Fred 38

Issue 38

Magazine

BM                         Editorial

Issue  38  is  out at last, and while it's not quite as early as
last  issue,  it's  still  a respectable release date (unless of
course  Colin  decides  to keep it lying in his room for several
days.  Why  he'd  do something like that I don't know, but it is
possible).

Since  last  issue  I've sold my A600 and bought a nice A1200HD,
which  partially explains why this issue isn't quite as early as
the  last  one.  Not  much  I can say about it except this: it's
fast! Nearly three times as fast as the SAM, in fact. Some might
say that using such a fast machine to just do the odd screen for
FRED  is  not  particularly worthwhile, but to those people I'll
just  say  this: next time you're in a pub/nightclub, just shout
very  loudly  "Hey! I've got an '020 processor!" and you'll soon
have  swarms  of  females at your feet. Intriguingly, this works
best  when  accompanied  by the scattering of large denomination
currency.


BM                         Editorial

Another  reason  that this issue isn't as early as it could have
been was my birthday which I managed to spend entirely under the
influence. The first 6 hours or so after waking weren't much fun
(the  previous night's activities may explain that) but with the
first  couple  of  drinks  down  I  soon  "recovered". I somehow
managed  to  avoid  being  hungover  for  the  Smashing Pumpkins
concert  the  following day which was a relief. I will point out
that  NOBODY  took  advantage  of the special offer announced in
last  month's  E-Tunes (ie send in a bottle of spirits and get a
free  issue  of  FRED),  and  you're all very lucky that I'm the
forgiving sort.

Nothing much left to say now, just that tomorrow is the last day
of  my summer holidays and I've got to spend it filling bread in
Wm  Low. Oh, what an inspiring way to spend it. Tuesday sees the
beginning of the university episode of my illustrious career, so
you  can  maybe  look  forward  to a word or two about that next
month.  I  don't know though. In all likelihood nothing remotely
interesting will happen, in which case  I'll say nothing. -BRIAN
BM                            News

Lemmings  has  taken  another  step  forwards  - we now have the
original graphic data from DMA. Rather conveniently, the contact
we've  got  with them lives in Monifieth!! Oh what a small world
etc.  etc.  Anyway, that's one of the larger obstacles overcome,
but we still can't give a definite release date.

Remember  that  nice  competition  we  started  what  seems like
decades  ago?  Well  we've decided to extend the closing date by
another  2  years. No, we haven't. That was just a silly attempt
to startle people. We have decided upon the winners, and I don't
think people will be too surprised by the outcomes:

Best E-Tune                 - Craig Turberfield
Best Gamesmaster/SCADs Game - John Vincent
Best Utility                - Calvin Allett

John  Vincent's  excellent  Witching  Hour  game  has  of course
already  been  released  (and is proving extremely popular), and
negotiations are underway with the others. Watch this space!
BM                            News

Thanks  to  each  and  every one of you who entered the contest.
Judging  all  the  entries  proved extremely difficult, possibly
more so in the E-Tune category than in the others (although they
were all pretty close). The E-Tunes was pretty much between Andy
Monk and Craig Turberfield, and many commiserations to Andy.

People  have  long  been interested in getting some sort of mass
gathering of SAM owners, and a certain Mr Bob Brenchley has come
up with the answer to the prayers of these very people. Bob, who
does the excellent Format magazine, has managed to arrange (that
is,  HAS  arranged, not WILL BE arranging) a special show solely
for Spectrum and (of course) SAM owners. The show is going to be
held  in  Gloucester on Saturday the 13th of November (so you've
all  got  plenty  time to get organised - no excuses!!). Tickets
are  a  mere  £2 (advance or pay-at-door) and family tickets are
available.  EVERYONE  will  be there - FRED, FORMAT, West Coast,
Blue  Alpha,  and  plenty  of  software stars. Phone Bob on 
[redacted] for details and directions of how to get there.

CM         Colin's Carefully Calculated Catastrophies

All throughout my summer holidays, a few of my drinking (cokes!)
friends  and  I were discussing going abroad for a holiday. Once
we'd  let  most  of  the holidays lapse, it became apparent that
this  wasn't  going to happen. Hence my decision to do "the FRED
tour  of  Britain"! Again, initially a few people seemed keen on
joining  me but during one of the last days of August I forced a
definite answer out of them.

So,  early  on  Tuesday  31st  August,  I  jumped  on a train to
Swansea.  Alone.  As  usual.  Never  mind  - I had a six pack of
beers, the Jurassic Park book and a BR buffet to keep me company
-  I was happy. And by early evening when I arrived in Swansea I
was  very  happy  -  much  to  the  joy of BR's buffet service I
presume!

Having  previously  arranged  to stay at a previous residence of
mine  in  Swansea  I  turned  up  at  the door - to discover the
!@#$%&& had forgotten I was arriving and went fishing! Hey - two
hours in the local pub, it wasn't all bad news!!
CM                       CM's GB Tour 1

Wednesday  1/9/93.  After  sleeping most of the day I eventually
arose  to  make  a seemingly innocent phone call to Blue Alpha -
much  to their horror upon discovering I was 600 miles closer to
them  than  when I usually phone!! Went out with Paul that night
for the obligatory welcome drinks and curry!!

Thursday.  Stayed  in  bed  and did nothing. This is the life! I
visited  a certain Bruce Gordon that evening to drink whisky and
catch  up  on  what he has (and hasn't!) been doing. In case you
couldn't  guess,  he's  plugging  away on a couple of top secret
projects - all of which I was told nothing about... (nearly)

Friday.  Went to Blue Alpha to watch Adrian, Mark and Paul build
thousands  of  SAMs,  repair millions of interfaces, oh, and sit
about chatting, drinking coffee, and playing PC golf all day.

Surely, I don't need to tell you that the weekend was completely
taken  up by drinking, partying and nightclubs? If I did, you've
certainly not been a long term FRED reader...
CM                       CM's GB Tour 2

On  Sunday,  I  made  the  wise  decision of going to bed BEFORE
midnight for a change because at...

5.30  AM  ON MONDAY MORNING I had to get up. Can you believe it?
Europe's  biggest  trade  computer show would not wait until the
afternoon so that I could get a lie-in. Typical. Anyway, at some
unfeasably  ridiculous hour on Monday Adrian and Paul (from Blue
Alpha) and myself set of to London for the day.

Now,  my  exploits  in  London  have  not  always  been the most
succesful  of adventures. But today was different. I didn't have
a hangover, the sun was shining and I had Adrian's renditions of
various  recent  chart songs to occupy my time. OH GOD. The trip
to  London  was  actually fairly uneventful - unless you include
having  your  hopes  built  up  for  two  hours  on stopping for
breakfast  at  a  certain  particularly nice motorway stop - and
then  shooting straight past it at 90 Mph because we were in the
wrong lane.

