Fred 42

Issue 42

Magazine

BM                         Editorial

Oh  dear.  There  can be no doubting the fact that this issue of
FRED,  still as delightful and exquisite as ever, is late. Very,
very late in the sense that compared to a continent a neutron is
very, very small. We are talking late, here folks.

We  do  have  a  reason  for this shameful lapse in time-keeping
though,  and  I'm  sure  a  good few of you have been playing it
constantly  -  Lemmings  in  other  words.  We've  been  so busy
playtesting  it  that  we've  barely  had time to eat never mind
compile  a  magazine. Contrary to popular belief, issues of FRED
don't  just  crawl out of some magical vat of discs. Lemmings is
at  long  last out, and we honestly don't know whether to go out
and  celebrate  or to heave a huge sigh of relief. Unless we get
the sales we need we won't we doing either for a very long time,
so buy it! Buy it twice! And then buy it again for good measure!

We're  well  into  1994 now and it's looking like it could be an
even  better year for the SAM; you've got Lemmings and SAMPaint,
but wait until you get a look at the rest of FRED's plans!
BM                         Editorial

Now  I'd like to say a quick "hello" to all those of you who are
reading pirated FREDs. How ya doin'? Good good. And on behalf of
all the other SAM users, thanks a million for trying to strangle
the  SAM  market.  FRED  may  not  be a big expensive, obviously
commercially-released product and it never will be, but it's not
PD  and  just  because  it's  so  cheap  (Hmmm. Perhaps the term
"inexpensive" is more favourable) it doesn't mean you've got the
right to steal it.

On  a  wider  scale,  if  anybody's even THINKING about pirating
Lemmings  or  SAMPaint, or anything else for that matter, please
don't.  Publishers  don't discourage piracy for the sheer fun of
it  you  know;  just  a  handful  of  pirate copies can mean the
difference  between  a  product being profitable and successful,
and  loss-making and a failure. The enormous investment FRED has
put  into Lemmings in particular means that we cannot afford for
it  to  fail;  piracy  can  only cause it to do so, and that can
ultimately  only  hurt  you, the user more than a meagre save of
£10 or £20 in the long run.
BM                         Editorial

I  know  there  are  some of you (a LOT of you) who don't pirate
software,  even  items you "wouldn't have bought anyway," and to
you I'd like to apologise for making you sit through this little
telling off. Without those of you who are willing to pay for the
hard  work  that's  been  put  into  a  software  product  FRED,
Revelation  etc.  simply  could  not  continue.  Thankfully  the
pirates  are  a  minority  (we  hope!)  and  so  we  will try to
continue bringing out new titles.

I  shall  add  that  we are aware of who some of the pirates out
there are. We do have names.

You've  been  warned  -  stop the piracy or FRED, Revelation and
inevitably the SAM will die. As long as people buy software, new
titles  will  come out and the computer will continue (unless of
course  the  Govt  slaps a 300% tax on software items for white-
coloured  8-BIT computers. And don't laugh - it could happen. It
could. Write to your MP and demand that he brings up the subject
in Parliament).
CM                        NEW RELEASE

Hands  up  all  of  you  that  thought  Lords  Of  Midnight  was
brilliant?  And  hands  up  all  of you that never played it but
heard  everyone  else rave on about it? There, that covers about
everyone!

So  you'll  all  be  disapointed to learn that we cannot get the
licence  to bring Lords Of Midnight onto the SAM. But, we've got
the next best thing - Legend Of Eshan. John Eyre (of SAMDice and
other  Kobrahsoft titles fame) has come up with what can only be
described  as  the  biggest,  most complex and addictive game on
SAM!  The  nearest  comparison  to  it is L.Of M. in that it's a
graphical  strategy adventure.

Legend  of  Eshan,  however,  goes  MUCH  further  -  loads more
options,  different  ways  to  complete  the  game, over sixteen
thousand  locations  (16,384  to  be  exact)  each with a MODE 4
screen!  Hundreds  of different characters to encounter (whether
you  try  to  recruit their services to aid your quest or simply
slaughter them as they stand - or try to.
CM                           Eshan

Not  only  that  but  if  you're lucky enough to have a mouse it
makes full use of it (naturally, Eshan works without one too).

The plot, put simply, is this :-

In  the  land  of  Avinell, Avorell The Noble has been captured.
Being  Eshan,  the  eternal do-gooder, it is your duty to rescue
him.  This  perhaps  not being the easiest of task, you have the
other   option  of  killing  the  evil  Barquin  The  WitchKing.
Although,  he  does  have  vast armies of Orcs ready to take the
Palace Of Avorell, so if you want an easy life, don't read on.

Set  for  a  challenge eh? You'd better be. This is a MEAN game.
When  you buy this, cancel everything for at LEAST a month - you
just ain't going to have time for anything other than Eshan!

Costing  £14.99  (£12.99  FRED  subscribers), it is out NOW from
Revelation at :
              [redacted]
CM                       Delays......

Yes,  I  know  you've  all  been  kept  waiting for Lemmings and
SAMPaint.  For  this I apologize - it seldom happens that one of
the  delay  factors  is  the fact that we actually received MORE
orders than anticipated!

Anyway,  as  you'll  know,  SAMPaint  went  out in the middle of
January  and  Lemmings  was  released just a few days ago. There
hasn't  been much feedback on Lemmings but SAMPaint is certainly
going  down  a  treat!  I've never had so many customers tell me
that  I  should  be charging more for it!!! (Not since Etracker,
anyway!).

I'm  still very interested in what you think of the two titles -
but   I   don't   think   I'll   be  expecting  suggestions  for
improvements  -  they've both got everything they could possibly
have!  One comment I would like to make is that there seem to be
some  problems  with  different versions of MasterDOS when using
SAMPaint.  We'll sort this out and let you know how to get round
it. In the meantime, anybody fancy doing us some reviews...?
BM                    E-Mailtastic, Mates!

It's been five months since I started uni now and apart from the
obvious,  the  best  thing  about it has to have been the E-mail
facilities. Hello to all of you who've sent me things, including
you  Tim  Pavely you pervy so-and-so (more please!). In case you
missed it, my address is:

[redacted]

You can also get in touch with AXE (Ian Slavin) at:

[redacted]

and Cookie at:

[redacted]

Anybody  else  on  the Net, let me know if you want your address
put in FRED and a huge network of SAM contacts could be yours!

BM                 Computer Science Anybody?

