Fred 67

Issue 67

Magazine

CA                         Editorial

It's the thirteenth already.  FRED is due out in 4 days.  It's
not going to happen.  Fear.  Why have I left it so late?  OK,
lack of contributions was a part of it.  But I've also been
watching far too much TV.  Guilt.  I've got some coursework to
be in next week.  Panic.  Finally interviews and Jellytexts
start coming in.  Relief.  Finally I can get on.

I'd like to apologise for the delay of FRED.  I won't ramble out
apologies, I'll just promise to get FRED back on course.
Hopefully by next month.  I'll expect everyone to complain to me
at the show, of course.  I complain to everyone else about
writing programs, so you might as well complain about my slack
deadline.  The thirteenth.  What a bad day I'm having.  Still,
in two weeks time, I'll be in Evesham, away from this hectic
workload, and all ready with another nearly finished FRED.  In a
way I'm being kind to you.  You'll get two issues of FRED within
three weeks of each other.  It'll be like Christmas come early.

Well, now you can get on with the actual editorial.
CA                        Additional

A very summery hello to everyone.  For the first time in about
six months, sun has finally hit Nottingham.  Just a week after
hurrendous snow, the sun came fighting back, and now it's
T-shirt weather.  The window in my room that has to remain open
constantly because of the smell of my feet now lets in a
refreshing breeze rather than the freezing cold of Mr Frost.
The birds are singing (as opposed to falling out of trees and
shattering into bits on the floor), people are going for walks
and occasionally, the old Anderton knees get a bit of fresh air,
despite the screams of "put them away".

I even played a game of football the other day.  My whole body
nearly packed up after 5 minutes, as I remembered that you had
to do something called excercise to stay fit instead of being a
lazy good-for-nothing.  Still, despite the uncountable number of
stitches, nearly having my legs broken by some dodgy challenges,
having the ball kicked in a very delicate place and being
laughed at when I headed the ball, it was a good game.  Although
my block still claim I'm too crap to be in the team.  Sigh.
CA                       "Witty Title"

Before the sunny weather, we had lots of snow, which was
wonderful fun.  The Nottingham Forest game was called off
because you could barely see the bright orange ball during the
game!  So, we all went into the car park and had a massive snow
ball fight.  It was all a lot of fun, except for five minutes
after someone shouted, "Hey, let's all get Colin".  That was
less fun than I hoped.  Still, I like to think I had a good
tactic, by cowering in a corner with my hands over my head.  We
attempted to build a snowman as well, but that all went wrong
when we were bombarded by snow balls from some passers by.

To make matters worse, after I'd had a bath and settled in bed,
some smart-arse threw a snowball through my open window (foot
problem again) and straight onto me.  Being half asleep, I
thought nothing off it.  However, about half an hour later,
something suddenly woke me up with a startle.  The bl**dy snow
ball had seeped through my sheets and onto my back.  Brrr.  It
was about that time that I decided I was sick of Winter.

CA                         Editorial

I'll stop talking about the weather now or I'll turn into an old
person before you can say, "Are you going to Bingo tonight,
Colin?".

Moving onto a rather exciting bit of SAM news now, I've got yet
another peripheral (big word that).  "It's a hard drive, isn't
it?" I hear you say.  Well, even though money grows out of my
ears, I can't quite afford one, but I have splashed out on
something which I haven't ever had on my SAM - a brand new
Joystick!  Six pounds for a lump of plastic which does exactly
the same as the keys 6,7,8,9 and 0.  It was secretly so that I
could thrash everyone on Bomberman on the Amiga, but I did check
that it'd work on Tetris on the SAM first.

The only problem is that the guy who was going into town who I
asked to get it for me decided to keep half the money I gave him
for his bus fare.  Which is quite a coincidence, because he's
Scottish (controversial).

CA                            FRED

Anyway, I've had a wonderful idea which we can do in FRED where
every single reader can get involved.  It's a stunning,
startling idea and if enough people get involved, it'll be
tippity zip zop top.  I'll let people get entries in over the
next month and a half, and we'll kick off with issue 69 (no
jokes, please).

What's the idea?  Press right cursor to find out....











CA            It's the one and only official....


     *****    ***    *   *   *****    ***     ****   *   *
     *       *   *   **  *     *     *   *   *        * *
     ***     *****   * * *     *     *****    ***      *
     *       *   *   *  **     *     *   *       *    *
     *       *   *   *   *     *     *   *   ****    *

                 *****   ****    *****   ****
                 *       *   *   *       *   *
                 ***     ****    ***     *   *
                 *       *   *   *       *   *
                 *       *   *   *****   ****

         *       *****    ***     ****   *   *   *****
         *       *       *   *   *       *   *   *
         *       ***     *****   * ***   *   *   ***
         *       *       *   *   *   *   *   *   *
         *****   *****   *   *    ****    ***    *****

CA                    Fantasy FRED League

Yes, that's right.  You've heard of Fantasy Football League,
where you build up a team of 11 players from any club with a
limited budget and you get points for goals, clean sheets, etc.

Well, this is Fantasy FRED league.  We will give (not literally)
you 12 million pounds (sorry, foreign folks!) to spend on your
team of 8 SAM programmers/graphics people/public and we'll give
points for what they do on FRED.  There are no silly rules like
you can only have 2 people per programming team or anything like
that.  It's all down to you and your decisions.  What is even
better is that you can pick ANY SAM person.  I'll put prices on
the more well known people, and then you pay just £0.1 Million
for anyone you know - so you can have yourself in your team!

