Fred 47

Issue 47

Magazine

BM                         Editorial

Oh God. You all know that I finished Uni about 6 weeks ago. How
on earth can I explain THIS issue being late? Okay; I can't.
This issue is late, and when you think about it it's not all
that late, because I've been a very lazy young idler for the
whole of the holiday. Okay, I've had my hair cut and spent a
couple of days working for my Dad, but that's about the lot.

And cycling. I did a fair bit of that, but it came to an abrupt
halt when I broke my toe. It wasn't even a spectacular break. If
I'd been fighting off thugs who were trying to mug me for the
FRED 46 master disc it would have been something to boast about,
but oh, no. Mr Co-ordination has to mis-judge the top of the
staircase in a rush to get to the TV before Halloween started
(great film). And guess who manages to put his full weight on
the one toe? Exactly. Moi. And CRACK!! Was it loud! And sore.
And it went all purple. I wouldn't be surprised if the nail fell
out. That would be cool actually. People are totally grossed out
by that sort of thing. I could even charge 'em to see it...

BM                         Editorial

This past weekend, you may have read a little about Dundee or
seen it on the news, because we hosted some big power boat race.
I can't say I saw much of it - in fact I didn't see ANY of it -
but this was apparently a really big event. Cool, huh? 100,000
people came to see it, which is quite a lot considering the
entire population of Dundee isn't even 200,000. The boats were
extremely loud, and I could hear them from about 2 or 3 miles
away. The b******s woke me up, in fact (at 1 in the afternoon.
Hey, it was a late night!).

Other big events: I turned my £5 casino defecit into a £3
overall profit - yes, I've been twice, lost a fiver the first
time and won £8 the second! So I'm in the black on my casino
account, which I suppose is the way you want to be. I saw one
bloke get £3600 in £100 notes as I was cashing out. It made my
£8 seem more than a little trivial! One of my friends left £5
up, and two others dead even, so it was a pretty good night for
us all. You wouldn't believe the amount some of the punters lost
though. Jeez.
BM                         Editorial

On a somewhat sad note, this is going to be one of my last
FREDs. I'm not yet sure yet which is my last one, but it's
either #48 or #49. Maybe #50. Colin and I haven't decided yet.
We know that you'd like to know how the new editor thing's
going, but we still haven't decided! It's starting to get a
little late, but never fear, FRED will continue long after I'm
gone.

Remember that we're having a really stunning issue 50. Or so we
hope. Don't for one millisecond think that it's all lined up and
sorted out and put to bed though - we still want contributions!
We do have a couple of things for it, but there's still plenty
of room for new things, so if you've got that demo idea or half
finished game, why not get it finished and sent in and you could
be one of our issue 50 contributors!
                                                         - BRIAN



BM                            News

No news this issue, but a couple of updates on people you
thought you'd probably heard the last of long ago.

Remember Enigma Variations? You should do, because some of the
games they released for SAMmy were really pretty excellent. Well
it seems that they've started up again under the name Dark
Technologies Ltd. Or else it's a completely different company
which just happens to be involved in computer games and is at
exactly the same address...

Our next blast from the past comes in the shape of King Saddo,
Simon Scott, whose Fastline PD library amazed hundreds with its
lack of professionalism and respect for other SAM users. I
recently spotted his evil name in the teletext computing pages
(C4, 470) which usually deal with consoles and never deal with
SAMs or anything vaguely serious. He was selling some sort of
game for the ST. Incredible, no? I'd have thought he would have
given up trying to con people after he botched up Fastline, but
it appears not. Never mind.
CM                       Remember me?

Wow - this will be a bit of a thrill: getting my name in FRED
again. I think the last time was sometime last year. Mind you,
that nice editor of FRED would include more people's names if
only they wrote some stuff to give him the excuse. Still, better
late than never.

For those of you who haven't already taken an educated guess,
this is Colin once again - Brian's been threatening to take away
my SAM if I didn't write a page this month. So what better way
to keep my SAM than to witter on for a while?

Unforutunately, most of this year (and especially since the
Gloucester Show) I've been run off my feet - the taxmen (had
better!) love me, the bank manager hates me, I've discovered
that spending 12 hours a day, for 7 days solid just filing bits
of paper is not my idea of fun, and I've successfully passed my
second year of a degree at University!

You may remember that it was actually college that I went to,
CM                 Still around...somewhere

but happily for me, it was "upgraded" to University status not
so long ago. And contrary to popular belief, Walt Disney did not
have anything to do with the deal.

So the Summer months have arrived, and I can catch up on some
work that I've been putting aside for months. I do also have to
make provisions for possibly not spending as much time on FRED
over the next year - being the year I pass or fail the Degree I
thought I'd put in a little bit more effort.

For this very reason, I've been sifting through the people
interested in becoming the new FRED editor or FRED Software
Manager. And although I can't decide at the moment, whoever the
unfortunate one is, you can be sure he'll do a great job. (sorry
to be sexist but there have only been males apply ... so far ).
No decisions have been made yet though, so there's still time to
write in and offer me vast sums of the folding stuff to give you
the job - and no bits of origami paper, please!

CM      World record for anti-laziness goes to ... Colin

Although things have been fairly quite on the publishing front
at the moment, there's plenty of work going on and you can be
sure that you'll be seeing plenty more titles between now and
Christmas.

I can "exclusively" reveal that FRED has hitched up another
licence!! However, I can't tell anyone what it is because it
could fall through. Work has been rocketing ahead and it should
be out well in advance of Christmas. With any luck I'll be able
to tell you around Autumn. It has been due to Lemmings that this
second licence has been made possible - but the more Lemmings
are sold, the more licences we can try to negotiate.

As always, we'd like to see any program / artwork / music you've
done with a view to either use on the magazine or a commercial
product. I know there's plenty people out there with talent who
just never quite seem to get round to doing something - what
better time to support FRED and SAM than the bleak British
Summer!
CM                     Getting serious..

With constant price rises of discs, stamps, stationary (and the
FRED phone bill!) it's very difficult to keep the price of FRED
down. You will all know that FRED has always been one of the
least expensive (well, saying cheapest makes it sound tacky)
magazines on the SAM scene. It is also the only SAM disc mag to
get professionally duplicated (not forgetting the on-body
printing), and FRED is one of the few companies that send
everything by first class post, including the magazine.