I'd  imagine  a lot of FRED readers are at school at the moment.
I'm  also  sure  a  fair  few  of  you would like to do Computer
Science at college or university, so I thought I'd write a guide
to  what  Dundee  University's  got to offer. They are of course
paying  me vast amounts of money to advertise them here, but try
to look on this as an unbiased view of the place.

In all fairness I can only give you a review of my course, which
at   the  moment is Maths, Computer Science and Psychology (well
it  sounded good in the prospectus!). The Maths and CS depts are
all  involved  in  various research projects, and the CS dept in
particular  is  looked  upon  generally as being pretty good. We
have a lab full of Sun Workstations and one with PCs. The entire
campus is linked on a single network, which is in turn linked to
the whole world (sort of).

The  CS  class  is small - 50 people. There are 350 people doing
Psychology, so 50 is pretty tiny in comparison though it may not
sound small at first.
BM                   Comp Sci at Dundee Uni

The   CS   course   started  off  assuming  no  prior  knowledge
whatsoever.  Nonetheless,  some  of  the  complete  newies had a
little difficulty getting started. Pascal is used, and I believe
it's  the  standard language in Higher Education (to start with,
at any rate).

Pascal  is  a  compiled  language,  so there's no running it and
correcting  line  errors as you go (like in BASIC). This isn't a
problem  though,  you  do  get  used  to  it fairly quickly. Any
experience you have of programming, even just the old FOR...NEXT
loop  will  give you an edge; those of us who did say, Higher or
even  Standard  Grade,  found the first term a doddle.

It may be tempting to leap into 2nd year if you have A-Levels or
CSYSs,  but  my  advice is don't. A couple of people in my class
now  dropped  down from trying 2nd year directly and said it was
very  hard  going. Apart from the difficulty, everybody else had
already formed their own groups of friends. Besides, you want to
be able to relax for a year don't you?
BM                   Comp Sci at Dundee Uni

Dundee's  CS  department  is one of only eight in the UK to give
unlimited access to the machines - yes, 24 hours a day, 365 days
a  year you are allowed to use the computers. This may not sound
too impressive now, but when it's 11:00pm and you need to have a
program  in  the  next  day,  you appreciate it. Not that I'm so
disorganised  that I leave things to the last minute, of course.
It's  not  like  I  spend my whole life writing SAM magazines or
anything.

The lecturers are good, generally. They're all very approachable
if  you do need help. The mixture of lectures, tutorials and lab
times  is good; it's not all sitting in a stuffy lecture theatre
day  after  day. You're not even IN a lecture theatre, it's more
like  a  large  classroom.  And the seats are cushioned! Luxury!
Dundee  apparently  has  an  excellent rate of graduates finding
employment after finishing their courses, which is worth bearing
in mind.


BM                   Comp Sci at Dundee Uni

Maths is in first year just revision if you've done A-level, but
it does go into more detail than A-level. It goes without saying
that  it's  more or less all new if you go straight from Higher,
and if this is the case you'll find it hard going. Psychology is
new  to  most  people,  and so it starts off simply enough. They
claim  it's a science, but it is really more of an arty subject.
It  is extremely interesting, but there's a lot of coursework to
be done for it.

Dundee  itself  is  quite  a  funky town. It's not a tiny little
place, but with about 200,000 people it's hardly a major city of
the  world. There are a respectable number of shops and pubs and
things,  but  it's  not  quite as good as Edinburgh, Glasgow and
most English cities. Those of us here can usually manage to keep
ourselves  amused,  so  there's  no  worries  on that count. The
campus  is  about  5 minutes leisurely walk from the city centre
which  is  an ideal distance in my opinion. On the whole, Dundee
is  a  good  place  to  study,  even  if  it can be kind of cold
sometimes. I hope to see some of you there next year!
BM                    'Nuvver Show! Yeah!

Remember  the  Gloucester  Show  in  November? I don't, I wasn't
there  (courtesy  of  Wm Low. Thanks Wm), but according to Colin
and  everybody  he spoke to there it was an outstanding success.
You can therefore imagine my unfettered joy at hearing about the
next  one  - for there is indeed another one planned! Hurrah and
thrice joy!

This  one  is also in Gloucester and takes place on Saturday the
30th  April  1994.  Note  that  date!  Clear  your diaries! On a
personal note, take that day off work! (I have put in my request
for   a   weekend  off,  and  am  awaiting  permission.  Fingers
crossed...) It's in Quedgely Village Hall, in Quedgely, which is
near  the M5, 4 miles out of Gloucester. We'll be enclosing some
sort of map with FRED 43 or 44 which will give more details.

It  runs from 10am to 4pm, and tickets are £1.50  advance and £2
on  the  door. Bob Brenchley, the enterprising organiser, can be
reached  at [redacted] if you need more details. Even if this
is only half as good as November's, it'll still be amazing! Go!!
BM                     Price List Update

Additions to the FRED price list:

We have now added the following Revelation titles to our revered
FRED list:

Driver  - the excellent WIMP system for SAM which, in a perfect
          world would have been part of the ROM chip. Ah well. A
          floppy version'll have to do! Stunning bit o' software
          but make sure you've got MasterDOS first.


Campion - a very fully-featured spreadsheet which contains more
          options than a very busy Cadbury's factory (okay, bad
          joke, come on at least I tried). This is a seriously
          powerful piece of software.

Comet   - allegedly the very best assembler available on SAM,
          but having no knowledge of MC whatsoever, you're going
          to just have to trust me on this one!
BM                     Price List Update

The  previous  3  items,  Driver Campion and Comet Assembler for
those of you with ludicrously poor memories, usually cost £29.95
BUT!  if  you're a FRED subber you can pick them up for a measly
£24.95  each.  All  three  would set you back £74.85, but if you
want  them all, we can let you have them for only £70 (this last
applies  only  to  FRED subbers) which is a saving on the RRP of
£20!!!! That's your entire sub!!!! Jeeez!!!

We've  got another of Revelation's titles, Astroball, for £9.95.
With the subber's discount that tumbles down to a mere £8.95.

