Fred 19
Disk Magazine
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Thursday, May 17, 2018 - 17:35.
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Release Year
1992
Copyrights
Copyrights Granted
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Description
Issue 19
Item | Author | Description |
---|---|---|
Magazine | 3 game-creators announced! Personal Banking System ready | |
Letters | Hexagonia, Splat!, The Sound Machine | |
Screens | Chris White, Peter Gallagher, Mick Clarke, Dennis van Berkel | James Bond, Lemmings, Space Battle, 33 RPM, Fred Head on a Sword, H0ken is Normaal, Normaal, Porky Pig |
MOM demo | Masters of Magic | MOM’s first mcode demo! |
Fredsheet | Steve Taylor | spreadsheet program |
Wall/sound | Dennis van Berkel | demo/advert for fred |
Sam jotter 2 | William McGugan | word processor |
MC pt 13 | Steve Taylor | Search: “MC 13” basic theory; full list of opcodes |
Psycho diz | Ian Slavin | Axe reveals his dark, violent side |
Sound machine | Ian Slavin | tunes done on sound machine |
Mega scroll | Dan Dooré Andy Monk Andy Green | a deluge of scrollies |
Disc util utility | Eugene Russell | directory utility |
Fake Printer | Dan Dooré | tele-printer-like demo |
Funky freds | Ron Stirling | anims featuring fred logo |
Potty | Dan Dooré | 3D pot creator |
Squish! | Alex Linde | rather sick (but funny) demo |
Magazine
Welcome Back!! Oh Dear! It seems like I've been away from FRED for ages - as many of you will already know, I've been working at SAMCo again. This time I just "popped down" for three weeks but I hardly sent out any orders over that period and certainly didn't do any of this issue! So now I'm back I'm confronted with a mountain of mail to sort, an issue to write and an Amiga with over 150 discs to play with...Yup, I plumped for the A***a most of the time! I have however processed most of the orders and this issue is being put together - from start to finish - in what must be record time! Already it's nearly complete and I've only been on it for 12 hours! So it shouldn't be too late in going out (like FRED18 was - sorry everybody). Incidentally, if you want a proper FRED18 label, then the next time you write to me, ask for one provided I'll be writing back (ie not with an issue about to go out) or enclose an SSAE. I'll even try to bring a few along to the next few shows I attend. FREDitorial I suppose you'll want to know just which shows I will be attending? I will go to all London, Birmingham and Glasgow shows but I can't guarantee going to any of the others because a) it's almost impossible for me to go to two shows in one weekend - as they all are these days and b) some locations are a nightmare to get to by public transport!! This issue's editorial will be very brief for numerous reasons which I'll explain : 1 : Certain parts of this disc take up rather a lot of memory (look at the directory!) and so I've got to cut back on text, having said that I've suddenly had a "flood" of letters and reviews which take up a LOT of space! 2 : As I explained, Time is of the essence and if I want to get this issue out only 1 week late, I'll have to finish it in the next 18 hours! 3 : There's not very much to talk about anyway. News Colin Jordan has been working on an Adventure Creator System over the last few months, and so far it looks very impressive! All I was shown was the editing facility but it covered everything I could think it needed to as well as lots more! Hopefully, I'll get some more technical information about it for next month. Did you know that there was an arcade game creator in development? Yes?, well I bet you didn't know there were TWO!! Yup, Dr Andy Wright is doing one and Glen Cook is doing the other! I can't comment on Andy's at all but Glen's is amazing! In his demo he has almost 20 independant sprites, almost every type of movement you require and it's all run from BASIC! He uses m/c routines called from BASIC so that it runs almost like a 100% m/c program but can be programmed using BASIC, along with a few extra commands! He will be releasing it himself under the label , Glenco for about £24.99. The demo will appear in issue 2 of the SAM Newsdisk. Andy's will not be ready for a few months yet and erm...that's all I know about it! FREDsoft... Thanks to everyone who's suggested games for FRED to do, I'll get the ones that are being done at present out of the way then move on to some of those. You'll all be pleased to know that "Triltex - The Later Levels" is getting near it's release date. I still expect it to be released by the end of February but I'm having a few difficulties in aquiring suitable packaging. I still havn't decided whether it'll go into the shops or whether SAMCo will stock it, but it'll most definately be available through me! For an extra 25 levels as well as a new logo (where the spinning one is at present), all you've got to pay is £4.99. The Later Levels will be a complete product - with packaging, inlay, instructions and of course, the disc !! WILL I HAVE TO HAVE THE ORIGINAL GAME ? Yes, what you'll do is load up the original Triltex, then type a in certain password, insert the Later Levels disc and your levels (with new logo!!!!) will be loaded up and run !! FREDsoft... Remember folks, Triltex was one of the games on the double pack called Impatience - you mean you don't have it? That won't do! I'll tell you what, for just £13, I'll sell you Impatience AND The Later Levels disc! That's a saving of almost £2! (or 13% if you're mathematically minded!) Remember though, if you do buy more levels for Triltex (or if you buy the original) you will not have time to play any other games! One user approached me in Glasgow and complained about Impatience - "I haven't been able to get near the computer in three weeks because the wife has been playing Triltex". Either be (very) prepared to face the tiles of Triltex or stay WELL clear.... Prices ====== Impatience - £9.99 The Later Levels - £4.99 Impatience & Later Levels - £13 Orders for The Later Levels are now being taken. Misc. ('coz I can't spell the whole word...) As I probably mentioned last month, ZAT magazine no longer operates from the PO Box number they previously used. If you wish to contact them, here is the new address : [redacted] BG Services have released their CP/M emulator, Pro-DOS. For more details, read SAMCo's Newsdisk !!!! Contact, PD library and