If you decide to play, please register your team with me through
FRED.  It's free to play and the person at the top of the league
by the 1997 April show (in 1 year) wins a 6 month sub to FRED!
I'll write a program to add up all the scores, and I'll print
the updated league (top 25 probably) in every issue of FRED.
CA                          POINTS
                            ======

The following things are ways in which your team scores points,
and the amount they get.  If you think of any other ways to give
points, write in very quickly and if it's a good idea, I'll use
it.

  Points                            Reason

    10             Main writer of a slot D contribution.
     2             An assist!  If he/she has helped towards the
                        slot D contribution.
     6             Main writer of a slot E,F,G,H or K
                        contribution.
     1             An assist for EFGHK.  As above.
     3             Main programmer of a Bits n Bobs item.
     2             For e-tunes contributions. (Person gets 2
                        points no matter how many tunes)
     2             Screens contributions.  As for e-tunes.
     2             A letter, review or text article.
CA                    Fantasy FRED League

     4             A menu contribution.
     1             A menu assist.
     2             For the first mention in the editorial.
     1             Per mention in the editorial.
     1             For being mentioned in a scrolly (1 point
                        no matter how many mentions in it)
     2             For the last mention in the editorial.
    -2             If they don't use "Fashoooom" to wrap their
                        scrolly!
     2             Per mention in the newsletter (not Macdonald)
     3             For being IN a digitised screen





Please note the prices on the next page are NOT a reference to
how good a programmer someone is.  It is merely a measure of how
many points I expect them to score.
CA              In Almost Alphabetical Order...

    Name             Price(£M)        Name          Price(£M)

Colin Anderton         100.0   :  Roger Hartley         1.3
David Brant              1.0   :  Paul Horridge         1.7
Bob Brunsden             1.4   :  Scott Inwood          1.0
Matthew Beaman           1.6   :  David Laundon         2.0
Bob Brenchley            1.5   :  Warren Lee            1.4
Jack Bailey              1.1   :  David Ledbury         0.5
Marc Broster             0.8   :  David Marriot         1.2
Nicholas Bay             0.4   :  Peter Moore           1.4
Victor Cooper            1.9   :  Colin Macdonald       6.0
Andrew Collier           3.2   :  Brian McConnell       0.8
Ian Collier              1.6   :  William McGugan       1.7
Rob Clayton              0.6   :  Derek Morgan          1.8
Andrew Chandler          1.8   :  Dean Nicholas         1.0
Martin O'Connell         1.0   :  Rob Pain              2.2
Allan Clarkson           2.2   :  Steven Pick           1.2
Wayne Coles              1.9   :  Colin Piggot          1.3
Simon Cooke              1.2   :  Tim Paveley           2.0
CA          The Prices Are All In Millions Of Pounds

James Curry              2.5   :  Prophex               1.7
Dan Doore                1.8   :  Matt Round            3.0
Ian/Chris Dodd           0.8   :  Kevin Smythe          1.1
Stefan Drissen           1.7   :  Michael Stocks        0.7
Steve Ekins              1.6   :  Stewart Skardon       0.9
Terry Ekins              1.7   :  Anonimity Smith       1.6
John Eyre                0.4   :  W. Tippens            0.5
Richard Faulkner         0.4   :  Steve Taylor          1.2
Luke Falla               1.6   :  Peter Vinnicombe      2.4
C. Farmer                0.5   :  Robert Van Der Veeke  1.5
Martin Fitzpatrick       1.9   :  Matt Vowles           2.2
Phil Glover              1.1   :  Martin Wilson         0.6
Roy Gardener             1.0   :  Paul Walker           0.9
Diggory Gray             1.2   :  Lee Willis            1.7
Graham Goring            2.0   :  Doug Young            1.9
Martijn Groen            1.5   :  David Zambonini       1.6
James Horsfall           0.5   :
Dave Handley             1.6   :  ANY OTHER SAM OWNER   0.1
Craig Harris             0.3   :
CA                         The Rules

In short, here's the rules again.  PLEASE CHECK these before
sending us your team.

 1) You have 12 million pounds to spend on SAM People
 2) You must have 8 people in your team.  Any teams that don't
     have exactly 8 people in them will be disqualified.
 3) You do NOT have to spend exactly 12 million.  This is just
     a maximum limit.
 4) No repetition of players (eg. you can't have two Matt
     Vowles's.  One only.)
 5) Any person not listed costs £0.1 million.
 6) If you don't know any £0.1M people and need some in your
     team, just send in your team and ask it to be filled with
     some random ones, and I'll do that.
 7) In the event of a draw, the person with the highest scorer
     wins.  If it is still a draw, I'll toss a coin.
 8) My decision is final.
 9) GIVE YOUR TEAM A NAME (Max. 35 chars)
10) Feel free to increase your points by contributing!!!
CA                            News

At last!  It's here!  After months of waiting, SAM Vision for
SAM C has finally emerged.  It's the ultimate addition to SAM C,
as you'll see by some of the features listed below:

* Create and manipulate dialogue windows
* Run ETracker music at the same time as your C program
* Create elaborate screensavers to run when your computer has
  been sitting idle for a specified period of time
* File handling - the standard features for loading and saving
  files, reading and writing to sectors and even traversing
  subdirectories through MasterDOS
* Use numbers greater than 65535
* Perform paging functions
* Advanced printer support
* Memory manipulation
* Advanced keyboard routines

If you own SAM C, this is an absolute MUST.  SAM Vision costs
£14.99, or just £12 to FRED subscribers.
CA                            News

The next bit of news is that X-Coupe has also been made
available to SAM people.  Allan Skillman, the writer, has placed
it on a WEB site for people to download and play with.  X-Coupe
is a SAM Coupe emulator that runs under X-Windows.  The version
being given out is by no means the final version, but the
feedback on it has all been very positive.

