Fred 50

Issue 50

Magazine

CM                          FRED 50

Here it is, the big five-oh. Wow. I can honestly say that I
don't know what to say - partly because of the fond memories of
the last 4 years of FRED and partly because I'm doing FRED again
(albeit for this issue only) after a two year gap. I guess
speechless-ness is not one of the ten greatest aspects of
someone doing the editorial for a magazine - but maybe it was my
lack of having anything to say that made you start buying FRED
all those years ago.


I consider myself a relatively un-shockable person, but one
thing that has continually shocked me is everyone's religious
like attitude to having a complete collection of FREDs - it's
not as if they're in limited supply or you get a Blue Peter
badge when you've acquired every disc from issue one! Mockary
aside, it's also such a good feeling to know that hundreds upon
hundreds of people get so much enjoyment out of an issue of FRED
- for whatever reason!  Thank you all for your continued support
for FRED, and most of all, to SAM.
CM                         Editorial

In terms of my life, there's certainly been a lot happening
recently - my "supposed to be two week, but ended up being three
week" business trip/holiday. And I'm STILL catching up on the
resulting work!

We've got numerous new products for your perusal - and they're
corkers, every one.

I've also just gone back to University for the third year of my
Computing degree. The day after we started, we knew we were in
for a really tough year - well, next  Summer they're hardly
likely to hand my degree to me on a silver platter. So I suppose
it was to be expected. I can't foresee this increase in work
affecting FRED too much - the worst it would get is a slight
delay in replying to people, and not being able to answer the
phone as much.



CM                    The Foreign Holiday

Although technically a business trip, it's the nearest I'm
getting to a holiday this side of getting a proper job.

It all started on the first Saturday in September. It was early
morning, pouring with rain and I was trying to recover from the
"We're getting rid of Colin for a fortnight" party that was
thrown in my (dubious) honour. Although the train was only
running 45 minutes late that day. I only missed two connections
and was left for 2 hours sitting in miserable stations. Hey -
it's a lot better than last time!

After spending 12 hours on the train without getting ANYONE
remotely interesting sitting next to me, I arrived in Swansea in
the dark. Fifteen minutes later and Charles (Gill) with
girlfriend Emma were on the doorstep looking for a chaperone to
the curry house. I did it as a favour, you understand.



CM

Usually when I go from Dundee to somewhere as far South as
Swansea, the weather improves dramatically - I get to sit
outside, lie on the beach and enjoy getting a sun tan. On the
Sunday, I got to sit on a window sill in the sun for twenty
minutes before the sun went on strike for the remainder of my
visit. Thanks.

After getting up at 5am to go down to the ECTS (European
Computer Trade Show) in London with Charles we promptly got lost
going into the centre of London. And coming out again. The Show
was a nice opportunity to sit and play all the games that will
be coming out in time for Christmas, although you know that by
the time the next show comes around, all these "state of the
art" games are dated and suddenly there's a new "state of the
art" game/console - only double the price of the last one.

It was a very enjoyable day, if only I had the money I would
certainly not be short of toys this Christmas.

CM

I hadn't been in the house five minutes after getting back from
London when Adrian (Parker) and fiancee Catherine were
grovelling at my feet for me to join them for a curry. The
things you do for friends eh?

It's just occured to me that you're only reading this for the
mis-adventure stories. Sadly, I have to disapoint you. Maybe
it's just not been one of those trips for those sorts of things
to happen to me, or maybe I've learned the lessons of life from
all the previous happenings. For those of you that are just
determine to read  disaster stories, fear not, I have the answer
.....Amiga Magazines! Not that I'd poke fun at Commodore.

Tuesday morning and afternoon were spent with Mark (Hall) of
Blue Alpha. He even kindly allowed me to help him build some
SAMs up - what a generous guy! When the topic of food came up,
thankfully the curry houses were not open so I was only
subjected to a meal at Burger King!

