Fred 36
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Submitted by Dan Dooré on Monday, May 21, 2018 - 18:20.
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Release Year
1993
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Description
Issue 36
| Item | Author | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menu | Andy Monk | |
| Magazine | Lemmings On The Coupe!! | |
| Letters | Campion - The Spreadsheet, E-tracker, Boing! Reviewed | |
| Starbug | Nathan Dolan | Games Master Game |
| Paradox | Andy Monk | Selection Of Andy Monk Tunes |
| Notepad | Calvin Allett | Superb Word Processor |
| Celebrate | Stefan Drissen Andy Monk Brian McConnell | Colourful Mc Birthday Demo |
| Mc Pt 25 | Steve Taylor | Info For DRiVER WIMP system. |
| Wombles | Howard Price | Mc Demo By, Yes, The Wombles! |
| Wizard Demo | Steve Taylor | Birthday Demo By Steve Taylor |
| KE_Disc | Geoff Winkless | PC-Format Disc Reader!! |
| Mosaic | Darren Clarke | Challenging Puzzler |
| Fredex | Brian McConnell | List Of Back Issues' Contents |
Magazine
BM Editorial
Hurrah! We've made it! FRED magazine, for the SAM Coupe, is now
officially 3 years old! Oh, isn't it exciting! Just think; a
mere three years ago FRED magazine was a tiny young babe with a
handful of readers. Now though, it's a veritable veteran (try
saying THAT after a few jars) with, erm, a handful of readers!
As has been promised, we really do have some treats for you, in
the form of new of the Big Licence Deal (which many of you
apparently guessed with ease) and in terms of software.
I'd like to take this little bit of space here to thank
everybody for their contributions to this issue. For the first
time in God knows how long we've actually got too much to
include! All that means is that issue 37 will be excellent as
well as this one. Some of the programs we've been sent for this
and next issue though - they are SUPERB! And I don't use that
word lightly. Okay, maybe I do sometimes, but not this time;
this time the stuff IS superb. Very superb indeed, even.
BM Editorial
Aah, I can relax now. Those ol' Higher results dropped through
the door just yesterday, and I'm pleased to say that your
beloved FRED editor now has seven Highers (and two CSYS's). Not
bad at all, considering the fact that Colin took the whip to me
every time he caught me trying to sneak in a bit of studying
between disc-compiling sessions...
Colin's decided to actually write for the magazine this month.
Ever the cynic, I believe he only did it so that he could
announce the Big Licence instead of me, which is not fair at all
seeing as I did loads of negotiating, and put in large amounts
of time and effort. Well. Maybe that's a slight lie. Perhaps I
did have nothing to do with it whatsoever. Alright then
Colin, have your little moment of glory...
(Before I go though, I'll just say that FRED is in no way
responsible for throat injuries caused by excessive shouting and
cheering at the following pages...)
CM The BIG news!
Here it is. At long last. Two years in development. Programmed
by the author of the last big SAM licence.
L EEEE MM MM MM MM I NN N GGGGG SSSSS !!
L E M M M M M M I N N N G S !!
L EEE M M M M I N N N G GG SSSSS !!
L E M M M M I N NN G G S
LLLLL EEEE M M M M I N N GGGGG SSSSS !!
Yes - it's on target at long last!!!
In January of this year, Noesis Software handed over the SAM
"Lemmings" to FRED Publishing. After 6 months of negotiations,
phone calls and meetings in London, we have worked out terms to
get the SAM Lemmings released!
CM SAMmings
Currently the SAM coding is pretty much complete. The only thing
still to go in is the various graphics and map data. DMA Design
and Psygnosis are working together in order to get the data to
us in a suitable form and once we receive this it will only be a
matter of weeks before completion.
The deal FRED has with Psygnosis means that we can buy the boxes
to another version of Lemmings and simply put SAM stickers over
any mentions of the A***A etc.
As I've said, we don't know the exact release date - well, this
IS Chris White! No, apologies to Mr White; the problem lies with
converting the other data. We are hoping for early October in
order to bring in the Christmas sales because as you may guess,
Psygnosis would only agree to a deal which nets them an
"acceptable sum". In this case we're talking 5 figures....
It is vitally important that the SAM Lemmings sells in quantity
so I'm afraid you'll have to put up with a lot of publicity!
CM SAMmings
The price, again, is not really what we were aiming for. And I
hope I don't make too many of you take a double check when I say
the RRP will be £19.99. However, while you're still here, there
will be either two or three pounds off that to FRED or FORMAT
subscribers.
I can promise you that this is the lowest figure we could
release Lemmings for. Psygnosis are used to selling thousands of
times more copies at £25, so it was hardly a simple task getting
them to agree to a SAM Lemmings at all. Perhaps that's why
neither SAMCo or Noesis succeeded in getting anywhere...
Unless SAM Lemmings sells over 1,000 copies FRED Publishing will
be losing money: between Psygnosis and the programmer, there's
barely enough left to pay for music, graphics, disc duplication,
and postage and packing. We are making a huge sacrifice in the
hope that it pays off - I would expect anyone who would like to
see more SAM licences to buy a copy. Thank you.
CM SAMmings
As I mentioned, a release of early October is planned (SMALL
NOTE: the start of October will mark exactly two years since
FRED first published it's first title - Impatience!!). However,
I am NOT accepting advanced orders at the moment.
There should be some screens from the SAM Lemmings in the
screens section this month and with any luck, we'll have some
sort of demo for FRED37.
Naturally, such a big game is bound to have lots of bugs. So to
prevent a repeat performance of Prince Of Persia I would like to
appeal for playtesters. There isn't any money available for the
task but the selected few get to play the game before anyone
else, and naturally get a copy of the finished version.
If you're interested, write to FRED with a few details and if
your name is picked out of the hat we'll be in touch!
SAM Lemmings is 512K only but works with or without a mouse.
CM Surprise, surprise!
I reckon anything I say after that bit of news will come as a
bit of an anti-climax, but at least it's more good news!
FRED have just launched another game! This one has been kept
secret all through development in order to avoid the dreaded
"So it's not actually OUT yet then?" syndrome.
The game is called "The Witching Hour". It was sent in by
contributor John Vincent as an entry into the FRED game
competition. Since the deadline has been extended (to September
11th - hurry!) we don't know if this is the outright winner, but
the game was so good we just had to publish it anyway!!
Created on GamesMaster, it is a Dizzy/Boing style game. An
arcade adventure involving puzzle solving was how they were once
described, I believe!
Before I tell you the plot, I suggest you turn the page....
CM The Witching Hour
The Story so far...
Hallow'een has arrived and the evil Demon Master has captured
most of the villagers from the little town near the sea. In an
attempt to rescue their friends, the few remaining villagers
come to you, Gretta the good witch, the only one with enough
magical power to save them.
You must destroy the demon master during the witching hour or
all will be lost.
At the start of your quest you may choose between Gretta the
witch or Beardy the wizard (no sexism here, matey!).
During the game you can pick up, examine, use and read objects
as well as interacting with several other characters in order to
complete your quest.
CM The Witching Hour
And what price for this marvel of madness? Not content with this
being the first commercial GamesMaster game and one of the first
SAM games that hasn't had people waiting for it's release, we've
decided to create another first: SAM's first commercial Budget
Game!
Priced at only £4.99, this gets you the works, not just a disc
with a photocopied label. We're talking printed color inlay,
box, instructions and colour printed disc label. Wooaahh!
Oh! I'm sorry. I said the game costs £4.99, but that's before I
mentioned that if you're a FRED or INDUG member, you of course
get the obligatory 10% off. Bringing it down to an extremely
wallet-friendly £4.50
If we can spare the disc space this month there'll be a playable
demo of "The Witching Hour" which although is blindingly easy to
complete, gives you the idea of the game. [Nope, there wasn't
room. Next month, okay? - BRIAN]
CM Water way to go....?
Groan! Sorry. WaterWorks - released at the end of last year, it
proved to be the most popular FRED game and is STILL selling in
decent numbers!! It's also the game we've had the most letters
and phone calls about from people saying how good it is and are
there plans for "extra levels" (when they're not crying and/or
begging for solutions that is). Unfortunately, unlike with
Impatience, we didn't have the foresight to realise how popular
it would be. So to satisfy FRED customers we've decided to do a
sequel!!
With no name at present, "WaterWorks 2" is in the same style as
it's predecessor, but with extras such as spikes, barrels, lifts
and a jeep! Not only will it feature completely new levels, but
we're also re-doing all the graphics and music!