There is talk of a version for Windows '95, but Allan hasn't
actually said he will be doing anything and it could take a
while, so don't hold your breath just yet.

If you have X-Windows, and would like a copy, write in and I'll
pass your address on to him.


And as there is a gap at the bottom of this page, I'll put in
another little plug for The Best Of FRED.  It's wonderful, it's
fantastic, it's a must and it's only £2.  Who could ask for
more?  Not I sir.
CA                            News

The SAM show is nearing, as you all know.  As a reminder, it's
on April the 20th at Quedgeley village hall near Gloucester.
Every SAM owner has to be there (and that includes those two
lads who came to Alton Towers).  It's going to be huge, SAM
Vision is going to be on sale, there'll be every SAM celebrity
this side of the equator and there'll be bargains galore.

There's only a month to go, so get your day planned now.
Tickets to get in are sold on the door.  It's only a quid or two
to get in (unless you're a VIP like myself!), and you can easily
save that within a matter of minutes of buying things.

And afterwards, if you fancy it, come and have a pint and a
gossip with the SAM community in the pub next door, and watch me
thrash Lee Willis at pool again.  Ho ho ho.

I've also got lots of contributions discs from years ago which
I'll bring in, so make sure you ask me if I've got one for you.

CA                       Disc Contents

On the Dth slot of FRED, my truelove sent to me....  a demo of
SAM C Vision.  It's contains a couple of simple programs, but is
a pretty good show of what SAM Vision can do for you.

In slot E, we have a Gamesmaster shoot-em-up from Paul Walker.
It starts of easy, but as you accumulate points, the rocks and
enemies begin to take on more challenging formations.  It's all
a bit of fun, and if anyone can complete it without cheating
they deserve a pat on the back.

2nd course is a demo from Prophex, the people who brought you
The 1st Course.  This time it's written mainly in machine code,
and it does show.  Some lovely graphics and music make a very
pleasing three part demo.  Thanks Prophex people.

In slot G, we have some samples from James Curry.  That's sound
samples, not medical ones.  There are four different ones to
chose from, ranging from Blackadder to Bill n Ted.  So far, I've
only got it running under Masterdos, but this isn't definite.
                         Disc Contents

'The' Interview this month is done by Colin Macdonald (shock)
and the recipient of the FRED questionning is none other than
the HUGE celebrity, Adrian Parker.

The next contribtion is also from Rob.  After reading the
scroller, I became engulfed by guilt after Rob comments on what
I said about his last demo being "nothing special" or something
like that.  Well, sorry Rob, you know what I meant.  Here's
another of Rob's very special and close to my heart demos, pi r
squared.  Thanks (and sorry) Rob!

Jellytext this month is done solely by Graham Goring, Matt's
trusty sidekick.  So there's bound to be lots of offensive
material in there.  If you're going to be upset by things like
lobotomies and amputations, don't load this up.  Graham is going
to be the end of me....

And finally, the menu this month was done by Matthew Beaman, and
it's certainly an eye-straining piece of lovelyness (!).
CA                         Thankyou

THE MAIN MAN : COLIN 'insc4cgm' MACDONALD
THE Ed.      : COLIN 'pmyljja' ANDERTON

Many many thanks go to...

     James Curry         Rob Pain           David Fulton
     Paul Walker         Graham Goring      John Saunders
     Prophex             Dean Nicholas      Doug Young
     Adrian Parker       John Eyre          Diggory Gray
                         Matthew Beaman

FRED, and Best Of FRED (hint, hint) is available for £2.00 from

                   FRED Publishing,
                     [redacted]
                                                 PD, PD, PD! >>>
DN                         PD Column

Hello, and welcome again to FRED's PD column. Before I begin,  I
must apologise for the lateness of this column. It  hasn't  been
around for about four or five issues, this was mainly due to  my
SAM being broken, and me having exams  and  coursework  and  all
sorts of crap like that. But now that's over for the time being,
this should be regular for a while. Now, a quick word to say  in
my defence about those comments made by Wayne Coles in issue 65.
First of all, I'm sorry about breaking  into  the  program,  and
where I said that you couldn't find the rope,well okay that was
partly wrong as the rope can be found by examining the roses.
However, in the location in which the rope can be found, there
is no indication in the description about any roses, only some
flowers. If you try to EXAMINE FLOWERS, then that still gives no
guidance. But never mind about that, and onto the reviews.





DN                             PD

SAMArt by Nigel French

This disk has two files on it; the SamArt program itself, and a
slideshow. SamArt is a PD art package, sort of a poor mans
SamPaint (the originality of names for SAM art packages really
does astound me). It is a mouse or keyboard controlled thing,
with many options such as: spray can, variable pen and brush,
shape drawing (only boxes and circles, unfortunately), a solid
fill option, text and several line drawing options, like radial,
continuos or single. It also has an option to dump to a printer,
which I wasn't able to test as my printer is currently being
repaired. And that's it really. One other thing is that, like
SamPaint, it uses the workscreen / drawscreen technique, instead
of the split screen method.