CM

The evening was spent with Bruce (Gordon) - I believe the name
may be familiar to some of you....? Anyway, it was good to see
him again - he was very interested in hearing how the SAM and
FRED were going and was pleased to hear of the progress on the
various projects that are going on. During the course of the
evening we discussed the 'usual' range of topics : how to obtain
perpetual motion with magnets, how to store many, many Gigabytes
of information in a grain of sugar, when computers will become
more intelligent than humans and destroy all human life because
it will no longer have any value. Just your usual
run-of-the-mill stuff really.

I met Paul (Jenkins) on Wednesday, and after catching up on
things, he forced me into yet another curry. I mean, I didn't
want to do it, but he's such a good friend I couldn't very well
turn him down could I?   This was the last curry for a few days
while I swallowed ice cubes to aid in the battle the Indian
sauces were having with the insides of my stomach.

CM

I know Brian used to go on about how much I went out and
everything and although that was only for a week or so after the
student grants came through, I must admit, the next few days in
Swansea were spent..... enjoying myself! I'm sorry, I know I
shouldn't have and I really do feel terribly guilty and I'll
never do it again but, hey, sometimes these things happen.

A few days later I met this lady doctor - she just so happened
to have been married to the vice president of Pan Am airlines,
but knew the likes of Richard Branson, (the late) Ayrton Senna,
Cliff Richard etc etc personally. As well as retelling stories
of the "rich and famous" it turns out she's also the godmother
of Bjorn Bjorg's son! Unfortunately, her daughter lives
somewhere in Scandanavia ... the search continues!

Here's something that MAY interest you - my visit to the very
place which duplicated and printed the disc that's sitting in
your SAM at this very minute. Sadly, the story doesn't change if
you have a pirated FRED - so I suggest you buy the proper thing!
CM

After getting up at 6am (I just really love all these early
mornings on my 'holiday'!) to catch a train at 7, the girl at
the train station apologised but that the train had been
cancelled (no reason given) and I'd have to wait an hour for the
next one....

After getting to Rugby, I was told that there wasn't a train
station in Daventry (where the duplicators are) so I'd have to
get a bus. Queuing for 25 minutes behind an old lady booking her
holiday to Torquay FOR NEXT YEAR was not my idea of fun, but
when I eventually got the attention of the woman behind the desk
I was told I'd "just missed" the bus - the next one wasn't for
another hour!

One taxi ride later and I arrive at "DisCopy Labs". First
impressions were that it was not massive - maybe football pitch
size - but that it was very professional: everything was done in
red and grey (the colour of their logo) - the outside, the
tables, walls, stairs - everything!
CM

Despite such a predictable colour scheme, it did actually suit
the place - it all seemed so tidy! Most businesses (especially
FRED) that I've seen are what I would describe as "organised
chaos", in that everything functions perfectly well, it just
doesn't look like it would. DisCopy was the opposite - hardly a
piece of paper out of place, no coffee cups lying about or
anything!

Immediately upon arrival I was asked whether I was hungry or
not, so sensing a free lunch coming on, I played along and was
treated to a bar meal by two of the sales women. Excellant!
Getting back to the offices, I got the guided tour - they have
around a hundred duplicating machines which can work 24 hours a
day, churning out a newly copied disc every thirty seconds or
so. Their warehouse was all connected by a "ski lift" type
contraption which takes various items from different parts of
the company to another.

They didn't let me try it out personally - more's the pity!
CM

They've got a Quality Control department with almost every
computer under the sun. Here, about 5% of discs done are tested
- which is a very high amount for individual quality tests.

Unfortunately, only a handful of the staff there remembered
doing any FRED discs - I guess that's either a good sign that
they do so many discs, or a bad sign that they're clueless!

Anyway, I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed the trip
and I now have even more confidence in getting the FRED discs
done every month by them.

If they were ever going to read this, I would put in a small
paragraph thanking the DisCopy staff for the day. But they
won't, so I shan't bother...