publishers of a monthly newsletter will officially cease trading as of 1st April 1992. With them and Fastline "gone", it leaves a gap in the PDL market. Suggestions have been made that FRED should fill that gap - is it a good idea or not??? Although there has been a great response to my last enquiry, I am still looking for opinions as to whether the price of FRED should be increased to £2 thus allowing me to pay contributors for anything included on FRED - what do you think ?? The PBS is now available! As many of you will have seen from their attendance at the previous two All Formats Fairs, Hilton Computer Services have released their long awaited "Personal Banking System". In another recent press release, they listed some of it's features: * Automatic posting of standing orders and direct debits for any frequency and for a set number of payments. * Extensive, flexible enquiries eg how mich have you paid to the supermarket each month or how much to run your car. * Forward projections to enable you to plan how much money you have left to live on .... The list goes on for a bit, so for more details (as well as details of a Casino program they have planned) write to Hilton at : 3 Suffolk Drive , Guildford , Surrey , GU4 7FD. Or get your copy (with a 75 page manual!) for only £19.95. Another Compo ?? Yup, methinks it's time for another FRED "megacompo" - although this time I'll make it slightly easier than having to complete Triltex! Oh! Here comes Colin Jordan, programmer of Famous Five, Splat and the Adventure Creator , "Hello Freditor" he says in a grovelling kind of voice, "erm...you know how I composed the music for Splat - the music that all the reviews are raving about?" he continued in a big-headed sort of way. "Well, I believe that FRED is the best magazine ever and I'd like to give some lucky FRED reader some wonderful one-off treasures of Splat". Erm, he didn't actually say that but what he did say was that he is willing to GIVE away the ORIGINAL Splat soundtrack on audio cassette that he himself composed AS WELL AS the entire map (signed by Mr Jordan himself!) of the first seven levels from the original game that he used to re-program the SAM version! This is a totally unique prize - there is only one of each of these items in existance, and they could be yours!!!! How do I enter then? Hah! We don't want any non-Splat players winning a prize of this value do we? Anyway, the lucky people who bought Splat will know how good the soundtrack is. Throughout the game, there are several names or words that are spelt within the landscape eg SPLAT on scenario 2. All you've got to do, to get a chance to win one of these superb prizes is find another word or name, write to me saying what it is and which landscape / level it's on. Obviously the word SPLAT doesn't count. What could be easier??? Answers should arrive on a seperate piece of paper at the usual FRED address by Saturday the 14th of March. The lucky winner(s) will be pulled out of a hat. If that's not a good enough incentive to go out out buy Splat then I don't know what is. PS : There's no prizes for spotting the pun in the last sentance! Morks Puzzle Corner no.3 I'm sure your hair has grown in since last months puzzles. This months will be worse (er... better). But first, the answers. Answer to (1) Not really much of a puzzle, more of a maths exercise. The answer is 1995, luckily the Tibettin monks got it wrong ( you know what these Tibettin monks are like, you just can't believe a word they say! ). Answer to (2) A kickself puzzle. The answer is that there are no R's in "that"! Answer (3) You would expect the answer to be 1, as in 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 etc. But thats the most obvious answer. The second most obvious answer is 9. The clue was in the wording "as easy as pie". As you'll no doubt know the greek letter PI is equal to 3.14159, so there you go! Answer (4) Simple, the long length of material is a loop. If you cut through it you still have one piece left! Morks Puzzle Corner no.3 So how long is a piece of string? Yes,the question is aswerable. The piece of string is twice the length of the middle to one end Wipe away those tears and attempt this next bunch of mind benders. Warning - Not for those with a nervous disposition! (1) There is one word on this page that is spelt incorrectly, can you find it? (2) You can't choose your relatives... If the only sister of your mother's only brother has an only child, what would be your relationship to that child? (3) Don't try this one at home kids! A man standing on a railway line hears a train coming. He runs for safety as quickly as possible. However, he first runs 10 meters along the track towards the oncoming train before getting off the line. If he doesn't have a deathwish why would he do this? Morks Puzzle Corner no.3 (4) Write done a word that reads the same forwards, backwards and ( wait for it... ) upside down. (5) Can you find anything unusual about the following scentences? "A man a plan, a canal - Panama." "No misses ordered roses, Simon" "Was it a car or a cat I saw?" "Pull up if I pull up" "Madam, I'm Adam" (6) A degree in Mathematics might be useful here. Using just one plus sign and a fraction, make six 1's add up to 12. (7) More maths... How much earth is there in a freshly dug hole that is 34cms deep, 24cms wide and 52cms long? Morks Puzzle Corner no.3 This months classic puzzle is; how far can a rabbit run into a wood? Thats it for another month. Next month I might consider delving into my own pocket to put up money for a prize puzzle, and believe me it takes a lot of effort for me to part with my green stuff! Nanoo nanoo. Mork signing out... CM : Hah! I figured out TWO this month! That's two more than last month anyway!! For those who were sleeping last month, Mork is the new name for William McGugan - so now I don't want to hear his name mentioned again, just Mork!!!! Just while I remember, someone suggested that my (CM) "codename" should be Taggart... I can't figure out why??? But what does everyone think? If you like it, say hello to Taggart in your next scrolly / program. And if you don't - then you can be just as boring as everyone else and call me Colin !!!!! OK, here it is. Now, I know without a single doubt in my head that as soon as each one of you heard I was back at SAMCo, you thought "Great - What are they going to do to him