CM                       CM's GB Tour 3

And  then  there  was  the  centre  of London. As Adrian was our
"chauffeur"  for  the day, I was the offical navigator - using a
map of central London that was printed in 1974! Then there was a
crossroads which clearly indicated "No Left Turn". Seeing as I'd
instructed  Adrian  to  take  the next left and, in his opinion,
there was no real reason not to turn left, he turned left. After
doing  something  resembling an emergency stop before dozens and
dozens of astonished pedestrians Adrian remarked "THAT's why it
said No Left Turn!". Very observant Adrian.

The Show we were aiming for was in Islington, roughly North East
of  Central  London.  And  as  we  passed  into the outskirts of
Islington, the conversation goes as follows :

Adrian  : "We're in the blue zone now."

Considering  Adrian  is  not  completely stupid I assumed he was
remarking  on the colour coding of the underground in Islington.
Or the signs. Or Islington's "colour". Or something intelligent.
CM                       CM's GB Tour 4

Colin : "What are you on about Adrian?"

Adrian : "The Blue zone......on a Monopoly board!"

  2 or 3 minutes later...

Paul : "I bought a house around here but I can't see it"

Colin (to Adrian) : "We're still talking about Monopoly, yeah?"


We  actually did get to the show just about on time. Considering
almost  every home computer company you could think of was there
(Nintendo, Ocean, Philips, Sony, Gremlin, US Gold, Psygnosis...)
it was shockingly dull. Some nice displays from the new CD based
consoles,  some  "old"  games  with  new  graphics and music but
nothing  "new".  You may have figured this out by the lack of TV
coverage compared to previous ECTS Exhibitions.

CM                       CM's GB Tour 5

I  myself had a couple of interesting appointments. The Software
Manager  at  Psygnosis  bought me a drink and apologized for the
delays  in Lemmings source. A freelance agent from London bought
me  a  drink. An Advertising Manager at Future Publishing bought
me  a drink. AND someone at LeisureSoft bought me a drink. Don't
ask who it was - I just wanted the drink!!

Philips  impressed me yet again with the remarkable capabilities
of  their  CD-i, and Commodore's new CD32 was on display for the
first time. No drinks from them though...

Anyway,  that  was  the  show. Nothing exciting but I made a few
arrangements and got to put faces to some names.

Now,  the  return journey to Swansea. The idea of getting out of
London  was  to  simply reverse the inwards route. But no, there
have  been  literally  thousands of one-way systems incorporated
going  the  wrong  way. It felt like we were playing a real-life
version of Spectrum Painter (you know, the object is to go round
CM                       CM's GB Tour 6

every square in a block at least once and then get out). Adrian,
you'd probably make the National Championships at that game...

Let  me  explain  something:  Adrian's  car  is an automatic. So
compared  to  a  manual  car,  it's  a dead simple task to drive
around  in  heavy  traffic.  In fact you don't really need to be
paying  that  much attention, so when we fill up with petrol and
grab  a  couple of "Snickers Bars" (what on earth was wrong with
calling  them  Marathons...?), Adrian finds it a relatively easy
task  to  be driving along, opening and eating his Snickers. His
actual  words  went  along  the  lines of " !@#$, I forgot I was
supposed  to  steer."  Despite  the  huge  confidence  boost, he
emerged with a scratch-less car.

And  driving  home  was  a  cinch.  Not including the tyres that
'ticked' when we went under 30 Mph, shouting abuse at the bridge
toll  attendant  and overtaking a convertable Merc travelling at
110 Mph, just for the hell of it.  SOMEBODY GET ME OUT OF HERE!

CM                       CM's GB Tour 7

The  remainder  of  that  week  in  Swansea  was spent, yup, you
guessed  it,  drinking,  eating  curries,  playing  snooker  and
frequenting nightclubs.

A  little  tip for anyone who hasn't been in a Welsh pub: if the
bar  staff  refuse  to  serve  you  and  ten  minutes  later you
literally  get thrown out just after 11pm - don't start a fight,
it's  the  Welsh licencing laws. I just wish I'd remembered from
the last time...

A  trip with the Blue Alpha crew through to Format in Gloucester
also went relatively well. The instructions we were given to get
to Format after entering Gloucester were simply to take the last
exit  from  each roundabout. So, when it came time to depart, we
had to take the first exit. At the first roundabout, Adrian shot
past the first exit, much to our amusement. Upon going round the
second  time  he  asked  for  verification on which exit it was.
"Yes,  that's  definitely  the  right one" was the reply he got,
until we discovered we'd taken the same exit from the roundabout
CM                       CM's GB Tour 8

as we had to join it!

Just  to steady Adrian's nerves, after he corrected his mistakes
and  took  the right exit at the next roundabout, shouts of "NO.
WAIT - WE'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY" were heard.

Two  weeks  after  I  arrived in Swansea, I decided I'd tortured
everyone enough and it was time to leave.

I'd like to thank everyone that was nice to me during my stay :

                             (!)


And also the SAM bunch that I enjoyed seeing again :

Charles Gill           Bruce Gordon      Mark Hall
Paul Jenkins           Adrian Parker     Nathan Jowett

CM                       CM's GB Tour 9

And that's it. I spent three days with Bob at Format, playing PC
games and sorting out the Driver manual for Revelation Software.

So,  despite  good  intentions of doing lots of work, I ended up
still  tring  to beat PC Othello on the top level more than once
in a blue moon.

But nevertheless, it was good to see Bob and Jenny again and I'd
like  to  express  my gratitude to them as well as to Anne-Marie
for  putting herself out for me and Rose for the great meals and
cups of coffee.

Just  before  I  disappear  off  to  leave  Brian  to finish the
magazine,  I can tell you all that SCPDU has now been taken over
by FRED. Outstanding issues due will be honoured on a one-to-one
basis  and  as  of  next  month,  all  SCPDU back issues will be
available  exclusively  through  FRED. Hopefully next month I'll
have a few more details but until then.....sit tight!

BM                       Disc Contents

Before  I  do  this disc contents bit, I'd just like to say that
that last bit about SCPDU came as about as much of a shock to me
as  it will have to most of you!! I expect I'll get more details
from  Colin  in  time  for next issue, but for the moment I'm as
ignorant about this as anybody.

Right.  Disc  contents. BOMB! is a game by Nathan Dolan, and yes
okay,  it's  a  puzzle game. Use keys QAOP and SPACE to click on
squares  that  DON'T  have  bombs  in  them.  You can tell these
because  when you click on a square, it tells you how many bombs
are in the immediate vicinity, something like this:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0      The object is simply to click on every non-
                   bomb containing square in the play area.
0 1 1 1 1 1 0

0 1 B 2 B 1 0

0 1 1 1 1 1 0
BM                       Disc Contents

GAME  OVER  is  another tune made up from  samples, and is again
sent in by Stefan Drissen.