Before returning to Swansea, I made a short stop in past an old
friend in Swindon - which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I stayed for
several days instead of the intended one night!
CM

The rest, as they say, is history. Nothing much else happened
during the Swansea stay - I managed to do a fair bit of work, as
well as catching up on all my friends down there. I even managed
to find a while to enjoy myself.

On route to Dundee, a short stop was made at Gloucester to see
Bob and Jenny at Format. As per usual, I sat and played games on
the PC there - just so that the name FRED would appear in every
entry in the high score table!  We did get a small amount of
work done before I hit the road and ended my Summer Holiday, and
came back to Dundee. It was raining when I came back. And it was
cold. Home sweet home.

I'd like to thank all the people everywhere that I went out
with, stayed with, met, embaressed and generally conversed with.
I had a great time seeing you all, and I really do appreciate
it. But no, you can't have a loan.


CM                     And now, the news

I really havn't got the hang of this heading thing have I? Just
as well I won't have to do any more for a while!

You'll all be pleased to hear that the launch of WaterWorks 2
has gone (relatively) smoothly and it is now selling almost as
well as the first one. So if you fancy a bit of a mind bender
which needs a few quick reactions, grab your copy as soon as you
can.

You'll be able to get this and the other products I'm about to
tell you about at the Gloucester Show on Saturday 22nd October.
This should be this Saturday, but I fear I've left this issue a
little late. So here's hoping you've enjoyed the Show!

If you do get this before the show and want to go, refer to the
last year or so of FRED or FORMAT for full details of how to get
there - it's at the same venue : Quedgely Village Hall,
Quedgely, Gloucester.

CM                     Cue Drum Roll....

It's been six months in the making. It's the next licenced
product from FRED. And now, as it's due to be released any day
now (at the Gloucester Show to be precise) we can exclusively
reveal that the next item to be added to your shopping list is :

"OH NO! MORE LEMMINGS"

The demand from the original Lemmings was simply so great that
we couldn't ignore those of you that were eager for more levels,
more hair pulling, another chance to kill those lovable
creatures, so we can present THE FIRST EVER 8-BIT version of the
follow-up to Lemmings, Oh No! More Lemmings.

This is a set of another one hundred mind-boggling Lemming
saving levels which loads from the original game. If you enjoyed
the first lot, no matter how many you got through, you'll love
these - new graphics, traps, puzzles etc etc. It's even been
improved over the original slightly!

CM                          Oh No!

Like I said, no other 8-bit version of Lemmings ever had this
version released, so we will try to proudly advertise this fact
in the British Trade magazines again, helping West Coast to
attract new customers.

The hundred levels are split into five catagories : Tame, Crazy,
Wild, Wicked and Havoc. Through sheer necessity and many, many
months of playing and testing these levels both Chris White and
I can (proudly?) announce that we've gone through every single
one many, many times and are now sick to death of the game. What
we'd like you to do is take all the copies from us. I mean, come
on, these things have been driving us mad for months of constant
playing to ensure your complete satisfaction, the least you can
do is take them out from under our noses!

Oh No! More Lemmings retails at £14.99 (cheaper than the 16 bit
versions!), or £13.99 to FRED subscribers. You do need to have
bought Lemmings to play these extra levels though. THIS IS
AVAILABLE NOW - OR GET IT IN PERSON AT THE GLOUCESTER SHOW!
CM                  Fun, Love and Money????

The new FRED football game has just got an airing as well,
entitled "Football League Manager", or FLM as it's acronym,
which proves useful for making up sad headings on news pages.

FLM is, as you may have guessed, a football management game.
Programmed by newcomer David Handley, we've taken the best
features from all the great football games like Football
Director 2 and Football Manager, and added dozens upon dozens of
new features - sponsorships, advertising boards, design your own
kit, watch your stadium grow in capacity as you battle for your
team to come top of the league. Being a new SAM game, we've also
glorified it with stunning graphics by Steven "Pickasso" Pick
and erm, suitable, footbally-type music.