when he leaves this time!". In great Welsh tradition, they managed to give me a sending off present which I'm sure you'd all like to hear about - sadly, I don't want to give those people at SAMCo the satisfaction of reading about what they did to me. Instead, I'll tell you that Batz n' Balls is nearing completion and if you thought that Arkanoid was hard, wait till you play this - your bat has inertia, the ball has a parabolic flight, there are 150 levels AND I CAN'T DO LEVEL 3!! Apparently it's pretty brilliant with the mouse as well. Bowin And The Count Dracula has been delayed because people like my good self and Codigo in Spain thought it was rather poor (there, did it without swearing!). So, the programmer (who happens to be Portugese!) is re-writing most of it! Further details will probably appear in the next Newsdisk. The Swansea Report It's not working is it? You all want to hear about my last few days and I'm trying to make you forget it by telling you all about SAMCo's forthcoming products. Oh well, here goes.... It all started on my second last day (Thursday), when a few of us happened to go out for a drink at the Hilton Hotel, all was fine until we left. I was somehow seperated from the others and as I walked toward SAMCo, a SAMCo worker drove past and waved goodbye in an unusually friendly fashion. Next thing I noticed was the car slammed on the brakes and three guys jumped out and started running straight at me!! Naturally, I ran as fast and far as I could right around the Hilton! And then I was chased all the way back again! By this point I was, to put it mildy, totally knackered, so I gave up. All three ex-friends then walked straight past me and back into the car - which was ever so slightly frustrating!! The Swansea Report The next day was the one I was not looking forward to. Until lunchtime everything was fine - people were only making snide jokes about it, naturally making sure I heard them - the sort of thing that had me jumping everytime someone walked into the room. After lunch I felt considerably better and actually managed to do some work! Adrian Parker was to be taking over part of my job once I left so it was no surprise for him to requst a meeting with me in the shop (it was usually quiet). After making sure he went down the stairs first and peering round every corner until I was sure no-one was lying in wait for me, we eventually reached the shop. As you may remember from last time, it was in the shop that I was "caught" before so this time I made sure it was safe. After I checked that the door was unlocked (for a quick getaway) and that there was no-one in sight except Adrian I made the mistake of saying "Phew! Last time I was in here I was jumped!". Just at the last word, I felt an arm round my neck, I slammed myself backwards with the effect of felling both myself and my assailant (funnily enough it was Chris White again!). Just then I figured out what had happened - The Swansea Report he had been hiding in the toilet waiting for me! The next thing I knew was SIX guys jumped in and somehow managed to pin me down - by some sheer fluke , of course, normally I would have just got up and walked away! It turned out that there had been FOUR people hiding in the toilet for me!! And as bogs go, it's pretty small (no, I wasn't going to say "wee" instead of small!). Now, I'm sure your all familiar with the big sacks the post office use? Yes?, well I was given the unique oppertunity of examing one - from the inside. One over my head down to my waist and another over my legs which was tied to the first one. Result : I could hardly move a muscle! At this point, I began to wonder if SAMCo have some peculiar fascination with car parks. It's strange y'know, there I was, I could barely move or see and yet I was carried off right into the middle of the car park. Eventually after much wriggling and struggling I managed to stand up, as soon as I achieved this, I was promptly carried off and dumped in an empty bin (you know the ones of wheels that are about 6 feet tall). Normally, this The Swansea Report situation would be amusing - hilarious even, except I was in the bag which was in the bin. And that was not amusing. However, everyone who looked on as I feebly struggled to get out thought it was brilliant. As compensation, I was bought a few drinks over at the Hilton later that day. My last drink was a coke and someone had the good idea that everyone should down their coke "in one". Not one to turn down something like that, I complied only to discover that it was not Coke, it was not even Coke with a dash of Vodka - it was Bicardi with a dash of Coke !!! No wonder I slept for most of the 17 hour jouney back home ! I would like to recommend that anyone else who goes down to Swansea either doesn't leave, or leaves at VERY short notice... I would also like to recommend that no-one from SAMCo ever comes up to Scotland - if they want to get back to Wales alive! We've got such a packed disc today At time of writing I can predict that there will not be many screens due to lack of memory but I'm sure the rest of the issue will make up for that... The Masters Of Magic are back! With what must be one of the best demos around, they show you what they can do with their first expedition into machine code. And if you thought ESI's message when you press and hold the reset button was good, try this one! Some lucky FRED reader recently phoned up and left a message requesting a spreadsheet on FRED, no sooner said than done!! Steve Taylor actually wrote this months ago as he explains in his many,many rem statements but only recently rediscovered it and decided to get it put in FRED. Oh no! Not another musical demo! Yes, And I know you all love them! This one is a FRED demo so all you other disc zines that want to fill up space can use this one if you like. It features Le Contents pour la disc ! original music, a palette line scrolly, an animated bloke at the top of the screen as well as a VU graph!! Remember SAM Jotter by Mork? Now, Eugene Russel has come up with a few changes and transformed it into a fully fledged word processor! Ian Slavin returns with his comical "Psycho Dizzy" in which you can briefly follow the exploits of Dizzy and the Yolk Folk. Several people have been sending in music done using the Sound Machine, Ian Slavin sent in no less than five brilliant pieces all with pictures! Due