The good news is that I have no intention of raising the price
of FRED in the forseeable future. However, the cost of
processing cheques and crossed Postal Orders is expensive.
Wherever possible, collate two orders and send one cheque ie
order several issues of FRED at once - or take out a year's
subscription. Sending cash also helps, although I would very
strongly recommend sending it recorded delivery. To try to
compensate this, if you pay by cash please deduct 10% (10
percent) from the order total.   Cash should always be sent
securely (coins especially). Thank you for your help.
CM                   Uh Oh, he's off again

Yes, I'm afraid the call of the disc copying is crying in my
ears once again, so I have to leave you. I wish I could leave
you with one of my occasionally amusing tales of mishaps, while
trying to do something exciting. Sadly, I have to wait until the
next Gloucester Show before I can leave bonny Dundee for foreign
shores, so until then I'll leave you in Brian's capable hands.

Assuming of course, that he still does FRED these days - I
hardly ever get a copy, and when I do it's late. Since the
student grant ran out I can't even go to visit him where he
lives - one of the many public houses in Dundee.

Anyone who finds him, give him a quick slap and remind him he's
got a life-and-deathly important duty to the SAM community.

Anyone who finds him after I do, please get him an Ambulance.

Anyone who finds him working, please stop hallucinating - Brian
NEVER works.
BM                       Huh. Charming

Brian back now, and just to get things straight here, it's Colin
who gets charged RENT by various pubs, not me. Indeed no, for
I've got mortgages on the things... I think there was a dig in
there somewhere about my lack of hard work. Obviously Colin is
completely insensitive and my broken toe is of little
consequence, sniff sob. How can I type with a broken toe?
Honestly. What a nerve.

Just for that, I'm going to leave a large blank space for you
all to reflect on the unfairness of the world.









BM                    Soul Magician Codes

These final codes for this stunning game were meant to be in
FRED #46. Due to astrological difficulties though, they have
been warped into the future and are here now. Thanks to Stu
Sullivan for compiling them.

36 ZKGMRYKXAM       37 AQGYSNVBXM       38 NXPWALIRNJ
39 HLXYQHPXJT       40 WUCDSQGAQK       41 YBRDGKDVKU
42 PYAONWPDEO       43 BKPXTAGOWE       44 SSMXXQKSAF
45 ZHVXXHVHXP       46 NJJNGARRKI       47 SFIBIACARH
48 NNCILPBIZK       49 UWFAWAEBYQ       50 YMYQGDLBCE
51 HZVOXTFLUR       52 UKUSPCINQN       53 PKERUYYMPY
54 LZYGJTVHRF       55 FDHBOTKXMO       56 GKNTTENLSL
57 JYJVMGWUET       58 IFYAIGKQAB       59 KRUOUCUWBS
60 XILGZSGYLR       61 KKPCCZNYKE       62 XTFVGJYRDV
63 YVWMGSUPGG       64 MKOWOIARJJ       65 DUYZIBLCBD
66 NZFTUONKBV       67 WAYMZZMIAU       68 DLIDQMOHHB
69 ZZZUWGCBDH       70 ABBASDEFGH


BM                       Disc Contents

This issue is, without doubt, brill; if you like utility packed
issues of FRED, that is. We've got a couple of real corkers for
you. The first one is...

GI_MON by Paul Horridge. And it's a monitor program for all you
machine coders. Cool or what? Unfortunately, if you are a sane
person who doesn't touch MC with a barge pole, you won't really
get much out of this utility, but never mind. Just be grateful
you have to spend your entire life puttering around with one of
these evil "assembler" things. Of course, it's only machine
coders who end up being revered as Gods like Chris White and
Stefan Drissen, so it might be worth while learning good old Z80
after all. Full instruction file included.

CHEATS is by Paul Crompton and lets you cheat at four top SAM
games - namely Lemmings, Kreuzen, and um, two others. I'll not
tell you them just here though, because erm, ah, oh yes, that
would spoil the surprise. A word of caution: this sometimes
worked and sometimes didn't, so persevere. You'll get there.
BM                       Disc Contents

MORK features three dainty programs by William "Mork" McGugan. I
bet you can guess where we got the name for the item from too.
The first, PROCS, is a selection of very useful and very
innovative, as well as very frivolous, procedures. Look  through
them, and if you can find one to tickle your fancy, then I'm a
monk. REMMER puts little pictures in your REM statements, an
effect which is best explained by looking at the REMs in the
actual program (in Mode 3. Important, that). His final thing,
SMARTCRYPT, will encrypt your data files for you to stop all
those pesky spies from nosing around your data. Mork has
produced explanatory text bits, so read them.

#50 DEMO is a colourful demo by David Simmonds to basically
advertise how smart FRED 50 is going to be. And if David can
come up with a demo as good as this for that issue itself we'll
 be more than happy! You can exit by holding down the X key.

NET this month has a load of messages you can put on your
answering machine. Some of them would actually be quite good!
BM                       Disc Contents

Missing out E-Tunes and Module, because you know exactly what
they are by now, we come to EASYCALC. Easycalc is - wait for it
- a spreadsheet! Yes, one of those things that we haven't had on
the mag for so long I'm having trouble recalling what one looks
like. It's written by RJ Bister, and it's by far the best
financial aid on the entire issue, ho ho ho. There are
instructions, which RJ oh-so-thoughtfully DIDN'T include on disc
and which I'm going to have to type out manually, and they
follow in a couple of pages time. This is a very powerful
package, and even lets you draw graphs. Yes, I thought you'd be
pleased about that. It takes a couple of seconds for the screen
to update, but bear with it. It gets there evebtually.