It's got brilliant mouse/pointer control if you happen to own
one of the little rodents, although those less fortunate can
still 'manage' (groan!) with the keys.


CM                            FLM

Although we've not been able to get any screenshots in time for
this month, we should have some for you next month. Although why
not play it for yourself at Gloucester? David, the programmer,
will also be down to show you round the main features as well as
fielding any questions from you Football Director 2 die-hards!

We've gone to so much trouble to ensure that people that did
like FD2 would like this, that we actually conducted tests prior
to the music and graphics getting put in. Almost all of the
testers preferred FLM overall - we suspect the one who didn't
has some kind of enjoyment disorder.

Of course, I've got to boast the fact that in this game you can
choose whether to be in the English or Scottish leagues! There
are 150 teams in total, each with their own characteristics so
there's plenty of challenge out there whether you're an up-and-
coming Graham Taylor, or just someone that likes to sit down for
a couple of hours and enjoy a good game.

CM                            FLM

The price? Sadly, it's £14.99 (£12.99 to FRED subscribers). We
wanted to bring the price down but there's just been too much
time and effort gone into it that we didn't have any choice.
However, as a FRED subscriber, you'll get it for a lot less than
FD2 cost - and that's not including inflation!

Due to the huge rush of producing this issue, I've lost my sheet
with the list of features of FLM on it - with any luck it'll
turn up in time for the Newsletter or FRED51.

Although the sensible option would be to nip over to the FRED
stand in Gloucester and play it for yourself - you won't be
disapointed!






CM               Something for the SAM user...

Inside your SAM, there is an ASIC chip (Application Specific
Integrated Circuit). This is more or less the heart of SAM and
does the bulk of the tasks. This chip, designed by Bruce Gordon,
cost MGT many, many hundreds of thousands to complete because of
it's very complex nature. It is still held in extremely high
esteem by VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) , the makers,
because of the high percentage of the ASIC which is actually
used - the large majority of a normal chip is simply casing.

In order to test the work Bruce had done was accurate, and to
supply developers with early machines, MGT commissioned 40
prototype ASICs to be manufactured at a cost of £50,000 - that's
over a thousand pounds a chip! These ASICs have become known as
gold-dust in SAM circles, not only because they are gold in
colour (the ASIC inside your machine is a mass produced one,
dark grey in colour) but because very few people had one - even
SAMCo only had one!


CM                       ASICs Limited

After a large amount of searching by me and Bruce Gordon
himself, we have recovered 20 of these gold ASICs. Considering
their 'collectors item' appeal, we thought it would be nice to
have them put in a display case.

Originally, we were just thinking along these lines so that we
could have one each for our walls. But we've decided to buy up
the rest of them and make them available to dedicated SAM users.

The result is the gold ASICs are mounted in a gold picture frame
with a small plaque (printed in gold) explaining what the ASIC
is. Each of these plaques has been individually signed by Bruce
Gordon, who you all know as the designer of the ASIC, the SAM as
well as many of it's interfaces.

As an interesting fact, these few chips (or prototype
engineering samples to give them their proper name) are actually
of much higher quality than the mass produced ASICs, purely
because they were made individually!
CM                            ASIC

Although the ASICs have been very elegantly mounted, the main
cost was the chips themselves, and the complete package is being
sold for £80. We know this is a lot of money, but I'm sure
you'll agree that what you're getting is something very special.
Assuming we can sell the rest of them, Bruce and I will be able
to keep one each for ourselves at cost price - which was the
main objective in the first place!

We know that these chips are going to be in demand, particularly
because of their few in number. They will undoubtedly become
worth more as time goes on, and so as not to 'sell out' everyone
that's supported the SAM over the last few years, we have to
stipulate a few conditions for the purchase of one of these :

You must be a DEDICATED SAM user - for this you will probably
have had a SAM for at least two years, and preferably know some
of the higher standing people in the SAM community. We are NOT
interested in selling to people that have not followed SAM
through it's ups and downs.
CM                            ASIC

We can also only allow one per SAM user.