NOTEPRINT  is an update of NOTEPAD from Calvin Allett and allows
you  to  use  GRAPHICS  in your files!! Full instructions can be
read  by  loading  the program, pressing EDIT then L (for Load),
selecting load a file, and then entering the filename NOTIN.

Remeber  the  SAM TREK thing on issue 27 (I think)? Well AXE has
taken  that and given it a whole new lease of life in AXE  TREK.
Load it up and see what I mean!

Steve  Taylor's  last  article  before he nips off to university
again concerns his soon to be released DRIVER package.

E-Tunes are by Craig Turberfield and R Oldroyd.

SORTER by Paul Horridge sorts disc directories into alphabetical
order. Full instructions are included.
BM                       Disc Contents

SAUCER STRIKE is a Gamesmaster game by David Lewis, and has your
usual  save-the-world-from-invading-aliens  plot.  In this game,
they  lob themselves from the left and try to get to the left of
the  screen  while you either (a) watch and hope they don't make
too much mess of the Earth, or (b) shoot 'em all! QAOP SPACE are
the keys - what will you do?!

DEFLECTION  is a shareware game by Andrew Collier, meaning that
if  you like it, send a small fee to the author. While this kind
of  goes  against  the  usual FRED philosophy - the object is to
provide quality software at next to no cost - we're not going to
put  our foot down about it. Full details of this rather complex
game are included.

BITS  N  BOBS contains a simple strobe thing (please, don't load
this  if you're susceptible to strobe effects) by J Binnie, a 3D
sphere  producer  by  Ben  Wyatt,  a  Monty Python demo which is
remarkably familiar from Banzai, and a game called Colourcode by
J Eyre.
BM                       Special Offer!

Before  I leave you for another month, I'll let you know about a
tremendous  cash-saving opportunity which is begging to be taken
advantage of (a bit like Colin after one too many babychams).

The  Gamesmaster/SCADs  battle  has  always  been a close fought
thing,  with different people preferring different packages, but
if you've been unsure which to buy up until now, this could make
the  difference - FRED subbers can now get hold of SCADs from us
for the incredibly good value price of £12.99!!

If  you're  not  an  existing subscriber, we'll let you off with
becoming one and ordering SCADS in one go.

A  small  note about the otherwise excellent menu - it does take
rather  long  to  load,  but  if  you hold down SPACE just after
pressing  F9,  it will load in a little faster at the expense of
some of the effects.


BM                          Credits

Editor: Brian McConnell
Thanks to:

Nathan Dolan                  Craig Turberfield
Calvin Allett                 Steve Taylor
N Holmes                      Andrew Collier
Paul Horridge                 AXE
David Lewis                   John Eyre
Nigel French                  Banzai
Stefan Drissen                Jon Binnie
Ben Wyatt

FRED Publishing                                  [redacted]
[redacted]

                              >>>> Music, Wrestling + Vids >>>>



BM                       Music Section

          Smashing Pumpkins - Live At The Barrowlands

Yes,  I  did  make it there, and (thankfully) without any of the
exploits  which  invariably  accompany  the trips made by Him In
Charge.  Maybe  he's  just got exploit-attracting star sign (cue
for an "I'm a Pisskees, as in off" joke, but I won't succumb).

It's   worth  adding that despite the fact that this concert was
the  day after my 18th birthday, I wasn't even slightly hungover
which  is  nothing  short  of miraculous considering how I spent
Friday  night  (but  that's  another  story). One of my friends,
however, WAS hungover, and was sick on the bus. Woops!

The  queue was gigantic, and I'm told the concert was a sellout.
When  we  eventually  got  inside we found that all the T-shirts
were  crap,  which  was  disappointing because I'd wanted to get
one.  On  the up-side of that though, it meant I had an extra 10
quid  for  a party the following Wednesday, so there's a kind of
cloud/silver lining moral for you.
BM                      Pumpkins Review

Verve  were  the  support  act  (despite the claims by one of my
friends that Curve were doing the honours. Lying git...), and to
be  honest  weren't  that good. The lead singer was one of these
"cool"  androgeny people, trying to be all waiflike and feminine
and  only  succeeding in looking very sad. At first the audience
was  decidedly unreceptive to their music, which, to be fair, is
pretty  much  the norm, and their choice of songs didn't exactly
help  -  they  played some slow, structureless things - but when
they  got  a  bit more lively the crowd followed suit and before
long  there was quite a good bit of activity in the section just
in front of the stage (where we were).

Overall  Verve  went down okay, but I for one am not going to be
looking out for their album(s).

Usually  between  sets  the  lights  all  come  on and everybody
wanders  off  for a drink/Jimmy Riddle/both, but for some reason
this  didn't  happen and the crowd was left just standing around
still packed very tightly together.
BM                      Pumpkins Review

This  meant that there wasn't much chance to cool off before the
Pumpkins  which  was a bit of a pain. One of the roadies who was
testing   the  instruments  went up to the main mike and started
playing  his  guitar  to  see  that everything was okay, and the
crowd  started  applauding  him; he didn't actually realise this
until several moments later at which point he stopped. Next time
he  tested  something  he made sure it wasn't loud enough to get
him  any  attention! The bloke testing the drums got pretty much
the  same  treatment. Funny, you'd think that they'd enjoy their
little burst of fame.

Now,  this  wasn't  my  first concert, so I was pretty sure that
I knew what to expect when the Pumpkins came on. There's usually
a  bit  of pushing and some fairly violent "sways" (come on, you
know  what  sways  are),  but this was different; as soon as the
actual  music  started  the  sways/shoving were easily the worst
I've  been  involved  in. This could be because we were near the
front,   but  I  don't  think  so.  The  pressure  was  honestly
unbearable,  and  numerous  people had to be hauled out from the
BM                      Pumpkins Review

front  of  the  crowd  by the security blokes. The pressure from
behind was bad enough, but when the sways started going sideways
it  was  virtually  impossible to stay on your feet; were it not
for  the  sheer volume of people either side of me I'd have gone
down  myself, but I managed to stay upright. Some didn't though,
and I can vividly remember this girl who went down in one of the
sways  and  then  didn't  get  up before everybody started going
again.  A  few  of  us  noticed  this and had to try to stop the
people  around  us  from  standing  on her. We hauled her up and
passed her over the top (involuntary surfing1) towards the front
to  get  her out of danger.

That  was  frightening  though. I'm not exaggerating; people did
fall   unconscious   from  the pressure being put upon them. I'm
not  exactly  the bulkiest person in the world, but I was a good
foot  taller  and  2  or 3 stone heavier than some of the people
involved  in  those  sways.  How they made it through I'll never
know.

BM                      Pumpkins Review

There  was no way I was staying there, so I drifted out a little
bit to a spot where the crowd was lively but not dangerously so.
I'd advise you not to go to the very front of concerts if you've
never  been  to  one  before;  I can't see myself being quite so
eager to get to the very front in future.