So what do I think of it? There are a couple of annoying faults
with it, the main one being when drawing circles.Drawing small
ones is fine, but when you draw bigger ones, the diameter kind
of increases by about 20 pixels or so at a time, so sometimes it
DN                             PD

is impossible to get the correct size. Another smaller niggle is
that the freehand line draw is a bit crap, as curves often
appear jagged.Apart from these things, though, it is a
worthwhile program. If you haven't bought SamPaint, and enjoy
using a mouse for artwork but cannot stand the useless mouse
option on Flash, then get it. If you have done the decent thing
and bought SamPaint, then it is not worth it.

Overall : 80%


Rat Salad One by Adrian Betts

Remember the Turbo Best Of... disk that was reviewed here a few
issues back? Well, this disk is by the same guy who did that,
and takes the same format as a compilation disk. According to
the scrolly on the menu, Rat Salad was supposed to be a regular
disk offering high quality SAM games at a low price, but this
was the only one to appear. The disk contains nine games:
DN                             PD

Megagame is a two (or possibly more) part game, where you have
to first land a hot air balloon, then find a 'magical cave' in a
top - viewed maze. It's not bad, apart from the fact that the
game crashes after about 5 minutes of playing.
Sid Frost sees you running around a single - screen maze,
crushing ice blocks and avoiding this alien. It is not very
original, and not very good.
F1 is a racing management simulator., in which you can buy new
cars, change sponsor, improve the car and so on. It is quite
good, but also incredibly easy, as within one game you can win
all the races.
Run of the Mill is an extremely annoying game where you have to
jump through moving holes onto platforms, to reach the top of
the screen. But if you hit the roof, you fall over for about 3
seconds, then usually drop through to the next level. Very poor.
Solar Search is a game very similar to Retros and Thrust. You
control a little ship, and must collect a power pod or something
n each level. It's not bad, except for the high sensitivity of
the controls.
DN                             PD

In Stick Man, you are a bloke who has  to get from the left side
of the screen to the right, avoiding bits of wall and flowers
that keep appearing.In one short word: poo  (that was about the
strongest I could use).  [The lad's learning! - CA]
Sterling is a fruit machine simulator, which would probably be
quite good if anyone could work out how to play it! The
instructions are poor, and the keys are a complete mystery. Mind
you, it does look pretty impressive.
Electric Flowers is very weird to say the least. On the screen
are seven flowers, and one has a light on it. By pressing 1,2 or
3 the light moves, but on each turn the buttons do different
moves. There is supposed to be a pattern, but I reckon that it's
just random. The object is to get the light into a wheelbarrow.
It is too confusing, and basically a load of rubbish.
The final game is Moongleam, an adventure which sees you trying
to steal some medicine for your sick fiancee from a castle.
Compared with the other games on disk, the quality is
suprisingly good, and the parser is quite developed. This is
probably the best game on the disk.
DN                             PD

And there you have it. I must say that, at  1.50, the disk is a
huge bargain, with the games being  of  higher  average  quality
that on the last Turbo disk. I suggest that you do buy it, as it
will keep you occupied for a good half hour at least.

Overall : 76%


Metropolis Software Games Disk One by Martin Fitzpatrick

Yes, it's true, the guy who writes those dodgy letters in to
FRED has released a PD disk. This is the first of two, the other
may be reviewed next month. It comprises of two games, which I
will deal with independently.

Bitz 'n' Batz: This is an Arkanoid / Batz 'n Balls rip-off.When
you first load it up, you are greeted with a lovely menu
complete with some brilliant music. As you then go and choose
one of the six levels, you are suprised how impressive this is.
DN                             PD

Then you discover that, in fact, the game is almost unplayable
due to the slowness of it. There are two bats on it at the top
and bottom, one controlled by the computer and one by the
player. The first one to get all of the blocks behind the bat
knocked out loses. The ball travels so slowly, and so do the
bats, it all seems really pointless.

Fire: Now, this is much better.It is a three level affair which
sees you as a firefighter.The first level is an arcade
adventure, such as Boing or Dizzy, where you have to extinguish
some fires. To do this you can pick up objects and use them.
There is one fault here, that is when you drop something, it is
returned to its original starting place, and not your present
location. Another thing is that there is no way to die, so it is
just a case of getting each object and using it everywhere to
see what happens.Level two is a very simple shoot -'em - up,
where you have to blast the nasties with your water gun. As it
is only a few screens long, it is easy to complete on the first
go. The third and final level is another shoot -'em - up, this
DN                             PD

time objects fall out of the sky, with your moveable target you
must shoot them. Overall, it is quite a good game, much better
than Batz.

Overall, you may as well get this just for Fire, as it is quite
good, and the presentation throughout the disk is high in PD
standards.