We will have a few of these at the Gloucester Show for sale, so
please bring proof of identity.

If you wish to purchase one, phone the FRED line to confirm your
suitability, and their availability. DO NOT just send off a
cheque for £80 in the post.

We hope that the dedicated SAM owners will take pride in
joining myself and Bruce in being one of only twenty to have a
gold ASIC hanging proudly on your wall.

Just to remind you, the cost is £80 exactly, and it is
approximately A5 size.

Another interesting fact is that, should you wish to, you could
take one of these gold ASICs out of the frame and use it in your
SAM - it would function as normal!
BM                          Hello!!!

Well folks - we made it! Issue 50, the big half-century, is now
in your mits. Who'd have thought it, all those years ago. Not me
or Colin, that's for sure!

So. How's Colin looking after you? Bit of a culture shock after
two years of incessant wibble from me, I'd imagine.

I've seen one or two of the items Colin's got lined up for this
issue, and I know this issue's going to go down a storm. For me,
the highlight of the entire issue - perhaps the highlight of
owning a SAM - is Matt Round's fantastic FRED simulator!

Yes, now you too can pretend to be Brian McConnell (it's fun!).
You can marvel at how precariously the FRED finances are
balanced, tear your hair out when nobody's sent you any good
software for the overdue FRED, and have a celebratory beer when
an issue sells well.


BM                          Hello!!!

This sim is truly brill. You would be surprised how realistic
some parts of it are. Thanks Matt - top stuff.

Uni has started again; in fact we've been here about a week now.
Maths is getting very weird and we're learning a proper language
(C) in computing at last; no more Pascal! Psychology has been
binned for several reasons, the main one being we had to make
room for another course which is necessary to get into honours
computing. Also the lecture theatre was too small and too hot,
and it took up my lunch hour. Apart from that, hey, it was fine!

The Gloucester show is looming; it is so unlikely that this will
have arrived before you go to the show that I don't know why I'm
even bothering to write this, but if you're going I'll see you
there. I may even  be  persuaded  to  do  the Show Report again.
We'll see.

It's been a very interesting month musically. I know this should
really go at the and of the issue, but what the heck.
BM                          Hello!!!

You might have been following my transition towards "bleepy"
music of late; this finally came to a head last weekend at an
event called Meltdown in Arbroath - basically 4 hours of
hardcore techno with PAs by Q-Tex, Bass-X and the fantastic
Ultra-Sonic. These are huge "bands" in Scottish techno, believe
me. The place was mobbed. Packed. And it was incredible. If
you've never been to something like this and don't know why on
earth people listen to techno/rave/dance, one nugget of advice:
go. It's brilliant.


Secondly, there's an Ultra-Sonic album out, and it's great. A
pretty even mix of hardcore with lots of shouting and violent
drums, and the more intelligent techno associated with Europe. A
must buy for techno fans. And if you don't like techno, buy this
and give the band some cash for being excellent.

And I do believe that's my FRED 50 contribution finished. Bye!
                                                         - BRIAN
CM                         Contents

Well - that was short and sweet! Seeing as I have the freedom of
speech for once I would just like to wish Brian all the best in
whatever he does. You've done a great job with FRED over the
last two years and I'm sure you'll soon find something else that
you'll excel at.

And also to Colin Anderton - all the best with the new
editorship, you're following a hard act to beat, but I'm sure
you'll do it.

Now I'm half way down the page I titled 'Contents', I should
really move onto what goodies are actually on the disc for you!

As mentioned by Brian, the ubiquitous Matt Round has developed a
brilliant FRED simular called "DERF". God knows what inspired
him to even try to make a game out of something like FRED, but
in true Matt Round tradition, he's done a splendid job of it.