Onto  the  music  of the concert - nice. Very nice. The Pumpkins
live  are much louder and more vicious than their studio selves.
Even slow songs like Disarm were far from gentle. The one or two
really really fast ones like Cherub Rock were incredible, and my
favourite of the night was Soma.

They  played  most  of  the new CD, Siamese Dream, a couple from
Gish,  and  I'm  sure  there  was the odd new tune lurking there
somewhere.  Disappointingly  they  did  not  play  Mayonnaise or
Rhinocerous, both of which are superb songs. The music was good,
but the concert was spoiled somewhat by the daft b*****ds in the
audience who seemed hell-bent on hurting somebody.

BM                Positiva Ambient Collection

Another  addition  to  my blossoming collection of ambient music
this.  There  are  11 tracks, and the CD lasts about 70 minutes.
The styles on this vary immensely, from the almost pop-like beat
on Orbital's "Halcyon" to the insubstantial nothingness of The
Black Dog's "Hub".

Orb  fans  might be interested to hear that there's an exclusive
live  version of "O.O.B.E." (from UFOrb), while Jesus Jones fans
will  be quite dismayed by what The Aphex Twin (who's also known
as  Polygon  Window  these  days) has done to "Zeroes And Ones";
remix  is  not  the  word!  Moby  makes  an  appearance with the
haunting  "Mobility",  which is followed by "Awakening The Soul"
by Beaumont Hannant, the best track on the CD in my opinion.

The   quality   in   this   varies   along with the nature, with
Rythim  is  Rythim  and  The Irresistable Force letting the side
down  quite  badly.  Despite these the album is still excellent,
and fully deserves 8 out of 10.

                   FILM REVIEWS by PAUL JOYCE
                   --------------------------


                       JURASSIC PARK (PG)
                   Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Dickie Attenborough

By the time this review reaches the screen of your Sam, Jurassic
Park  will  have been on general release for aeons, but it's too
much  to  pass  up  a  review for it. Is there still someone out
there that hasn't seen it yet?                [Yes, me! - BRIAN]

The  film introduces us to two palaeontologists (fossil hunters,
basically)  by  the  names  of  Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie
Sattler  (Laura  Dern). Whilst on a dig, they are interrupted by
the  very billionaire funding the dig, one John Hammond (Richard
Attenborough).  Hammond wants both Grant and Sattler to come and
visit a park that he's built on a private island of his, to give
it  their  endorsement.

After  being  coerced  with  funding for the next three years on
their dig, they agree to join him on his island.

The  two  lucky  visitors,  along with mathematician Ian Malcolm
(Jeff  Goldblum), a lawyer, and Hammond's two grandchildren, Tim
and   Alex,   discover   that  the  island  contains  dinosaurs,
genetically  engineered  from dinosaur blood that has been taken
from  fossilised  mosquitos  (or their Jurassic equivalent). All
five  of  the  above  get to ride on the parks tour, and just as
they  happen  to  be  by  the Tyranosaurus Rex paddock, all hell
breaks  loose. Dennis Nedry, resident computer operator, decides
to  earn a bit on the side by selling off the dinosaur embryos -
to  cover  his  tracks,  he  shuts off the computer system, thus
disabling  everything  in  Jurassic  Park  - electrified fences,
lights, communications. It's then that the real fun begins.

The  film  is  jammed  full  of  special  effects,  most  of the
dinosaurs being created via computers, and using stop motion for
the  rest.  The  dinosaurs  are just so 'real' - by far the best
special  effects  I've  seen  in a film to date, and destined to
reap the Special Effects Oscar next April.
The  effects, the action and the storyline all fit together into
a  film  that  cannot  be  missed.  If you're a person that only
visits the cinema once a decade, this is the time - don't miss a
part  of  cinema history! It's already taken $300 million in the
US,  and  £33  million  here, so it's already one of the biggest
films  of  all  time,  and  could  make  it  to  be THE biggest.
Spielberg's done the biz again, as he did with E.T.

Take  a  look at Hammond's grandson Tim, and just watch how many
times  he evades the clutches of grim death. Makes you wonder if
it's  just  cats with nine lives! In cinemas which are fortunate
enough,  the  film  is presented using the 'digital experience',
giving  much  better sound. I managed to see it with this at the
MGM Trocadero in Picadilly, London.

What more can I say? Go see it.


RATING: 15 out of 10!


                     LAST ACTION HERO (15)
                    Director: John McTiernan
  Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Austin O'Brien, Charles Dance

Danny  Madigan  (Austin  O'Brien)  is an eleven year old boy who
adores big action films (who doesn't?); his particular favourite
is  the  Jack  Slater  trilogy.  Danny constantly misses school,
spending  most of his waking hours apparently down at the flicks
watching  old  re-runs  of  Jack Slater I to III. Lucky for him,
he's  friendly  with the cinema's projectionist, who tells Danny
that he's invited to a special preview showing of Jack Slater IV
at  midnight  that night. Danny jumps at the opportuntiy, and is
there at 12 sharp.

Seeing  as  he's  going to watch a film, the projectionist gives
him a ticket - not just any ticket though. The projectionist was
given  the  ticket  by  Houdini, and it's a magic ticket. So off
Danny goes to watch Jack Slater IV.

    We now join the action of Jack Slater IV.  Jack,  played  by
Arnie, is actually played by Arnie in the film; understand this?
Well, posters are daubed around town saying things like  'Arnold
Schwarzenegger: JACK SLATER IV' - see now?  Good!  Back  to  the
action...

Jack  Slater IV is your usual action movie - the good guy, Jack;
the  Bad  Guy,  played  by  Charles Dance with an interchangable
glass eye, and all the car chases, guns and explosions you could
possibly  hope  for.  It's  during this first car chase that the
stub  of  Danny's  ticket starts to glow, and then he ends up in
the film....

In  the film, Jack and Danny get into all manner of trouble with
the  bad  guys,  and  the bad guys take Danny's ticket stub, and
come  back  to the real world, where they discover that bad guys
can actually win....

    The film had a promising  plot,  and  does  have  it's  good
points - the cameo appearances, and the  film  premiere  at  the
end, but  the  car  chases  and  explosions  all  have  a  vague
similarity with others of it's type - they're taken deliberately
over the top to emphasise the fact that we're  watching  a  film
within a film, but even so...

I  think  that  the  film  is  carried  along  by Charles Dance,
especially when he comes back to the real world. The film makers
could  have done so much with the end of the film, but they just
didn't go far enough; thus what could have been amazing was just
average.  I've  come to expect more from both director and star,
but  this  just doesn't quite pack the same punch. Still worth a
look though.


RATING: 7 out of 10.









                          VIDEO REVIEW
                          ------------

                         CANDYMAN (18)
                     Director: Bernard Rose
     Starring: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley

This  is  based  on  the  story 'The Forbidden' by Clive Barker.
(Whom  I  consider  to be the best writer around, incidentally!)
The  story  was  originally  set  in  Liverpool,  but  the  film
adaptation is set in Chicago.

