Fred 44

Issue 44

Magazine

BM                         Editorial

Hello  once  again,  and  I  hope you all had a good Easter. For
myself   it   was,  predictably,  a  time  of  much  over-eating
(chocolate  -  quel  surprise) and of staying in bed until noon.
Luxury.  I  did think of getting myself super-fit and Gladiator-
esque  this  Easter, and in fact I did make it to the gym; once.
On  the  first  day  of the holiday, there we were, 10 am, bench
pressing  and sit-upping like never before. An auspicious start,
but  of  course  it  couldn't  last.  Ah  well. I will go again,
sometime.  Maybe  next  term.  Maybe in the summer. Maybe in 4th
year.  I  hear  40 is a good age to start weight training... The
uni gym's pretty good too, and only 25p an hour. What a bargain.

Colin's  off  on  his  travels, so you may have a description of
them  to  look forward to in FRED 45. I know I can't wait to get
the  sordid  details off him. I get the full, uncensored version
though, while you lot are only allowed the printable stuff! I'll
have  to accompany him on these travels sometime. Summer. Yes. I
*will* be there!

BM                         Editorial

If you sent off an order in the last week of March or first week
of  April,  don't  worry  about  the  delay.  Colin's  being "in
communicado"  (not  a  bad  Marillion  song that) means that the
business side of things will be not quite as promptly dealt with
as usual.

The end of term saw a spell of frantic activity as exams loomed,
and  I can now proudly announce that I passed them. Some of them
anyway:  the two Maths papers and one of the Computing papers. I
don't  know  about  Psychology  yet,  and  don't much care to be
brutally  honest.  The  results  of the other Computing one also
remain  to  be posted, and I have to say I'm not looking forward
to  seeing  them.  That  was  the  nasty electronics part of the
course  which  is  not  nice. I know you all lose a lot of sleep
worrying about these things, so now at least you're out of your
misery.

We're  still  looking for our replacement editor, but more about
that later on.
BM                            News

Erm, this could be difficult. As far as I know, nothing remotely
newsworthy has happened since last month. Of course, there could
be  a  small envelope behind Colin's door containing an order of
50,000 SAMs but let's face it - it's hardly likely.

One thing which will sadden some readers more than others is the
death  of  Kurt Cobain, lead singer with the biggest band in the
world,  Nirvana.  Kurt  has  apparently committed suicide at the
beginning  of  April. This in itself will come as nothing new to
Nirvana  fans  though,  who  I'm sure have heard all about it by
now.

This  is  a huge loss not only to his family and friends, but to
music  lovers  the world over. It may not mean an awful lot, I'm
sure  I speak for a lot of us when I say he will be missed. Kurt
was the spokesman, however reluctantly and unintentionally, for
an entire culture, and is without doubt irreplacable.


BM                        Colin's Bit

Colin  is  of course on his travels and so is unable to say much
in  FRED. He's probably got severe slurring of the speech in the
everyday sense as well, but let's not dwell on the fact.

In  his  absence, here's a word or two from Paul Crompton on the
subject of the SAM's paging system. Take it away, Paul!













                       Sam paging system
                       -----------------

3  ports are used used on a sam without a meg upgrade. These are
the  Lower  Memory  Page  Register  (LMPR),  Higher  Memory Page
Register  (HMPR) and Video Memory Page Register. All 3 ports can
be written to or read from to get the current status.

The way I shall describe bits are

Bit       0     1     2     3     4     5     6     7
Value     1     2     4     8     16    32    64    128

and not, as some people use

bit       1     2     3     4     5     6     7     8
Value     128   64    32    16    8     4     2     1




LMPR
----
This is accessed from port 250 and is set as follows.

bits      Description
0-4       Page in lower memory (0-31),  the first page is in
          section 0 and the following page is in section 1, if
          page 31 is in section 0 then page 0 appears in section
          1 (as in basic)
5         If reset then page 0 is occupied by ROM 0 and if reset
          page 0 is occupied by ram
6         If reset then page 3 is occupied by ram and if set
          page 3 is occupied by ROM 1
7         If reset then page 0 can be written to if ram is there
          if set then page 0 can't be written to so it acts like
          a rom even if ram is paged in. (This is mainly used in
          speccy emulators)




HMPR
----
This is accessed from port 251 and is set as follows.

bits      Description
0-4       Page in upper memory (similer to LMPR)
6-5       These decide which colour set is used in mode 3.  If
          it is 00 then palette positions 0-3 are used, if 01
          then 4-7 are used, if 10 then 8-11 are used and if 11
          then 12-15 are uses
7         If this bit is reset then internal memory is used if
          it is reset then external memory is used (this is
          explained after VMPR).