CM                         Contents

The instructions for the game are all available upon loading, so
there's not really a lot for me to say about it.

As an interesting experiement, I got Brian to record the details
of his best two games of DERF, which were :

Average sales : 504          Bank Balance : £1015
                580                         £236

It seems I've not quite lost my touch, because my best two games
were :

Average sales : 580          Bank Balance : £400
                704                         £7306

This last score is NOT made up - it is the result of playing it
for weeks on end solid, determined to get a brilliant score.
Incidentally, in that last game (704, £7306) I achieved a best
ever issue sale of 1541 !!    I'm open to challengers........!
CM                         Contents

Nigel Kettlewell, author of "Days Of Sorcery", has come up with
a very polished and authentic version of Space Invaders just for
this issue. Controlled by joystick keys, if you don't know how
to play this, then you need to go out and buy a games console -
you're obviously not up to playing real games.

Steve Taylor interrupts his hard-working schedule to put
together an effective little demo celebrating this being the
fiftieth issue of FRED. Surprisingly, you don't have to do very
much on this. Just load it up and sit back.

Now here's a different kind of demo altogether - DWC. Without
offering an explanation, this stands for Dead Wild Cat, and it's
been put together by Marc Broster who's name has popped up in
the FRED archives more than occasionally. The thing about this
demo is that it takes up almost 500K!! Being a little pushed for
disc space, it was decided not to include it in that form, so
we've compressed it down. Seeing as the decompression takes
about 5 minutes, theres a program which prompts you to put in
CM                         Contents

a blank disc and it will copy the full version of the demo onto
it for you. Usually, I don't like this method of including items
but this demo is just too impressive to miss!

When you eventually get to load DWC you'll find that you are in
control of a number of 3D objects in space. Using impressive
real-time calculation routines, Marc has coded this so that you
have virtually complete control over them. This does also
include a fair few keys for all the features, which I'll explain
on the next page.

In particular, the objects you want to spend time playing around
with are the spectrum analyser, NO_ERRORS message, House, SAM
and the FRED disc. By the way, the fewer stars you have on
screen the faster and smoother the demo runs

REMEMBER TO UNPLUG YOUR MOUSE BEFORE LOADING - FOR SOME REASON
THE DEMO DOESN'T LIKE IT AND TENDS TO LOCK UP AND CRASH

CM                         Contents

Keys for DWC :                     Cursors : Adjust angle
                                   .       : Normal zoom & angle
F0   :     Zoom In                 J       : Speed up response
F1   :     Zoom Out                S       : No. of stars
F2   :     Stop Rotate             M       : Change music
F3   :     Bring to face           F       : Frame count
F4   :     Spin on Y-axis          C       : Cycle colours
F5   :     Spin on X-axis          6/7     : Rotate X-axis
F6   :     Spin on Z-axis          8/9     : Rotate Y-axis
F7   :     Spin on Y-axis          0       : Rotate Z-axis
F8   :     Spin on X-axis          SPACE   : Next object
F9   :     Spin on Z-axis
                                   Hold down S for maximum
Continually press the Spin keys    number of stars, then press
to increase speed on spin.         again for none.

And that's that!


CM                         Contents

You will no doubt know the name of David Zambonini, or "Vodka"
to use his alias. He's done another one of his great demos with
some nice effects and excellant music : Chaos Demo 2.

You might be a little surprised when it loads up, but just bear
with it....

Paul Crompton has been getting annoyed with other, less useful
Sector Editing programs, and so has come up with his own. The
instructions are all self-explanatory really because the keys
are listed on-screen. If you don't know what you're doing, then
it's best not to play around with this type of program because
you can lose a lot of data.

Brian (McConnell - still remember him?) has kindly done the most
up to date version of FREDEX, which indexes all the programs etc
which have been on FRED to date. Instructions are available from
the program itself, but it's pretty straightforward anyway.

CM                         Contents

Taking a detour from the usual FRED, there's no ETunes, MODs or
Adverts this month - never fear, they will return. But this was
due to time and space considerations.