BEEBLE is a game by Allan Clarkson, and yes, it is a puzzle
game. It's good though, and there are lots and lots of levels.
And it takes up loads of disc space, which in general is NOT a
good way to get something published. Especially if the music
file alone takes up FIFTY BLIMMIN' K! WHY?! Please explain this,
Allan.
BM                       Disc Contents

BITS N BOBS is a bit sparse, largely because of Allan Clarkson's
50K music file, but as I'm sure you're bored numb of hearing,
it's quality that counts. HI SCORE by Nicholas Bay is a routine
which, if you cannibalise it, you can use in your own games. It
handles the score inputting and name entering side of things,
and putting it bluntly, if you can't work out the goings on you
probably haven't written a world class game anyway...

BANZAI returns with two items: the first is a new loader for
Stefan Drissen's MOD player, which lets you choose the MOD with
the cursors. You'll need to mess about with it yourself, but
there are comments in the listing to help you.

His second appearance in BnB is with some SAMPaint fonts, four
of 'em to be exact. And a screen to let you see what they're
like. Thanks Dan.



                        Easycalc Manual

                          by RJ BISTER
 Moving The Cursor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The cursor can be moved around the screen simply by using the
cursor keys [Bad luck Doug Murdoch! - ED]. If you try to move
the cursor off the screen then the screen will scroll and reveal
the next row or column.

It is also possible to move a whole page at a time. This can be
done by selecting Page Up, Down, Left, or Right from the main
menu (press space to access this) or with the keys Q, A, O, and
P.

You can "home" the cursor to the top left corner of the spread-
sheet be selecting [HOME] from the main menu or pressing H.

You can also specify a certain cell for the cursor to go to.
This is done by using the [GOTO] function from the menu, or with
SHIFT + G. Then simply type the letter and number of the cell.
                        Easycalc Manual

 Inputting Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To put data into the current cell, type in a value using keys 0
to 9, - and . symbols, using DELETE to delete the previous
character and RETURN when you're happy.

 Formulae
~~~~~~~~~~
To enter a formula into the current cell, either select the
ENTER FORMULA option from the main menu or press F. You can then
type in your formula. Type all cells in LOWER CASE, eg. b17 and
NOT B17. You can use any of the following operators:

+ - / * < > = ( )   as well as  ↑  which means "to the power of"

As well as these, you can use mathematical functions. These are
entered in UPPER CASE, eg. SIN a1 and not sin a1. These
functions can also be accessed from the functions menu by
pressing SPACE during formula input. Full list on the next page:
                        Easycalc Manual

ABS - absolute magnitude
ACS - arcosine
AND - logical AND
ASN - arcsine
ATN - arctangent
COS - cosine
DIV - integer result of a division
EXP - exponent
INT - integer part
LN  - natural logarithm
MOD - remainder part in a division
NOT - logical NOT
OR  - logical OR
PI  - ratio between diameter and circumference of a circle
SGN - sign of a number
SIN - sine
SQR - square root
TAN - tangent

                        Easycalc Manual

Two special functions are TOTAL.R and TOTAL.C which are the
total of the preceding row and preceding column respectively.

The above maths functions can all be seen in more detail in the
SAM User's Guide. An example of a formula is:

                      a1*cos(a2/a3)+3*PI

a1, a2 and a3 are cell positions, COS is a function, PI is a
constant really, but let's just say it's a function for now, and
*, /, and + are operators.

 Title Column/Row
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To title the current column or row, select the relevant one from
the main menu. Or, press C or R respectively. Then type in your
title and press RETURN.


                        Easycalc Manual

 Wipe All Data
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This will clear your spreadsheet. Select WIPE ALL DATA from the
main menu, or press W. You will be asked to confirm the action.


 Update Page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To update the current page select UPDATE PAGE from the main menu
or press U. The page will then be updated, which is how you get
all the data to modify itself after you've altered a formula or
entry.


 Erase Cell
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Select ERASE CELL from the main menu, or press SHIFT + E.
                        Easycalc Manual

 Copy Cell
~~~~~~~~~~~
To copy the contents of the current cell to another one, select
COPY CELL from the main menu or press SHIFT + C. Then type in
the cell you want to copy TO, eg. b6 or c19. If the cell you
want to copy contains a formula then the formula will be copied.
You will then be asked if you want to modify the formula
relative to the new cell. By answering YES to this, the formula
will be changed so that it corresponds to the new location. The
best way to understand this is to experiment.

 Help Page
~~~~~~~~~~~
To access this, select HELP PAGE from the main menu, or press
SHIFT + H. You will be shown a screen containing all the keys
and what they do in case you forget.



                        Easycalc Manual

 File Menu
~~~~~~~~~~~
To enter the file menu select FILE MENU from the main menu, or
press SHIFT + F. You will see a new menu appear. From this menu
you can choose to load, save or erase a file, display a
directory, or format a disc. Use the cursors and RETURN to
select an option.

LOAD, SAVE, ERASE; after selecting one of these you will see a
directory of the current drive. Follow onscreen prompts. When
entering a filename NO NOT include any extension, and keep
lengths to a maximum of six letters/numbers when saving.

 Print Page
~~~~~~~~~~~~
To print the current page select PRINT PAGE from the main menu
or press SHIFT + P. Make sure the printer is loaded with paper
and is on-line.

                        Easycalc Manual
 Graphs
~~~~~~~~
To enter the graphs menu select GRAPHS from the main menu or
press G. The graphs drawn will use the data from the current
row. You will be asked to select the columns you wish to use.
Answer YES or NO to each column in turn and press F when
finished. You can use up to 12 columns. You will then see a new
menu. To choose an option use the cursors and RETURN. The chosen
graph will be drawn. The printer option toggles the printer on
and off.

 System Menu
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Select SYSTEM MENU from the main menu or press SHIFT + S. From
this menu you  can reset SAM, exit to BASIC and set the time.
Enter the time in 24 hour form using 2 digits for hours and
minutes and separate them with a : as in 05:11. You can display
the time at any point by pressing SHIFT + T or selecting it from
the main menu.