to memory restrictions, here's just two of them but I think you'll agree they're pretty impressive! The scrollies have been building up lately, so "Super Scrollies" comes to the rescue and lets you play with various scrollers by Xtreme , Banzai and Phantom. This months menu was by Ian Slavin - by the way, I'm running very short on menus (ie that was my last one!) Ordering When placing an order, please send all orders to FRED at the usual address. If you have a contribution or letter then address it to me, Colin Macdonald. This way, if I go away for a while, I can get someone to sort out the orders without worrying about them reading my personal mail. Incidentally, cheques can be made payable to FRED or Colin Macdonald. I'm trying to get an account which can pay in cheques to FRED Publishing and let me take standing orders but you'll have to wait for those. Each issue of FRED costs £1.50, all back issues are available and are normally all in stock. Issues 1 & 2 now come on one disc and Issue 11 takes up two discs (ie £1.50 for each disc). £15 for 12 issues - applies to back issues as well as subs. £8 for 6 issues - also applies to FREDs past and future! All orders despatched first class (as they always have been) and some 90% of orders are despatched the same day (with exception to overseas customers). Desperately seeking EVERYONE! FRED is still on the lookout for anyone who has a little bit of talent hidden away inside them - I mean, look at the number of people that wouldn't be known to you today if FRED hadn't been around!! Quite a few names spring to mind! Anyway, if you've done a few snazzy pictures in your time or reckon you've got potential as a musician because your Sound Machine music is just soooo good then get in touch - I could make you some money as well! Naturally, I'm still interested in original game ideas (eg Lemmings 3 perchance) which FRED could publish so get writing! Regarding magazine contributions - if you've done anything that you reckon someone else would like then send it in to me, if I feel the same way I'll stick it on FRED. NB : As I don't make any of the folding stuff out of this magazine, neither will you but commercial publishing is a whole new ball game... Credits I would like to thank the following people : Neil Holmes - demo Stuart Leonardi - demo Wizard - FREDsheet & m/c13 The DVB - demo E. Russell - SAMJotter,Disc Doc Xtreme - scrolly Ian Slavin - music,menu & demo Banzai - scrolly Colin Jordan- compo Phantom - scrolly Mork - puzzle page CID - piccy Andy Jones - reviews Roger Hartley - reviews Matt D - reviews Alan Miles - a job! Paul J. - putting me up Charley G. - the w.p. Markey Mark - NOTHING Uncle Bruce - SAM ! Adrian P. - the lifts Louise - ??? FRED20 will be out the first week in March, priced at the usual £1.50. The address is on the back of the label and if you don't have a label then STOP PIRATING SOFTWARE AND BUY IT !!
Letters & Reviews
Letters / Reviews Welcome to the letters and reviews section which is still a seperate item on the menu for no reason at all but every other disc magazine splits it's text into dozens of little pieces which gets very irritating, so if other magazines irritate me, why can't I do the same??? OK, after that drivel, here's the contents : Page 2 : Howard Price 6 : Matt. D. 8 : Terry Filby 10 : Hexagonia review by Andy Jones 12 : Sound Machine review by Andy Jones 17 : Splat review by Matt D. 19 : Hexagonia review by Matt D. 21 : Sound Machine review by Roger Hartley 30 : The End. Howard Price (1) Dear Colin, Just a shortish note (which wasted me a whole disc) to clear up a couple of loose ends which have built up. First, Dan Doore's whatsit about scrollers. Yup, he's absolutely correct, and there isn't much more to say that except sorry if you're a bit miffed at me saying that, all those months ago... Second, the price raise. I would certainly like to see more M/C stuff in Fred, as it seems that the "in" disc mag in Brent Steven's mind is Enceladus, and he's comparing the two together. That's why he gave Fred 7 an award, but the more recent and more promising issues like Fred 15, good. So by all means raise the price and pay the contributors, 'cos you'll be giving less competant programmers, like myself, the urge to try and become a Simon Cooke (talented git) or a Lord Insanity (ditto). The more competent coders can get samplers, sequencers etc with their new dough and at the very least feel they're getting something out of spreading their stuff. Howard Price (2) Third, just a little point, but one which an Outlet contributor might get very annoyed about. In Fred 18, there was a (good) piccy which says it's by me. IT'S NOT. I only used it as material for showing off my (naff) slideshow proggie. So now no-one can accuse me of ripping off that... Oh yeah, my choice for the next game for Fredsoft to convert. Do Sonic the Hedgehog. If anyone disagrees with me, (ie If it's done there will be mass murder) send a letter bomb, and, after it's blown my hair back, I'll consider its potential. ....For blowing up Simon Cooke, that is. What a great menu!! I really love it (do some more) but now I have decided to lynch him...(Now maybe he can give some others a chance!!) And next.. this really ought to go in a PS but the reason which lots of people think Fred still costs £1 is 'cos you advertise it in Format for a quid!! I wonder how much you could've lost from sending people discs for 100 tiny pence instead of the now usual price... Howard Price (3) Right, a idea for a game. You also said somewhere that you would like ideas for new games. Howsabout an intergalactic trader, maybe a bit like Awesome, a bit like Trader (that old speccy game), with bits in it like Space Harrier or Shadow of the beast??!! Yes, I know it'd be really good, really hard to program, play, would take years to code etc... Anyway, I'd do it for you if only I could code in M/C..