Essentially it's a new game: it will not require the original to
load or play, but the levels will be harder so it's recommended
that you've played the original a bit to get used to Martin
Bell's (the programmer) way of thinking...!
CM WaterWorks 2
As yet, we don't have any definite release date but based upon
current progress I'd say this would be another late Autumn
release. Naturally we'll keep you posted as to how it's coming
along and no doubt we'll be able to sort out a demo nearer the
time of release.
In the meantime, if you don't already have WaterWorks it might
be a good idea to buy it to get yourself used to the general
idea of the game. The game still retails for £9.99, but as
usual, FRED or INDUG members can purchase it for the discounted
price of just £9.
Just to fill up the remainder of this page I'd like to remind
everyone that we're always looking out for ideas for new games.
Whether you fancy your hand at designing, coding or doing the
graphics or music for a game, send something into FRED and we'll
get back to you.
CM Outlets
Unfortunately, the merger of Outlet into FRED has not gone as
planned. Everything was great for a few months and then suddenly
we didn't have anything to make up the Outlet side of things! No
technical queries to answer, utilities to use or anything!
There wasn't a lot we could do about it. Naturally, we'll still
stick useful utilities or FRED and answer technical enquiries
but we can't create these sorts of things out of thin air. And
to be honest, people seem to prefer FRED the way it was. As a
result, the "incorporating Outlet" will not be appearing on the
disc anymore.
Incidentally, we can now bring down the price of Outlet back
issues from £3.50 to £2. Yes, you can purchase any issue of SAM
Outlet (32 - 65) for £2 each or £20 for any twelve. Sorry it's
taken so long to bring the price down - but it was part of the
contract. We may try to get hold of one of the last OUTDEXes
(list of contents of old issues) for FRED. Any comments on this?
CM Revelation's Driver in Pole Position (Ha Ha)
The WIMP style environment that Steve Taylor has been developing
for the last 18 months is at last just about to be released.
Being a fairly regular user of the PC's Windows and the Amiga's
Workbench, I've seen my fair share of WIMP systems and Steve's
"Driver" is up there with the best.
"Driver" will be published by Revelation Software in September
with the expected price tag of £29.95 (£24.95 to FRED / INDUG
people). The software itself is complete, the manual is
currently being written and will then have to be typeset and
printed.
The demo* on this issue will basically tell you all you need to
know about it. Before you buy, remember you must have MasterDOS
but you do not need a mouse. However, Revelation will be
producing a special mouse bundle. More details on that as well
as the review in FRED37.
*[Sorry! No room this issue! Wait another month - BRIAN]
BM Hurrah!
Yes. Hurrah! - that's how I'd describe the events which formed
the past few pages. Hurrah! again, just for sake of being
annoying.
Lemmings eh? That'll shut a few SAM-haters up, I expect. Mind
you, so would games like Waterworks and Wop Gamma if people in
general (ie not just wise SAM owners) bothered to play them.
Well, at least now some of you will now why questions regarding
this little game were "cunningly edited" in the Letters section!
The very fact that we did censor them actually gave it away to
some people (Stand up Douglas Murdoch!).
As I'm getting rather desperate for something to say in order to
fill up the rest of this page, I'll just make the following
cliched and ancient and not in the least bit funny remark:
"News items are like buses. You wait months and nothing happens,
then loads come along at once." Hmm. Maybe I ought to have
ignored that idea...
BM Hello To All The New People! (Both of 'em)
The newsletter sent out by West Coast which contained the FRED
leaflet you probably read was not sent only to FRED readers (why
send a mailshot to a mere four people?). Since we hyped FRED a
lot, and not too unjustifiably, in the FRED leaflet (well, what
do you expect?! A list of FRED's failings? What'd we fill the
other 57 lines with?), there's a distinct possibility that you
were one of the people who got this issue as a one off thing
(because you were bored or curious or masochistic or something),
in in which case I'd like to say thanks for taking the
trouble.
FRED has changed a lot since the early days. Well. A little, at
any rate. Colin's not the editor any more, for a start. I am.
And who am I? Why, only the greatest human being EVER (apart
from Toby Mangel, whose name inspired a joke regarding the name
of a man who caught a bodily part in some farm machinery)! Brian
McConnell is my name, and I like it, so there. If you look in
the top-left corner of the magazine you'll see the initials of
the author, in this case BM.
BM What It's All About
I suppose FRED really has two aims: to keep people aware of
what's happening, and to keep people entertained (causing havoc
with my social life is merely a secondary objective). Each month
we have this section you are presently reading, plus a letters
and reviews section, an adverts section, and the rest of the
magazine is filled with whatever demos, games, utilities, tunes
and articles we can get our messy paws on.
FRED costs £2 per issue, or £20 for a year's subscription (12
issues). It went up from £1.50 in order to pay people for their
contributions, to cover the duplication costs, and to enable
Colin to give me money for to pay for the odd pint every six
months or so (and with my wages, they're VERY odd pints,
consisting largely of water).
Subscribers not only get twelve issues of FRED, however. They
get a monthly newsletter containg news too new to have been
printed in the magazine, and also substantial software discounts
on titles across the board - not just FRED titles.
BM The Meaning of FRED
We did merge with Outlet a few months back, but it seems that
their stock of contributors is a little "shy" about contributing
to FRED. There's no reason to be, but they are. At any rate,
we've received very little in the way of Outlet-type
contributions, and so cannot support the Outlet side of the
magazine, as Colin pointed out earlier. We do consider ANY type
of software for the magazine though; we're not only out for
games and demos (although we do welcome these, as do the
majority of our readers).
FRED is now the "main" SAM magazine, and along with FORMAT which
covers in more detail the serious side of computing, is the best
way to hear about what's happening in the SAM world.
So. Now you know what FRED's all about, have an article by FRED
regular Stefan Drissen on something far, far beyond my meagre
understanding of machine code...
SD What do you mean, NO LIMIT?
===========================
As you most certainly WON'T have concluded from the title, this
is an article on some research into the real speed of the Z80
instructions. As you may recall, in my article on sprites
"Cokes, Fantas and 7-Ups" (FRED 29) I mentioned that you could
calculate how fast a routine theoretically would be by adding up
the amount of t-states used. There was however a snag with the
length of a t-state due to, quote, memory contention and other
nasty things. But, I said, you could use the t-state values to
compare two routines to see which one would be relatively
faster. This was all very nice until I accidentally discovered
that 7 = 8.
Is this the equation that flushes all mathematics down the
toilet? No, it simply means that an instruction which according
to Z80 documentation should take 7 t-states really takes 8
t-states.
This left me with a problem. What is the point of using t-state
values to compare routines if the theoretical values do not hold
up in the practical world? I decided to test each instruction to
see how long it takes to run, but how do you go round testing
the length of an instruction? To do this I simply filled a block
of memory (32K) with this instruction and then worked out how
many instructions are executed within one frame (1/50 second).
It works like this: I wait for an interrupt and then start
executing the instructions. 1/50 second later an interrupt
occurs, and this then POPs what is on the stack pointer giving
the amount of bytes run through. This must then be divided by
the amount of bytes one instruction is.
To have something to relate to I set the time it takes for a NOP
at 1 and then the rest of the instructions are based on this.
For example an opcode with speed 2 takes twice as long as a NOP.
Testing led to a few interesting discoveries about the speed of
the SAM. When the screen is enabled it runs at approx 4.75 MHz
compared to approx 5.98 MHz when the screen is disabled (OUT
254,128).
When in MODE 1 the Z80 is slowed down to approx 3.87 MHz and it
doesn't matter whether the screen is enabled or not.
Another interesting fact (which Edwin Blink had already pointed
out to me) is that INs and OUTs to ASIC ports (250-255) are
slower than INs and OUTs to non-ASIC ports (for example floppy
disc controller).
Now here comes an amazingly boring long table, unless you are
interested that is. In the first column is the name of the
instruction, in the second is the relative speed as found in the
test. The third column is the relative speed converted to
t-states (multiply rel. speed by four) and in the last column is
what the speed is theoretically (according to Programming the
Z80 by Zaks). So now print it out and optimize routines to your
heart's content...
