't
particularily like the nickname I get called at school, "Wully",
either  so  I have decided what I want to be called. Have any of
you ever seen "Mork and Mindy" on TV? well that's what I want to
be  called,  No!  not  "Mindy",  "Mork".  From now on I will not
respond  to the name "William", I'll just shrug my shoulders and
say "who's he?", from now on call me "Mork".


CM  :  OK,  so it wasn't very constructive to say the very least
but  never  mind,  Mork seems fine to me! Now, how about one for
other  people  that  don't  have  a nickname yet? I'm not asking
anyone in particular nor am I refering to anyone specially but I
hate  mentioning names in scrollies, and I'm sure you lot do too
so if you've got a groovesome (as CRASH would say) name then get
in touch and IF I remember I'll put your name in.


     I guess you'll all want to know what's on the disc...?

  OK then, I suppose I can tell you.

  Firstly we have another 100% machine code game, this one is by
Paul Milner and is the game of Draughts. It's one player and you
simply  enter  the  row  followed by column characters to move a
piece.  It's  very  straighforward  -  the only snag is that you
can't do double (or even triple!) jumps ie you can only jump one
of the computer's pieces at a time.
  Great demo makers, the DVB recently did a great advert for
Challengers  PDL.  As  I  hadn't seen it anywhere else I thought
FRED  readers  might  be  interested in it. The demo features no
less  than THREE great tunes - one is a rendition of Sweet Child
O' Mine by G n R !!!
  Uh oh! The AXE is back!! Firstly, we've got three amusing
demos  featuring different characters - these load one after the
other and are guarenteed to get you smiling (well, almost!). The
further  adventures of Zeb Green are also entailed in the How To
Be  A  ...  Computer  Programmer.  Ask  anyone  - it's much more
realistic than you would think!
                    On the Flip Side is...

  Steve Taylor takes a break from designing Triltex levels to
give you another insight into the stange world of Machine Code.
  Now, here's a real choice for you : There have been two great
databases  sent  in and because I'm so indecisive, I thought I'd
leave  the  chosing up to you. Each one has it's plus points and
they're  both  extremely  usable  but  you have to chose between
Colin  Borland's  user-friendly  ness  or  Andy  Monks (EXTREME)
flexibility and pesentation... Oooh it's a tough choice!!!

  Mr Paul Milner has been very busy at the assembler this month
-  not  only  did he do the great draughts game BUT there's also
THREE  fascinating cellular animations. The name sounds dull but
believe  me,  they're  not.  LIFE is a SAM representation of the
famous on/off cell thingy, DEMON, my favourite is all to do with
colours  and  can  keep you gazing at the screen all afternoon!!
Wire-World is a very interesting concept - you can now watch the
little  electricity  pulses  travelling along wires! And you can
even  define your own circuit! Full instructions are included in
all three of these so I'll leave you to enjoy them.
                 Still on the flip side is...

  Here's another Gremlin demo by Robert Smith. Watch Gizmo spawn
Gremlins,  do  excercises and finally kill off the evil Gremlin.
It's  all neat stuff, what I do recommend is that you might want
to hold down a key during parts of it to speed it up.
  And now the interesting bit! Firstly, I'm proud to announce a
fabulous  EXCLUSIVE  demo just for FRED - and I'm not even going
to  tell you what it is!! But if I said it had something sort of
to  do  with  Arkanoid  and programmed by a certain LORD I think
you'll all get very excited.
  The DVB have also done a few other little proggies for your
consumption : a nifty little CREATOR to store a list of all your
programs  which comes in handy as well as a Blues tune which may
appeal to some of you.
  AXE pops his majestic head up again with even more FONTS!
  Cookie and Banzai both come up with different additions to
last months Yahtzee game.
  And lastly, Colin Borland has done a rather...em..daft demo.
  Screens by Allan Norton, Mike in Sheffield and

                            Credits

FRED thanks go to :

Paul Milner            AXE               Wizard
The DVB                Challengers       Banzai
Extreme                Colin Borland     Robert Smith
Allan Norton           Mike & Roger H.   Noesis
SAM Tech               SAMCo             PHS
Grafix Wizard          Mork              M.o.M.
Simon Scott (snigger, snigger....Ha Ha Ha Ha - sorry everyone!)

Okay  Dokey,  FRED  19 (gosh it seems like only yesterday it was
FRED  2)  will  be out sometime in the first week of February at
the  usual cost of £1.50 (NB : FRED costs £1.50 per issue or £15
for 12 months, not £1, £1.75, £2 or £2.20 people seem to think!)