Now  that  FRED  has  taken  over SCPDU, we can offer their back
issues for £2 each. Available issues are:
0, 1, 2a, 2b, 3, 4a, 4b, 5

Further  price  reductions include the near cult hit Impatience;
you  can  get  this  for  only  £4.99.  FRED  subbers even get a
discount  on  THIS  price,  taking it to a rather ridiculous £4.
That's about the price of 2.25 pints - which'd you rather have?
BM                     Price List Update

Due  to  the  fact  that Colin's been eating boxes again (better
than  a  Big Mac at least! And more nutritious to boot!) we have
some  Spellmasters and Etrackers in a very boxless state. If you
think  you  can  live  without  a box for your prize proggy, you
could  do  a  lot  worse  than  picking  these up for only £9.99
(Spellmaster)  and  £19.99  (Etracker). Slightly predictably, we
can  offer  these  even  cheaper  to  FRED  subbers - £9 and £18
respectively. Nice of us isn't it?

Finally,  the  following titles are available in limited supply.
Phone before sending off your order to confirm availability:

                            GM_Base
                            GM_Calc
                             SCADS
                      SAM Adventure System
                        Prince of Persia
                      Football Director II

BM                    Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Congratulations  are  to  be offered to Dr Andy Wright, readers.
Why?  Because  he  proudly  announced the birth of his first son
Marcus  Alexander on the 6th of January, that's why! Hurrah! The
little fella weighed in at 9lb 9oz, which is a decidedly healthy
weight  to  be. Unless you're, like, 19 years old, in which case
you're either very underweight or a cat.

So  congratulations  to  the  new  parents,  and  best wishes to
Marcus.  As long as he doesn't turn out like Colin or myself I'm
sure he'll be fine!

Apparently  Marcus is not yet programming, but I'm sure it won't
be  too  long.

"Andy,  Marcus  said  his  first words today! By the way, do you
know what a floating point maths co-processor is...?"

All the best, Andy.

BM                       Disc Contents

I'm  in  a bit of a rush to get this finished before Colin sends
the  boys  round  to  make  me  an  offer  I can't refuse, so no
waffling, I promise.

CYBERTENNIS  -  Matt  Round  comes up with yet another excellent
game.  Based  on  those old Atari console things, Matt's done an
original  version  and  a  SAM-ified  version  for  the Nineties
(ahem).  He  has  also  written INFECTION, which is also a game.
Where  does  he get the time!!! Both these games were written on
Gamesmaster,  and  both  are  superb.  Instructions are included
before the games load.

SCUM! was also sent in by Matt, but I'm not exactly sure what it
is. I think you'd best see for yourselves....

MOD  ->  ETRACKER - a utility by Colin Piggot which converts MOD
files  from  the  Amiga  to  Etracker  format  files. It doesn't
convert  samples,  so  you need to provide your own instruments,
but the important bits, the actual patterns are converted.
BM                       Disc Contents

MR  SLIDEY - Andy Monk shows off his ever-improving machine code
and  musical  skills  with  this natty MC game. Based on the old
theme  of  sliding  bits about, this adds a neat little twist. A
picture  is re-arranged in varying degrees of chaos according to
the  difficulty  level  and  your  task is to get it back to its
original incarnation before the time runs out. Not easy.

He's back!! Steve Taylor takes a break from the pressures of Uni
life  and  gives  us another Machine Code article! Oh joy! We're
getting even more Driver details, this month, so I expect to see
hundreds of innovative Driver applications before too long heads
will roll.

E-TUNES  are  all  by  R Brunsden, and yet again the scroller is
pathetic in the extreme.

MODULES  -  a couple of Amiga music MODULES which you can either
convert  using  Colin Piggot's program, or listen to with Stefan
Drissen's from last issue.
BM                       Disc Contents

STEREOGRAM  -  this is a program for those of you who spend half
your  lives gazing into these posters containing at first glance
nothing  but  little dots, but which reveal mystic and spiritual
images  if  you get your eyes befuddled enough. Andrew Collier's
the  bloke to thank (blame?!) for this, which allows you to draw
your  very own! He's included a doc file, so I thankfully do not
have to explain further.

FREDEX  is  the  sequel  to,  um,  FREDEX in issue 36. It simply
contains  the contents of issues 37 - 41 (as well as 1 to 36). I
imagine  those  of  you who ripped me to bits for saying plurals
would  double the size of Spellmaster's dictionary will complain
that  we've already given away the list of 1 to 36, but I really
don't  care.  Think  of the poor people who missed it first time
round!

And that rounds off our lovely issue of FRED! Whew, I'm now very
knackered. Goodbye!

BM                            Fin

Editor: Brian "didn't mention beer ONCE! Ha!" McConnell
Thanks this month to:

Matt Round            Matt Round              Matt Round

And  that's  the  lot.  Oops!  No, sorry, he did let these other
people in:

Colin Piggot          R Brunsden              Darren Hubbard
Andy Monk             Andrew Collier
Steve Taylor          Stefan Drissen

Cheques payable to:-                       Phone:- 0382 - 535963

   FRED Publishing,
    [redacted]            ==>> Wrestling (no music!!!) ==>>

DH               Daz Hubbard's Wrestling Update!

Due to popular demand (well, Bri's demand anyway), I'm back with
more  wibblings from the  world that is  wrestling. And, oh boy,
has  there been a lot  gone on since the  last time we met? Yes,
there has. Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll, apart from the  rock
'n' roll bit, has been plentiful recently.

Well, that's later on. Now some listings. (From now on, it's the
name of the wrestler  with weight straight  off to save  space).
Oh, by the way, I'm covering WCW as well as the WWF because both
are of around about equal quality.

WWF "grapplers": GOODIES (or Fan Favourites, whatever)
----------------------------------------------------------------
DOINK, 249.   Obnoxious bloke with quite good skills that please
other fans but bore me to death.  Jack Tunney  (president of the
WWF) made a  ruling that only  one Doink is  allowed in the  WWF
(following other Doinks  hitting opponents etc) so Doink now has
a midget wrestler dressed as a clown, called Dink.
Finishing move - Top Rope Sitdown Splash
OWEN  HART, 230. The brother  of Bret Hart who  has gotten a wee
bit jealous recently cos his brother always gets the credit. Has
however  formed a tag team with Bret, (called the Hart Brothers,
natch), and  is a  little  peeved off  with the  tag-team  title
situation at the moment (see later)
Finishing move - Northern-Lights Suplex/Top-rope Dropkick
----------------------------------------------------------------
BADDIES (or Rulebreakers, or Heels, or whatever)
----------------------------------------------------------------
JEFF JARRETT,  232. Scientific,  high-flying wrestler  with  the
gimmick  of a country music star who  can't get his break in the
music world. A newcomer who should rise to the top within weeks.
Finishing move - DDT
----------------------------------------------------------------
BASTION BOOGER, 401. A  truly disgusting specimen  of a human  -
imagine  Bernand Manning  crossed with  Roy Chubby Brown  with a
giant hump on his back and you're halfway there. He's a bit crap
for a man of his size and weight.
Finishing move - Vertical Splash