(my SC_Assy is still bust.) And onto his final bit (at last!). Yes. Ah.. The Sound Machine. What does it actually do? I was contemplating buying it at the Jan 18 All Formats, but I was a bit unsure if the product was a music program that saved a Frantisek Fuka type code bit, or a strange code file with bits all over the place. Can you please tell me what is happening?! And finally, that's it. Yours Faithfully, Howard Price Reply to Howard Price To start with, I'm sure a lot of people will agree with you regarding the SCPDSA, because of this and their poor service, I have decided not to allow any FRED discs from FRED18 onwards into the SCPDSA catalogue until the service improves. Almost everyone has recommended that I raise the price to £2 and start paying contributors, however, I'll have to wait a few months until I stop getting people thinking that it's still £1! Incidentally, the Format advert has now been changed to a rather snazzy advert with the new price etc on it. And who do I have to thank for that? The generous Mick Steele, that's who! He kindly did two adverts for FRED (because he thought the existing ones were pathetic!), so if you see another professional ad floating about in other paper based zines, you'll know who did it. Thanks again Mick! Thanks for the game suggestions, they will all be considered, and hopefully some of them will be done! As to Sonic - you've no chance! Forgetting the HUGE licence for a mo, the amount of scrolling involved is phenomenal and the coupe is rather poor at doing large amounts of scrolling. Thanks anyway. Matt D (1) Dear Colin, Firstly I would like to congratulate you on ish 18 of Fred which I felt was the best yet. The reason I'm writng to you is that I would like to know if Holland is some sort of computer programmer factory. I say this because even though Holland has only a fraction of the number of SAM's of Britain it seems to have all the top machine code programmers. Yes I know there are people like Cookie and The Wizard but look at Holland, they have LORD INSANITY, EDWIN BLINK, BUTTERFLY ,THE DVB and TOON that I know of and all of there work is prety amazing. Or is it that us British are too thick to understand machine code or just too embaressed to send are programs off to P.D. libraries, I'd like to know what you think of this. Anyway changing the subject I think charging £2.00 so that you can pay program contributers for there work is a great idea and I think it will make the quality of Fred even better. Would this mean that Fred would no longer be public domain though? Not that it would make much difference though. Could I also just say how p****d off I am about the SINCLAIR magazines though as I think Matt D (2) they are taking the coupe owners for a ride. Your Sinclair is meant to have a SAM page yet leaves it out regularly as is the case with Sinclair User. The only loyal SAM supporter is Crash and from now on that is the only mag I am going to buy unless things change. Couldn't they make a SAM only mag but only for subbers as I'm sure every SAM ownere would subscribe and money wouldn't be wasted puting it in the shop.Any that all I've got time for cos me dinners ready. MATT "THE HOOK" D Dear Matt, You're write about the foreign programmers, although it is true of every computer - on my Amiga (spit!), 90% of the demos are foreign. I think it's because the British are greedier and expect to get paid for any work they do. (FRED must be the exception to the rule!) Crash has been a loyal SAM supporter, but, staring into my crystal ball, I can tell you that the SAM coverage in the 3 Speccy mags will pick up dramatically very soon.... For a magazine to go on the newstands, it has to sell a minimum of about 40,000 - and there's only 9,000 SAM owners !! Terry Filby (1) Dear Colin, As you said in the last FRED that you hadn't had many letters, I've decided to send my first missive (on disk), that'll teach you! I always find FRED very enjoyable, even though I'm not really turned on by games apart from Adventures. I also like Demo's and Music (classical!) and the more serious side of the Sam. I have recently received Pro-Dos, and, in my opinion, it's the best thing, so far, that has happened, software-wise, to the welsh wonder! Apart from the fact, that, at a stroke (of the Boot Disk), you have accesss to thousands of PD progs of all kinds, including games, you also have CP\M on the Coupe, something, that, when I bought it, I hadn't considered. I have used CP\M + on various machines over the years, so, when I heard Pro-Dos was coming out, I couldn't wait to get it, and now I have, I really believe, that whatever your interests, if you have a Sam Coupe, you must have Pro-Dos! Terry Filby (2) Apart from Utilities, on the £1 PD Disk, available with Pro-Dos, are: Colossal Cave Adventure, Island Adventure, Othello (Reversi), Quatris (like Tetris) and Startrek. Get it!!! The new Sam Newsdisk, is also, in it's own way, a winner. I hope it does evolve to being a mag on the newstands! Keep up the good work, Terry Filby Dear Terry, Thanks for writing and I'm glad that you like FRED. Although I haven't seen Pro-DOS yet, I'm looking forward to it even more now (unless you've been paid a fiver for complimenting it so much!). The SAM Newsdisk does seem to have gone down rather well, although it may expand rapidly, I doubt if we'll see it on the newstands for some time. HEXAGONIA-REVELATION-£9.99 Andy J. The idea of Hexagonia if you don't already know is to join the atoms around the screen up and form a molecule. So far the only elements I've seen used are Carbon,Hydrogen and Oxygen,but even with just these three elemnts the amount of coumpounds you could make is endless. Now with this edition,on level three you have to form benzene and on level six you have to form methylbenzene.Now I'm afraid its time for a little History/Chemistry lesson. Now I'll try not to bore those of you that know very little about chemistry,but in Hexagonia they use the misleading 6 carbon ring with alternate single/double bonds. This structure was sujested by Kekule in 1865,and was used until the 1970's when it was discovered that this idea was misleading. You may say that I'm nit picking,but I just thought I'd inform you,about modern thinking. The graphics within the game are quite large & bold,and the music is quite excellent,but what do you expect from Frantisek HEXAGONIA-REVELATION-£9.99 Andy J. Fuka,its nearly as good,if not equal to the music he did for Triltex! What about the actual gameplay? Well to move the atoms about you have to click on to one by prssing fire,and then push/pull on your joystick the way you want your atom to go. To make things more interesting the atoms move in the direction you pointed them in until the reach a wall etc. On the screen there are the walls,bouncey walls which the atoms hit and rebound to where ever they came