Helen  (Virginia Madsen) is a student writing a thesis on "urban
legends",  and  in her research she keeps on coming across tales
about  Candyman,  a rather gruesome murderer who disposes of his
victims  using  a  large steel hook, which is in place of one of
his  hands.  Anyone  foolish  enough  to say his name five times
whilst  looking  in a mirror will summon him up to reign terror.
Helen decides to investigate Candyman further....


Her  research  leads  her  to  a  grizzly housing project, where
someone  was  actually  murdered by Candyman, and it's then that
things start getting hairy!

My  opinion  of this film is bound to be biased as it comes from
the  pen of Clive Barker, but justifiably so. The film lacks the
screaming  teenagers  and  the bad effects akin to horror films,
and  churns  out a level of suspense and horror that is bound to
have  you  hiding behind your chair, and looking under your bed,
and  jumping  at  the  slightest noise in the night. If you love
horror  films,  you've  got  to see this; if you don't love 'em,
it's about time you saw a good example of one.

RATING: 8 out of 10.







BM                       Video Reviews

After  those  (thanks  Paul) I went down to Azad to see what was
lurking  there.  I couldn't see Candyman which I had intended to
get   (I've   read  The  Forbidden  too),  but  I  did  see  The
Tommyknockers,   adapted   from  Stephen  King's  book.  Because
adaptations  from  Stephen  King  books are usually crap though,
especially  "It",  I  didn't  get  it. I did get Naked Lunch and
Henry:  Portrait  Of A Serial Killer, and here, in brief, are my
opinions:

Naked Lunch was strange. Too strange. It made very little sense,
and  despite  some revolting insects and gory bits didn't appeal
to me much. 5 out of 10.

Henry...  has  caused quite a lot of controversy, but apart from
two or three brief moments of extreme violence there was nothing
to  seperate  this  from  a low-budget TV film made in the early
Eighties.  Avoid; grainy picture and poor acting in abundance. 3
out of 10.

DH                  Daz Hubbard's WWF Update!

Hello and welcome. Blatant plugging, I know. But I don't care...

Erm...6 Speccy games for a fiver still on. SAE to me for  a list
of  games, choose 6,  send me 5 quid,  and play the  games for a
bit.   Meanwhile,   if   anyone   has   copies   of   Klax   and
E.F.T.P.O.T.R.M., I'll  swap  12 games  for  them, and  also  if
anyone has YS Issue  28, Fredatives II, Rachel and a ulitity for
converting the Crash demo of F16 Combat Pilot to disk, I'll swop
5 games for them (please!)...

Before I  go on, a quick "THANKS!" to  Frank and Wendy Kirby for
sending me 28 digitised pictures of WWF wrestlers. So, THANKS! I
really enjoyed them, me. The quality of the piccies was great.

Um,   If   you  were   a  wee   bit   confused  about   the  Fan
Favourite/Rulebreaker  thingy  in the  listings,  it's  just the
wrestling termology  for Goodies/Baddies.  Alwight? This  month,
its a new one -  Face/Heel, with Face being the Fan  Favourites/
Goodies. Confused? Never mind.

This months guide to WWF wrestlers you really ought to know...

----------------------------------------------------------------
MR PERFECT  255lbs                                          Face
Bloke  who is a  master at  any sport  and is, well,  perfect at
everything    really.    Currently    having    problems    with
Intercontinental Champ, Shawn Michaels.
Finishing Move - Perfectplex
----------------------------------------------------------------
BAM BAM BIGELOW  280lbs  Managed by Luna Vachon             Heel
Fat  bloke with amazing agility who wears a black suit with fire
drawn on  it. Also  known  for the  many  tattoos on  his  head.
Recently   caused  a  stir  when  he  cut  Tatanka's  red  hair,
(supposedly) symbolising the blood of Native Americans.
Finishing move - Flying Headbutt off the top turnbuckle.
----------------------------------------------------------------
MARTY JANNETTY  229lbs                                      Face
Very  (very) fast person  who used  to be  a partner  with Shawn
Michaels in The Rockers, until he got flung through a window  by
him.  Recently  made a  comeback  a few  months  ago, surprising
everybody by winning the I-C belt from Michaels, only to lose it
a few weeks  later to Michaels. Doesn't have much strength.
Finishing move - Flying Fistdrop
----------------------------------------------------------------
LUDVIG BORGA  300lbs                                        Heel
Bloke (who claims he's) from  Finland, accompanied with a  false
accent,  a power wrestler  who hates America and  claims he will
"squash any American athlete who steps in my way". Er, yes.
Finishing move - Flying Clothesline
----------------------------------------------------------------
The 1-2-3 KID  201lbs                                       Face
Puny bloke who shot to fame by scoring a sensational  upset over
Razor Ramon about  four months  back. He has  since then  beaten
more above-average opponents.  WWF people lead you to believe he
is lucky, but he actually is a mighty fine damn good wrestler.
FInishing move - Any spectacular top turnbuckle move
----------------------------------------------------------------
TAG TEAMS
----------------------------------------------------------------
SMOKING GUNNS  523lbs combined                              Face
Two cowboys who are  extremely average, and boring. They come to
the ring with blank firing guns, and shoot them a bit. Snooze.
Finishing move - Backdrop/piledriver combination
----------------------------------------------------------------
HEAVENLY BODIES  518lbs combined  Managed by Jim Cornette   Heel
The  team   of  Dr  Tom  Pritchard  and  Jimmy  Delray  are  two
Chippendale lookalikes who are genuine  wrestlers (honest). They
are  also   in  another  organisation,   called  Smoky  Mountain
Wrestling,and they came to the WWF saying they had beat everyone
in SMW and want a shot at the Steiners for the WWF tag titles.
Finishing move - Moonsault, a back somersault from the top rope
----------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS
----
Well,  a lot to  catch up on  this month. Lex  Luger, after body
slamming the  over  40 stone  Yokozuna,  has now  got  a  coach,
spray-painted  it,  called  it  "The Lex  Express",  and  now is
touring the U.S.A. telling people  how good it is (the  country,
not the  coach). Thousands are now after a glimpse at Luger, who
is now a hero.

Yokozuna hasn't  taken things  well since  his bodyslamming.  He
recently injured  Crush with  three Banzai  splashes (climb  the
second  turnbuckle, and sit  on the oppenents  chest). Crush now
has a  collapsed chest cavity. To cap things  of, now that Luger
is  everyones hero, fans  have been demanding he  should get the
title shot at the  next WWF main event, Summerslam 93.  WWF bods
accepted,  but  Luger  must wear  a  forearm  pad  to cover  the
six-inch steel plate in his right forearm (honest, he really has
go one...).

About five  weeks ago,  Jim Cornette,  manager of  the  Heavenly
Bodies, was  elected as the American spokesman for Yokozuna, who
went to  work straight away  saying American car and  tellys and
that  was  inferior  to  Japanese  stuff.  That shows  loyality,
doesn't it?