QUEBECERS, Combined weight 523.  These are two blokes who  dress
up  as  Mounties and are suprisingly talented. Managed by Johnny
Polo,  they won the WWF Tag belts off the Steiner Brothers in a
bizarre  "Provence of Quebec"  Rules where titles  can change by
countout or disqualification  (normally, this wouldn't  happen).
Their individual names  are Jacques Rougeau and  Pierre Quillet.
Lost the titles to Marty Jannetty & The 123 Kid on January 10th.
Finishing move - Boston Crab with second turnbuckle Legdrop.
----------------------------------------------------------------



WWF NEWS
--------
Well  has a lot happened this month in the WWF or what? Firstly,
WWF  head  Vince  MaMahon  was  indicted  by  the  U.S.  Justice
Department  over  the sex  and  drugs scandals  happening there.
MaMahon pleaded not guilty, and  was released on $250,000  bail.
The  trial is still continuing, and  if MaMahon is convicted, he
will spend eight years jail + another $500,000 fine.

Secondly, Jerry Lawler was released on $1,000 bail on charges of
rape, sodomy and harassing a witness. Lawler expects he  will be
exonerated from all allegations by the time you read this.

Anyway, back to  the wrestling itself. Top  story this month  is
that the  Hart family is up in arms  over Owen challenging Bret.
Their  parents, Stu and  Helen, are  crying, upset etc  over the
whole thing (so the WWF say). Owen said on TV that he is sick of
living  in  Bret's  shadow,  and so  far  Bret  has  refused the
proposed   match.  The  brothers  made   up  at  Christmas,  and
challenged the  former  tag-champs the  Quebecers at  the  Royal
Rumble. However, expect the brothers to brawl at the Rumble.

The Royal Rumble  is an event where  30 wrestlers take  part. It
starts off  with two inside  the ring, then  another wrestler is
added every two minutes until everyone is in there. The only way
a wrestler can  be eliminated is  if he is  thrown over the  top
rope onto the arena floor. The names that have been entered are:
Diesel,  Shawn Michaels,  Scott  Steiner, Mabel,  Doink, Kamala,
Crush, Owen Hart, Bret Hart, Adam Bomb, Billy & Bart  Gunn, Greg
Valentine, Bob  Backlund, Rick & Scott  Steiner, Samu, Fatu, the
123  Kid, Randy  Savage, Bam Bam  Bigelow, Rick  Martel, Bastion
Booger, Marty Jannetty, Mo, Jeff Jarrett, Ludvig Borga, Tatanka,
Lex Luger, Tenryu and the Great Kabuki. Expect Luger to win, cos
this  is  his  only  chance  to  wrestle  the  WWF  Champion  at
Wrestlemania X (the winner of the Rumble gets the title shot).

As well as the battle royale type match,  two other matches have
announced as well - WWF Champion Yokozuna vs the Undertaker in a
Casket match  (the winner of this one is the person who pins his
opponent then places him inside a coffin), and  Intercontinental
Champion Razor  Ramon (who  won the  belt in  a tournement  when
Shawn  Michaels was stripped  for misconduct) vs  IRS, who stole
Razor's  belt about four  weeks ago. Ramon  has a bit  of a feud
going with  Michaels, who says he is still the champion as Razor
didn't beat him. Michaels still has the old I-C belt  (Razor has
a new belt) and he is allowed to keep it, as if a wreslter quits
or gets  suspended from a  federation he does  not have to  give
back  the belt back  as possession  is 9/10's  of the  law. Full
results of the Rumble next month, fans!


WCW BUMPF

Well, here there has  been a new WCW  World Champion. Ric  Flair
pinned Vader for his 10th World Title at the Starrcade 93 super-
card  on December  27th. No  other wrestler  has ever  gotten 10
World  Title before.  Wow, eh?  In the  bout, Flair  smashed his
front  teeth  in, cracked  a  rib and  suffered  abrasions which
required stitches. Flair always tend to bleed from the  forehead
whenever he  is wrestling a major opponent  anyway. Now, WCW are
trying to arrange several steel-cage matches between the two.

Davey Boy Smith (aka British Bulldog) has  left WCW. The offical
reason is that he  didn't turn up for matches, but the unoffical
reason  is  that a  warrant  for his  arrest  has been  released
followed  allegations that  he smashed  someones head  against a
brick wall, causing the victim  to slur his speech, become  deaf
in one  ear, and  suffer bouts  of amnesia. The  verdict on  his
court case shall appear in the next FRED.

The rest of the results from Starrcade 93 are as follows (so get
used  to the  names!):  Terry Taylor  defeated  Equalizer...Paul
Orndorff & Paul  Roma beat 2 Cold  Scorpio and Marcus  Alexander
Bagwell...Shockmaster  pinned  Awesome  Kong...TV Champion  Lord
Steven Regal and Ricky Steamboat battled to  a 15 minute draw...
Cactus  Jack & Maxx Payne pinned Tex Slazenger & Shanghai Pierce
when Jack pinned Slazenger...Steve Austin  won the United States
heavyweight Championship  of Dustin Rhodes  in a  best-of-three-
falls mathc...Rick  Rude beat  The Boss...Sting &  Hawk defeated
The Nasty Boys by disqualification.

Arn Anderson  has returned  to WCW  after the  infamous stabbing
incident between him and Sid Vicious in late October. It appears
he wasn't  to blame  for the incident,  leaving Vicious  with no
federation to go to. "Psycho"  Sid was supposed to beat Vader at
Starrcade instead of Flair to win the belt as well. Unlucky!

WCW  have  snapped  up  what  is  considered  one  of  the  best
commentators in  the world  from  the WWF  - Bobby  "The  Brain"
Heenan.



And, err,  thats it. Questions/advanced news/ mail/ money can be
sent to  me, Darren Hubbard,  at 10 Princetown Tce,  North Moor,
Sunderland SR3 1RH. Next  month sees more listings,  results for
the Royal Rumble,  previews of WCW Superbrawl 4 and WWF Wrestle-
mania X and more title changes, particularly  the WWF tag-straps
going back  to the  Quebecers once  they beat  the s**t  out  of
Jannetty and the Kid! So long...

P.S.  Bri, (don't print this bit), is there any chance of having
a "contributions/articles  in by  whatever date"  thingy in  the
credits  page in every issue so people (e.g. me) can send in up-
to-date stuff?