Overall : 77%










DN                             PD

All of the above three disks cost £1.50, and are available from:

                        SAM PD
                        [redacted]

That's your lot for this month, but I should be back next issue
with reviews of... who knows? If you've just got some PD, then
go on and do a review for FRED, send it in and Colin will stick
it on the disk.  [Excuse me?  Are you telling me how to do my
job, Dean??? - CA]  [It's about time someone did! - CM]

Letters & Reviews

                     Letter From John Eyre

Dear Colin,

Early last year after a lot of hassle over some software
royalties, I decided to give up all my computer activities. I
put my SAM back into its packaging and consigned it to a cold
dark corner of the loft. The summer of '95 was glorious and I
really didn't miss computing. During the autumn I bought a PC
for the family. My job was to set it all up, not to actually use
it, as its main purpose is for playing games like DOOM2.

In December I received a "mail shot" from FRED designed to tempt
wayward ex-subscribers back to the fold. I was tempted. Quick as
a flash I sent off a cheque for FRED subs, SAM C and SAM Vision
and just before Christmas SAM C arrived. Once the festivities
were over it seemed an ideal time to do a bit of C programming.
So I hauled the SAM down from the loft.

I remember writing in my letter to Colin Macdonald that I was
ordering the software on the assumption that my SAM still
                     Letter From John Eyre

worked. How foolish to make such an assumption! I switched on
expecting to be greeted by a stripy screen but nothing, no
picture with TV or SCART leads. There seemed to be power so I
tried typing BEEP 1,1 to see if it was just a display problem
but no response. Disappointed, I put the SAM back in its box
thinking perhaps I'll have it mended sometime and turned my
attention to other things.

A few days later, to add to my frustration, FRED No 64 arrived.
I now had SAM C and a new FRED disk and no way of using them.
Another computer and a printer which had been out of use
considerably longer than the SAM still worked, so I decided to
give it another try.

This time there was a picture but the HJKL and ENTER keys didn't
work. (Its quite difficult using a computer without an ENTER
key.) This was a second keyboard, the SHIFT ZXCV keys having
failed on the original. I still had the old keyboard and since
it would let me use ENTER I swapped them over and started to
                     Letter From John Eyre

format a disk to backup the SAM C Master. The drive clicked
happily away stepping through the tracks on side one and then
disaster! As it reset for the second side there was a frightful
noise and everything went dead.

Things looked pretty bleak, pretty expensive or possibly
terminal. I needed a new keyboard and probably a new disk drive
and a repair job on the computer. I had noticed the disk drive
rattled when I replaced the keyboard so, nothing ventured
nothing gained, I opened up the drive unit. Inside nestling
amongst the springs, levers and electronics was a 2P and a 1P
coin that someone had posted through the disk slot.

Miraculously when reassembled it all still worked, except for
the keyboard. A quick examination of the keyboard internals
revealed the most likely cause as a fractured track where the
flat leads flex. Some careful scraping to allow a very fine wire
to be soldered on, sticky tape to insulate the connections and
hold the wire in place and the keyboard was as good as new. Well
                     Letter From John Eyre

almost the *+ key is a bit temperamental, which is a pain for C
programming, but at least it works.

So all's well that ends well, I came close to consigning SAM for
scrap but thanks to good design and a bit of perseverance I
enjoyed FRED 64 and managed to do some C programming.
(Perseverance is handy when learning to program in C too!)
Finally I would like to say a big thankyou to Marian Krivos for
doing such an excellent job with SAM C. I am really looking
forward now to receiving SAM Vision.

                      Best Wishes


                      John Eyre




CA                    Reply To John Eyre

Thanks for the letter John.  Reading your letter was like a bolt
of inspiration, an injection of life.  I now have the energy and
passion to go on to do FRED all night and make sure it's not
more than two weeks late.  And everyone has you to thank.

Going on your advice, John, I opened up my SAM earlier and lo
and behold - if there wasn't five thousand pounds in it!  Just
lying there.  Clearly some little prankster had posted it in
when I wasn't looking.  Anyway, in my good nature, I've sent all
the money to charity.

I'm glad you're enjoying the SAM and FRED again.  It's great to
have you back - I just hope all the other new subbers are
feeling the same way (else we could be coming up to a nasty
plummet in FRED numbers...).

If anyone else has any witty/scary/inspirational stories on how
they've regained their faith in the SAM, write in NOW...

                 Letter From Smart-arse Fulton

Dear Sir/Madmam  [Madam? I hope you're not taking the mick - CA]

    This is the first time that I have written to FRED but I
have intended to for quite a while, this is simply the first
occasion that I have found the time.

    Firstly, I wish to claim the Smart Arse award by, not only
being able to give you all of the answers to your quiz in issue
65 but also for being able to send you Derek Morgan's answer
sheet!  The only answer that I had to find was the tie breaker.
I take it that you are not a reader of FORMAT (I don't blame
you actually, personally I prefer FRED!) but if you were, you
would realise that they ran the same competition a few months
ago!  [Erm, I'm supposed to read FORMAT, so quite obviously I
knew that our competition in it.  I don't just read the news,
then throw it aside.  Noooo.... - CA]

Here's the answers anyway :-

                    Letter From David Fulton

 1. Spectrum                 12. BBC
 2. BBC                      13. Sinclair (sin 'C' lair)
 3. ZX81                     14. Apple
 4. Archimedes               15. Apricot (apri 'l' cot)
 5. SAM                      16. Atari (A (RAT) I)
 6. Commodore                17. QL (Quite Likely)
 7. Amiga (am eager)         18. I.B.M. (It Beats Most)
 8. ORIC                     19. Jupiter ACE
 9. DELL                     20. MSX
10. Macintosh                21. Einstein
11. Amstrad

The first computer ever was, I believe, called the Altair but
there were things like the Automatic Sequnce Controlled
Calculator which, I suppose could be classed as computers.