(Table over the page)
relative
Mnemonic speed t-states theoretical
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ADC A,(HL) 2 8 7
ADC A,(IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
ADC A,r 1 4 4
ADC A,n 2 8 7
ADC HL,rr 3.7 14.8 15
ADD A,(HL) 2 8 7
ADD A,(IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
ADD A,r 1 4 4
ADD A,n 2 8 7
ADD HL,rr 2.6 10.4 11
ADD IX,rr 3.7 14.8 15
AND (HL) 2 8 7
AND (IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
AND r 1 4 4
BIT b,(HL) 3 12 12
BIT b,(IX+d) 5.7 22.8 20
BIT b,r 2 8 8
CALL c,nn 5/3 20/12 17/10
CALL nn 5 20 17
CCF 1 4 4
CP (HL) 2 8 7
CP (IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
CP r 1 4 4
CP n 2 8 7
CPD 3.7 14.8 16
CPDR 5.7/3.7 22.8/14.8 21/16
CPI 3.7 14.8 16
CPIR 5.7/3.7 22.8/14.8 21/16
CPL 1 4 4
DAA 1 4 4
DEC (HL) 3 12 11
DEC (IX+d) 5.7 22.8 23
DEC r 1 4 4
DEC rr 1.6 6.4 6
DEC IX 2.7 10.8 10
DI 1* 4* 4
DJNZ d ? ? 13/8
EI 1* 4* 4
EX AF,AF' 1 4 4
EX DE,HL 1 4 4
EXX 1 4 4
HALT 1* 4* 4
IM x 2 8 8
IN r,(C) 2.7 10.8 12
asic 3.7 14.8
IN A,(n) 2.7 10.8 11
asic 3.7 14.8
INC (HL) 3 12 11
INC (IX+d) 5.7 22.8 23
INC r 1 4 4
INC rr 1.6 6.4 6
INC IX 2.7 10.8 10
IND 4.7 18.8 16
asic 5.3 21.2
INDR ? ? 21/16
INI 4.7 18.8 16
asic 5.3 21.2
INIR ? ? 21/16
JP (HL) 1* 4* 4
JP (IX) 2* 8* 8
JP c,nn 3 12 10
JP nn 3 12 10
JR c,d 2.7/2 10.8/8 12/7
JR d 2.7 10.8 12
LD (rr),A 2 8 7
LD (HL),r 2 8 7
LD (HL),n 3 12 10
LD (IX+d),r 4.7 18.8 19
LD (IX+d),n 5.7 22.8 19
LD (nn),A 4 16 13
LD (nn),rr 6 24 20
LD (nn),HL 5 20 16
LD (nn),IX 6 24 20
LD A,(rr) 2 8 7
LD A,(IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
LD A,(nn) 4 16 13
LD A,I 2.7 10.8 9
LD A,R 2.7 10.8 9
LD r,r 1 4 4
LD r,n 2 8 7
LD r,(HL) 2 8 7
LD r,(IX) 4.7 18.8 19
LD rr,(nn) 6 24 20
LD rr,nn 3 12 10
LD HL,(nn) 5 20 16
LD IX,(nn) 6 24 20
LD IX,nn 4 16 14
LD I,A 2.7 10.8 9
LD R,A 2.7 10.8 9
LDD 4.7 18.8 16
LDDR 5.7/4.7 22.8/18.8 21/16
LDI 4.7 18.8 16
LDIR 5.7/4.7 22.8/18.8 21/16
NEG 2 8 8
NOP 1 4 4
OR (HL) 2 8 7
OR (IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
OR r 1 4 4
OR n 2 8 7
OTDR ? ? 21/16
OTIR ? ? 21/16
OUT (C),r 2.7 10.8 12
asic 3.7 14.8
OUT (n),A 2.7 10.8 11
asic 3.7 14.8
OUTD 4.7 18.8 16
asic 5.3 21.2
OUTI 4.7 18.8 16
asic 5.3 21.2
POP rr 3 12 10
POP IX 4 16 14
PUSH rr 3.7 14.8 11
PUSH IX 4.7 18.8 15
RES b,(HL) 4 16 15
RES b,(IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
RES b,r 2 8 8
RET 3 12 10
RET c 3/1.6 12/6.4 11/5
RETI 4 16 14
RETN 4 16 14
RL (HL) 4 16 15
RL (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
RL r 2 8 8
RLA 1 4 4
RLC (HL) 4 16 15
RLC (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
RLC r 2 8 8
RLCA 1 4 4
RLD 4.7 18.8 18
RR (HL) 4 16 15
RR (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
RR r 2 8 8
RRA 1 4 4
RRC (HL) 4 16 15
RRC (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
RRC r 2 8 8
RRCA 1 4 4
RRD 4.7 18.8 18
RST x 3.7 14.8 11
SBC A,(HL) 2 8 7
SBC A,(IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
SBC A,r 1 4 4
SBC A,n 2 8 7
SBC HL,rr 3.7 14.8 15
SCF 1 4 4
SET b,(HL) 4 16 15
SET b,(IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
SET b,r 2 8 8
SLA (HL) 4 16 15
SLA (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
SLA r 2 8 8
SRA (HL) 4 16 15
SRA (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
SRA r 2 8 8
SRL (HL) 4 16 15
SRL (IX+d) 6.7 26.8 23
SRL r 2 8 8
SUB (HL) 2 8 7
SUB (IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
SUB r 1 4 4
SUB n 2 8 7
XOR (HL) 2 8 7
XOR (IX+d) 4.7 18.8 19
XOR r 1 4 4
XOR n 2 8 7
n = byte (0 to 255)
nn = word (0 to 65535)
d = displacement (-128 to 127)
r = register (A,B,C,D,E,H,L)
rr = register pair (BC,DE,HL,SP)
b = bit (0 to 7)
IX = IX or IY
c = condition
* = very probable value (not tested)
? = not tested, compare with other instructions
NB: for unofficial Z80 instructions which use the high of low
half of IX or IY you must add 4 t-states to the tested value for
the HL equivalent.
For example LD IXh,0 is based on LD H,0; this instruction takes
8 t-states so LD IXh,0 takes 8+4 = 12 t-states.
Well that wraps up this table, if you are into the optimizing
business do use this table and not the official t-state values
because you could be wasting a lot of time, yours and the
processor's.
Any comments and or remarks on this article would be most
welcome, send them either to Fred or to me.
Stefan Drissen 2 May 1993
Zevende Herven 6
5232 JZ 's-Hertogenbosch
The Netherlands
BM Brian Returns
How Stefan ever found time to compile that large, and to be
honest rather frightening table I'll never know, but he did
manage, and I think it deserves a round of applause:
(clap here)
Right. There have been numerous pleas for passwords and tips for
the games available for the SAM, as well as numerous letters
containing such tips and passwords. Over the next couple of
pages, therefore, you can find some of them.
Colin compiled these pages. Which makes a change from sitting
around playing Triltex, doesn't it Colin! No, I won't hear a
word against our Col. He may like watching Australian TV
programs, but hey, nobody's perfect.
CM Cheats
A lot of you have been requesting cheats for some of the latest
games, so here's a few pointers.
Parallax : Hold down as many keys as possible on the menu screen
Dyzonium : Type in DIGITAL DREAMING.
WaterWorks : The passwords are :-
2 KANGAR 9 REDWIN 16 FORFOR
3 CLIMBA 10 PENCIL 17 SEVNTE
4 OPENTH 11 HELLAN 18 TONINE
5 STAYAL 12 DIVEAN 19 TENNIN
6 STEALS 13 SHIRTC 20 TWOTEN
7 HEAVEN 14 SEVXTO 21 PONTOO
8 GARDEN 15 TENNFI 22 DUBTWO
Bulgulators passwords :-
FOX, LIE, ALE, RAT, TNT, KEY, WEB, GIN, OFF
CM Cheats
Boing : to activate invincibility against the nasties :-
Get the torch (hidden behind tree trunk).
Jump up 8 times in the middle of the bridge between the fish.
After falling down, drop the torch.
Use one of the teleporters.
Wop Gamma : the passwords are :-
5 SANITY 55 DURESS { NB : If HAUNCH doesn't work on your
10 ZAPHOD 60 CARROT } version, send the disc back to
15 BOING! 65 TEABAG { Revelation with an SSAE.
20 SPLAT! 70 WAFFLE }
25 MELLOW 75 LANDER { We were going to publish the cheat
30 DOMAIN 80 HAUNCH } mode but decided not to at the last
35 SENTRY 85 TARDIS { minute. We might publish it later in
40 MOUSSE 90 JARRE! } the year.
45 OUTCRY 95 FROG!! {
50 HIMMEL }
CM Price List details
By now, everyone that has bought anything from FRED will have at
least one (or possibly dozens!) of copies of the FRED order
form. However, the form at present doesn't tell you anything
about the software. So, I'll just do a brief rundown of what
each item is :
Impatience : Set of two puzzle games
Triltex - TLL : Extra levels for Impatience
Parallax : Shoot-em-up
SpellMaster : Spell checker with 80,000 words incorporating
word processor and anagram & crossword solver.