                        Easycalc Manual
 Notepad
~~~~~~~~~
To enter the notepad, select NOTEPAD from the main menu or press
SHIFT + N. You will see a blank page appear. You can write notes
about your current spreadsheet. Press EDIT to enter the notepad
menu. From here you can clear the notepad, exit notepad, print
text display time or exit menu by using the cursors and RETURN.

 IMPORTANT NOTES
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Do not press CAPS while using Easycalc. This will cause the keys
to not perform their functions. If the package appears to be
not working, try pressing CAPS in case it was on.

When drawing pie charts, it is not possible to plot if there are
values <= 0. Also try not to plot small percentages as the pie
chart may not be accurate.

Accessing discs momentarily disables the clock, so it will lose
time. The clock may need reset after numerous disc operations.
BM                           Phew!

Well. I'm glad THAT's finally over with. I never ever want to
have to type in another manual like that again, so any "funny"
contributors out there had better think twice before sending one
in on paper but not disc. This one had been clearly word-
processed as well - the manual was printed out on continuous
stationery! Aaarrgghh!!

Before I go, here are a couple of music tips. This isn't a Music
Section as such, just a paragraph or two. That's why it's here,
not after the credits.

ORB "Pomme Fritz" - nowhere near as good as UFOrb. I'm sorry to
say it, but this really isn't worth getting.

UNDERWORLD "Dubnobasswithmyheadman" - brilliant. Sort of dancy,
sort of ambient. With lyrics. Highly recommended.

TRANCE EUROPE EXPRESS 2 - also brilliant. A mixture of ambient
and more up tempo stuff. Not commercial night-clubby styles.
BM                          Credits

EDITOR: Brian "Pain don't hurt" McConnell
Thanks to:

Paul Horridge                 William "Mork" McGugan
Paul Crompton                 Allan Clarkson
RJ Bister                     David Simmonds
Lee Willis                    Doug Murdoch
Nicholas Bay                  BANZAI
Stu Sullivan


Contact FRED at:              Phone: 0382 535963

[redacted]

Letters & Reviews

                  Letter from Douglas Murdoch

Dear Brian and Colin,

Huzzah! It's me again, after a leave of absence of about 6
months.The truth is that my psychiatrist, Dr Fitzpatrick turned
out to be an evil alien and enemy of all Chipmunks and was in
fact trying to make me think I was mad. Fortunately I saw
through his cunning plan and informed the authorities who
whisked me safely away to a special hiding place. My room was
really nice with this lovely bouncy stuff all over the floor and
walls, and they gave me a lovely white jacket with a strange
sleeve design that kept my hands nice and warm.

A nice man would listen with interest every day when I told him
about the evil doctor and he informed me that everything would
be okay and that Dr Fitzpatrick probably wouldn't succeed in
exterminating all forms of intelligent life - and Nintendo
owners (sorry, couldn't resist that one) - so the world is safe
once again.

                  Letter from Douglas Murdoch

But enough of my heroic deeds, there's more important things to
discuss. For example, why is it that when my cursor keys decide
to throw a wobbly on me, all the games and stuff that everyone
send in work by cursor keys?

Y'see, I bought E-Tracker a wee while ago and was doing fine
until the cursors got all temperamental on me. This caused
endless frustration and restricted my musical artistic ability
(which is low enough already). As far as I can tell, the defect
in the keys is being caused by the closeness of the moon which
is causing a temporary increase in the flux density of it's
gravitational field on the Earth, but it might just be dust.

If anyone else has a theory then I would be interested to
hear/read it since I'd rather not have to send my poor Sam away
to Wales to get fixed.



                  Letter from Douglas Murdoch

Just in case no-one's nodded off yet I'd like to mention that
this is my second letter that I've typed because I forgot to
mark the end of the letter and so my dear Sam ate all my work.
Believe it or not, people, it does sometimes pay to read the
instructions!

Lastly, I'd be interested to know if there was a reason why my
question about 'Another World' and 'Flashback' was 'cunningly
edited' (again). Was it another of life's spooky coincidences or
was Dr Fitzpatrick succeeding after all?

                Farewell (till next time anyway)

                            Dougie





BM                  Reply to Douglas Murdoch

Hi Doug. I'll just explain to all the readers that Doug sent me
up a promo tape for a band named "FLOP." Then they'll understand
why I say "thanks heaps and may all your hair never turn grey."
If there's any justice in this world, FLOP (bad choice of name,
I'd have said) will soon have a meteoric rise to fame and will
be worshipped by all. The presence and popularity of bands like
Doop indicates that justice went out the window long ago,
however, so we'll just have to remain hopeful.

I should warn you Doug, that the evil Dr Fitzpatrick has managed
to subvert one of my bosses at work, who is now making me tidy
up the women's tights section (as opposed to the men's tights
section, obviously). Shall we "get" him?

Sorry to disappoint you all but no: there is absolutely no way
that Flashback or Another World will be SAMified. I can't think
why it was editted out, but it's not being done. Sorry.

Any ideas to help Doug's cursors to the usual address!   - BRIAN
                     Letter from Robert Pain

Dear Brian/Colin,

Coming soon from me is Font Designer V2.x (with full mouse
support, and additional graphics to improve the looks of it a
bit) - due out before or for FRED50. Talking about FRED 50, I
think the gold disc idea is a bit naff, but seeing as I'm not
able to think up anything better myself, then I suppose that it
is an OK sort of idea.

Now two serious questions to tax your brain: 1- Does FRED
consider for use programs that have/are being considered for
release on the PD market? Alternatively, does FRED hold the
copyright of programs it publishes, if so can they be released
on the PD market after FRED has used them? 2-Where can I get the
SAM Technical Manual from? I know it used to appear on the FRED
price list, but not now, so where? That's all for the moment,
you and all FRED readers everywhere, have a great summer! Bye,


BM                    Reply to Robert Pain

Aha! The return of another long ago letter-writer. Good to hear
from you once again Rob, and to meet you and Tim at the show.

To answer your questions, no, we don't use things that have
appeared elsewhere. There are exceptions to this, but if you've
had something plastered all over the SAM scene, don't expect to
see it in FRED.

FRED doesn't have any sort of legal agreement about rights and
things, so the original writer still has full claim to his work.
While this means they can do what they want with things after
they've appeared on FRED, we don't like people doing so, and
will duly slap them with a baked-bean soaked rugby top when we
see them at shows.