Sorry, I couldn't resist sending you the answers!


                    Letter From David Fulton

While I'm on the subject of FORMAT, somebody somewhere in FRED
suggested that FRED takes on the same 'Serious' Form as FORMAT.
A personal recommendation here, DON'T!!!!  I currently subscribe
to FORMAT as well as FRED purely because I like the paper based
magazine [Yeah, they're handy for writing phone numbers on - CA]
and also because of the discounts but I find that it is nowhere
nearly as good to read as YOUR SINCLAIR was.  FRED, I feel, has
a similar style to YS and I really like it!  DON'T CHANGE IT!!!
FRED is clearly doing well for itself at present and does not
need a change.  If people want a more "Serious" magazine, they
should subscribe to FORMAT.  I'm sticking with FRED myself as it
also means that I can obtain much needed software for my SAM.

I am currently trying to download some SAM software from the
Internet but with little success.  I believe I have, amongst
other things, a copy of SURPRISE by ESI sitting on my PC hard
drive but I don't seem to be able to convert it.  Suggestions
anyone?  I think I may need a program called KE_Disk which you
gave away on FRED (I think issue 36) I have enclosed money for
                    Letter From David Fulton

one back issue, could you please send me the relevant issue?

RE the Internet, where are the SAM WWW pages?  I can't get
compuserve's net search utility to work and can only access
known addresses at the moment!

I am also quite keen on programming the SAM, although I am not
terribly competent.  My only work to date has been an upgrade on
PBT's colour printing utility (You can find it described as an
"upgraded version" in the back pages of FORMAT, who now own it)
but I am keen, when I have the time to write utilities, either
to put on the Internet or to send to FRED.  The only problem is,
other than lack of programming expertise, is what to write.
Anyone got any suggestions as to utilities or software that I
could work on?  I can't promise anything but perhaps after this
summer's A levels I may attempt something.

Keep up the good work!
                              Dave A Fulton
CA                   Reply to Dave Fulton

Nice to have a letter from you.  I too was hesitant to write
letters a couple of years back, but after the first letter, I
was hooked, and then I became editor!  So let that be a lesson
to you.  If you want fame, glory and all the money and hassles
that come with it, write in to FRED.  If you can't stand the
pressure of being at the top, then let this one be your last.  I
think you know to choose the first.

Anyway, enough of talking rubbish.  You certainly are the
Smart-arse of the year.  Unfortunately, I ate the gold plated
medal, so you can't have it.  Three people were one answer off
(interestingly enough, all different ones), so you didn't
actually need to answer the tie, which is handy because I
haven't a clue.

In your comments about FORMAT, I have just one comment to make.
When you say that those who want a "serious" mag should sub to
FORMAT instead, I disagree.  They should subscribe to FRED in
the hope it'll change.  Still, I'm glad you're enjoying FRED.
CA                   Reply to Dave Fulton

It's letters complementing FRED and I that get me through the
day.  Not to metion pay my wage.

If you've got any files you've "ripped" from the PC to use on
the SAM, you will need a PC to SAM file convertor.  KE_Disc is
an excellent one, and the only one that I myself use, and yes,
it is on issue 36.

I'll see if I can write an Internet article for either issue 68
or 69.  If you can e-mail any SAM users, then you'll be able to
find out some SAM WWW pages.  There's quite a few now.  There
isn't a FRED one unfortunately, but when we make millions from
various PC projects...

If you want work recognised by hundreds of SAM owners
everywhere, then send it into FRED.  After a few months, you may
feel free to give it to PD or put it on the internet, but if you
do it immediately, you won't get much recognition.  Besides, you
get an exclusive FRED voucher from us (eventually).
                   Letter From John Saunders

Dear FRED,

    I find much difficulty in reading the script in Fred,
notwithstanding having a Scart facility normally allowing very
easy and sharply defined screen print.  You may know that a
rival disc-mag has a user's choice of screen colour and text.
Actually to be perfectly honest, most of your script is not
worth reading anyhow! but I like to persevere.  But if you could
ignore the insult, how about either using a better font (or
perhaps csize), or giving us a choice of screen colour?  And
incidentally, I didn't mean the more technical stuff, which is
terrific, but the jokey 4th form rubbish - I'm too old I
suppose.  I was thinking about saying sorry, but No... just...
grow up!  Full permission to publish if you feel like it.

Yours in senility,

John Saunders

CA               Reply To That Nice Man, John

Well, well.  What a pleasant letter.  Just as I was on a roll,
or so I thought.

I didn't realise that our script was so hard to read that you
couldn't make out the help page.  If you look carefully, you'll
see that you can call up a colours menu and change the text and
paper colours.  Since about issue 10, FRED has had screen colour
options, which are very flexible.  Magazines like SAM Supplement
only allow you to toggle between five preset colour options.
With FRED, you can thousands of different combinations.  Who
could ask for more?

Maybe if you were a little more observant, you'd realise this.
And maybe you'd realise that what I write is actually humour.
You don't have to be young to laugh, you know.  If I wrote ten
pages of stuff as interesting as your letter, FRED would have
died off after my first issue.

No offence, but try to enjoy FRED for what it is.
              Letter From Doug 'Lower Case' Young

Dear Colin,
           Hello again, just me writing another letter,  to  say
thanks and mention a few points ( and I  haven't  used  capitals
the whole way through, makes a change for me!).