REPLY:  Sorry for printing the last bit! A very valid point, and
I  will  try to bear it in mind from now on. Bascially, anything
we  receive  by  about  the  3rd  or  4th  of  the month will be
considered  for  the magazine, although we try to get the actual
programs  finished  off  by  then. This month being an obviously
late exception...                                        - BRIAN

Letters & Reviews

                     Letter from Matt Round

Dear FRED,

OK  OK  yes  I know it's me AGAIN, but after that desperate plea
for  more  letters  I  thought  I'd risk cropping up in Fred too
often!  I'm  half  writing this as if it's a letter to Colin and
Brian, and half as if writing to Fred readers, so it's a strange
hybrid, but bear with me..!

Firstly, a little bug fix - if any of you are still using
Dishcloth (well you never know, there might be lots of maths
graduates out there!), you can repair the error-trapping with:

LOAD "DISHCLOTH" LINE 60000

2825 ON ERROR mathserr
3625 ON ERROR mathserr

SAVE "DISHCLOTH" LINE 1960

                     Letter from Matt Round

You should do all that on a 'clean' SAM (reset then only BOOT
some DOS, nothing else), and the same fix applies to the
joystick version which may appear on Fred sometime.

Fred  41 was the best I've seen - it was so packed that I'm left
wondering  if  all  that  talk about having to go bi-monthly was
just a cunning ruse! (You know it's full when even a 30K game is
compressed down to 20K to make room!)

Pauli   Lindgren's   complaints   about  the  text  viewer  have
apparently been echoed by quite a few people, and although there
are  a couple of replacements already supposedly on the way, I'm
having  a go at one (in fact, you may well be reading this using
it!).  The idea for using MIDI devices to improve SAM music is a
non-starter  though - few people have got MIDI synthesisers, few
would buy an add-on module, and the software would require a lot
of extra work to use it...


                     Letter from Matt Round

At long last, a Kaleidoscope review, and the fabled add-on turns
out  to  be about as stunning as twiddling the colour control on
your  telly.  Pauli  was a bit tough on the hardware development
kit  though - it was never meant to be the electronic equivalent
of a Lego set!

SmartPhone is brilliant, but resets the SAM completely when you
quit, which is inconvenient. After rummaging through the program
I found a fix which instead hops out to any waiting AUTO file
(the main SmartPhone program's filename is AUTOphone, so you'll
want to change that if you're using it on a disk of your own and
the 'proper' AUTO file doesn't precede SmartPhone in the
directory).

It  doesn't  set  everything  back  to the defaults (such as the
character  set...  does  anyone  out there know if there's a ROM
routine  you can call to easily get the original set back?), and
I  haven't  tested  it  rigorously,  so  please don't modify the
original file just in case it's wrong!
                     Letter from Matt Round

Do the following on a 'clean' SAM (see the "Dishcloth" fix):

LOAD "AUTOphone" LINE 60000
CLEAR

4715 POKE SVAR 321,0:DPOKE SVAR 224,7326:DPOKE SVAR 252,0
     :MODE 4:CLS #:CLEAR:CLEAR 81919:OPEN TO 4
     :ON ERROR NEW:LOAD "AUTO*"

CLEAR

SAVE "AUTOphone" LINE 10

As  mentioned  in  Fred,  various  people  are  seemingly  STILL
dreaming  about  major  hardware  developments. If anything, the
planned  add-ons could do some harm if they ever appear- the SAM
market  isn't  large enough to support different peripherals and
setups,  and  us  poor ol' programmers are easily intimidated by
added complexity.
                     Letter from Matt Round

A  512K SAM with a drive is all most people 'need', although I'd
also  like  to  see  the mouse become widespread. To me, endless
talk  of  hardware  is  an  irritating  distraction; why fight a
pointless  battle  on  the  hardware  front  when you can freely
develop  software  instead?  I've  used the kinds of machines so
many  enthusiasts  seem  to get all excited about (powerful PCs,
colour  Sun  workstations,  Silicon  Graphics systems etc.), and
there's  nothing  magical about them, believe me - in the end it
all comes down to the software.

Lastly, please keep software flowing by buying it. The market is
only  just  about  large  enough  to  support  new releases, and
although  I'm  not  in it for the money (I'd earn FAR more doing
'proper'  work)  I  have to feel that SOMEONE will want what I'm
working on!

Exercise that cheque book, and let 'em know what you want to see
released  in  the  future  (but  try  not to keep Colin from his
dinner for TOO long!).
BM                    Reply to Matt Round

Well,  it  had  to happen eventually, didn't it? After months of
sending  in  excellent  games  for us, Matt's turned his hand to
letter  writing  too.  And  a very good letter it was too, Matt,
complete with Carol Brooksbank-esque bug-fix/program improvement
suggestions.

Not a lot I can say except that I fully agree with your hardware
opinions.  There  isn't  the market for them, nice though they'd
be,  and  as  long  as  we've got the software SAM's unstoppable
anyway!

Thanks  for  the  new  text reader, Matt, it's a very impressive
replacement  for  the  one we're using at the moment. Two things
though:  (1)  it  doesn't compress the text, which means that to
use  it  we'd  need  approx  twice  as  much  room  for the text
articles.  (2)  I  only  have  Outwrite  (not Wordmaster or even
Driver's  Notepad  yet).  It's  a shame about that, as it really
would be a great replacement for our current viewer.
                                                        -  BRIAN
                     Letter from Mike Haine

Dear FRED,

You asked for it, ie a letter, even if full of waffle.

Well let's start by some comment on things like menus, scrollies
etc.  The  latter may be OK in Picadilly circus and such places,
where  the  only available display is for a short single line of
characters.  Otherwise,  when  the  available  display  has many
lines,  scrollies can only be described as DAFT. We are capable,
through  long  experience,  of  scanning over a page of text and
picking  out  the  important bits very efficiently. The scrollie
might have been fun as a demo but NO MORE PLEASE.

Now  turn  to  menus. We have full page ones or ones in windows,
popups,  pull  downs and so on. We can select by numbers if each
item is numbered (OR lettered), by the initial letter of an item
(usually  highlighted  or  INVERSE  Printed),  or  by  a  cursor
movement to select and then a keypress to confirm.

                     Letter from Mike Haine

The  last  looked  very clever when it first appeared, but it is
really  DAFT.  Instead  of  a  single  keypress  it  involves  a
multiplicity  of  these. Yours are even worse when,having chosen
an  item,  further  presses  are  necessary to get away from the
menu.