Cornette then  altered the  Summerslam contract,  putting on  it
that Luger only gets one shot at the title only, if he loses, he
doesn't get  another one  ever. The trio  four weeks ago  did an
interview segment declaring this, and they invited  a little kid
up on  the stage, with a Lex Luger  poster, and proceeded to rip
his poster up in front of the kid. Hilarious! Ha Ha!

Jerry "The  King" Lawler, after beating up Bret Hart at "King Of
The Ring", has  been insulting his  parents. They were  watching
Bret Hart  wrestle Bam Bam  Bigelow at a  card when Lawler  came
from nowhere,  grabbed  a mike,  and called  his parents  aloud,
while Bret was in the middle of a match! Bret lost the  match by
countout when  he ran into the crowd  to attack Lawler, but "The
King" scarpered out of it.

Now, a bit of interesting news. Brutus  Beefcake is being chased
up  by  three  woman with  paternity  suits, naming  him  as his
father! Only a rumour, mind.

Now some  tit-bits in  one big  slug...The WWF  have cutback  on
their wrestling shows because of falling  attendances...WCW have
shown up the WWF by signing a contract with The Prime Channel TV
network in  the Far East, enableing  WCW shows to be  seen in 70
(1) new  countries...and newcovers soon  may include  a vampire,
Rick  Martel's return,  and  Yokozuna's  brother, the  Taihitian
Savage. The two Doinkk the clowns may also form a tag-team.

Because of  deadline day being two days  before Summerslam, I'll
bring  you the results next time. But... these matches will take
place, along with my predictions...

LEX LUGER vs YOKOZUNA (Luger wins the WWF title)
MR PERFECT  vs SHAWN  MICHAELS for  the Intercontinental  title.
Perfect will win the match by countout, keeping Shawn the belt.
STEINERS vs HEAVENLY BODIES for the WWF tag titles. The Steiners
should win this one.
BRET HART vs JERRY LAWLER (Bret wins by reverse decision)
UNDERTAKER  vs GIANT  GONZALEZ (Undertaker  wins.  As a  result,
Gonzalez win probably leave the WWF.)
RAZOR RAMON vs TED DIBIASE (Razor will win)
1-2-3 KID vs IRS (IRS will win)
TATANKA & SMOKING GUNNS  vs BAM BAM BIGELOW &  THE HEADSHRINKERS
Bigelow's team wins when Fatu pins Billy Gunn.
MARTY JANNETTY vs LUDVIG BORGA (Borga victory)

Will I be right? Find out next issue!

This is Daz "Mr. Wrestling" Hubbard signing off. See ya!

Letters & Reviews

                   Letter from John Hutchings

Dear FRED,

Whilst  I  agree that Etracker is superior to the SOUND MACHINE,
there are one or two comments I would like to make.

1.  Are  you intending to produce a more comprehensive manual? I
ask  this  because although I am familiar with music theory I am
not to hot with computers and consequently it has taken me quite
a long time to work out some of the aspects of the operations of
the program.

2. Creating instrument sounds is very time consuming and is made
more difficult since the test facility for instruments is set at
a single pitch.

3.  On  the  other  hand,  the  laying down of the music is very
simple and causes little difficulty.


                   Letter from John Hutchings

I'm sure that there must be other readers who  have  experienced
the same problems as myself  who  are  frustrated  because  they
can't produce sounds to do justice to the excellent program.

Therefore can I make a few suggestions:-

(a) Is it possible to compile a list of settings for  particular
intruments? i.e. piano, guitar, bass, flute etc. or even produce
a disk for Etracker owners with these and other examples on it?

(b) What about making available uncompiled examples of tunes  so
that settings that sound right for a  particular  piece  can  be
extracted?

(c) Is it possible to uncompile tunes in FRED?

(d) Eventually I would like to create screens to  accompany  the
music as you do in the magazine but at the moment this would  be
beyond my capabilities. Any help in this would be appreciated.
                   Letter from John Hutchings

These  comments are not meant to be critical because the program
is  superb  but  I  feel  that  its true potential is not at the
moment available to many other people like me.

Yours faithfully,


                        John Hutchings











CM                  Reply to John Hutchings

Thanks  for the letter John. I'm pleased you like the program so
much.

Being completely tone deaf myself, I can appreciate the apparent
complexity  of the manual. However, ETracker and its manual were
designed  as logical upgrades from Sound Machine and many people
assured  me that repeating the simpler aspects of music would be
superfluous and a more concise manual just explaining how to use
ETracker  would  be  preferable.  However, your comment has been
noted.

Yours is the first complaint I've had about instrument-creating.
At the moment, no upgrade or second version of ETracker is being
considered (because ETracker has so much there's not much we can
add!)  but  if  there  ever  is,  I'll  make  sure  I  alert the
programmers  to  the  "single  pitch  test" problem. We've had a
couple  of people send in some of their instruments but we can't
decide  how  best  to use them - they'd take up a large chunk of
empty  file  spaces  on a FRED disc but barely justify releasing
CM                  Reply to John Hutchings

them on their own disc.... any ideas anyone???

Again,  we  do  have  a lot of uncompiled tunes sitting on discs
here but when each tune takes up 75K, we could only get ten on a
disc.   What   I  have  considered  doing  is  commisioning  the
programmers  to  produce  a de-compiler.  If it ever came about,
this would allow you to de-compile the tunes that appear on FRED
and  in  other  places  and  load  them  back  into ETracker for
examination  /  alteration. If this were done, a disc containing
literally hundreds of compiled ETracker tunes could be created.

Once  again, I'd be interested to know if anyone would find this
useful.

Don't  worry  John,  I  take  serious  criticism  as a chance to
improve things.


                                                         - COLIN
                   Letter from Mat Phillips

Dear Colin,

Thank  you for your prompt despatch of "The Witching Hour". I've
managed  to  complete  this game and so have enclosed a solution
sheet  in  case  you  are  struggling  (!!),  to publish at your
discretion.  The game is fantastic, suitable homage must be paid
to  John  Vincent  for  his  excellent  grasp of the Gamesmaster
package  in a relatively short time (after all, it has only been
out for what, 8 months, and he has written a published game with
it?).  Although I'm a SCADs fan myself, this game will go a long
way to promote the package.

The latest issue of FRED was pretty smart, congrats on the three
years  and  all  that.  I read in issue 35 (I think) that Stefan
Drissen  was  enquiring  into   the  workings  of  a  PC's  File
Allocation  Table  (FAT),  well  hold yer foot up because if you
still  want  to  know  I can write an article (Colin...?) on its
workings.  In  return,  I'd like to put out an APB for some info
myself  - does anybody out there have, know somebody who has, or
                   Letter from Mat Phillips

has even SEEN, an Apricot PC Xi or an Apricot Point 32 computer?
Its  visual  description  is beige colouring, small monitor that
stands on top, keyboard on a cable that plugs in the back, and a
flip  on  the  front  that  comes  down  to hide disc drives. If
anybody  knows what the hell I'm talking about please contact me
as  I  have  aquired  one  (this letter is written on it) and am
having compatibility problems. Drop me a line if you can help or
something.