Paul Crompton crops up on this disc again with the third in the
series of his Cheats programs for all you lousy games players.

Anonymity Smith rears his head this month as well as he returns
with more funny scripts from everyone's favourite sci-fi
programmes.

There is some stuff pinched from the Net (courtesy of Mr Paveley
and Mr McConnell), which I'm sure you'll enjoy - and hopefully
not take TOO seriously!

I've also managed to squeeze on a handful of Bits'n'Bobs items
this month. But seeing as I'm out of room on this page, I'll
just fill what's left with complete drivel and continue on the
next page.....
CM                          Contents


Nigel French has done a surprisingly clever X&O's (Tic Tac Toe)
game which randomly selects whether you or the computer plays
first. It is possible to beat, but using the same strategy does
not always guarantee success.


Paul Axten has sent in another Tron program, BUT before you all
start groaning, this one is slightly different in that not only
is it all one line of code, but it is also a two player version!
Player one is on joystick, while player two using QAOP. See if
you can figure out how a two player program could be written on
one line, then take a look for yourself.


Andrew Hodgkinson has sent in an Archimedes To SAM converter for
sprites. The Archy file has to be on a SAM disc, but those of
you with Archies should find it useful.
                                                               .
CM                         Contents

Some of you who have bought Revelation's excellant Driver
package may have found a bug which corrupts the icons. Although
Steve Taylor has been trying to fix this ever since the package
was released, he has not been able to. What he has done
therefore, is create a small 'bootstrap' program which gets
around the problem.

Revelation know that this is not an ideal solution, but there is
nothing else they can do. They apologise for all inconvenience
caused and hope that this bug fix will let all Driver users
continue to enjoy their WIMP system.

Before I knock off, I'd just like to thank Andrew Collier for
the menu which he did this month - it was really nice to have a
couple of scrollies on our big issue rather than just a static
screen without even music!



CM                          Credits

Done by Colin Macdonald (wow!)

Eternal thanks and gratitute go out to :

Brian McConnell              Matt Round
Steve Taylor                 Nigel Kettlewell
Marc Broster                 Tim Paveley
Anonymity Smith              Paul Crompton
David Zambonini              Nigel French
Paul Axten

as well as the people, I've no doubt forgotten.

FRED51 will be out sometime in November from :

[redacted]


              (remember the new 01 code....)

Letters & Reviews

                          Lee Willis

Dear New Editor-Blokey,

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOO, and welcome to my first ever letter to FRED.
Shocked or what!??    Anyway, the reason I've actually been
motivated (and believe me, I do take some motivating!) to write
(type?) this letter to you can wait till later! (ALL THAT FOR
NOTHING?! - CM)   Before I get to the point (which would take a
considerable amount of time at this rate) I'd like to complain
about the remarkably good quality of most of the articles on
FRED49. It was just too good, and stopped me from doing my
homework, which considering I've got a parent's night in two
days time is not very nice of you. Admittedly it had it's less
interested bits, but as a mag that caters for a wide variety of
people I'm confident that someone else though they were brill.

Anyway, getting absolutely nowhere near the point (am I being a
tad silly now?)  (WHAT DO YOU THINK - CM) Lemmings is a very
good game, as is Tetris (yes, I do still play it!)

                          Lee Willis

The point : The ETunes section on FRED49 contained some music
written by me, but you got the titles a bit wrong (trivial...
bear with me!). For some reason known only to you (or your
predecessor) you decided to add after the title of each
"Converted MOD". Now that was blatantly untrue, they were all
original pieces of music. Admittedly Hallucinations Remix was
based on the MOD Hallucinations but I think caling it a
converted MOD is going a bit too far!

Enough of the complaints though, FRED is still a dead good mag,
and Happy 50th Birthday to you!