VMPR
----
This is accessed from port 252 and is set as follows.

bits      Description
0-4       Page that screen is in (modes 3 and 4 bit 0 is ignored
          but in modes 1 and 2 any page can be used.  mode 2
          uses 6K at the beginning of the page for the picture
          as in mode 1 but the 6K for attributes are stored 8K
          into the page leaving a 2K gap in the middle and 2K at
          the end)
6-5       these decide the screen mode - 00 is mode 1, 01 is
          mode 2, 10 is mode 3 and 11 is mode 4
7         This is used to send and receive data down the midi
          port (I think)






If bit 7 is set for HMPR then external memory is used this is
controlled by ports 128 and 129.  Port 128 controls section 2
and port 129 controls section 3.  These ports are set as follows

bits      Description
0-5       This describes which 16K page is used (0-63)
6-7       This describes which meg unit is used.

If you use external memory you should check which units are
installed before using.

If you call a routine from basic and you wish to return make
sure you store the LMPR, VMPR the stack pointer, put sam in
interrupt mode 1 and enable interrupts.







Other useful information
------------------------
When sam is reset all then memory ports are set to 0 so if you
put a mode 1 picture in page 0 then it will appear when the sam
is reset.

It is useful also to trap the break button at the back of sam.
All this does is execute an NMI to disable the button. Place a
RETN instruction at memory location 102.  This returns
interrupts to the state they were in and returns to the
interrupted program.  If you put another routine there instead
then you will also have to look out for multiple interrupts as
the NMI button sends more than one.

To  change palette colours set the register BC to 248+256*colour
position, set the A register to the new palette colour then just
OUT (C),A.




In modes 2,3 and 4 you can disable the screen by setting bit 7
of port 254.  This allows code to run at full speed because
there is no memory contention also if mode one is used this
provides more memory contention then the other modes and can not
be disabled.  This was to make it easier to emulate the speccy
and also stops speccy programs that set bit 7 from disabling the
screen.

In most Speccy emulators if you have problems loading from tape
you can usually enter OUT 250,35:POKE 1512,tape speed:OUT
250,163 from basic.  The tape speed was originally 22 in the
speccy but will need increasing for the sam (a value between 26
and 30 is probably the best).  If you use a program that saves
to tape and the save routine has not been changed you wil have
to set the tape load speed to about 6 to load it back.

Anyway  time  to  finish  this file. If anybody has any problems
then  send  them to me and I'll see what I can do. I am not that
good  at  Z80  as  I  only recently started learning but I could
probably find out anything I don't know and it will also help me
to  leaan  more.
I  will  also  be  willing to answer any other questions such as
BASIC  queries etc, if I can. I would also be Grateful if anyone
with any tips could send them to me.

My address is:

[redacted]


BM                          Bummer!

People  -  I  am  not  happy.  I  am very UN-happy. Why? I shall
explain... Just as I was writing the credits page, another issue
finally   finished,   I  remember  "Goodfellas"  was  on.  So  I
frantically got a video tape out, gave a small prayer that there
was  nothing important on it, and pressed the ol' RECORD button.
Then,  I  put  it  on  the telly's video channel to check it was
recording  the right channel (it occasionally doesn't, which can
be VERY annoying. Okay it's my fault, but that's not the point).
Naturally, I got kind of engrossed watching it, and switched the
SAM  off to stop the interference on the screen. I think you can
guess which important disc-related action I forgot to do...?