from,destructable walls which,you can only hit a few times before the disappear leaving an space and invisible walls which stop the atoms half way along the screen etc. Now I'm afraid to say that I don't really like this game very much apart from the music,some of you may like it,but despite what Nick Roberts thinks I have to say I prefer Triltex. Though I have to agree that there is room for both in your software collection if you mainly like puzzle games. Overall I think 'll give Hexagonia 68% THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99 Andy J. The Sound Machine is a utility written for the SAM Coupe,to allow you to write and compose you own music. When you boot up you a presented with a screen showing SAM playing one of those keyboard/guitar things. On the top left of the screen is an arrow,use your mouse or the keyboard to click on to the arrow.You are then presented with three little pictures,on showing a musical note for the music editor,one showing a waveform for the waveform editor and the other showing "Q" for quit. I feel that instead of all this,upon loading you go straight into the music editor and then as a option within the music editor,go into the waveform editor.To have them as one complete program not two seperate programs. Upon choosing an option the required program is loaded into memory.After loading you are presented with a screen,on both the music editor & waveform editor,with all the usual options for disc use i.e. Save,Load & Dir etc.. THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99 Andy J. One annoying thing about this part of the program is if you choose an option,say changing from drive 1 to drive 2,when using mouse,you have to press a key after this has been done. Now for those,like me,who prefer total mouse control other than giving file names for loading etc.,I find this a little annoying why couldn't the author allowed a click on one of the mouse buttons as Triltex does? To enter into the actual program you have chosen you have to click on to another of those damned arrows on the top left hand part of the screen. The actual music editor allows all the features that you should require for making music,like copying a block etc. The actual way in which you write the music is quite good,its on a grid,not a stave,showing all the notes in order,includind sharp & flat notes.Not like "real" music where you have a "B" flat on the same line as a "B" natural but with a funny sign in front of it. THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99 Andy J. There is just one thing that I find annoying with the options in the music editorthat is to scroll along you master piece to add notes to the end etc.,you have to do it one half note at a time,I feel it would be better to also offer the option of scrolling a bar at a time,as well. The music is presented three bars at a time. There is not much to expalin about the waveform editor only that you can play about with the waveform and freqency of a note.The editor allows you to create 10 waveforms at once as this is the number of waveforms you can use with the sound editor,more than enough for most people,I should think. The manual is well written by Alan Miles. About half of the manual covers music theory,like reading "convential" music of a stave.To me this was of no real use at all as I can already read music,but to the beginner it is important.I don't know if this is the same with everbody's manual but mine wasn't even stapled,so it easily falls apart,come on SAMCo what are you playing at? THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99 Andy J. At the end of the manual is section for programers,showing you how to use the music within your own programs. So far I've only writtern one piece of music and thats Star Wars. I feel that I have to congratulate the author Paul Angel in programming such an excellent piece of software.It's just what I think a lot of people have been waiting for. I also have to congratulate SAMCo for releasing it at such a small price when then they could have easily sold it for £30 or more. To think now you can produce you own music,make your demos to stun the socks of any Amiga owning (ex)friends (Colin) who claim that their beloved machine has the best music around. You could even flog your master pieces to Colin to be included in future software releases. THE SOUND MACHINE-REVELATION-£14.99 Andy J. On the disc are a few demo for you to listern to,now if you use a Disc Doc on your disc,I recommed the Directory Manager on FRED 17,you sould find two files called Demo 1 and Demo 2 have been erased,tell the program that they are code files,and it will unerase them for you,and there you are two new demo to listern to.The reason I recommed Directory Manager,is because my 007 Disc Doc said that the erased files were 128k Snaps. This is a crucial piece of software if you want to produce your own music,and even if you don't! I recommeded it strongly to anyone and everyone. Especially any budding Mozart or even Frantisek Fukas! The Souud Machine is available for £14.99 form SAMCo at their usual address. If this was a game I would have award it well over 90%! MD Splat Review This is the first of Revelation's "CLASSIC" range and costs £7.99 which I believe is £2.00 cheaper than was originally planed. The idea of the game is to guide the hero of the game called "ZIPPY" around a forever moving maze without crashing into walls and spikes or drowning yourself in water.You can gain yourself points by eating grass or plums and also some of the coloured background gives you points as well. The first thing that struck me when I recieved Splat was the apparent lack of instructions and this was because they were contained in the program (a good way of saving money I suppose). The second was there is no title music to great you upon loading the game and considering the amount of K left over I don't think this is much to ask. On starting the actual game from a choice of three scenarios the screen scrolls to the start and the music begins.Now I might be being picky but I think the graphics could be improved a lot, after all the reason most people bought a SAM is for better graphics and sound. There is no animation of the main charater or anything else for that matter at all and it Splat Review makes the game look very budgety. The music is fairly good but by no means as good as some that