Dyzonium : Cross between a shoot-em-up and collect-em-up
Bulgulators : Pacman in the 90's with 100 colourful levels,
locked doors, one way walls and lots more
Boing! : Colourful and professional Dizzy style game -
originally to be published by Noesis Software
WaterWorks : Arcade/Puzzle game which proved to be a bit of
an unexpected success.
CM Price List details
ETracker : Music creation package. This is the standard
package used to create all SAM music today.
See samples in ETunes sections.
MasterDOS : Best-selling extension to DOS. Allows date
stamping, ramdiscs, sub-directories and more.
MasterBASIC : Extension to SAM Basic. Essential for avid
BASIC programmers.
FileManager : Creative and flexible database program.
GamesMaster : Menu driven games creation system. Creates
stand-alone m/c games.
SC_Assembler : Standard assember/dissassembler.
SC_Filer : Database creation program.
SC_Monitor : Monitor your machine code. Lets you see
exactly what's happening in m/c programs.
SC_DTP : Desk Top Publishing program.
CM Price List details
GM_Base : Simple database program.
GM_Calc : Simple spreadsheet program.
SAMDisk 2 : Disc doctor utility.
SAMTape 4M : Last version of excellant Spectrum emulator.
Banking System : PBS - self explanitory!!
Outwrite V2 : Popular word processor. Incorporates simple
spell checker.
Style Writer : Mini colour DTP program.
Wop Gamma : Excellent Boulder Dash clone. 100 levels,
almost 20 tunes and 5 graphic banks.
Manic Miner : Souped up graphics and sonics, and three
times the number of levels from the original!
Batz 'n' Balls : Arkanoid mouse compatible game. 160 levels.
The Secretary : Best-selling word processor of 1992!!!
CM Price List details
Days Of Sorcery : Colourful adventure game.
Sheriff Gunn : Adventure game set in a Western town
MIDI Sequencer : Lets you program your MIDI keyboard.
SCADs : SAM Coupe Arcade Development System. Adds
dozens of new commands to BASIC to allow
simple creation of arcade games.
Anti-Glare scrn : Anti-Glare 14" monitor screen.
SAMPrint : Poster/ Card/ Headed paper designer.
FRED Publishing can also supply a wide range of printers,
computers and consoles. The latter two can be purchased at
discounted prices between now and Christmas. Phone for quotes.
Brands available : Citizen, Commodore, Sega, Atari, Amstrad...
Remember folks, orders need not be placed on order forms - a
letter will suffice. Or subscribers can simply order by phone
and have goods despatched same day!
BM Disc Contents
For those of you who are to observation what the Tories are to
promise-keeping, that was a brief rundown of the FRED price list
so that you all know exactly what to spend your money on this
autumn.
And now, FRED Publishing proudly presents - the contents if
Issue 36! Woooo! Yeah! Woooo again!
SCREENS contains some ported Amiga screens by AXE, some screens
from Lemmings, AND some from The Witching Hour. They should keep
you going until we get some demos sorted out.
STARBUG is a very nice GAMESMASTER game by Nathan Dolan. It's a
shoot-'em-up of sorts, and you have to collect the grey and blue
rectangles (or is it the grey and RED ones? I can never
remember...). The keys are 67890, or you can use a joystick
(provided you've GOT one, naturally).
BM Disc Contents
PARADOX is a music demo by Andy Monk which could, as Andy
himself points out, be renamed Best of Andy Monk's music. It
contains some new tunes, some older, remixed tunes and some
which he put on to fill up space (maybe).
NOTEPAD. Ah, now HERE's a treat for you all. This is a full word
processor, and is really quite incredible. Calvin Allett wrote
it, and it's just indescribable! There are SO MANY FEATURES! A
full and comprehensive instruction file is included, and
although the package is a doddle to use, you will almost
certainly miss out on the finer details unless you read this. In
order to load the instrution file, you load up Notepad, press
EDIT to enter Command Mode, the L to load something. Elect to
load a file, enter the filename as NOTIN and then the
instructions'll load in. Sorry. I just need to go and lie down.
This word processor is so good I'm getting all dizzy.
Before I forget, you'll need to load the CONFIG file, just as a
text file, to set it up as you want it to be.
BM Disc Contents
CELEBRATE is a superb (that word again!) machine code demo
written by Stefan Drissen featuring 4 layers of parallax
scrolling, a specially written Andy Monk soundtrack and a nice
spectrum analyser effect. And the fact that all the graphics
were done by Aesthetix (me) has nothing to do with my pointing
out that this is an excellent demo.
STEVE TAYLOR not only managed to write another article on
machine code, but he sorted out the iffy numbering as well -
issues 34 and 35 both had part 23 on them, but now we're at
number 25 and all is right with the world again.
THE WOMBLES caused quite a stir with their last demo, and now
they're back with another one! This one features the usual
scrolly and music (and we wouldn't have it any other way), BUT!
It also gives you the once in a lifetime chance to watch - wait
for it, wait for it - a womble raving!!!
BM Disc Contents
Steve Taylor notches up his second main menu appearance this
month with his very own machine code birthday demo. Awww, innit
sweet.... (The demo. Not Steve. Godlike, omniscient, perhaps,
but not sweet).
Oh! What have we here? Could this be another undeniably
brilliant utility we've got for you? Why, I do believe it could
be. And wait a mo - isn't this a very fine indeed PC disc
reader? Well well well. Geoff Winkless wrote this, and it's
truly awesome. I don't know. You people are spoiled aren't you?
£2 this issue cost you. £2. Two measly quid!! And you not only
get a word processor that makes Outwrite! look like a cabbage
but you get a program that does vurtually everything that PC
Suite (£30) does. No. It's too much. I can't take it any more.
All this classy software starting to get to me. There'll be a
complete machine code game next.
Guess what?
BM Disc Contents
Yup - a complete machine code game! (Oh surprise surprise...)
Darren "Spellmaster" Clarke of, erm, Spellmaster fame wrote this
extremely difficult board-game type thing, and I really am
starting to wonder how we do it. How on Earth are we able to
bring you such good stuff? Anybody even THINKS about saying this
issue is a waste of money is going to get very nasty letters for
months, possibly YEARS to come (and you think I'm kidding?!).
Anybody who manages to beat the computer at this game on the
most difficult level will first of all be congratulated, and
then taken outside for a good kicking for being too clever for
their own good.
ADVERTS is its usual dependable, reliable, self; not too
exciting, but security is the keyword here.
Lastly, we've temporarily binned Bits 'n' Bobs. In its place is
a small database which just happens to contain details of
everything that's ever appeared on FRED. That's all.
BM Disc Contents
Nothing special, just a small program so you can look at it
once, shrug a little shrug, and leave it alone. Yeah, RIGHT! I
know for a fact that most of you have been crying out for this
program - FREDEX!! Hurrah! Short for FRED(ind)EX took literally
days (woah!) to write and compile, and I should know, because I
wrote it (Tcha. Has to get his bit of credit in somewhere,
doesn't he - EVERY FRED READER. PROBABLY). No more digging
through old issues of FRED looking for things - at last there's
a catalogue to sort through. If you like this program, don't
clap - just throw money (you know it makes sens).
Right that's it. That's yer lot. E-Tunes we've missed out
because Andy Monk's Paradox demo more than covers the music side
of things. Chris White's Invaders column will return next issue,
and we'll hopefully get some nice product demonstrations sorted
out as well.
BM Last Page
Look, I'm sorry, but it's 23:30, I am very tired (having worked
in Wm Low from 7:30am until 8:00 pm!!!!!) and I am going to
watch the rest of Naked City. It is actually quite funny; I've
just seen the thing about L7 which was nowhere near as phoney
and well, poor, as something like The Word would have made it.
So - enjoy the issue, send us lots of money, and have a
generally happy life. Thankyou and good night.
(Don't forget to read the music bit and the wrestling bit
though!)
Finally, I'd like to give a wee mention to an AMIGA PD library,
simply because it's great, it's cheap, and it's fast. This is
now the official "FRED Editor's Fave Amiga PD Library", and
don't you forget it! Discs are just 80p each (incredible by
Amiga PD standards)! For more details write to:
Alpha PD, 3 Whickham Street, Easington, {} And say you've got a
Peterlee, Co. Durham, SR8 3DJ }{ SAM and FRED sent ya!