Yes.  That's  right. And now I've got to write half the magazine
again. Great. So please forgive me if I sound a little bit eager
to get it over with. AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

       *** This page is sponsored by the campaign for ***
       ***  compulsory backups in word processors in  ***
       ***   word processors and other applications.  ***
BM                Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

If  you  were  unlucky enough or, dare I say it, daft enough, to
miss  last month's FRED, then you will not know that my time has
come  -  I'm  giving up my FREDitor-ship. The reason for this is
that  university  work  is going to take up even more of my time
next year. As it's been hard enough this year I decided I should
give Colin ample warning of my departure. And last month was it.

So  we're  now  looking  for a brand new editor. We've had a few
applicants  so  far,  but  we're  far from decided. If you think
you've got what it takes - that is, you're good (not necessarily
stunning,   but  you  should  be  fairly  capable)  at  English,
programming  (up  to  about  the  standards  of  our  main  menu
programs)  and basically you enjoy your SAM - then get in touch,
explaining why you are the ideal candidate for the job.

Send  applications to the usual FRED address. Mark them "Attempt
to  replace  the godlike and wonderful Brian" if you like. It'll
make  me  happy if not much else. Although it may get on Colin's
nerves too, which is an added bonus I suppose!
BM                 Let's Do It One More Time!

Okay, you know the score by now: April 30th, Gloucester, the SAM
and  Spectrum show. Unless you are a goldfish with a memory span
of  7 seconds, you cannot *possibly* be unaware of this show. It
will  in all probability be a SAM show with a few Speccy related
things,  so  PLEASE  go! These shows could become regular events
where  SAMmers  can  speak  to  fellow  SAMers, see demos of the
latest software, get excellent discounts and of course put faces
to  the  names  they've  heard  all  about but never met. Stefan
Drissen for example - he'll be there, and if he can journey over
from  the  Netherlands, there's no excuse for those of us in the
UK  not  to be able to get there! There will actually be about a
dozen  Euro-SAMmers  there,  so  you  can  even  get in a bit of
practice  for your German GCSE. (They'll kill me for that. After
5 minutes of being spoken to in pigeon-German they'll be out for
blood! Probably. I would be!)

This  is  the  last  time  you'll be asked to go, at least. Next
month  you'll  have the show report to contend with! Phone Colin
if you're at all unsure about where to go. He'll send you a map.
BM                        Competition!

Win - a £500 music system!

Yes,  to  commemorate  my passing my Maths exams, we're offering
YOU  the chance to walk away with a superb hifi system valued at
£499.99.  All  you  have  to  do  is answer the following simple
question,  and  send  your answer to FRED before the 30th April.
The winner will be announced at the show.

Q: 0 to the power 0 - discuss the meaning of this expression

RULES:
1:-  Answers  must  be  in  essay form, and must be no less than
50,000  words.  Due  to  the nature of this competition, answers
must  be handwritten, in the cyrillic alphabet, with a different
coloured  pencil for each character (the same colour may be used
more than once, but not consecutively).

2:- The publisher reserves the right to offer alternative prizes
of a value not necessarily equal to that of the prize indicated.
BM                       Disc Contents

FRED  44  is  a  right  old  muddle  of  material. There are the
obligatory  Gamesmaster games, plus the customary utility, and a
number of things which can only be described as "miscellaneous."
Take DINOSORCERER, sent in by NONAME for example. (Incidentally,
Mr  NONAME - unless we discover your real name, it's going to be
extremely difficult to pay you for your contributions!). This is
a  program  which  allows  you to quickly and easily design your
very  own  mix  n match dinosaurs, and then save them as SCREEN$
files  or  print  them  out.  There  are  literally thousands of
different  combinations  of  dinosaur  possible,  so  you're not
likely to run out of possibilities for a good couple of days.