I have heard on the SAM. Gameplay I feel is more suited to a younger player as the only real objective is to keep yourself at a certain part of the screen until you have lasted long enough. The sampled "YIPEEE" on the completion of a level goes some way to enhance the game but otherwise this isn't that much better than the spectrum original which you could get for under two quid now. Overall if you had the choice between this and Impatience I'd go for Impatience every time. Sorry Revelation. GRAPHICS 40% SOUND 70% PLAYABILITY 60% VALUE 60% OVERALL 55% Reviewed by Matt "The HOOK" D CM - Remember though, that getting someone to write the music is expensive. Anyway I'm pleased to hear that you liked Impatience - but are you man enough to try the "Later Levels"??? MD Hexagonia Review This game is brought to you by REVELATION for £9.99 and has come from Frank Fukas programming team in C'lovakia. The idea of this game is to move atoms into the correct position as shown on an information screen which can be viewed by pressing "I". The problem is once you start a molecule moving, it won't stop until it hits somthing. This could be the barrier,another molecule or one of the special features like rebounding blocks or invisible blocks. The graphics are clear and well drawn but I feel some backgrounds could of been added to liven it up a bit. The music on the title screen is very good but during the actual game there is no music and few sound effects. There are two levels of difficulty to select from before you load the main program for the novice and the expert (and when it says expert,it means it!) When you have completed a level you are given a password so that you can come straight to that part when come to play again. Overall this game is fairly good but as with most of the other Hexagonia Review games you can get on the SAM you feel it could have been a lot better with a bit of polishing. GRAPHICS 70% SOUND 80% PLAYABILITY 85% VALUE 80% OVERALL 80% REVIEWED BY MATT "THE HOOK" D Roger H The Sound Machine Review I'd been waiting ages for something like this to come along, so imagine my excitement when I saw SAMCO were selling a music prog for a mere £14.99. I must admit that this is the first time I have ever used a music prog, and I never took any notice before so I'm not really well equipped to review something like this. I'll do my best! Anyway, when this popped through my letterbox (figure of speech, the postman had to knock on the door because it wouldn't fit) I was eager to have a good look. The first thing you notice is the packaging - it's different! It was in a very large box with a very thick (if slightly cheap looking) manual and on two discs. I was slightly disappointed to see that one of these discs was a blank for your own compositions, but there you go. The manual itself is very well written, but as I said, it does look a little cheap. It isn't glossy as I have come to expect, and looks like it has been produced on a SAM. It tells you everything you need to know about The Sound Machine, and tells you a little about music. Don't be put off, it is only a little, and won't bore you to death. It also shows you how to Roger H The Sound Machine Review use your music in your own programs, but ideally you will need a music driver as copyright prevents you from using the one from the disc. On loading you are presented with a pic similar to the one on the box; SAM playing an instrument which can not be described! You select whether you want to load the music editor or the waveform generator. This is all windows (not quite WIMP, but very similar) and although I haven't got a mouse (yet!) it supposedly can be used. If you haven't got a mouse you'll have to settle for keys Q,A,O,P and M, which most people will find very comfortable anyway. Presentation is similar on both programs, and is very nice. Both are very simple to use, and very similar in appearance, especially on the "file handling" screen. They also both come with small demos on the disc. The music editor has a few tunes to be loaded, and there are some waveforms for the generator. Neither are really stunning, but just seem there to show you the use of the programs. I still find this very useful though, as I have little or no musical talent! Roger H The Sound Machine Review Right, so what can you actually do with the thing? Plenty! The music editor is excellently laid out, with everything you could expect a music editor to have. You have complete control of all six channels, ie whether you want tone, noise or both on them, what waveforms (more on this later) you want them to use etc. You can play the music from wherever you want in the piece, state which channels you want to use (may be good to see which channel has a wrong note on it somewhere) copy block, cut block, erase block (be careful!), erase channel, erase all channels (be VERY careful!), alter tempo, insert rest, delete note and much more. 'What's all this block business?' I hear you ask. Well, you have two markers, and this is extremely useful for when you want to repeat part of a track. You set the first start marker, then move along to select the end marker. With a single click, all the notes in that block will be duplicated wherever you want to put them. This will copy everything in the block, on all channels. For a single channel, you can use a macro. This will store everything on one channel in a definable area and again, you can put it wherever you want. These are easily recalled, and Roger H The Sound Machine Review can also be saved to disc (want that drum beat for your new piece? No problem!) The system for writing your stuff in the first place is ingenius. At the side of the screen is a keyboard, about half a screen high. Next to this is your editing area. On here you put your notes, and the computer plays them as you enter them. It plays all channels that are on that spot, so you'll know instantly if something just won't sound right. To go down further just alter the octave you are playing on. At the bottom of the screen is a much larger keyboard, and an indicator shows the octave on this larger keyboard. This prevents a lot of confusion. The main controls (now I'M confusing everyone!) are like those on a tape deck; fast forward, rewind, play, stop and pause. Great idea in my opinion. As you fastforward or rewind the music scrolls along rapidly, and the pointer