BM Credits
Editor: Brian McConnell
Contributors (who are all brill):
Stefan Drissen Calvin Allett
AXE Steve Taylor
Andy Monk The Wombles
Stefan Drissen Darren Clarke
Darren Hubbard Nathan Dolan
Geoff Winkless Doug Murdoch (great tape!)
Dr Alex Paterson (great music)
ooOOoo
Cheques payable to: Phone [redacted]
FRED Publishing at
[redacted]
Music + wrestling >>>----->>
BM Music Section
As I said about 2 pages ago, I am knackered, and despite the
fact that I've been buying numerous CDs recetly, including those
by Rage Against The Machine, Amorphous Androgenous, Positiva
Ambient Collection, Smashing Pumpkins, and The Jesus And Mary
Chain, I am not going to be reviewing anything.
Howard Price of The Wombles, however, will be reviewing things.
Phew. Just about an empty Music Section! Jings! (ahem).
Concert news: I had been promised a review of House of Pain/
Cypress Hill/Funkdoobiest at Glasow, but my reviewer has turned
out to be a mite unreliable. He's not a SAM owner though, so
feel free to direct feelings of discontent at him. I am hoping
to go an see the Smashing Pumpkins and Teenage Fanclub in
Glasgow in September, but no guarantees. Anybody interested in
maybe meeting along there, get in touch.
Right. Have a bit o' Howard...
HP Reviews - Charlatans
First up, Charlatans:Between 10th and 11th. A great one this.
Forget the loud angry people like Alice in Chains, this nice
quiet album is absolutely yer epitome of background soothing
moosic. Ermm, this isn't coming out right, but then, it's so old
you'll all have got it by now anyway, if you know your marbles.
Exhibit A - I don't want to See the Sights. That's a good one
for a start, it's got a sort of warbling bass wot's the same all
the way through, some nice interesting and rather cracking
guitar. Then it changes JUST when it's beginning to get
predictable, and sounds really.. ace. Try on Exhibit B, C and D
for size - Tremolo song, The End of Everything, Weirdo. Could be
classed as boring, but the nostalgia of 1990 and the birth of
our Sam is really nice. You'll not notice the duds, and get
engrossed in some intricate graphic work before realising you've
sung along to the whole album on it's first listen. This is a
well cool record, to use a now out-dated phrase! Several million
out of ten.
HP Reviews - Blur
Aha! Blur, the ridiculous puppet band from the pre-grungewear
days (I love grungewear, but I hate the expensive kind!! Those
designer bleeders made grunge a laughing stock!!). They've gone
English, and we mean nice, '90s London Underground English. Face
it, everyone loves London, even the pollution. Like this record
- you'll be forgiven if you've unwittingly ripped the piss out
of it with your mates - it's a cliche in its own lifetime.
Unfortunately, it's really good! Oh, there're a couple of REALLY
crap songs, like Resigned (Yawn), and the lyrics (or "words" to
normal people) are strange to say the least. But you've got
several berilliant songs. Like For Tomorrow, like Chemical
World, like Sunday Sunday, like Blue Jeans. Almost
unrecognisable progress has been made since Leisure (debut
album, with about 4 good songs on it (Kitty! Give me my copy
back NOW!)), though you can still hear it in Turn it up, and
perhaps Villa Rosie. And then there's the Intermission and
Commercial Break, frantic brilliance. It's all there, another
great album (but then, I only buy albums I know I'll like! Next
on the line is Jamiroquoi and Suede) 10/10.
HP Reviews - Radiohead
Pablo Hunny? Could you take out the trash? Okay, just as soon as
you tell me why Radiohead's satisfactory debut is called Pablo
Honey. Right. Things start off okay, with You, and Creep is a
bast for the heart strings, but the next two are crap! So, it's
quite lucky that the rest of the album is a fine example of
commercially viable rock including Anyone Can Play Guitar, and
Blow out, the latter of the two DOES blow out! I can almost see
their three guitarists going mental at the end to get the
screaming song. Thom's quite good aswell, though I don't really
see what the commotion about his star-quality is about... Not a
lot can be said about the album really, except for the two songs
in the begnnning half (ie first side), which let it down, cos
their too similar. Ripcord and Vegetable, however, make a good
pair to tunes, ven though they sound quite samey. One last thing
- this needs listening to, you're not going to get a rush of
Play Me Again when you listen to it, but the songs are really
good when you've listened to them so much you can recite the
words without the songs playing... Only 7/10!!!
HP Rage Against The Machine
Pretty cr*p. But good cr*p. It'll sell. But don't listen to the
album all at once.
Funny really! Now I'm certain to get my head kicked in by some
guy arguing that politics is best served up like this - ie
shouted to some power chords. But don't think I don't like it
just because it's simple - I wouldn't have bought the thing if I
didn't go mad when I saw that Late Show, with Bullet in the Head
(and Smashing Pumpkins' Rhinoceros - but later, later). Okay, so
it loses something in the studio mix, but so does Catherine
Wheel (another great album!!), so ou can't really complain. It
starts very well - Bombstrack, with some nice funky rhythm to
the rap, and okay "tune". Then follows the now classic Killing
in the Name, but by then I advise a bit of a lie down or
something, or the effect wears off. 10 tracks, all of which are
pretty good examples of their loud funk/metal moosic, tend to
get very repetitive, so the excellant Freedom and clever
Township Rebellion are wasted, unless you deliberately start
listening with these tracks.
HP Rage Against The Machine
Still, you couldn't want more, with the burning monk on the
case, a name like Rage Against the Machine and titles such as
Fistful of steel and Take the Power Back. No score accurately
descibes this....
Quicksand
Quicksand are loud. Of course, it's never obvious from this
album - Slip - but what is apparent is that they value lots of
songs, even if they are short on ideas. So you've got some
really good tracks here (like Lie and Wait, and Baphomet). But
you've also got to put up with the bands biggest drawback - the
singer hasn't got much of a recognisable tune! However, if you
play this loud, it's somehow fitting that he's just battling it
out with the guitars, and you get interesting results, just not
totally successful. A bit iffy, but then, if they were
brilliant, you'd have heard of them! (or something like that!)
Another 7/10....
HP Smashing Punkins - Siamese dream
Only kidding, it's not out yet. But if it's as good as the
CD-Single Cherub Rock, you're in for a great album. I'm getting
it, so wait for the review in a couple of months time....
Tobermory puts away his big jangly headphones and goes to bed...
See ya!
BM Brief Comment
Charlatans - crap
Radiohead - dunno
Blur - saw 'em live last year! Not bad
Rage Against The Machine - Crap? CRAP?! How dare you!!!!!!!
Quicksand - who??
Smashing Pumpkins - I DO have it. The album IS excellent,
and Cherub Rock is a classic song.
Wrestling time, grapple fans.... (aarrgghh! I SAID it!)
DH Daz Hubbard's WWF Update
After a severely stressful two months revising for and doing
exams, I'm back with more WWF news, as, on re-reading the video
reviews, it seemed like just a long listing of wrestling
manuevers, didn't it? (Still more "entertaining" than a Jackie
Collins novel).
This months shamelessly outrageous plug. 6 (6!) Speccy games for
a fiver. Yep, a barguin if I ever saw one, simply write to me
for a list, to buy them individually, or enclose just £5 + 50p
postage to get five of my choice (they'll be good ones, mind).
This months listings of wrestlers are...
----------------------------------------------------------------
HULK HOGAN 295lbs Managed by Jimmy Hart Fan Favourite
Old bloke with yellow trunks, and automatic top contender for
any title he chooses. Seems more interested on how his latest
film is doing than keeping a title. Recently caused a stir on
saying that the WWF belt is just a "toy" (see later on).
Finishing move - (the very useless) Legdrop
----------------------------------------------------------------
THE UNDERTAKER 328lbs Managed by Paul Bearer Fan Fabourite
Person dressed in all black, has an irritating manager, and says
"Rest in peace" all the time. Having problems with Mr. Hughes
(next month), who recently stole his sacred urn.
Finishing moves - Tombstone Piledriver
----------------------------------------------------------------
"The King" JERRY LAWLER 235lbs Rulebreaker
Hardly ever wrestles, as he is commentating all the time. Hates
Bret Hart. Also wrestles with the USWA, another federation. Also
hates the chant "Burger King".