CAPTAIN  COMIC  is  another PC conversion by NONAME (who's still
not  getting  paid  until  he  reveals  his true ID). This is an
arcade  adventure  along the lines of Ghosts N Goblins. Sort of.
It's  a  colossal  game,  and should keep you occupied for ages.
There's  an instruction file to explain things further, although
it's an easy enough game to get into. Thanks for these excellent
conversions, NONAME.
BM                       Disc Contents

SAM  A-Z  is  Matt  Round's  first  contribution to FRED 44, and
ccontains  a  selection  of details, both trivial and essential,
about  the SAM. Read and learn. The viewing program is a new one
of  Matt's own design, and we're thinking about using to replace
the  current  viewer  which  people are apparently getting a bit
sick  of.  Let  us  know  how you stand on this issue. Should be
start using Matt's viewer?

Using  Matt's  system  is  hardly the most taxing of activities.
Select a topic from the menu, using cursors and RETURN, and then
use  those same keys to click on the various arrows and icons at
the  bottom.  Clicking  on  the  up  arrow takes you back to the
contents page from which you can quit back to the main menu.

I   still   prefer  the  current  viewer,  but  that's  just  my
preference. We've had a lot of people saying they don't like the
colours and can't change them. To them I say simply "?!" because
if  you  press  the  CNTRL  key,  lo and behold - a colours menu
appears! Where's the problem?!
BM                       Disc Contents

DRIVER  TWEAKS  is  the  other  Matt  Round contribution, and it
allows  you  to  customise  your  Driver.  Not  having a copy of
Driver,  I haven't been able to see what it looks like, but hey,
this IS Matt Round we're talking about - it's hardly going to be
crap,  is it! There's an instruction file to reveal all, and the
files  are stored together on the disc so you shouldn't have any
problems with it. If you do, then tough. We don't care. [Slap! -
Colin's  predicted reaction] Erm no, if you have problems, write
in  saying  what's going wrong and we'll help you out. That okay
Colin? [No slap] Phew.

NET   contains  some humorous text files which I think were sent
to me by Tim Paveley (whose name has two Es in it. Slappy wristy
time,  again.  I  forgot about the 2nd one last time I mentioned
him).  These are my favourite part of this issue of FRED, mainly
because  half  my holiday has been spent converting these things
over   to   Outwrite    format. Sheesh! What a job. The Outwrite
method  is  great  for  the old PRINT MEM$ caper, but it has the
drawback of being utterly utterly non-standard. RSI here I come!
BM                       Disc Contents

E-TUNES  this  issue have been composed by Jon Binnie; the SAM's
answer  to  the  Aphex  Twin?  (note:  if you don't know who the
Miggins Aphex Twin is, don't worry. He's just a bloke who writes
very  other-wordly  "music").  PLUS!  I even wrote a half-decent
scrolly for ya!

BLOB  is  a  frighteningly  Manic Miner-ish game by David Lewis.
This  takes  a heck of a lot of getting used to, but believe me,
it's  worth  the effort. I'll buy a pint for anybody who manages
to  complete  the  first level in under 10 games (provided video
camera  proof,  AND  solicitor's  and  doctor's  signatures  are
sent).  Again, I believe Mr Lewis has a text file explaining the
game for you to peruse at your leisure.

MISSILE BASE is a game by Andrew Collier which just goes to show
that  if  you  send  us the same thing every week for six months
we'll  publish it eventually! Of course, had we received another
issue of SCUM, this wouldn't have been included, but...
No sorry, Andrew, just trying to wind you up a bit!
BM                       Disc Contents

Missile  Base  is  another  item  which  rodent  owners  will be
especially  delighted  with,  but  us  keyboarders  are far from
ignored. The game is a shoot em up, and you must shoot the alien
scum  in  order to stop them from nicking the populace from your
home planet (which I'd assume is Earth, but you never know...).

Move  the  cross  hair  about the screen and let fly with one of
your  three  weapons (oo-er missus!) which are kept on the left,
right and centre of the screens. I strongly recommend redefining
your  own keys because I don't have a clue what the default ones
are!

Be  warned that if you keep playing for more than 5 minutes, the
SAM's  memory  chips  melt. This only applies if you are holding
a  blowtorch  to  the  chips  whilst playing though, so don't do
that.