There  have  been some references in the mag to the Kaleidoscope
and   other   hardware  kits.  Being  qualified  in  the  micro-
electronics  field  (he says modestly) I am interested; any more
info?

OK,  that's  it  from me. Keep up the good work etc. and publish
your exam results so we can all have a good laugh, er that is so
we  can congratulate you on being a rather splendid person after
all!

BM                   Reply to Mat Phillips

I'm  sure  that  an  article  on the PC's FAT would go down very
nicely,  so  please  do write it. If you could put it on disc as
opposed  to  paper  I'm  sire  my  fatigued  fingertips would be
grateful!

The  same  applies  to  everybody else who thinks they've got an
article   hidden   inside  themselves somewhere (and I mean that
in the figurative sense, of course); don't feel you  have to ask
permission to send in articles!

As  far  as  I  can  work  out,  the  Kaleidoscope  and Hardware
Development Kits were available for a very short period of time,
but  now aren't avaiable. I can't think where you might find one
now though.

As  you  began  your letter "Dear Colin" I'm assuming that  it's
his  results  you're  keen to discover. So you're not getting to
know mine!
                                                         - BRIAN
BM                   Utterly Contrived Bit

Following  on  from  that last letter, I "just happen" to have a
letter  from  a  Nigel French who wants rid of his hardware kit.
Assuming  that  Nigel  is  normal (which I'm sure you are Nigel,
don't  be  offended), he's only got one of them and did not rush
out to buy hundreds of the things, so if you want it you'll have
to hurry!

If you do want it, get in touch with him at:

[redacted]

He  wants  £10  for it, but obviously don't send the cheque till
you  make sure you got there first and are going to be the lucky
buyer.

                      Letter from D Piper

Dear Sir,

I notice that you supply discs with the write-protect tab in the
WRITE  position.  Could  you  ensure  that  disc tabs are in the
PROTECT  position  because,  as you know, the SAM has a habit of
corrupting  discs  and  hopefully  this  could  not occur if the
write-protect tab is set.


BM                           Reply

Yes,  I'm  sure  that we could put all the write-protect tabs to
the protect position. However, it's slightly more convenient for
you  to  alter  one single solitary write-protect tab (taking no
more  than 3 seconds) than for us to spend hours sorting through
hundreds of the little beggars. Surely it's not so great a task?

                                                         - BRIAN

                    Letter from David Lewis

Dear Brian/Colin,

After  looking through the programs in FRED 37 I have written in
with a humble request...

PLEASE PUBLISH LESS SPECCY MATERIAL!! Axel F was out of time and
that  Podpersons  thing  was  horrible.  Don't  think  I'm being
unfair,  I  had  a Speccy for many years but I UPGRADED to a SAM
after seeing what it was capable of. I hate seeing it reduced to
being  a  Speccy  Emulator.  Why  not  publish more high quality
material  such  as  Paradox,  Bunj Wobl, Ore Warz and KE_DISC (I
could happily go on).

Right  after  looking through FRED 37 I read the letters section
and  S  Drissen's letter really ****** me off. Please correct me
if  I'm wrong, but all his Speccy stuff that you publish he gets
paid  for, right? So why on earth does he ask for free software!
Even  if  he doesn't get paid he doesn't deserve it, most of his
contributions are somebody else's work which he has converted!
                    Letter from David Lewis

A  few issues ago I remember somebody wrote in and called Stefan
a  S.M.S.  and  FRED's reply was that call Stefan this would not
win him much support amongst FRED readers. At the time I agreed,
but now I am not too sure.

If  my views about Speccy material are not shared by fellow FRED
readers  then  I will happily shut up and eat humble pie, but in
order  to  find  out,  why  not with a future issue of FRED send
subbers a slip in order to find out what they like/dislike about
the magazine.

As  an  incentive  to reply  you could put all the replies  in a
draw  for  a  free  copy of Waterworks 2. Let's face it, I could
think of worse ways of spending 10 pounds.

Before I go, one humble request - please print this letter!



BM                    Reply to David Lewis

Oooh,  a  bit more controversy! Lovely! This Spectrum demo topic
seems  to be one of those love it/hate it things. Axel F sounded
fine   to  me,  and  I  certainly  wouldn't  call  Podpersons...
"horrible". I suppose it's just a personal thing though.

It  seems to be a common misconception that Colin and myself are
sitting  on  hundreds  of superb games, demos and utilities, but
that we don't want anybody else to see them. When something like
KE_Disc  comes along, once every blue moon or so, we include it.
We  can  only publish what we're sent, remember, something which
people often overlook.

We  don't  pay  Stefan  because  sending  small amounts of money
overseas  is  highly  inefficient.  Instead  we  give  him  free
software  every  so often. Incidentally, converting the software
isn't  quite  as  easy  as  you seem to think, so I think Stefan
deserves his freebies.


BM                    Reply to David Lewis

Questionnaires  do  seem  a very good idea at first. You have to
bear  in  mind  that the response rate to these things is pretty
abysmal  though,  and  the  small  amount  of  replies that we'd
inevitably  receive would not give us a representative sample of
the readership at all. Not even free copies of WW2 would inspire
mass responding, I'm afraid.

I'll  speak  to  Colin  about  it  anyway,  perhaps  we  can get
something on one of the subbers' newsletters.

If more of you wrote in and let us know if there's something you
especially  do or don't like about the magazine we could make it
even better, but as I've said before, we can fix something if we
don't know it's broken.

                                                         - BRIAN



                   Letter from Dave Marriott

Dear FRED,

With regard to the Editorial in Issue 36, I wouldn't mind seeing
a  combined  index   with the ability to take on data from FRED,
SAM  Supplement, Format, and anything else around, and featuring
a comprehensive search facility. This would avoid having to load
up  and  look  through  several  different  index programs for a
utility  or  a piece of information. I can't imagine the various
publications  having any objections to such an index; if you see
that what you want is available in a back issue of something you
don't normally get, you'll probably buy the back issue and maybe
even  subscribe.  Data conversion to a standard format shouldn't
be  too  difficult;  the  trickiest bit would be deciding how to
standardise the classifications.

"Driver"  looks  absolutely  amazing;  it's the nearest thing to
Windows we'll get on the SAM, although I suspect it was inspired
more  by  the  Apple  Mac  system.  I  fear that its use will be
limited if it can only run MC applications, though.
BM                   Reply to Dave Marriot

A  combined index would have numerous benefits to SAM consumers,
yes.  There are problems though (aren't there always!). Firstly,
there's   the  feeling  that  why  should  one  business  (FRED)
advertise the product of another? You didn't see back issues for
CRASH in Your Sinclair did you?