Well first to the thanks bit of this  letter,  it  goes  out  to
Colin Macdonald, the reason for the thanks is that he  was  kind
enough to let me borrow his printer interface  and  lead,  which
inturn allowed me to produce my first manual and then be able to
get it sent off, so thanks Colin.

Now I would like to remind ( or tell people that don't know  yet
) you of the new digitiser getting made by D Morgan of  SAM  PD.
As of yet I don't believe the letter that Derek wrote to you has
been printed, for what ever reason. But the digitiser costs  £58
at the moment ( the more people who order one the less  it  will
cost ) and is available from Derek at Sam PD and will be  a  non
profit making project and likely to be a one off, so if you want
one you have to really order now, contact Derek o details at the
                     Letter From Doug Young

Sam PD address for further details.

[You can't resist that monthly plug can you? - CA]

I have also included a few screens for the screens section,so if
you like any use them. I also sent  a  promotional  copy of  the
X-FILES disk for you to review,that is if you have time. Another
point is that most companies ask for a copy of  the  item  being
advertised, to make sure that it is not illegal,  how  come  you
don't?

See you in a month, with  maybe  a  demo  of  one  of  the  best
shoot-em up available for the Sam, well available in a bit.

                                               D YOUNG MARCH 96




CA                    Reply to Doug Young

Hello again, Doug, and congratulations on discovering the lower
case keys on your SAM.  You're getting almost twice as much
value for money out of it now!

The Digitiser thing was held off last month while I chatted to
Colin, but we're happy that Derek is fair dinkum (bit of
Australian there) and we can give him a plug.

Before we place an advert, we check out the company or person
supplying it.  We don't need to check out every product.  If
someone attempts to sell something dodgy on the market, they'll
get caught and won't sell anything again.  We've turned a few
adverts down already, mainly due to previous experience.  If the
item is breaking any laws, we should know about it.

Why?  Is there something you're not telling us?!?

The best shoot-em-up?  Well, either you mean Dyzonium, or it's
something new.  I think I can guess which...
CA               Please Print, Cut Out and Send

----------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Col my old flower/Mr C. Anderton  (delete as appropriate)

    I would just like to say (please circle)

  A    I am a boring person who only enjoys SAM related
       articles.  I do not appreciate your so-called "humour".
       Humour went out with the pixies.  Please refrain
       from being funny and either write sensible things, or
       nothing at all.

  B    Colin, you're a star.  Where would FRED be if it ever
       went serious.  Down the tubes I'd say.  If you even
       think of making FRED sound like someone older than 7 is
       writing the editorials, I'll punch you and steal your
       favourite pair of undies.

  C    I am undecided.  Please leave voting for another month.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Interview: Adrian Parker

CM                      'The' Interview

Let me tell you a true story. Just the other day I had a phone
call from Adrian Parker saying how much he had enjoyed the last
FRED. This is a segment from it:

A: So who's this big interview with for next month?

C: Oh..... It's a secret.

A: Can't you tell me?

C: No - it's someone very important and it wouldn't be fair to
   tell you before everyone else.

A: Fair enough.

C: Erm, Adrian, can you spare half an hour?

A: Probably - what for?


C: Nothing really - just to answer a few questions...

   And so it was born, the first interview I've conducted for
   many a year. And not only that, it's with one of SAM's most
   well known celebrities, ex-MGT employee, Blue Alpha founder,
   ex-SAMCo employee and Blue Alpha, er, re-founder, Adrian
   Parker. For any one that's only joined FRED in the last
   couple of years (nothing personal), Adrian held a high post
   with MGT, founded his own company to design, build and
   put into production pieces of SAM hardware such as the
   voicebox, the sound sampler and the joy mouse. Later employed
   by SAMCo where he was head of all things technical
   (including the ill-fated kaleidoscope), and then started up
   Blue Alpha Electronics again with Mark Hall to build and
   repair SAMs for West Coast Computers. Adrian left Blue Alpha
   two years ago.

C: Tell me about your first involvement with computers

A: I was in the chess club at school and a friend of mine - his

   mother was the Maths teacher and she'd been running the chess
   club - and this package came delivered to the school and it
   was this little black box shaped like a wedge - it was a
   ZX81. And I used to go round his house after school and he
   would show me all these little blocks moving across the
   screen and goodness knows what. And he was saying, 'well
   that's suppose d to be a jeep and that's supposed to be a
   missile' and then he pressed this button and the screen goes
   blank - like the ZX81 is supposed to do - and I thought,
   yeah, I could do something with this so my birthday came
   round and I asked my parents to buy me a computer. That was
   15 years ago now.

C: What computer was that?

A: Sharp MZ80K - It had a whole 48K of memory, a built in tape
   deck. It was Z80 based, as all the best machines are and I
   fiddled around in Basic for a while and then I got
   onto machine code a couple of years later I added loads of
   bits onto it - I had a speech synthesizer - not unlike the

   voicebox!

C: What age were you when you got the Sharp?