TAPE LABELLER is another program by Andrew Collier, which should
keep him off our backs for a couple of months.
BM                       Disc Contents

I  get  the distinct impression that Andrew has a mouse because,
yes,  this  is another mouse-utilising proggy. Again keyboarders
are  catered  for,  but  we  lose  out in the ease-of-use stakes
somewhat.  Actually I DID have a mouse, but Colin repossessed it
because I called him a turnip and painted his SAM green. Downer.
Anyway,  to  learn more about this fascinating program, zoom the
cursor  up  to  the top left of the screen and either whack your
left  rat button or press CNTRL (hold them down, in fact) to get
the  pull  down menu. From there, choose the ABOUT item (release
the  key/rat  button)  to  become  enlightened.  Oh, the program
prints cassette labels, by the way...

BITS  N  BOBS  suffers from our quality-not-quantity policy this
month,  and  has  but  two items on it. The first is a crossword
puzzle about our old friend SAM, and is an impressive example of
how  to  spell  Colin  Macdonald's  name  wrong. The answer to 1
across  is only correct if you miss out the first "a" in Colin's
surname, hint hint. Also, pretend that Rod Hull's surname begins
with "s" and you can't go wrong...
BM                       Disc Contents

The  second  item  in an ever so truncated BNB is a shape drawer
which lets you draw filled circles, boxes and triangles with the
greatest  of  ease. There's also a semi-trippy demonstration for
added entertainment. Smart!

SCREENS  contains,  believe  it or not, some screens. We thought
we'd  have  a  bit of a change in this section and show you some
screens.  It's  a  radical  move, but I think it might catch on.
Yes,  there  are  some screens to view, and they're all by Brian
Harriman.  Except  for the last one, the Mickey Mouse one, which
was  done  by  G  Williams.  Mickey  Mouse  is strictly speaking
copyright  to  Disney, but we don't care. We like to live on the
edge,  and despite the fact that Big D have hundreds of spies in
the SAM market we're going ahead and using the screen.

ADVERTS  contains  the  usual selection of explicitly sexual and
violent  images  which we've been using for the past six months.
Since nobody looks through them anyway, who's going to complain?

BM                         Last Page

Before  I  go,  I'd  like to give a massive apology to those who
were  expecting  to see a FRED team entered in the USA World Cup
this  summer.  Despite  a  valiant effort, Colin and myself were
unable  to  spare  the time to (A) become an independent nation,
(B) form a footy team, or (C) arrange any qualifying matches.

This does not mean that our plans for glory have been abandoned,
it  just  means  we're  going to have resort to becoming a world
class rugby team instead.

Next,  we  regret  to  inform you that the upcoming book, "Colin
Macdonald: Autobiography of a Teenage Tycoon" has been cancelled
due  to  the  wrong  sort  of  leaves on the word processor. Any
demands  for  compensation should be addressed to Mr Doug Willis
off Neighbours.

Finally,  we  hope  to  have  Russell  Butler explaining how he
managed  to  write  a  virus  which only works when Annalise, er
Annalees er, the blond girl is on the keyboard. Goodbye. - BRIAN
BM                          Credits

Editor (for now): Brian "I will save it this time" McConnell
Thanks to:

NONAME (no pay either, matey)         Andrew Collier
Matt Round                            Brian Harriman
Tim Paveley                           G Williams
Jon Binnie                            Colin Anderton
David Lewis                           Ben Hockley
Paul Crompton
Scottish Education Dept (GRANT CHEQUE!!!!!!)


FRED PUBLISHING
[redacted]
                                >>> Quite literally NOTHING! >>>
                                >>> Don't bother even trying >>>


BM                      Disobedient Pups

Hoi.  What  do  you  think  you're  doing?  I told you there was
nothing worth reading, but oh no. You know better, don't you?

Well, you're going to have to be punished. The FRED detector van
will  be  in  your area soon, and as reading this page sets up a
nuclear  process in the TV, you will be discovered. The penalty?
You  will  have both your legs amputated and the stumps tattooed
with  very  politically  incorrect statements. Ha! That'll teach
you.

Impudent young whippersnapper.