Sometimes Colin gets hold of techy manuals from Honest Bill, the
local dodgy character, so if you give him a phone he may happen
to have one on him. Maybe not though, that's why you should
always phone before ordering stuff.                      - BRIAN
                     Letter from Nick Symes

Dear Colin,

Following your request for information on printers used by SAM
owners, I thought I would take the opportunity of writing to
tell you about mine.

I, like Matt Round, decided to opt for the Canon range after
visiting my local computer shop, where they demonstrated the
merits of the print quality. The price quoted to me for the
BJ10sx was in fact £299, which is not cheap, particularly as
Matt only paid £210 and Jersey is meant to be VAT free!

By chance I stumbled across an advert by Steve's Software in an
old copy of Format (it has also appeared in this month's issue)
where he was offering to sell the same printer for £210. Great,
I thought, and phoned him up. Steve, who was very helpful
indeed, told me it had in fact been reduced to £185 - even
better!

                     Letter from Nick Symes

Not knowing much about printers, we proceeded to talk about the
options, at which point he recommended the Canon BJ200. This
printer has the benefit of a built in sheet feeder, which can
hold up to 80 sheets, and is 48 "pin" for better letter quality
definition with 8 fonts available, as well as being slightly
quieter than the BJ10sx - although I don't profess to noticing
any difference. All this for £240.

One of the other benefits was that Steve also provided a piece
of screen dumping software, specifically written for the Cannon
- free. This produces graphic printouts either credit card size
or 1/3 A4 size of your favourite pictures.

Needless to say, I bought it, together with a copy of the
Secretary (which is very good and I am presently awaiting the
updated version).



                     Letter from Nick Symes

One final point worth mentioning is the running cost. Matt
mentioned that the Bubble Jets are more expensive per sheet than
other printers. However it is possible to purchase refill packs
which are approximately half the price of new ink cartridges.

I hope that this may be of interest to other potential printer
purchasers.

I certainly hope that you succeed in making Sam Paint compatible
with the Canon and I look forward to receiving my Mouse to use
with it.

Thankyou for all the support you have given to the SAM over
recent years - long may it continue.





BM                    Reply to Nick Symes

Thanks for taking the time to let us know about your printer
buying escapades. Printers, next to computers and monitors, are
probably THE most important peripheral you can buy, and they're
not cheap, so it's vital that people learn as much about them
before purchasing one.

The Canon range is very impressive; my BJ10-ex is still running
after nearly two years and I haven't had any problems whatsoever
with it. Apart from the SAMPaint thing. That's not really the
printer's fault though, so I'll refrain from launching it from
the bedroom window just yet.

Steve's Software do offer an excellent printer-selling service,
and those prices are unbelievable! I now want a BJ200 - if only
for an auto sheet feeder!

Anybody else got any monitor/printer stories for all our info-
hungry readers? Any recommended buys?
                                                         - BRIAN
                    Letter from G Tattersall

Dear Brian,

I am not really a great letter writer, I prefer to sit in the
background and observe. Occasionally, however, I may write to
FRED.

          I have two questions :

1. I think that the MOD player is great, but I have to say that
a sample rate of just 7.8 Khz gives very bad quality. Is it
possible to push up the rate to 11Khz on SAM?

2. If I, or anyone else, sends in Graphics files, what file
formats can you accept other than SAM SCREEN$? I can supply IFF,
PICT, TIFF, GIF, and PCX/SCR formats at present.

       Long Live FRED!


BM                   Reply to G Tattersall

Sigh. If only *everybody* wrote the odd letter every six months,
this letters section would be a joy to write! Instead, I've got
to hunt high and low for letters; even then I have to make half
of them up myself. No, okay, that was a lie. Really. I don't.

I think the MOD player is pushed pretty far as it is; 7.8 KHz
may not be CD quality, but it's recognisable! Stefan Drissen had
a little hardware doobrie at the Gloucester show which boosted
the performance quite considerably. I can't remember the exact
playback rate, but it was definitely better than the purely
software-based routine. I really don't know if this is going to
be put into production, but I don't think it's likely. It would
only be usable in demo applications like the MOD player; people
might not be willing to pay heavily for such an essentially
trivial thing. Pity.

I'm afraid we can only accept SAM screens. IFFs are borderline;
if I can't be bothered converting them they won't be used. The
others are out of the question for now, I'm afraid.      - BRIAN
                   Letter from Paul Horridge

Dear Colin/Brian,

The Adventure Help thing over the past two months has been very
enlightening - I dug out my copy of Days of Sorcery (which I'd
given up on ages ago) and actually managed to finish it! Does
anyone know if Nigel Kettlewell is releasing any more adventure
games? On the subject of games, what has happened to Waterworks
2? Has it been binned or what? I was amazed to read in FRED that
you still haven't sold enough enough copies of Lemmings - I
thought that the SAM-owning public was screaming out for a
licence of this quality. And people still moan at the lack of
software...

The rather strange letters that Colin Anderton and his mob are
sending in are a good laugh, but if it goes on much longer it
could get a bit silly and I'm concerned that maybe some of your
older readers will stop takng FRED seriously.

PS When are you going to tell us the cheat for Wop Gamma?!
BM                   Reply to Paul Horridge

Apart from this and one or two other letters, we haven't had a
particularly huge response to our adventure thing, so if
everybody that enjoys the column wants it to continue, it would
be a great boost for the author if you write and tell him. Just
a few words of encouragement are needed, so don't feel that it's
pointless if you're unable to supply a complete solution to a
game.

Waterworks 2 hasn't been binned, and is still being worked on. I
can tell you that it is nearing completion, and we should be
able to announce its release in the near future. And it is one
challenging sequel!  Jeez. This one'll have you bald in a week!

YOU were surprised at the low response to Lemmings? How do you
think we feel! After the mountains of enquiries about the game
prior to its release we thought we'd sell squillions of them. We
were kind of disappointed at the degree of indifference
apparently felt by many SAM owners, but there's not a lot we can
do other than emphasise the very high quality of the game.
BM                   Reply to Paul Horridge

As for Colin Anderton and his little brigade of hoodlums. Well.
We all know that it's not big and it's not clever, but do they