Usual address : [redacted]

Letters & Reviews

                         Hello Again!

  As I've said earlier, there isn't many letters this month so
you'll just have to make do with what you get given.

Oh! A letter from....me! Ha! Fancy that.

Dear readers,

some of you appear to be under the great dillusion that :

a) FRED is good
b) I am not really a Russian spy
c) I get hundreds of letters every day waiting to be published.

Now,  I can't comment on the first two BUT I hardly ever get any
letters  for  publication - if you want pen pals, a game, a chat
to  hundreds of FRED readers or just have a technical query then
please send it to me (on disc) and it'll probably be published.
I  have  been led to believe that the lack of letters to date is
because you all think I get dozens of letters.Well you're wrong.
                            Public

Dear Colin,

I  am  the  editor  of  the  new  disc  magazine PUBLIC. It is a
"different"  magazine  in  that  it  relies heavily on the Coupe
using  public  for contributions (sounds suspicially familiar to
FRED - Ed), hence the name. The price is minimal, £1. Issue 2 is
already started and is looking extremely promising with articles
by  Thorsten Gudmundsen (WHO? - Ed) and also some foreign demos.
Also  included  will  be;  news,  reviews,  previews,  PD scene,
screens, letters, samples, scrolly, sound aid to name but a few.

[redacted]

CM  : I HAVN'T HAD A CHANCE TO LOOK THROUGH THE PREVIEW DISC BUT
FOR  A  QUID IT LOOKS PRETTY GOOD. TRY IT AND SEE IS MY ADVICE!



                         Roger Hartley

I've  been  having trouble with my picture recently. It keeps on
fading to black and white, then fading back again. It only seems
to  happen when I'm using SAMSCRATCH, but it is really annoying.
Does  it sound like my graphics chip, TV, modulator or something
totally   different  to  you?  When  I tried it on another telly
there  didn't  seem  to be any problems, but it does only happen
occasionally.


CM : How come I get all the tough ones? It does sound a bit like
your  telly but if it doesn't happen too often I don't think you
should  worry  about it. There are however two possibilities you
may have overlooked -
  1) Your TV may be allergic to SAMSCRATCH
  2) If you plot a graph with the exact time and duration of
these  little "black and white" outs against the time since your
computer  has  been switched on for, you'll not only keep out of
everyone's way for a few weeks but you'll probably pass all your
Maths exams - dunno 'bout yer telly tho'.
  [redacted]

  I've  got  to  agree   with   Brian in  Enceladus  7. Fastline
especially produce very little exciting PD these days (from what
I  hear  they aren't  producing any  PD at all in  fact!)  Their
latest  discs  seem  to consist of film demos, digitised screens
and  more  film  demos.  I  know not a great deal of work can be
going into these, and I for one am getting very bored with them.
Yes,  it  was  a  good  idea, and I should imagine it was pretty
successful.  I  have  Robocop,  Aliens  (2  discs)  and  various
others.  But, there are tens of them now, and they aren't really
getting any better. I haven't seen Terminator yet, but I hear it
may  be  what I am looking for. What I am looking for is quality
to  be  improved.  I  want demos to use 512K, or even the 1 meg.
Crunch  them  down, so you can get more of them on one disc. Put
some  M/C into them, rather than just use a big chunk of graphic
code,  and  PUT it in BASIC. Some sound (music even) wouldn't go
amiss either. Look at Lord Insanity's demos, swift, great music,
and  a  lot going on at once. Silly demo only used 11K, and look
at  that!  It  was  amazing,  and  in my opinion one of the best
pieces  of  PD  coding  I have ever seen on the SAM. I have seen
                       Roger H. (again!)

many  Amiga (spit!) demos, and for quality in every way they are
more  than  ten  times  better. Why not put together mega demos,
with  various  animations, music demos and even both at once. It
may  even  be  that  you  have  to charge more than usual, but I
wouldn't mind.
  I know a  lot  of people will now call me a whinger, and I can
see  all  these death threats coming through my letterbox now. I
don't care! Hopefully you might be hearing more from me soon, it
just  depends  on  Colin.  I'd  like to hear from anyone though,
especially people who live local. I'd prefer it if you send your
letters  on  disc,  but  I'll try to read any handwriting. After
all, none of you have seen mine!

R. Hartley

CM : No comment.                                                      .