The  next  problem, and the biggest one as far as I'm concerned,
is  compiling  the  data.  It took me long enough to compile the
FRED  index,  and  there's  no  way I'm going to sit for another
solid  fortnight  compiling  lists  of  what's been in every SAM
Supplement   since  1990,  and  I  can't  see  too  many  people
volunteering for this task.

I've had a very brief look at Driver, and it does look good. I'm
a  bit  of  a  Workbench (Amiga) fan myself. WB3 on the A1200 is
quite  superb,  especially  with a nice little PD thing I dug up
which  provides  a subtle blue/red fade on the Workbench screen.
Very fetching it is.
                                                         - BRIAN
DT

                     THE OCCULT CONNECTION
                 £5.99 (£5.00 to FRED subbers)

What have all the adventures on the SAM so far had in common?

"They  all involved entering text commands to manipulate objects
and  communicate  with  characters,  thus  solving  puzzles  and
progressing through the game?"

Erm,ta for summarising what an adventure is,but that wasn't
really what I was thinking of.

"They all had graphics?"

Yes,  that's  it  -  give  yourself  a wheelbarrow. They all had
graphics.  OK,  they  were  mostly  crap,  (excepting the rather
snazzy 'Days of Sorcery'), but they served their purpose.

"And what was that?" I hear you conveniently cry.
Well,  firstly  they  broke  up  the dizzying reams of text, and
secondly  they  reminded  you  that  it  was a SAM game you were
spelunking  away  on.  Thus  the lack of graphics in 'The Occult
Connection'  made it look suspiciously SPECTRUMmy, and also made
my eyes go funny after about ten minutes.

Still, enough of this petty moaning and on to weightier matters,
such  as  the  plot.  (Very) quickly summarised,a demon has been
frying various people, and as an occult writer and member of the
local  white coven you take it upon yourself to return it to the
infernal plains from which it was summoned. Or something.

This  isn't  as easy as it sounds,but then it doesn't sound very
easy,so  maybe  that  was  just  a  feeble  attempt to bring the
hardness  level  to  attention. (Only you,the voting public, can
decide.)  Y'see,  there's  hard,  there's very hard, and there's
'The Occult Connection.' Most of it's just fairly difficult, but
one  or two puzzles call for nothing short of E.S.P. (Or a quick
glance at the solution in my case.)


Luckily  T.O.C's  one  redeeming  feature  saves  the day - it's
startlingly  well  written.  Both  location descriptions and the
little  messages  you  get  on  examining  almost everything are
descriptive  and  atmospheric,  the  plot unfolds nicely and the
puzzles are of the 'you'll really kick yourself when you work it
out'  variety,  except  in  the  case  of  those  aforementioned
unfeasibly  difficult  bits, where you're more likely to eat the
disk or sacrifice next-door's hamster to the devil or something.

Something else which could optimistically be called a good point
is  the  little menu from which you can alter the various screen
colours  or  choose  from  a variety of fonts. A pretty standard
feature, but darn useful all the same.(Probably.)

As  the game was written using the 'SAM Adventure System' it has
all  the  features you could ask for. Well, perhaps not all - It
doesn't,  for  instance mow the lawn, or feed the goldfish while
you're  away  on  holiday, but it does RAMsave, have a 'GET ALL'
command  and  allow  you  to  string  together instructions with
'AND'.

And  that's  about  it,  really.  A  well written, fairly priced
adventure,  spoilt  by  one  or two screamingly hard puzzles and
crap  presentation.  If you like adventures you'll probably like
this, and if you don't you probably won't. Obvious, really.

Overall:78%

                        David Tallerman













DL                      THE WITCHING HOUR
                        Review By D.Lewis

GAME TYPE        : Graphical Adventure
CONTROLS         : Cursor keys and Enter or Joystick
PRICE            : £4.99 (£4.50 To Fred Subbers)
AVAILABLE FROM   : Fred Publishing
RUNS ON          : 256K/512K SAM
WRITTEN BY       : John Vincent using Gamesmaster
MUSIC            : Craig Turberfield using Etracker
GRAPHICS         : Neil Holmes

Its  Hallow'een,  and the evil Demon Master has captured most of
the  villagers.  Now  the  remaining villagers have come to you,
Greta or Beardy depending on who you want to play, for help.

Your  mission,  should  you  decide to accept it, is to roam the
flick  screen environment of the game, collecting, examining and
using  the  objects  at your disposal, as well as talking to the
cartoon  style  characters in the game in an attempt to wipe out
the evil Demon Master and save the villagers.
DL                  The Witching Hour Review

The  problem is, there is only an hour, the witching hour, to do
it in.

During the game you'll find objects such as pumkins, keys, magic
ladders  and  potions  amongst  others which you have to use for
your  grim task. While doing this though you'll not have to fall
prey  to the night time terrors such as ghosts, demon guards and
SPOTS  (well  acually  being  a  witch or wizard means the spots
shouldn't  bother  you).  Mind  you  if  you  are  feeling a bit
suicidal  you  can always be drowned, torched or spooked, losing
one of your three lives.

Right  if  you  can just cast your mind back to the plot of this
game,  now  add  to it a good Etracker tune by Craig Turberfield
and  some nice screen shots by Neil Holmes and what you get is a
good demo which shows the game off on loading. After you're seen
this you're presented with the title screen and another tune. So
what's the game like?

DL                  The Witching Hour Review

Well it's ok; the music's really good, the graphics are good and
fairly  large,  the  main character moves smoothly as do all the
other  sprites,  but  there  is  delay every time you use a menu
option or walk off the screen in which the screen goes black for
a  second.  There is also no in-game music and sound effects are
limited.  However,  in-game Etracker music on a Gamesmaster game
is  very  hard  if  not  impossible to implement, but more sound
effects could have been used.

Apart  from  the  annoying  black  screen delay the game is very
playable  and addictive, there are hidden locations such as 'The
Store  Room'  which  you need to find and you can only carry two
objects  at  once making things harder. Unfortunately like Boing
it's  a  bit  too easy. Most of the puzzles are simple to solve,
it's  only as you reach the end of the game you start needing to
use your brain.



DL                  The Witching Hour Review

For  your five pounds you get a disk (surprise, surprise) a case
with  a  monochrome  inlay  and  a  short instruction sheet. The
Witching  Hour  isn't  exactly as good as the likes of Wop Gamma
and  arguably  Boing  but  it's well worth a fiver. Overall John
Vincent's game well deserves to win the FRED compo and since its
been  spiced  up  with  Craig Turbofields music and Neil Holmes'
graphics it's another hit for FRED.



GRAPHICS      75%
SOUND         78%
PRESENTATION  78%
PLAYABILITY   77%

OVERALL       76%   (Good Game, Good Game (SHUT UP Bruce))