Letters & Review

                    Letter from Derek Morgan

               SAM PUBLIC DOMAIN SOFTWARE LIBRARY
                          [redacted]

Dear Brian,

Thanks for your comments about the PD. If you're going to make a
mistake  then  make  a  big  one,  I always say. It will get you
noticed, and it did!

I  would  like to thank everyone that phoned or wrote to tell me
that  I  had  advertised  the 'Mouse Driver' at £2.50 when I was
selling it for £1.50. Also thanks to Dave who bought his copy at
the Haydock All Formats Show. I got the message, thanks for both
phone calls.
                    Letter from Derek Morgan

Another  problem  that  people  asked about was the DOS on Mouse
Driver  2.  You do not need MasterDos to use the Mouse Driver 2,
use  the  Dos that is on the disk with the program. It's PD, use
it.

To  all those people out there who thought that we would try and
rip  you  off,  shame  on you. How could we hope to do this with
Watchdoggy Brian watching over you.

Sam  PD  is  here to provide you the Sam user with good reliable
software,  at a fair price. I won't use the word cheap, it's not
nice.  At  the time of writing this letter we have 67 disks (not
titles) for sale and prices start from only £1.25

We  have  received  five new disks of software and we are in the
process of sorting and debugging them now.

A big thank you to Paul Crompton, Chris Dodd  and  Nigel  French
for sending software. Fame already!
                    Letter from Derek Morgan

There is also another part of  SAM  PD.  This  is  known  as

                          F9 SOFTWARE

which  has  been  running for many years. F9 Software sells full
price  software  for  people who want to retain there copyright.
This software ranges from games, utilitys, demos, adventures and
educational to Disk magazines.

For a full list of SAM PD and F9 Software, please send  a  large
stamped addressed enverlope to the address above.

                             Yours,

                             Derek




                    Letter from Chris Bailey

Dear Whoever,

Hello. Firstly, well done on Lemmings. It's very good.

Right,  now  I wonder if I could ask a favour? I write the Coupe
Column  for the bi-monthly Spectrum magazine FISH and we need to
get  more  readers (I'm sure you can remember how hard this is).
So  this  is  a blatant attempt at gaining a mention in FRED, if
you please.

I've enclosed a copy of the latest issue but please note that it
is only a bad photocopy of my copy, so  the quality may not seem
too good. I hope it gives you an idea though.

Fish  doesn't  come  from me, but from Mat Beal, 3 Station Road,
Birch  Vale,  Stockport, Cheshire, SK12 5BP and costs only 25p +
SAE, or £3 for six issues (which does work out cheaper).

            Thanks for the publicity, Chris Bailey
BM                   Reply to Chris Bailey

Oh all right, you may have your little plug. Readers - buy FISH.
It's  great. It is mainly Spectrum-related, but there is Chris's
Coupe  Column.  The magazine is a good laugh even if not greatly
relevant  to  the  SAM.  I certainly enjoyed it, although I have
been told I've got a pretty odd sense of humour sometimes.

The  overall feel is very Your Sinclair, so if like me you loved
that  late,  great  Speccy  magazine  you'd do well to get FISH.
Don't  expect  massive  long  MC  tutorials,  or indeed anything
remotely serious!

That's  all  I'll say, but for only £3, can you really go wrong?
Issue  7  is due for a May release; they've just had their first
anniversary (awwwww). The address once more is:
                           [redacted]

Dear FRED,

I  bought  a  Kaleidoscope quite some time ago, thinking that it
was  the  future  for  graphics  on  the SAM. [Ahh, hindsight! -
Brian] It gives each of the 128 colours 256 shades, making 32768
colours  in all. I can count the number of times I've used it on
one  finger, so I would be grateful if you could put me in touch
with someone who might be interested in it. There is also a disk
that comes with it.

Long live indie music!
                          [redacted]

                                   Consider it done, NJ. - BRIAN
                     Letter from Mark Trask

Dear Colin/Brian,

Thank  you  for  sending  my Lemmings so quickly. I love it, and
think  it  must be well the best SAM game yet, miles better than
Prince of Persia even. Give Chris a pat on the back from me. The
only thing is, the palette flashes when levels are being loaded.
Is this a bug?