listen? Do they 'eck! Unfortunately they put cunning little
hypnotic patterns on their letters which force me to publish
their rantings, the effects of which don't wear off until two
months later, by which time my sanity is invariably in tatters.
Ah well.

As for our elderly readers being offended, that strikes me as
being more than a little ageist, but I won't report you to the
politically correct police. Luckily we seem to have attracted
elderly people with senses of humour. None of them have
complained yet, anyway!

Aha, the cheat for Wop Gamma. Believe me, you don't want to
know. It's horrendous. It's ghastly and fiendish, and it's best
forgotten about. If you really want to know, learn MC and dig it
out of the program - that's probably easier than getting it the
"proper" way!                                            - BRIAN
                  Letter from Andrew Chandler

Dear Colin/Brian,

Top of the morning to ya! (Said in phoney Irish accent).

I have to agree with Brian that the "chatty" letters are better
than the technical ones, but I have no intention of writing one.
I have noticed that many of the people appear to be clinically
mad, otherwise they are just friends. I don't fall in the
category of mad, but I am mental if that counts. I can prove it,
because I've just spent the week on a nature reserve, speaking
until late at night in an Irish accent for no apparent reason.
It's just that it has become the norm with all the other
technical people there.

UFOrb is brilliant, and so is The Art Of Noise, the Fon Mixes,
and The Ambient Collection if anyone is interested.

In case you're wondering, I won't be applying for the editor's
job - even though I'd like to - because I don't have the time.
                  Letter from Andrew Chandler

Or, in other words: I'm lazy.

I'm not sure if you know or not Brian, but once you have stopped
being editor, you will be tailed to your house, kidnapped, and
forced to listen to Take That and the Man. United song for 24
hours a day. This is because, like MI5, we have an official
secrets act of our own and we have to do this in case you talk
to any Nintendo owners (or Alan Sugar).

Before I go, I'd like to ask you a serious question: how many
SAMs have been sold and how many SAMmites are there? Format gave
some figures a few years ago, but surely many SAMs have been
sold since.

Good luck with your new found spare time, Brian.




BM                  Reply to Andrew Chandler

You said it wasn't going to be a chatty letter! If that was a
techy letter I'd hate to see your idea of a chatty one! I'll let
you offer for having such obvious musical taste though. There
can never be too much praise for UFOrb.

It obviously wasn't as clear as I'd thought, but Colin Anderton
and company are indeed friends (loosely speaking) from the same
school, maybe even the same class. And yes, I think they very
probably are mad. I'm sorry if I'm not up on the proper lingo
here, but what precisely is the difference between mad and
mental?

I have taken many many anti-espionage measures, not least the
precaution of a little tooth-embedded cyanide capsule. So don't
get any big ideas, matey.

There are 8,000 to 10,000 SAMs going about, but most of them are
silent. About 500 of these have FRED subs at any given time so I
wouldn't have thought there were over 1000 active users. - BRIAN
GT           Printer Review  by  Graeme Tattersall

Subject   : Hewlett Packard Deskwriter 310 Printer
            300 dpi Colour Bubblejet Printer

Tested on : Apple Macintosh LCII Computer
            Operating system version 7.1b   4Mb Chip RAM

Price     : £199 - Basic mono printer, software, black cartridge
                   + cables.
             £31 - colour kit
             £50 - 60 cap. sheet feeder

Verdict   : 75% - Speed
            95% - Features
           100% - Documentation
            90% - Black (mono) Print Quality
            75% - Colour (CMY cartridge) Print Quality

            87% - overall mark

GT                       Printer Review

NOTE : The HP Printer, DeskJET 310, which uses the same print
       mechanism as the Deskwriter 310, has the same quality and
       compatibility with SAM, or so I believe.

1) Print speed - 75%

Print speed is good, both in black, and colour, averaging, as
the manual says, 3ppm (Pages Per Minute) in Black (mono), and
1ppm in colour print.

The only quibble that I had is to do with the macintosh driver
software which runs a bit slowly, especially when Background
printing is on. Background printing is where the printing
continues while you can be working at something else on the
computer. With an LCII Macintosh, which is pretty slow at 15.6
Mhz, you are waiting nearly 15 minutes for a single page in
Black Print on faster.


GT                       Printer Review

2) Features - 95%

I shall comment about the hardware add-on, the sheet feeder, and
battery pack (£20). The software is easy to use, but is not
relevant to SAM.

The sheet feeder is very easily attatched to the printer, having
been printed with assembly diagrams on the sheet feeder. It
feeds up to 60 pages, and is easily loaded/unloaded with paper.
It helps keep pages in line, for projects etc.

The battery pack could be better. It provides about 1 hour of
constant use when fully charged, a process that the printer does
automatically when both battery and mains are connected and
switched on.

The printer is Energy Star Compliant ie. it switches into a low
power consumption mode after about 5 minutes of inactivity.

GT                       Printer Review

Cartridges are pushed into place and can be replaced/removed in
less than 10 seconds.

The printer weighs about 3Kg, with battery, and so is very
portable.


3. Documentation - 100%

The manual is extremely well written; even the most computer
illiterate person could understand it. It contains a very well
defined troubleshooting section, and is well laid out. It is one
of the few manuals that is actually a pleasure to read.

The sheet feeder instructions are contained both on the sheet
feeder, and in the main manual. There are instructions for the
colour Kit, but these are more or less guides to achieving the
best result.

GT                       Printer Review

The Mac Software has built in help, so if you get lost, you can
consult this quickly and easily.

4. Black (Mono) Print Quality - 90%

Black print quality is adjustable in terms of print density.
This gives six different levels of darkness. The darker, the
more likely the ink will smudge, too light, and the ink can
still smudge as there is not enough force behind it. Laserlike
quality can be achieved if you are prepared to perservere.

5. Colour (CMY) Print Quality - 75%

Colour print is achieved using a three colour cartridge,
containing Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. These produce a
synthesised black colour which is more of a dark muddy green
colour.


GT                       Printer Review

Complex graphics can be shaded using the scatter colour matching
facility to get the closest colour. This does not look good
close up, but is good at distances of more than 40cm.

I think that the colour black print lets this section down, it