moves straight to stop, so there's no hassle there. It's when you actually play your piece that you see where this program has been worked on. Some volume indicators (similar to those on FRED 18 menu) show how loud each channel is playing, Roger H The Sound Machine Review and all the notes show on the keyboard at the bottom. You can stop the music at any point, make it loop round continuously, make it play then let certain channels only play continuously or whatever. You can even play portions of the track backwards! Some of you will no doubt want to know a little about the storage, so I'll say A LITTLE. You can store up to eight macros at one time, ten different waveforms, a HUGE piece of music can be written (taking up well over 40K!), 4/4 or 3/4 time displays can be selected and you can even use the computer keyboard as a real time keyboard! Nice one. I think this program as a stand alone program, especially for such a price is excellent. However, the waveforms are preset to practically Spectrum BEEP levels! To give your music real feeling, you will have to go onto the other program on the disc; the waveform generator. There is no need to reset for this, as you simply select quit on the file handling menu, and this will take you back to the main menu where you can select the waveform generator. Some of you will know exactly what this one is for. Have you Roger H The Sound Machine Review noticed on music demos they use totally different sounds? Now you too can create your own. There are two main features of this for designing your own sounds. The first is the amplitude envelope. This is very straight forward, and has various presets for you to try out. You work on the "attack and decay" idea here. For example, a drum is a sound which is at first loud, (attack) and then fades (decays) very quickly. Some sounds are near constant, for which you can keep the amplitude envelope at one volume. The other is the "frequency envelope", and is extremely useful. Real instruments are not 'pure' frequencies like a computer is. The sound will fluctuate slightly at least, and that is what this is for. You may have noticed some music demos have a strange 'wobbly' sound to them, and this is an effect easily created with the frequency generator. The idea is this: There is a box in about the middle of the screen, with a number of sliding switches at the side of it. In the box is a line going horizontally straight through, at a point simply labelled "0". You can move these switches, and part of the line will also move. By varying how the switches are positioned Roger H The Sound Machine Review (there are LOADS of possible combinations) you can vary the shape of the sound. Once your sound is designed, you can play an octave in this sound at differing speeds. This allows you to see exactly how good this will sound, and can be played at any octave. If this is not good enough for you, you can also play a single note, and vary the pitch too. You can even decide within this program to play noise, tone or both with all these options; extremely useful to cut down on swapping. That is, you will not need to return to the music editor simply to hear how it will sound with noise at a high frequency, it is all catered for in the waveform editor too. I could go on forever about this program and all the features it supports, it is that good. Some of you may be put off by the long review, and think it sounds extremely complex to use; IT IS NOT COMPLEX. User friendliness is retained throughout, whilst still containing some very powerful tools which will be for everyone from people with great musical talent to people like me. Even I could rattle off something remotely musical and that Roger H The Sound Machine Review is saying something! You can even load in a tune then load in a whole new set of waveforms and play it in totally different instruments. You may have guessed that I like this package. It is easy to use, whilst being powerful enough for advanced musicians at the same time. Sadly, I have had to make this a long review simply to give a half decent picture of what it is like. Hope you are still awake! Sorry, but now I have to put in the few negative points (they've got to go somewhere to make this a fair review). The programs are seperate, and have to be loaded seperately, even on 512K machines (guess who's just upgraded!) I felt that at least on 512K machines they could have been integrated and both held in memory. Also, it has a tendency to bug up completely if you type in a filename incorrectly. I have never had it bug up otherwise, so don't let this put you off. The pointer is a little slow, but I'm sure this won't be the case for mouse users. Finally, no matter how short your tune, it saves a massive 48K + chunk of memory - so you will rapidly fill discs Roger H The Sound Machine Review with it. This is not the case with waveforms though, so no worries there. Some may consider only having ten waveforms a major negative point, but I think it would only cause a lot of confusion, and think ten is more than enough for most music. Don't let these few minor qualms deter you from buying an otherwise fantastic piece of software. It is excellent, and I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone. You won't be hearing from me with great tunes, because I can't write them! But believe me, anyone can come up with something half decent and I hope the mags get behind this software to get more music demos out. It is well worth £15 of anybody's money. Even if you can't write music, you will have lots of fun with this product. I can't really mark this in the same way as I would a game. I can only really mark it in terms of of presentation, programming and user friendliness; all of which it scores very highly on with me. It's got to be a smash (does FRED have an equivalent?) and it is! Roger H The Sound Machine Review Presentation 89% User friendliness 92% Ease of use/results 90% Overall: 92% : A top rate piece of software which everyone will enjoy using and get results - highest recommentation. STOP PRESS: I've just had a go with a mouse and responsiveness is brilliant. It is very swift with a mouse, and this makes the marks even better! CM - Oh my God!!!! Two absolutely reviews in one issue, and they're both raving about the same product!!! It must be good - I still havn't had a chance to even load up my review copy !!!