Of  course  we  can  go  even  further and use a full scale WIMP
system.  This  can be very impressive and, no doubt, can be very
useful in complex embodiments such as found in "WINDOWS" and the
like.  I suppose most of us have met it most in FLASH and now in
"SAMPAINT".  Nice, but is it really the best way of menuing such
progs? Possibly yes but I have some reservations.

My  own  choice  is  for  popup  menus  with  highlighted  first
characters  to  item  names,  the items being chosen by pressing
that key. This system requires the minimum number of key presses
to  choose  a  given facility and is extremely easy to follow. I
have  used it in my modifications to Tasword 2, (Given away with
SAM Supplement or by sending a disc to me).
                     Letter from Mike Haine

That  prog  has  over 30 menu entries all operated by single key
presses. No more than 6 in any one menu. All sorts of facilities
are  included  for example press "d","1","3" now enter "l" and a
directory  listing of all items on the disc in drive 1 beginning
with  the  letter  "l"  are  listed  on  screen  and the list is
"lettered. A menu pops up giving the option to LOAD, COPY, SAVE,
ERASE  or  RENAME.  Press"l"  and you are told to press a letter
opposite  the  item  you want to LOAD. It does the load and goes
straight  into  Text  mode.  (Who  wants a specialist prog to do
this?).

Other  facilities  offered  include  one  to  read the Directory
listing  into  the  Text  file,  and to delete, copy, move, save
marked  blocks  of  text.  These  block facilities are very fast
(near instantaneous).

The  use  of  this  sort of menu system is very easy to learn. I
found  that,  after only an hour or so that I seldom had to even
look at the menus.
                     Letter from Mike Haine

Well so much for a few comments on menu systems. Now to get down
to  more  important matters. Us British have developed the habit
of  running  the  country  down on every possible occasion. Sure
there  are  lots of things wrong. But it is not going to help to
take this NEGATIVE approach to comment. By all means put forward
CONSTRUCTIVE  criticism  and  suggestions  for  how  to  improve
matters, but being NEGATIVE inevitably subtracts from hope.

So  why  be so darn negative about SAM, Fred? Why keep stressing
that  it is a dead duck? As part of the team responsible for its
continuance  one would expect a more buoyant attitude. There are
still  a  lot of us who own the machine. I cannot accept that we
can  expect  no more hardware developments. Have you never heard
of  amateur  electronics  hobbyists?  Coupled  with  a  few keen
proggers  there  is  no  reason  why  a  wide  range  of add ons
shouldn't be developed. Where is your sense of enterprise? Is it
drowned  in  all that beer, in the consumption of which you take
such pride. Do you really think that many of your readers admire
you for getting stoned drunk?
                     Letter from Mike Haine

Maybe  it  is  a necessity to you, but to your readers it cannot
give much confidence in our future.

You asked for letters. You encouraged one to whaffle....... Well
here   it   is!!!!!!

                         [redacted]







BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

Sorry,  what  was that? I couldn't make it out for all this BEER
I've been drinking....

No  sorry Mike, I won't be like that. I'm glad you took the time
to  go  over what I'd imagine are quite common criticisms of the
magazine. As people rarely complain about the magazine (and yes,
I  do  know that this is due to the polite nature of our readers
rather  than  to us being perfect), it is only on occasions like
this  that  Colin and I are able to judge what needs improved in
the magazine.

HCI  -  Human/Computer  Interface. Everybody tends to have their
own  opinion  on  what  constitutes  the ideal method of getting
information   into   the   computer.   For  some,  command-based
environments  are  still  tops, while others would die defending
WIMP  systems.  Then  there  is of course the hotkey alternative
which  you  appear  to  favour,  Mike.  Researchers are even now
looking   into  ever-more productive means of HCI, including the
Computer Science Dept. at Dundee University.
BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

My  own  personal  preference  is  something  of  a  mixture. On
numerous  Amiga  packages  there are two levels of HCI - you can
use  the WIMP system, selecting items from menus with the mouse,
or you can use the keyboard hotkeys (CNTRL + F, say, to format a
paragraph)  -  and this is what I prefer.

I can commit to memory the very frequently used commands such as
delete  line,  save  file,  centre  line etc., but don't have to
bother  with  commands  which  I'll possibly only use once every
couple of weeks (eg thesaurus options). This makes it easier for
new  users to get to grips with, but lets more experienced users
work much more productively.

On  the  SAM,  I've yet to see this mixture used. The version of
Outwrite  I have is the hotkey one, which, now I'm familiar with
it,  is  excellent.  It  did take a couple of months to make the
transition  from  Tasword though - completely forgetting one set
of  hotkeys and learning another is not easy. A menu system here
would have been much better initially.
BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

The  newest  version  of Outwrite though has a menu system. This
makes  it  much  easier  to use at first, but when you know what
you're doing it is a hindrance rather than a help, especially as
the hotkeys are disabled.

I  don't  know  where your complaints are aimed at regarding our
FRED  menus,  though. Our main menu is certainly a hotkey affair
and  always  has been. Okay, the magazine has menus in it, but I
for  one  almost  never use them in a normal reading session and
they're  not  really that irritating to use, surely? Most of the
time  is  spent  pressing  one  of  the four cursor keys. A wimp
system  is  something  which  it  might  be  nice to use in FRED
someday, but don't hold your breath.

Regarding  scrollies, where's the problem? I would sympathise if
the entire magazine was presented in scrolly form, but it's not.
Scrollies  are most often confined to the demos, and rightly so.
By  the same token though, pages of text do not belong in demos,
and so the scrollies shall remain. Probably. I don't write the
BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

demos,  so it's up to the coders themselves. I still can't think
where the scrollies are which are getting to you so much though.

Now  onto  something  which looks set to go on for quite a while
yet  -  the  subject  of  my  apparent pessimism regarding SAM's
future.  I  have  never  said  that  the  SAM  is dead - it most
certainly  isn't.  It's  getting  stronger if anything. SAMs are
still selling, software is getting better and more is coming out
than ever before. Things are without doubt looking good!

That  does  not  mean a market exists for all the hardware plans
which  are  constantly bandied about by people who are getting a
little   over-excited.  Amateur  hobbyists  are  one  thing;  if
somebody  can build himself a 66MHz accelerator for his SAM then
well done. To suggest that a market exists for such a thing is a
different  matter.  I  don't  think  it  does. This is not being
negative  though, it is being realistic, and this is an attitude
which a lot of people would do well to adopt.

BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

I  am  not telling people to give up on their SAMs. Far from it.
As Matt Round says umpteen pages earlier, it's the software that
counts and look at the software we're getting now - Lemmings and
SAMPaint being only the latest in a long line of software.

Similarly,  I  don't  consider it negative to claim that the SAM
will never rival the PCs of the world. Again, I consider that to
simply  be  realism.  The  SAM  wasn't  designed to compete with
state-of-the-art machines, so why do people keep suggesting that
in  only  a  couple of years, with the right hardware add-ons of
course, SAM can be controlling everything from the space program
to the arcade games in the local arcade!?

I could of course start telling you all that SAMs are selling in
droves,  that we're negotiating contracts to get MI5 a SAM-based
organisation,  but do you want the truth or groundless hype with
no  prospect  of  being  lived  up  to?  Better to be pleasantly
surprised than heavily let down, if you ask me.

BM                    Reply to Mike Haine

To just summarise the past couple of pages, I believe that while
the SAM will never rival the professional machines, it does have
a  future. It is NOT dead, and is showing no signs of dying. I'm
sorry if I've ever implied otherwise. I didn't mean to.

I  hope  I've  dealt  with  all your points of criticism. Thanks
again for taking the time to give us your views.

I'm off for a quick pint or ten now - back in a mo'!
                                                         - BRIAN









                  Letter from Robert Southern

Dear Sir,

I  recently  purchased  a program from you called SAMPaint which
can  only  be described as fantastic but for one thing: it isn't
compatible  with my printer, a Panasonic KX-P1124 at any setting
from within the program.

However,  my  main concern is that I'm about to purchase a Canon
BJC  600 colour printer and I would like to know if it is at all
possible to enter print codes into the program or, failing that,
supply a code file to do it?

BM                    Reply to R Southern

I'm  sorry  you've  had such trouble printing with SAMPaint. Are
you able to print normally (ie using DUMP) with it?

If anybody can help Robert, write in and let us know. I'm afraid
I really can't help you though.                          - BRIAN
                    Letter from Derek Morgan

[redacted]

Dear Colin + Brian,

                            SAM PD.

There  is  now a new Public Domain software Library for Sam. For
the past six months, we at Sam PD have been trying to obtain new
software for the PD library. This has been a hard task. With the
loss  of  the  SCPDSA  last year there should have been a lot of
programers with PD software and no where to send it.

Programmers  that  once  produced  PD  programs  got  better  at
programing, and now they are involved in full price games and
                    Letter from Derek Morgan

utilitys.  Other  programers may not have heard of us and didn't
know  where to send in their programs. There will be some of you
that  have  played  about  with  Basic  and  Machine  code, made
yourself  a  little game or a utility and think that no one else
would be interested in it - well, we at Sam PD are.

Disk  magazines,  music  disks  and  all types of demos are very
welcome.  We have expert help at hand if your program needs play
testing or infomation adding etc.

We at Sam PD are also catering for overseas Sam users:

Do you find that because of the low price of PD software and the
added cost of a Euro cheque, it works out expensive to obtain PD
software? The next time you order Fred, or any other Sam product
for that matter, be it hardware or software, then send the whole
cheque to us at Sam PD. We will then split your cheque and  send
you your PD software and pass your cheque  and  order  onto  the
other distributor for their attention.
                    Letter from Derek Morgan

I have been providing this service to Sam users in Australia and
New Zealand for the past three years.

      *** New PD software 'Mouse Driver V2.0'.  £2.50 ***

This  interrupt  driven  mouse  driver  is a stand alone updated
version  of  the  mouse  pointer  program  that is used in Steve
Taylor's excellent 'Driver' utility program.

The  disk  contains  auto  relocatable  code. An easy to use and
understand  BASIC program is provided to manipulate the code, so
no machine code knowledge is needed.

Think  about  it:  you  can now build your very own WIMP utility
program  or game. All the hard work has been done for you. Seven
different  user pointer's are available at the push of a button,
and there is room for your own pointer disign.


                    Letter from Derek Morgan

A  Read-Me file containing information and technical information
is  included  on  disk  for  use  with  Notepad  and  other word
processers.  If  you  do  not  have  a  printer and would like a
printout  of  the  readme  file,  please  state  A4  or  A5 when
ordering. Also included on disk is a basic drawing program.

This program (MD,V2.0) will also replace version 1 on 'Driver'

Many thanks to Steve Taylor for producing this program and
making it Public Domain.

For full PD list, please send a Stamped addressed envelope to:
[redacted]

                          Best wishes

                             Derek

BM                   Reply to Derek Morgan

Aha! It seems I was wrong about there not being any PD libraries
for  the SAM. Any other PD libraries reading, get in touch so we
can alert the world to your existence.

I  don't  want to be nasty or anything, but isn't £2.50 a little
expensive  for  Public  Domain?  I  mean,  FRED  is  actually  a
commerical  thing,  and we manage to cover costs (discs, postage
AND  paying our contributors!) for £2 a disc. I expect there are
a  good  few  overheads  involved  in starting a PD library so I
won't get too Watchdoggy!

It's  good  to  see somebody doing something on the SAM again. I
hope the library goes well.

                                                         - BRIAN




                   Letter from Graham Goring

Dear FRED,

    I have here some vitally imortant information about that  oh
so innocent Colin Anderton and the  omni-annoying  Peter  Moore:

Colin Anderton never submits his own programs; anyone else's and
yeah! sure! He'll only be to glad to stick it in a jiffy bag and
pop  it  in  the post. For instance, that really awful big print
thing  in  supposed  vanishing  point 3D, well, I ACTUALLY WROTE
IT!!!  and  only found out after it was published (I'm afraid it
was on one of my really bad days).

Colin  is indeed a scamp! And Peter Moore (whatever you may have
heard  of  him)  is  actually a pervert (a lot like myself) with
breath  branded as "pure mould" by Colin. Peter has a dog called
Topsy  which  the  RSPCA  are  considering  taking into care and
putting  in  a home for nervous doggies. Me on the other hand, I
write all my own stuff, mainly as I cannot stand his sterile and
bland presentation.
                   Letter from Graham Goring

Colin  does  write  some  good  stuff,  such  as  his  character
assasination animations, which depict me, him and Peter with all
our worst traits amplified a thousand-fold (any mention  of  the
word "ear wax" from Colin is to be totally  disregarded)  anyway
I've got to go, in case Colin censors this letter I just like to
say...