Finishing move - Piledriver
----------------------------------------------------------------
LEX LUGER 270lbs Fan Favourite
Once arrogant bloke, now the prime WWF marketing tool. Wants a
shot at the WWF Champion Yokozuna, and will probably get it. Has
a perfect body through years of bodybuilding. Also famous for
his forarm, which has a six-inch steel plate embedded in it, to
knock people out with.
Finishing move - Running Forearm
----------------------------------------------------------------
GIANT GONZALEZ 460lbs Managed by Harvey Wippleman Rulebreaker
A giant of a man - 7'7 inches! Wears a stupid caveman outfit.
Can't find any opponents because everyone is scared of him!
Finishing move - Choke Slam
----------------------------------------------------------------
TAG TEAMS
----------------------------------------------------------------
RICK AND SCOTT STEINER Combined Weight - 505lbs Fan Favoutites
Current WWF tag champs. Both have amateur backgrounds and
scientific skills. Currently switching titles often with Money
Inc. - They beat Money Inc, two days later, Money Inc won the
belts back and three days on, the Steiner got them back again.
Finishing moves - Frankensteiner, Flying Bulldog, Top Rope DDT
----------------------------------------------------------------
MONEY INC Combined Weight - 508 lbs Rulebreakers
The team of Ted Dibiase and Irwin R Schyster use huge wads of
dosh to get everything. Three-time WWF tag-champs.
Finishing moves - Million-Dollar-Dream sleeper hold (Dibiase)
Write-Off Flying Clothesline (Schyster)
----------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS -
Yokozuna, after winning the WWF title from Hulk Hogan, recently
challenged any U.S. professional athlete to body-slam his 568
frame, on the deck of the U.S.S. Intrepid, a famous U.S.
landmark, on July 4th. Many accepted his challenge, wrestlers,
NFL stars, basketball players, even a 100 pound jockey, because
they didn't want America to be shown up by the Japenese.
They all tried, and failed. But, one more challenge was coming,
from none-other than former-rulebreaker Lex Luger, who went to
the ring, called Yokozuna a "Blood-sucking, sushi-chomping
champion", hit him with his forearm and prompting slamming the
fat bloke.
Lex Luger, in the days that followed, demanded a title shot,
which has been denied by Mr Fuji, Yokozuna's manager. Expect the
match to happen at Summerslam 93, in Detroit, Michigan.
HULK HOGAN QUITS! Hogan handed in his notice on 1st July. But
why? Well, it seems that it is a combination of bad-mouthing the
WWF while wrestling in Japan in May ("I'm a five-time WWF Champ.
To me, this belt is a toy, like a Christmas tree ornament. The
WWF belt is like a Honda, the IWGP [Japanese federation] belt is
like a Rolls-Royce. It's the real championship belt."), and the
massive court case the WWF boss, Vince McMahon, has over Steroid
abuse, his relationship with other wrestlers, illigal payments,
possesion of illigal substances i.e. cocaine, heroin, marajuana,
and sexual misconduct.
Never mind, he couldn't wrestle for toffee anyway.
Ted Dibiase is reputed to leave the WWF after 5-6 years in it.
It is understood he will leave after Summerslam 93, and Irwin R.
Schyster will become a singles wrestler.
RUMOUR MILL: Sensation Sherri (manager of wrestlers like Randy
Savage, Ted Dibiase and Shawn Michaels) has left the WWF. She
will open up a beauty parlour (!?!) instead.
The results for the KING OF THE RING supercard are as follows...
PAPA SHANGO pinned OWEN HART with a shoulder-breaker in a match
not seen on TV...BRET HART pinned RAZOR RAMON in 10.28 (match
time) after Ramon duffed up a back suplex...MR PERFECT defeated
MR HUGHES by DQ in 6.02...BAM BAM BIGELOW beat HACKSAW JIM
DUGGAN in 5.01 with a Flying Headbutt in a truly dire match...
TATANKA and LEX LUGER wrestled to a 15 minute time limit draw.
As a result, Bigelow had a bye into the finals...Bret Hart beat
Mr Perfect by reversing a Small Package in 18.57 in a contender
for Match Of The Year...YOKOZUNA defeated HULK HOGAN in 13.11
for the WWF title when an actor, sorry, I mean a photographer's
camera blew up in Hogan's face...the STEINERS and the SMOKING
GUNNS defeated MONEY INC & the HEADSHRINKERS in 6.48 when Billy
Gunn pinned Ted Dibiase with a Small Package...Shawn Michaels
retained his Intercontinental Title by defeating Crush with a
Superkick in 11.11...Bret Hart downed Bam Bam Bigelow in 18.45
with a Victory Roll to win the tournement and have the title
"King Of The Ring".
After the last match-up, Jerry "The King" Lawler, attacked Hart,
for "being a pretender to his throne".
This leads to the next item: SUMMERSLAM 93 match-ups
The next WWF supercard will be on Sept 1st on Sky Sports, and
only two matches have been set so far...
BRET HART vs JERRY LAWLER: Resulting from the previous item.
Although both are scientific competitors, don't expect this one
to be that, this is going to be a brawl...
and the UNDERTAKER vs GIANT GONZALEZ in a R.I.P. match. Haven't
a clue what this one's about, although it's likely to be a Loser
Leaves WWF match (explain's itself that one...)
Thats it for this month. Stay tuned next month for more
absolutly-not-fixed-at-all-even-though-when-the-camera-exploded-
in-Hogans-face-it-didn't-even-touch-a-foot-away-from-him-action.
Remember the 6 (6!) games for a fiver! The address to write to
is Darren Hubbard, [redacted]. Barguins-a-plenty and stuff.
Next month sees more listings of Mr Perfect, Doink, Adam Bomb,
Mr Hughes, Bam Bam Bigelow, Jim Duggan, the Smoking Gunns and
M.O.M. (not Holmes and Leonardi! (Then again, with them going to
work on 16-bitters, it would be...interesting to see them match
up with these guys!!!) (Only kidding!)
See you in 30.
DH "U.S.A." by WWF SUPERSTARS/HACKSAW JIM DUGGAN
Review by DARREN HUBBARD
Don't buy it. It's crap.
Letters & Reviews
BM Letters/Reviews
Before I begin, I'd like to say that I've had a couple of
letters asking if we can get rid of that nasty ol' white text on
black.
Well, the good news is you CAN change the colours of the text
and the background, and this has been possible for well over a
year now! Had you read the first page you would have noticed
that pressing brings up the Colour Menu from which you
can choose any colours you like. I myself quite like a medium
shade of blue, or a pleasant yellow, but please don't let this
influence your choice one little bit - remember, I am
colourblind!
But enough droning on. Let's have some letters!
Letter from Pauli Lindgren
In the FRED #26, Daniel Cannon wrote about the new features he
would like to be added to SAM. He suggested that a DMA should be
added to boost the graphics and sound features. I don't think
that would be much use.
DMA would improve the speed of scrolling, but not as much as you
may think. The processor is NOT free to do other things while
DMA is working, since DMA takes over the system bus.
What we really need is hardware scrolling logic. That is, a
15-bit register that contains the starting address of the
display within the display page. Scrolling (vertical, horizontal
or diagonal) would be performed simply by writing new value to
this register. Scrolling would be instant, not a bit of screen
data would need to be moved. That is how scrolling works on most
other computers.
Letter from Pauli Lindgren
The graphics features of SAM could also be improved. First thing
that you notice when you look at SAM screen is that only small
part of TV screen is used. SAM uses only 192 lines, but there is
room for at least 256 lines in non-interlaced mode. A very
simple way to enhance the resolution would be just to use more
lines on screen. Of course, there could also be more pixels per
line.
Both of the above enhancements are very simple and require very
little hardware, but they can only be done inside the ASIC. I
would also like to see more colours and additional modes with
higher resolution, but these would be more complex things to do.
Since the ASIC chip is in socket, it can be easily replaced (no
soldering iron needed, Calvin Allett!). This is a much neater
way to update SAM than those white boxes sticking out the back
of the machine.
Letter from Pauli Lindgren
I don't believe developing a slightly modified version of the
ASIC is that expensive. It is not the same thing as creating a
whole new ASIC. Unfortunately, after Samco collapsed, there is
no-one to do such development.
Blitter chip and sound hardware, on the other hand, could be
done as external add-ons. I don't see much use for a Blitter
chip. Sound card would be nice, but I am afraid it would be
expensive. Simple DMA would not do the trick. You can't get good
sound quality with just 4 bits and no output filtering. And if
DMA used SAM's internal memory and sound chip, it would take
over the system bus and thus block the processor from doing
anything while the sound is output.