I  have a question now. Has FRED got any other games lined up? I
know just releasing Lemmings you're very busy at the moment, but
I  just  wondered. You see, I've got a couple of game ideas that
I  thought  up.  Because  I  cannot  program in BASIC never mind
machine code I thought you might like them? You'll be pleased to
hear that none of them are puzzle games!

Finally, what has happened to Cookie? Will he  be at the show? I
will,  so  I'll  try  to  speak  to you and some other FREDheads
there!

BM                    Reply to Mark Trask

Yes, I'm afraid the flashing palette interrupt is a bug. For the
two  or three of you who don't have Lemmings, all this is is the
top  couple  of  lines  of  the screen flicker whilst levels are
loading.  I know it's a little bit annoying, but there's nothing
wrong  with  your  copy or anything. I'm just relieved that it's
not a more serious bug!

I'm  not  sure  what  plans, if any, Colin has up his sleeve for
future  releases.  There  is  of course the huge Legend of Eshan
coming  up  in the next couple of months, but other than that if
Colin  does  have  anything  brewing,  he's being very secretive
about  them.  We're always on the lookout for new game ideas, so
send  them  in. We don't want suggestions of, "Do a footy game,"
or,  "I  want  a  good beat-em-up," or even worse, "Is there any
chance  of  FRED  getting a licence for Mario?". If you have any
ideas,  they  should  give full details of the game, ie plot (if
any),  level  themes,  characters' names, characters' abilities,
enemy  attack formations, etc. Ideally the programmer should not
have  to think about the game at all, but should be able to take
BM                    Reply to Mark Trask

your specification and just program it. No worrying, "What does
this  end of level baddie do?" or, "Should I do a space level or
an underwater level," or ....

You get the idea.

Onto  your  last  point  about  Cookie.  He's  at uni somewhere,
Manchester I think, and is doing Physics (although again I'm not
absolutely  certain  about that). I do hope he gets to the show,
but  if  not there's always Colin and myself and the hundreds of
other,  er,  "FREDheads"  to chat and offer free beer to, should
you  feel so inclined. That's a point. I wonder if there's a bar
there. What's Bob Brenchley's phone number again...?


                 Letter from Dundee University

Dear Brian,

You  are  a brilliant student, possibly the best we've ever had,
and  we are so glad you came to Dundee. You are clearly destined
for  greatness  in  your future career, and we humbly await your
next command, oh Lord.

                       Yours faithfully,

              All the staff at Dundee University

PS Please accept 8 thousand pounds worth of Threshers vouchers.


                      Reply to Dundee Uni

"Wahey!" eh readers?  That's a striking bit of good news.

                                                         - BRIAN
BM                     Letters Shortage

Bad  news  now  readers  -  I've run out of letters. Even Robert
Pain's stopped talking to me! Come on, people, get those writing
heads on. Get that word processor loaded in. At least find a pen
and  scribble  something  for  your co-readers to read and learn
from.  More  reviews would go down quite well too,  if anybody's
interested...?

Next  up  is  a review of Lemmings by Dan "Banzai" Doore. Thanks
Dan.

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Smart, huh?
DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------

Right,  lets talk small and furry. Unless you have had your head
in a tar pit for the last three months or so, then you will know
that ** Lemmings ** has hit the Coupe, courtesy of Psycnosis, Mr
Chris  White  and Fred. If you have never heard of Lemmings then
you are:

                          A)  A loner
                          B)  Unlucky

Therefore,  for  those  that  fit in the latter category, I will
attempt  to explain (apologies to the 98% of you who are at this
very moment yelling 'GET ON WITH IT') what Lemmings is about.

Lemmings  is  a  one  player  game  best  used with a mouse, but
keyboard/joystick  control is perfectly adequate. A lemming is a
little  creature  who  walks  about  and,  with  no  thought for
personal safety, will gladly fall into chasms, off ledges, drown
etc (stupid is the point I am trying to get across here).
DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------

Your  task  in  Lemmings  is  to  guide  the  lemmings  across a
landscape  to  a safe exit within a certain time. Sounds simple,
doesn't  it? But listen closely, oh Lemmings trainee: that voice
that  was  screaming  "Get on with it" earlier is now muffling a
snigger!