can look very bad at times.

======================================= G Tattersall June '94 ==

ED's Note: Okay, so it may not seem stunningly relevant to the
SAM, but what the Hell. It fills up another couple of pages, and
it didn't hurt you to read it, did it? Other than having a
15.6MHz processor referred to as "slow", that is.

I suppose when you have machines with completely OTT
requirements like Macs and PCs 15.6 MHz IS a bit too slow. Now
if their OSs were as well written as Driver, there would be no
problem with 15.6MHz! Just imagine Driver with that much
processing power...                                      - BRIAN

GI_MON Instructions

                   GI_MON  by  PAUL HORRIDGE

Well, I've just finished another proggy and now its time for my
favourite bit, the instructions. Oh goody. Ah well, here goes...

GI_Mon is a monitor program designed to help you track down bugs
in machine code programs (so if you're one of the lucky people
who don't know about the insomnia and 3am bedtimes that is MC
programming, you might as well exit to the FRED menu now and
play a game or something). It allows you to disassemble and
single-step through an MC program to find out what it does to
the registers, flags, memory, etc.

The program will run at the start of any memory page above
address 32767. To use the program, simply load it in at the
desired address (the program is on the disk under the filename
"GI_Mon .O") and CALL it. When the program is run, it reserves 2
pages in the Page Allocation Table and another 2 pages
immediately above it (skipping a page if the program is loaded
at an odd-numbered page) for the monitor screen.

                             GI_MON

This means that the program won't be corrupted by DOS commands
or a RAMdisk. The program should run on a SAM with only 256K of
RAM, but there's no check to find out how much memory you have,
and I'm not sure what will happen if you try to view/singlestep
memory that you don't have!

The program features a simple WIMP system which most people
should be reasonably familiar with by now, so I'm not going to
go into any great detail here. To move the pointer around the
screen, use the joystick keys 6789, and to click something press
0. If you have a mouse it can be selected instead (see later).
You can move a window around the desktop by clicking the title
bar and dragging the outline to the required position before
releasing the button. To close down a window or menu, just click
anywhere outside it. Note that you can only have one open
window/menu at a time.

The main screen is split up into a number of sections:

                             GI_MON

The top left of the screen shows the current values of LMPR,
HMPR and VMPR, the layout of the memory (the ROM or RAM pages in
blocks A (0-16383), B (16384-32767), C (32768-49151) and D
(49152-65535), and also the current screen page (lower 5 bits of
VMPR) and the screen mode (bits 5 and 6 of VMPR plus 1). The
value of these ports can be altered by clicking the appropriate
number and typing in its new value (as with numbers elsewhere in
the program, you can specify a hex number by preceeding it with
a & symbol, or a binary number by a % symbol). Note that the
program can only deal with internal memory, so if you enter a
value for HMPR with Bit 7 set (used to access the 1 Meg external
memory) it will be rejected.

To the right are the value of the single registers A, B, C, D,
E, H, L and F in hex or decimal and in binary. Again, to change
the values click on the hex/decimal number and enter a new
value. Also, if you click on a binary digit for one of the
registers, it will be toggled from 0 to 1 and vice versa.

                             GI_MON

Next to these are the values of the register pairs, index
registers, alternate registers and the stack pointer (SP) which
can be changed in the same way, and the contents of (AF), (BC),
(DE), (HL), (IX) and (IY). Next to this is a list of the top
seven addresses on the stack, with the top item at the bottom of
the list

At the bottom left is the disassembly at the current PC address
(which can be changed by clicking the first address in the
disassembly and entering a new value), and to the bottom right
is a numeric or ASCII dump (the address of the start of the
memory dump can be changed in the same way).

Each line of disassembly shows the address of the opcode, then
the bytes of hex for the opcode, then the mnemonic. Note that
the disassembler will only show "documented" Z80 instructions -
if it comes across an instruction it doesn't recognise it will
use a DEFB mnemonic. The numeric dump simply shows a list of
PEEK values at the address.
                             GI_MON

These values can be editted by clicking on a number and entering
new values. To leave this POKE mode, press ESC and the pointer
will reappear. The ASCII dump uses a "." character to denote
codes outside the range 32-127, and lines of ASCII text can be
editted in a similar way to numeric data. Numeric and ASCII
display can be toggled between (see later).

At the very top of the screen is a menu bar with three pulldown
menus. The Options menu contains the following options:

                            Credits
                            ~~~~~~~
Prints up a window with my name in it.

                            Palette
                            ~~~~~~~
Allows you to reconfigure the palette colours used by the
program. Just click the numbers in the grey boxes and enter new
ones.
                             GI_MON

                          Breakpoints
                          ~~~~~~~~~~~
Sets up breakpoints to stop a running program under certain
conditions. It uses the Calculator (see below) to evaluate the
expression entered in each of the five boxes in the window (any
empty boxes are ignored). If the result is not zero, then the
program being monitored will stop running and open a window with
a message saying that a breakpoint condition has been met and
which one (1-5) it was. This means that the program will allow
you to set up quite complicated breakpoints without returning to
BASIC, eg:

pc=32768 will stop the program if it tries to run an instruction
at 32768

peek hl<>255 will stop the program if the value of (HL) is not
255

f band 1 will stop the program if the carry flag is set etc.
                             GI_MON

                           Calculator
                           ~~~~~~~~~~
When this window is open, clicking anywhere inside it will allow
you to enter a calculation, and the computer will display the
answer. As well as the usual +,-,* and / oparations, the
following extra operations are permitted:
  a\b      - Gives the modulus (remainder) of a/b
  PEEK a   - Gives the value of a certain memory address
  DPEEK a  - Gives the double-peek value of a and a+1
  a AND b  - Gives 1 if a and b are both not zero, otherwise it
             gives zero
  a OR b   - Gives 1 if a or b are not zero, otherwise it gives
             zero
  a XOR b  - Gives 0 if a and b are zero, or a and b are both
             not zero, otherwise it gives 1
  NOT a    - Gives 1 if a is zero, 0 if a is not zero
  a BOR b  - Binary ORs a and b
  a BAND b - Binary ANDs a and b