All my love and kisses,

GrAhaM gOrINg (Aged 9 (Mentally, that is))

                   ANOTHER LETTER OR 2 BELOW

                               0
                               0
                             0 0 0
                              000
                               0

                   Letter from Colin Anderton

Dear Brian, (not his ASSISTANT Colin!)

       Just to make my disc complete, I thought I'd better write
a letter.  The reason for this 99% BASIC disc was mainly because
FRED is perfect in all but one way.  All I feel it  needs  is  a
few more addictive little games such as FLIP 'N' HELL,  YAHTZEE,
BONG!, etc... and we are the guys to do it (I  think).   Anyway,
on with the pointless rubbish.

Firstly,  commenting  on  Graham's  lie  about  him  writing  my
logomaker  program.  I'm  sure  you  don't  believe  him, mainly
because  if you look at the listing, the program is (a) not long
winded,  (b) logical and (c) in MODE 4. Proof or what? Silly old
greasy  earwax man. I think he's already senile. I've had to ban
him  from  coming near my SAM - it toook me three weeks to clean
the mess off after he leaned over it last time.

Secondly,  I've  just  received FRED 38 and I'd like to complain
about the person who complained about Stefan Drissen.
                   Letter from Colin Anderton

Well,  I  feel  I must add my comment. I personally believe that
Stefan's  donations  are  extremely good demos, even though they
are  conversions.  Do  you all want him to be offended and leave
the  SAM  scene?  I  think  not.  I'd like to see Mr Hate-mail's
efforts  at  M/C. There you go Stefan. Do you want to mention me
in  one  of  your  next  demos  now?  No doubt when I'm rich and
famous,  you  can  tell your children that, yes, the millionaire
and partner in the world-wide company, West Coast Computers, did
take  time out to defend you. Of course, this may not happen, so
feel free to choose who you want to thank. Erm, sorry.

Thirdly,  I  think  you pay too little attention to worms. After
all,  if  it wasn't for worms, spellmaster's dictionary would be
smaller,  so  you  could not boast that many words, and it would
not  sound that great. Bet you never realised how important they
were, did you?

Fourthly, where can I get hold of a code compresser?

                   Letter from Colin Anderton

I've  got  billions of discs full of speccy games which could be
crunched to a zillionth of the size they are. HELP!

Fifthly,  a  word from my cat. C'mere. dhhhhhhn2777jfe. (I added
the full stop - he's a bit illiterate, stupid animal).

             COLIN (As in Anderton, not Macdonald)

P.S.  If there is anyone out there who owns  an  Archimedes,  or
whose school owns one, get  in  touch  with  me  because  I  can
provide a converter for SCREEN$. (Include an SAE).  Address:
                           [redacted]

P.S.  I think this letter's a bit out of date now... Soz
BM         Reply to Those Rather Odd Young People...

Well.  There's  not  an awful lot I can say about those letters.
There  was  another  one  from  the  Peter  who got a very brief
mention, but I decided to remove it in the interests of decency.
(Don't ask...)

We  have  sort  of got a compressor program here, but I've never
got around to learning how to use it I'm afraid. I know I really
should but I haven't, yet. I will though, soon. Honest.

At  the  moment, we use a thing which Colin gave me a few months
ago  and  which  I  believe originally came from SAM Supplement.
I'll need to ask him about it.

Finally thanks for that disc you sent. I expect we'll be using a
proggy or two from it next issue...
                                                         - BRIAN

Random Dot Stereograms

AC                   Random Dot Stereograms

I  doubt  that you will have been able to avoid the recent mania
for  3D images. The craze includes the recent BBC 3D week, which
needed  special  glasses. (Since everything that moves will look
3D,  games  and  demos  will  look 3D if you wear them - scrolly
messages  go  'into'  the  screen,  unless  you wear the glasses
upside down.)

Random Dot Stereograms (which were featured on Tomorrow's World)
are  seemingly  random  patterns  of  dots  which,  when  viewed
correctly,  will  look 3D. The effect is like an object, wrapped
in  patterned  paper.  They require no special equipment, but do
take  a  bit  of  practice to see. More on that technique later.

The  program  on this disk will print out a stereogram, given an
image  on  a mode 4 screen. You will need a printer; the program
has  been tested with the Esprint MRC 016 (9 pin dot matrix) and
the Panasonic KX-P2123 Quiet Printing 24 pin colour printer, but
it  should  work with most printers.

AC

You may find that the image "falls off" the side of the printer;
entering the control characters 27,63,75,4 might cure this.

To  view  a  stereogram,  each eye's line of sight must
initially be  through  one of the alignment arrows at the top of
the image. This means that you will see three arrows, the centre
one being much darker than the other two.

To  achieve  this  requires  practice  and determination (plus a
strong  belief  that the whole thing isn't a hoax! I assure you,
these things are real) There are a number of methods. The first,
far-eyed  viewing,  involves  training  your  eyes  on a distant
object,  such as a wall, or the horizon through a window. Whilst
doing so, slide the stereogram in front of you, at a point where
the  line  of  sight  for  each  eye  happens  to  be through an
alignment arrow. Then glance down when the arrows finally fuse.

If  you try this and fail, then attempt cross-eyed viewing. Hold
your  finger  halfway  between  your  face and the paper.
AC

Whilst  looking  at  your  finger, focus on the paper behind. As
before,  the  arrows  should merge, which should evntually focus
along  with the rest of the image. This will, however, make most
stereograms look inside-out, rather like a hollow mould.

To  use  this  program,  either select a shape from the menu, or
draw  one  yourself, using any art package. Pen 0 is the lowest,
pen  15  the  highest.  There  is  no "paper level" as such, the
background level can be any number, with objects below and above
it.  When  viewing  a  design  on screen before printing it, the
palette  can  be  changed so that any position can be black; the
background.  The  other  colours  are scaled; purple objects are
above  black,  green below it. This palette is for viewing only,
and does not affect the printed result.

When  designing a screen for use as a stereogram, leave about an
inch  at  the top of the screen, filled only with the background
colour-  this  makes viewing easier. Don't use a frame or border
line  as  this  can be very confusing.
AC

Try  to  make sure that the object is fairly large, doesn't have
steep  drop-offs  or  repeating  patterns.  Above  all,  make it
interesting!

If  you  have  any  queries,  write  (with an SAE please) to me:

[redacted]

NB. "On The Tiles!" still available - £2.50 to the same address.