A: 13 - at the time it was a shame really because I had that
   in August on my birthday - August the 22nd if anyone wants to
   send me presents - in the September Commodore launched the
   Vic20 so if I'd hung on just a month more I could have had
   a colour computer. And then it was the end of that year,
   that the news about this new colour computer that Uncle Clive
   was going to launch. It was just after that, that the Amstrad
   CPC range was launched as well. Computer and Video Games
   started in August that year -1981- when it was called
   Computer and Video Games, not CVG as it's known now, and they
   used to print listings and they always had a listing for the
   Sharp along with other long forgotten beasts. Anyway, enough
   of me.

C: Right, sorry, you want to interview me now? What was your
   childhood ambition?

A: For years I wanted to be an accountant. Then I got into
   chemistry and wanted to be a chemist and it was around then
   that I first got into computers and especially having
   the Sharp - nobody was making things for it - and I was
   really frustrated that I couldn't buy all the things I could
   see everyone else buying - joysticks, light pens and that
   was one of the things that lead me to the electronics degree.
   I wanted to be able to build things for my computer that
   nobody else would be able to buy.

C: How did you get into SAM?

A: I just finished a year of research at the university after
   my degree and I was looking for a job, something local, and
   my mother pointed out this photo of a bald guy with glasses
   holding up this white box on the front of our local paper. It
   was a bad picture. No offence, honest Bruce. So I rang
   directory enquiries and got their number. Rang them up, said
   'Have you got any vacancies?', sent off my CV and they asked
   me for an interview a week later. I went back for

   another interview the week after that and I started work on
   November 6th 1989 in MGT.  My first job.

C: How old were you then?

A: I was 21.

C: When did you first hear of FRED?

A: It was probably meeting that wonderful handsome guy, what's
   his name?, Colin Macdonald at an All Formats in London when
   I was probably blasting sound sampler demos - sound
   familiar?

C: Just about.

A: You remember my two and a half megabytes of Kylie's the
   locomotion?

C: Almost every single byte.  What did you think of FRED at that

   point?

A: I particularly liked...

C: no, no, come on

A: I particularly liked the hand coloured label that was on the
   disc - I think the first one I've got is FRED4. And I was
   very impressed with some of the demos, like the tetris
   that appeared very early on. And the way you could fade in
   and out that picture of the female in the background.

C: And what did you think of the last FRED?

A: The last FRED was ... 66. And I'm not saying this because I'm
   trying to crawl, honest. I've got to say this, as you well
   know, I had to phone you up the other day and tell you
   how wonderful it was. I loved the story with Trump Macdonald,
   I was a bit disappointed it wasn't me that killed you. I
   played around with the C routines of course. I also liked

   Zoinks - I did enjoy that. It's a big change from when I
   first started reading FRED mainly because there was a lot
   more news back then.

C: What are you currently doing job-wise?

A: I'm actually an office manager in a company in South Wales.
   I'm at this moment designing and installing a multi-user
   system for the office staff where they all sit on serial
   terminals - just like people used to do in University's
   donkeys years ago - all having different access to the
   C database which I've written. But I'm open to offers. If
   anyone out there wants to employ me - for 40K a year plus a
   car I'm quite happy to come round and reminisce about my time
   in MGT.

C: Actually FRED can make you an offer of 40K. Unfortunately,
   it is 40K of sugar, but it is monthly...

A: When do I start?

C: Favourite SAM game?

A: Lemmings. I love Lemmings - I love it on every format. But my
   second favourite SAM game is one called Up The Wall which was
   written in Basic - it was a Dave Tonks effort and I used to
   play it in MGT a lot.

C: If MGT hadn't gone into receivership where do you think it
   would be now?

A: There were plans which I was involved in to develop future
   computers. We talked to Samsung (who did the ASIC for MGT)
   about producing a new chip which was going to have all the
   capabilities of the ASIC as a sub-set, have a Z80 built
   into it and allow us to put another processor on board as
   the main processor - the next version of the SAM - big
   brother of the coupe and everything on the coupe as a
   sub-set, running as a second processor. And then the next
   generation after that which we didn't really get into that
   much but was to launch a much higher spec machine, possibly

   along the lines of todays PCs.

C: In 20 seconds or less, why did MGT go down?

A: Growing too fast too soon, taking on an immense amount of
   staff, the design took too long, it took several years too
   long.

C: And SAMCo?

A: SAMCo was founded on a dwindling database that MGT had passed
   on, and it just didn't have the money. It's down to money at
   the end of the day. If you've got oodles of money like Sega
   then you can afford such an advertising campaign that you're
   bound to get the sales. Although there was the chance that
   Alan was on about in the last Newsdisc.

C: Describe the following people in three words. Bruce Gordon?

A: Clever. Scottish. Bald.

C: Two out of three isn't bad. Alan Miles?

A: Friendly. Long-winded. Optimistic.

C: Clive Sinclair?

A: My idol. Genius. Unfortunate.

C: Colin Anderton - and not, 'who is he'

A: I wouldn't do that. Inane. Depraved. Deprived.

C: And without using any immensely complimentary words, Adrian
   Parker?

A: Over-optimistic. Enthusiastic. Sometimes.

   You're not going to ask me what I think of Colin Macdonald?

C: You think I'm stupid? List the last 4 cars you've had.

A: Rover 820se automatic (current). Lotus Excel. Rover 3.5 se
   sd1. Triumph tr7.

C: OK, that's it. Thanks very much.

A: No problem. Good luck with the game - you might as well have
   it in writing, of a sort.hello colin











Next month: Who knows???  Could be Cindy Crawford.  Or it could
            be another SAM person.  Only time will tell...