Amiga-style sound device should include external RAM, D/A
convertters, filters and complex control logic. I'd estimate
such a device would cost something between £100 and £150. Would
there be demand for it at that price?
Letter from Pauli Lindgren
Anyway, perhaps some day I will build something like that for
myself. It would perhaps help if I had the Hardware Development
Kit. I ordered couple of kits from Samco already in February
1992 but never received them. Does anybody actually have the kit
or the Kaleidoscope? Do such things even exist? I wonder why
West Coast Computers or anybody else do not sell them.
Now onto another subject: Spell Master. I am using it just now,
and it is quite a nice little word processor. The spelling check
works fine, it is fast and handy.
However, there are some things I find irritating. This damn
thing does not even know the word YOU! Now, about the missing
plurals. Adding the plurals to the dictionary would NOT double
the dictionary size. You would only need one bit for each word
to indicate, if the plural form is allowed. Or you could reserve
a whole byte for each word, to allow flags for other endings,
such as -ing or -ed.
Letter from Pauli Lindgren
Another defect is the keyboard scanning. I don't understand why
it is so difficult to make it work correctly. When I write a
word starting with a capital letter, Spell Master almost every
time writes two characters, a capital and a lower case letter.
It may be my typing style, but in any case, there is no such
problem with the Basic editor, nor with any word processor on
other computers.
On most SAM games and other programs (including Flash and the
Fred text reader menu), the key scanning works unreliably. When
you press a key e.g. to move the cursor, the cursor may not move
at all, or it may move 2 or 3 positions. And then the key starts
repeating without any repeat delay! There is a working key
scanning routine in the ROM. Why don't the programmers use it?
One more thing. Would you please give the address of Your
Sinclair (or is there other Spectrum/SAM magazines still
available?) None of Sinclair magazines have been for sale here
in Finland for many years.
BM Reply to Pauli Lindgren
I may as well take this opportunity to say that I firmly believe
that trying to upgrade the SAM is not going to do any good. If
people are really concerned about music they'll buy Amigas or,
although this is perhaps less likely these days, an ST. The SAM
has no chance at all of ever being better than the Amiga, but
some people seem to believe that would be no problem at all.
If it was so easy to build a cheap machine that could make the
present Amigas look like cheap toys, I'm sure Commodore would
have realised buy now and built it themselves. The Amiga is now
£200 for a bottom-end model.
The SAM is never going to succeed in terms of the commercial
world in which companies such as Commodore and Sega can be
found. The people who buy SAMs are going to do so because of its
user-friendliness, the fact that you can write your own programs
with ease. The graphics and sound capabilities of the SAM really
aren't that important to such people; they're good to have,
certainly, but not the be-all-and-end-all.
BM Reply to Pauli Lindgren
Yes, I now know that adding plurals to Spellmaster would not
necessarily double the size of the dictionary, but it would add
a good couple of thousand bytes. It's too late to change it now,
anyway. As for words which Spellmaster doesn't recognize - you
are allowed to add these words to the dictionaries, you know.
It's usually just a case of finding a word which should be
included (but isn't) and then adding it to the dictionary.
Simple.
I've no idea about your key-scanning problems, but I do know
that from now on there are no widely-available Spectrum/SAM
magazines. YS closed down just last month, as you'll know if you
got FRED 35.
The Kaleidoscope. The hardware development kit. Do they exist?
Well, there'll be a couple going around, but I'd say your
chances of getting hold of one are a little worse than terrible.
- BRIAN
Letter from Marc Rickard
Dear Colin,
Just a short note about the SCPDSA. I've just received FRED32
and read your news piece about the mentioned association, and
I'd like to say that having paid out something like £4 (I can't
remember the exact price - it's ages since I've heard anything
at all) I received one rubbish Karate Kid disc, and that's it.
I'd like to thank you for pursuing this matter - people should
not be allowed to get out away with this out-and-out theft.
Many thanks,
Yours sincerely,
Marc Rickard
CM Reply to Marc Rickard
Thanks for the vote of confidence Marc.
Unfortunately, there's nothing more I can do. I've contacted
Brent Stevens himself numerous times with nothing resolved. One
reader took the matter up with the Trading Standards Office, and
managed to get a refund.
I contacted the TSO of behalf of everyone that Brent conned, but
they were only interested in hearing from the people that Brent
directly owes money to.
So, if the SCPDSA still owes you outstanding issues, write to :
Mrs Coventry
c/o Trading Standards Office,
[redacted], Tel : [redacted]
Letter from Calvin Allett
25th July 1993.
Dear Colin/Brian,
I'm just writing to let you know that if you want anyone to
write reviews of games then I wouldn't mind reviewing some. The
only reason I haven't been buying the games you've been
releasing is because I'm saving up for an Amiga 1200 + hard disc
and so I need all my money (that's why I wanted to know if you
had any plans to enter the Amiga market!).
I can review any games but I don't like adventure games (by that
I mean I don't like the type where you have to type in east,
north etc, I like the Monkey Island type of adventure games
though), also it's pointless me trying to review an assembler or
moniter because I don't program in machine code but anything
else's OK if you haven't found enough people yet.
Letter from Calvin Allett
If you want anymore articles written then let me know, also I'm
busy writing a program to go with The NotePad that allows you to
insert graphics within a document, you can also draw lines for
underlining or borders if you like and you can draw circles, by
using the graphics feature you can add big titles etc as
graphics, it won't be a DTP program or anything like that but it
would make a good FRED freebie. Would you be interested in using
this on FRED ?
BM Reply to Calvin Allett
Thanks for offering to review stuff for us. I'm sure Colin'll
get in touch with those who've volunteered to help. You can read
a couple of reviews by one quick-off-the-mark young chap later
in this section.
As for that graphics thingy - yes please!!
- BRIAN
Letter from Graeme Tattersall
Dear FRED,
Congratulations on a great disk magazine, happy 3rd birthday.
Does anyone know what West Coast are planning to do with all the
Speccys that they will get from this 50 Part exchange thing
against a SAM (you never know, they might get a lot).
What happened to 'KALEIDOSCOPE' - you know, that thing that was
supposed to expand the SAM's colour range. I heard that it adds
two new modes (a 512 colour version of MODE 3, and a 1024 colour
version of MODE 4 with a much higher resoloution) to the sam as
well as expanding the colours. Is this true or has some fool
been telling me fibs?
I have a Canon BJ10-ex printer (page 13, Editorial Fred 31). I
would agree with Brian in saying that it is an excellent
printer, both for text and graphics, although you can't use the
half decent graphics mode from the SAM. The text from the Sam is
superb though.
Letter from Graeme Tattersall
Brian said that the font download facilities wouldn't work from
the SAM. On my printer, they worked with a program called
'FONTWIST.4' from the Addenders section of Outlet (some issue
after no.56).
Some questions and other points now :
1. What happened to kaleidiscope, the interface that gave the
SAM quite a few thousands of colours. Was it any good? Can
it still be bought?
2. Why doesn't someone design a hard drive for the SAM (say,
about 20 or 40 Megabyte in size), or can the SAM not handle
that kind of disc-based storage.
3. How about including the aforementioned 'FONTWIST.4' in FRED?
It makes font-downloading a hell of a lot easier.
Letter from Graeme Tattersall
4. Would it be possible for someone to design an emulator for
the sam so that the sam could emulate, say a Commy 64 or even
a BBC micro. This could shift the SAM's reputation from being
a 'souped up Spectrum' as a terribly misinformed person once
said to that of an extermely powerful all-rounder. Also,
making the SAM compatible with the computer that the majority
of schools still use (The BBC) could provide a gateway to
success for the good old sam.
5. Is the SAM MOUSE (the one released by SAMCO) a genuine Atari
ST Mouse. My mouse died - the plastic bits inside it snapped
when I accidentally dropped it. If I was to buy an ST mouse,
would it work with the SAM MOUSE interface box like the other
one did.
Nothing more for me to say now, except to repeat the first
paragraph for emphasis - Happy birthday to FRED, and, to Colin,
Brian, and anyone else involved with the production of this mag:
keep up the good work. I wish fred every success in the future.
BM Reply to Graeme Tattersall
Taking your points one at a time (always a good method, I find),
I'd imagine that any Speccies received will be cannibalised for
parts or something. Maybe the people at West Coast can turn them
into intelligent remote-controlled cars or something.