Because  all  lemmings  are stupid and only walk about, you must
give a lemming a special property such as the ability to build a
bridge, climb walls, dig tunnels, explode (!), block the path of
others  or fall long distances. Using these skills you must save
a  certain  percentage  of  lemmings.  If you get stuck, you can
"Nuke"  the  lemmings, exploding each furry critter all over the
screen (brilliant for stress, this). If you save enough lemmings
you  will  go  to the next level and have a bash at solving that
one. You can pick the level at which you want to start according
to set markers (eg level 1, level 20, level 60 or something like
that) depending on your confidence and ability.

DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------

Not  a  good  description  I know, but since this game is such a
quantum leap from ALL other formula games it is a hard job (even
the  Lemmings  manual  has to resort to cartoons for this). Lets
get  brutal.  Lemmings  is  NOT  for  those  with short tempers,
nervous  disorders etc. and requires brain power when you get to
the  higher levels and to complete the game, but it is SO evilly
addictive that it will have you up at 3am with more caffine than
your  bladder  can  stand, trying to complete a level. Each time
you  complete  a level, you are given a password so that you can
return to it at any time and continue.

Right,  now that everyone is up to speed we will start to have a
look at SAM Lemmings. Since I have played Lemmings on the Amiga,
Atari  ST  and (completed it on the) Acorn Archimedes, I am in a
reasonable  position  to compare. The opening animation sequence
is  not present on Sam lemmings, but this is probably due to the
fact  that  had it been present, Lemmings would have had to come
on  two  discs  (like  the  Amiga version) and for something you
DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------

watch  once and skip through the next 4000 times, it's not worth
it.

The  graphics  have  been ported by Neil Holmes (with additional
ones  by Doug Holmes) and they are fantastic. I promise you that
you  will  NEVER see such good graphics in a game as this one on
the Coupe. Superb animated backdrops and sprites.

Sound  is provided by master tunesmith Craig Turberfield, and is
also  first  class,  with  many of the tunes from other versions
faithfully reproduced using E-Tracker. What all those people who
have  already played Lemmings before are now asking is "How fast
does  it run then?" There are two ways of looking at it: you can
jump in and compare it to the Amiga version and say "Hmm, not as
fast,"  or  sit  and think for a while and say "Thats not bad at
all for an 8-BIT processor."

While  both  are  true,  for  an  8-BIT  conversion  of what was
DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------
designed  to  be  a 16-BIT game, Chris White has done remarkably

well. In the interests of fairness I gave a SAM Lemmings preview
to  an  Amiga and an ST owner, and both said it was a bit slower
than  theirs,  but  they  liked the music (The ST owner was VERY
impressed)  and  thought  that the graphics were essentially the
same.  The  Amiga owner was shocked even to see it running on an
8-BIT machine!

Right,  moans  time.  The font used in Lemmings is a bit hard to
read  on a TV (I tested this 'cos I use a monitor normally), and
after  speaking to Colin (or was it Brian - I can't remember) he
said  that  many different fonts had been tried but that was the
best. Fair I suppose.

The  other minor annoyance is that the levels take a bit of time
to  load  (and palette interrupts go a bit mental) and decrunch,
but  since there is music when decrunching I don't really mind -
it allows my brain to recover a bit.
DD                      Lemmings Review
                        ---------------

Sam lemmings is a fantastic conversion and is a must in anyone's
disc  box. PLEASE don't just look at the price (remember this is
a  BIG  license  and  the  boys at Psycnosis want their pound of
flesh  as  well)  as that doesn't even begin to reflect the work
put into this product. If you buy this, then it is possible that
many other big licences will come to the Coupe. Don't buy it and
you  WILL  be  missing  out  on  a fantastic game.

                         Overall: 97%,

           Banzai "Seal of Approval" blah blah blah.







BM

Well,  that's  it  for  our April issues of the Letters section.
Remeber - we need YOU to write in!


Word of the week: snoooooork-eeeeee.