                 Lee "Bubel" Willis




CM                    Reply to Lee Willis

Sorry about the homework - we are actually in the completion
stages of the FRED masterplan which will provide the entire
computer industry with games and programs so enjoyable that
no-one will ever be able to drag themselves away, the entire
world economy will collapse, and myself and Colin Anderton will
rule the world. Until of course, some pesky kids come along by
accident and ruin it all for us.

Glad to hear you can appreciate the wide audience FRED has to
cater for, and I'm especially glad to hear that even so we have
to do this, you still enjoyed the mag.

Sorry, am I wittering on in response? I apologise.

The point : Very sorry - Brian cocked up.




                       Martin Fitzpatrick

Dear Fredders,

              Hi It's me again - Don't groan you love me really!
Anyhow, Why am I writing? To make you all jealous thats why. I'm
off on my hols again - Where to? The Olly Olly Land Of Funny Old
Men In Trench Coats Who Spend Their Life Eating Sausages. Yup
you got it - Germany.

It's all part of a school trip, which mightn't bee so bad if Mrs
Maude (Coffee addict supreme champion 1000BC - 1994AD) whos idea
of fun happens to be reciting the German alphabet to herself
wasn't coming.

Well you may think that would put a deadener (if thats how you
spell it) on everything - And it probably will, but who cares?

It's my Burfday on Monday (the 5th Sep) so that generally makes
this month the worst one of my life - Unless of course I get
egged, It might be a bit of a laugh then!
CM               (Reply to ) Martin Fitzpatrick

Well I think that rounds of another letter.....

.........So Long!

                       Martin


CM :

Well, Happy belated birthday and I hope you enjoyed your
holiday. I haven't got the postcard YET, but I'm sure it will
arrive......


Then again, I always feel miserable for days on end when I get a
postcard from someone in some exotic location.



                          Phil Glover

Dear Colin,

Sorry, once again, for not being able to attend the Gloucester
fair, which should be very good. I'm sure I'll soon catch up on
the news, as I know two or three others who will be going along.
I'll simply take advantage of BT's cheap weekend phone rates!

Good luck with issue 50. As you may recall, I must have been one
of your earliest readers, and have every issue of FRED to prove
it. To say that FRED has improved greatly must be a bit of an
understatement, but the massive progress reflects well on your
enthusiasm and commitment, and has been of great benefit to SAM
in general.

           All the very best,

                             Phil Glover


CM                   Reply to Phil Glover

Never mind - I'm sure you'll be able to make the next show, but
there should be a fair bit of news going about after this one so
make sure you start phoning around at the start of the weekend!

Many thanks for your words of support, it's nice to know the
effort is appreciated. But to be honest, it's not me that's done
the bulk of the work in FRED, it's everyone that does the
brilliant games, demos, utilities, screens and music that have
really made FRED into what it is.

I just hope everyone will continue to support FRED and SAM so
that we can all have many more years of enjoyment out of our
favourite computer!






                          Classifieds


Stuart Burton is after a SAMBus.

Can anyone with one for sale, give him a ring on the following
numbers :

[redacted]

It must be in good working order.






                  Letter from Stewart Skardon

Dear Colin,

Many thanks for your recent phone call with regards to the
position as editor of FRED. May I take this opportunity to ask
you to congratulate Colin Anderton on my behalf, and to wish him
every success.

I shall of course remain faithful to my SAM, and shall remain a
subscriber to FRED for as long as my bank account can cope!
Perhaps it is just as well I did not become editor, because my
bank account wouldn't have been able to support a visit to the
Gloucester Show.

Best Wishes,



Stewart

CM                 Reply to Stewart Skardon

I'm sorry you were pipped at the post by CA for the FREDitor job
- if it wasn't so impractical, I would have let all three of you
been editor!

Glad to hear you're supporting CA and intend on continuing your
help - perhaps I'll meet you at one of the Shows some day?


Sadly, that's all the letters for this month.

Please send in all your letters for FRED51, because from then
on, Colin Anderton takes over as the new editor.