Assuming that the Kaleidoscope wasn't an April Fool type thing,
I think it's safe to say it WON'T be revolutionising the SAM
world.
I should have explained a little clearer what I meant when I
said the font download wouldn't work with the SAM. It will work
from any computer, I just wasn't aware that there was software
available to do so on the SAM. I'll have to have a rummage
around in Colin's collection of Outlets for that little proggy.
I don't see that particular program being used on FRED, but you
can obtain back issues of OUTLET from FRED if you want, for the
price of a single issue of FRED - £2.
Yup. BJ10-ex printers are GREAT!!
BM Reply to Graeme Tattersall
A hard drive of some sort would be amazing for the SAM!! I'm
kind of saving up for one for my Amiga ("kind of" in the sense
that I can never seem to get more than about £50 together at the
one time), and a SAM one would make my life so much easier you
wouldn't believe it. There're no plans to release one
unfortunately, although it's not something which should be ruled
out altogether.
Seeing as the SAM cannot even successfully emulate the very
similar Spectrum 128, I think it's safe to say a C64/BBC
emulator is as likely as John Major winning the 1500 metres at
the next Monifieth High School sports day (or the next election
for that matter, ho ho).
You should be okay with a normal ST mouse. If not just return it
to the shop you bought it from and explain the situation.
Provided you have the receipt I'm pretty sure they have to give
you a refund or replacement as the goods are unfit for the
purpose for which you bought them (or something). - BRIAN
MS Review by Mike Sutherland
Program : Campion - The Spreadsheet
Publisher : Revelation Software
Price : £29.95 (INDUG/FRED members £24.95)
Thirty quid for a spreadsheet! For that sort of money I would
expect this to be nothing short of the bee's knees'. For my
money I got a 92 page A4 manual, a disk and two stickers for any
working copies I may care to make.
First impressions? Well, it's nice to see such care being taken
with the manual - it seems to be laser printed and printed, VERY
impressive! And then a look at the disc : no DOS, no Auto* file
(so it's not a load-up straight away job) and the actual code
for the database is only 22K long..!?! Either the programmers
are extremely competent or I've just wasted £30!
The manual was designed to be of use to both newcomers and
old-hands at spreadsheets. This it does quite nicely except for
the section where it tells you to perform various functions
MS Campion
without explaining what you are doing and why....weird!
Anyway, that aside, the first 50 pages of the manual are taken
up explaining how spreadsheets work, what makes this one tick
and how to travel around the whole thing. The last 40 pages
provide an alphabetical list to all the functions available to
the user. These range from the "to-be-expected" ones like INT,
TAN, IF and PI to the "looks-very-impressive-but-why-on-earth-
would-anyone-use-that" like VLOOKUP, SYD, NPER and DDB.
To explain the last one, DDB, here's the manual's definition :
"DDB calculates the depreciation allowance by using the double-
declining method, where the depreciation is high in the early
years of the asset's life and gets lower as the asset reaches
the end of it's useful life."
If that didn't confuse you, there're dozens more just as complex
which perform seemingly wonderfully useful functions - provided
MS Campion
you actually have a use for them. In short; every function under
the sun is in Campion, as is every one under the moon, stars and
any other orbiting objects you care to name.
Campion has 128 x 1000 cells which should prove more than
adequate for anyone. The clever bit (well - I thought it was
clever) is that the length of the file you save out depends on
how much you've typed into it ie if you just load up Campion and
save out a blank spreadsheet it only takes up 163 bytes, but you
can fill it right up to 64K (although it would take 6 months
worth of typing!).
Inside the actual spreadsheet you move the bar around using the
cursor keys. You can start typing on the edit line at any time
when you wish to enter something into a cell. The Edit key
brings up the main menu at the top left of the screen. From this
you can change almost everything.
Like all good spreadsheets you can change the entire format of
MS Campion
each individual cell : it's alignment, width, format of how
numbers are stored etc etc. If you enter a number above 1000,
Campion automatically puts a comma after every three digits!!
If you've used a spreadsheet before you will know that you can
need to input a row/column of figures in a specific direction.
What Campion does is it remembers the last direction the cursor
bar moves in, and pressing Return will move the bar in the same
direction again! For example : pressing cursor left, entering
1 , 2 , 3 will produce :
3 2 1
Clever eh?
Two other unique features of Campion that immediately spring to
mind are the "almost equal" and comments.
The "almost equal" is a function which tests if two numbers are
MS Campion
"almost equal" ie
1/3 and 0.3333 are "almost equal"
Obviously, anything greater than a minute decimal difference
will result in the "almost equal" failing as well.
Campion also allows you to enter comments as part of the
formulae so that when you look at it again you have a note of
what it did! This is achieved by putting a semi-colon after the
formula followed by your comments. Very similar to a REM
statement - and just as useful.
I've been shown how to use three of the best PC spreadsheets in
my time and provided I forget things like graphs, integration
and mouse control, I can honestly say that Campion beats them
hands down. It has clearly been designed and programmed by
people that have spotted the downfalls of other spreadsheets and
MS Campion
have been able to come up with an ingenious program - especially
in just 22K !!!
I can honestly recommend that Revelation and the programmers get
together and start on the PC market - they'd clean up.
Other than minor niggles like the lack of hot keys and a few
more personal choice touches, the only snag with Campion is it's
hefty price tag. If you have any use for a spreadsheet
whatsoever, you'll find it worth every penny - but perhaps
Revelation should have gotten a demo version out on the market
to let people see what they're getting, I mean £30 s a fair few
bob to be splashing out on something you aint seen. But take it
from me (if this gets printed), you won't be wasting your cash.
Revelation Software,
PO Box 114
Exeter
Devon EX4 1YY .
Reviews by Peter Vinnicombe
Hi FRED,
After reading your plea for a software reviewer in issue 35 of
your mag, I thought you could consider me for doin the job!
I'm interested in all sorts of software from utilities to games,
and would jump at the chance to review them for you.
Below are some samples of my reveiws...
REVIEW: E-TRACKER
PRICE: 30.00 ( 27.00 FOR FRED SUBBERS!)
TYPE: MUSICAL UTILITY
DISKS: 2, 1-MAIN DISK CONTAINING E-TRACKER+COMPILER
2-PROGRAMME DISK TO PUT YOUR OWN CREATIONS ON!!!
PV Etracker Review
E-tracker comes in a nicely painted glossy box containig
disks with a professional 21 page manual. The manual is
written in easy to understand English which takes you through
step-by-step instructions. The main disk contains E-tracker
itself and a rather useful compiler. The programme lets you
use the full capabilities of the PHILIPS chip: 2048 Tones, 96
possible notes, 8 octaves, 6 channels.
You can easily edit each seperate channel using different
instruments and ornaments. You can also do various tricks at the
touch of a few buttons ie copying large chunkss of music around
and changing the speed etc. The compiler is very easy to use
reducing the files from 125k to apprx. 4k-7k.
E-tracker lets you perform any musical miracle and as it states
in the manual " THE ONLY LIMITATION IS YOUR MUSICAL ABILITY".
Quite honestly, I'm very crap at producing a musical piece
myself but can achieve quite good results using this package.
PV Etracker Review
The only 2 disapointing things I came accross was that there
wasn't any option letting you sample pieces of a CD or tape, And
that there isn't the option to DE-COMPRESS the files; if you
could then you will be able to browse through other people's
work and learn more about the package by exploring their musical
pieces!!
LASTABILITY:9/10
USEFULNESS:8/10
PRESENTATION:7/10
MAIN FUNCTIONS:8/10
OVERALL: 8/10 - AN EXCELLENT BUY !!!!
PV Boing Review
REVIEW: BOING
PRICE: 10.00 ( 9.00 SUBBERS)
TYPE :ADVENTURE/PUZZLE GAME
DISKS :1
Boing is a type of DIZZY clone where you have to search the land
for items which will go on to solve various puzzles. The
graphics are very good with very colourful and cute sprites. The
object of the game is to find 20 potions, the crystal, the
battery, and the lever, which will all help to get your time
machine working again.
The annoying thing is you can only carry 3 items at a time and
you only get one life, which is all that is really needed as the
game is far too easy. The game is quite big with 57 screens to
visit and like all these games all that is needed is logical
thinking!
PV Boing Review
The option to get rid of the sound (not music but sound) is
quite useful as every time you jump, the music seems to get
disturbed.
GRAPHICS: 9/10
SOUND/MUSIC: 8/10
LASTABILITY: 6/10 - TOO EASY!
OVERALL: 7/10