  a BXOR b - Binary XORs a and b
                             GI_MON

Also, the registers A, B, C, D, E, H, L, F and the register
pairs AF, BC, DE, HL, IX, IY, PC and SP can be used in
calculations, and give the current value of that register/pair.
Note that the calculation is worked out from left to right, ie
no operation has priority over another, although brackets can be
used to indicate the order in which the calculation is worked
out. Values used in the calculations are restricted to integer
values from 0-65535.

The base (hex, decimal or binary) in which the result of the
calculation is given can be selected by using the commands
HEX,DEC and BIN. If there is an error is typing in the
calculation, a Syntax Error message will be displayed. All the
calculator operations except DEC, HEX and BIN can also be used
in defining breakpoint conditions.




                             GI_MON

                              Exit
                              ~~~~
This displays a window which asks you to confirm whether you
want to quit. Clicking the Okay button will exit to BASIC but
keep the page markers for the program, so you can call it again
(the current values for the registers, etc. will be preserved).
Clicking Cancel will get rid of the window (so will clicking
outside it). Clicking Exit and Close will exit to BASIC and
remove the page markers from the Page Allocation Table, freeing
up the memory it was using.

        The Display menu allows you to select a hexadecimal or
decimal display, a numeric or ASCII memory dump at the bottom
left, and keyboard or mouse control. The current settings are
shown by ticks. Note that there is no check to see if you
actually own a mouse, but if you accidentally select mouse
control, you can change back to keyboard using to CNTRL-M
hot-key (see later).

                             GI_MON

The Clear menu allows you to return to default values for the
registers, stack and memory paging. Clear Registers sets the
values of the registers (including the index and alternate
registers) to zero. Clear Stack moves the stack pointer to the
bottom of the stack, getting rid of all the addresses currently
on it. Clear Memory sets the startup paging arrangement (ROM0,
Page 0, Page 1, Page 2), sets the PC and memory dump address to
32768 and sets the stack pointer to 20100 (clearing the stack).
Clear All does all of the above.

                            Hot-Keys
                            ~~~~~~~~
As well as the above options, you can use the following keys
while in pointer mode, but not while a window or menu is open.

Cursor Down - Disassembles forward one line.
Cursor Up   - Disassembles backwards one line. The instruction
given will not necessarily be correct, but it gets it right most
of the time, and the backwards disassamble is quite fast.
                             GI_MON

  F0        - Nudges disassemble forward one byte.
  F1        - Nudges disassemble backwards one byte.
  F4        - Scrolls memory dump forward one line.
  F7        - Scrolls memory dump backwards one line.
  F9        - Single-steps the instruction at the top of the
              disassembly.
  F8        - Displays the screen currently selected by VMPR and
runs through the instructions until it comes across an error or
a breakpoint. Press ESC while in this mode to interrupt the
program and display the values of the registers, etc. See later
for further details on the single-step.

SPACE Bar   - Holding down the space bar will display the
current screen without running any instructions.

CNTRL-P     - Calls up the Palette window (same as selecting the
              palette option from the Options menu.
CNTRL-C     - Calls up the Calculator window.
CNTRL-B     - Calls up the Breakpoint window.
                             GI_MON

CNTRL-X     - Calls up the Exit window.
CNTRL-H     - Toggles Hex/Decimal display.
CNTRl-N     - Toggles Numeric/ASCII dump.
CNTRL-M     - Toggles Keyboard/Mouse control.

                        The Single-Step
                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The single-step function enables you to run an MC program one
instruction at a time. It can cope with paging, and will allow
you to single-step instructions from anywhere in the SAMs
internal memory (including ROM0 and ROM1). Like the
disassembler, it can only deal with documented Z80 instructions,
and if you try to single-step an unrecognised instruction an
error will result. Most other instructions will run normally,
with a few exceptions:

OUT instructions to the ports 250 (LMPR), 251 (HMPR) and 252
(VMPR) change the low memory paging, high memory paging and
current screen respectively in the usual way.
                             GI_MON

OUT instructions to port 248 (CLUT) with the high byte in the
range 0-16 will change the palette colours that the output
screen is displayed in (initially the palette table contains the
default MODE 4 palette values). OUT instructions to any other
ports are ignored and skipped over.

IN instructions to ports 250, 251 and 252 will read the values
of these ports. IN instructions to other ports will be executed
"as they stand" from within the monitor program, so things like
key scanning should work.

IM commands, writes to the I and R registers and the commands
EI, DI and HALT are skipped over by the monitor (since they
could seriously mess things up).

Output to the screen must obviously be done by POKEing the
relevant addresses in the screen, so I'm not sure what effect
using the ROM routines to print to the screen will have if VMPR
is not set up to point to the page that was being used by BASIC.
                             GI_MON

To be honest, I hardly ever use the ROM routines anyway.
Experiment and find out.

Okay, I hope that this has given you some idea of how to use the
program. It's not very difficult to get used to, so you'll just
have to experiment. I hope somebody gets something out of this
program - it took me ages to write. If anyone has any questions,
comments, criticisms, etc about it, please send them to me
(address at end of file) or FRED.

I'll probably have started at Uni by the time you read this
(Warwick to study Maths and Computing if I can get the ABB
grades they want) and I won't be taking my SAM, so it may take
some time to answer. If I get an Email address I'll put in my
next demo/prog as soon as possible. It's been ages since I
greeted anyone, so I'll bung a few in now and get back to
worrying about my last A Level exams.... (it's probably too late
to wish everyone good luck, but I hope everyone gets the grades
they're hoping for).
                             GI_MON

Colin, Brian, Stefan Drissen, Matt Round, NoName (Cpt Comic was
cool), Steve Taylor, Chris White, MOM, Ian Slavin, Dan Doore,
Andy Monk, Bunj Wobl (haven't seen anything from you for a
while), ESI, the Doogle, Wayne Coles (good luck with the game)
and the inevitable horde of people I've forgotten (sorry).

Everyone I'm leaving from Accy and Rossendale College (even
though none of them own SAMs),

And yep, everyone in the SAM world, especially the people who
contribute to FRED.

My address:
                         Paul Horridge,
                          [redacted]