Fred 63

Issue 63

Magazine

CA           Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottingham...

Welcome to FRED 63 - the first of many to come to you from sunny
Nottingham.  I've finally got round to dusting the old SAM off
and loading Outwrite to do some work.  Hopefully now I can
settle down into the normal run of things - FRED 62 was a rushed
finish with bugs galore that needed to be corrected the night
before I went to university, and with an urgent appointment
waiting for me in town (ahem).

My room is pretty good.  It's big enough to live in, and it's
got a huge desk to, erm, work on.  The only problem is that the
guy before me left a big iron mark in the middle of the floor
which I keep getting blamed for.  Anyway, that's not what
matters, what matters is that SAM has got a nice desk to sit on,
and he seems perfectly happy.

We had to fill in an electrical form the other day stating what
electrical items we had and what power they used.  Rather
embarrassingly, it turns out that my electric shaver uses more
power than my SAM!  Blub.
CA                         Editorial

The other surprise happened within an hour of arriving.  When I
got to Nottingham, a block rep. from my block had to show me to
my room and helped me carry all my stuff up.  He asked me what
computer I had and I did the usual, "Oh, you won't have heard of
it" routine.  However, it turns out that he used to own a SAM
Coupe!  He got rid of his when SAMCo went bust, but was dying to
see what was happening on it.  Although he's not going to buy a
new one, the swine.

Lectures are alright.  I've only got ten a week for some reason
while everybody else seems to have about twenty five.  The only
problem is that we've got some really irritating **** in our
lectures who shouts out every single answer.  This just means
that nobody else understands anything and the lecturer assumes
we do.  I wish he'd go to Oxford and leave us all alone.

I'll shut up about how great life is.  Who wants to know how
cheap the beer is (Caffrey's £1.15 a pint, lager £1.00) or how
our hall has its own computer room?  (Triumphant laugh)
CA                         Editorial

I'm now on the net, so if anyone wants to e-mail me telling me
how much they love my editorials because they're really sensible
and informative, my address is:

                    [redacted]

Bit of a long, weird address isn't it?  The "pmy" bit stands
for maths (?), "l" is my year, "jja" are supposed to be my
initials (the maths department thought I was called James James
Anderton - hmm), hhn1 is my hall's server, and you can guess the
rest.

If I can pull myself away from my studies, I'll check my mail
regularly and I'll probably reply (it's all dead exciting).  I
usually go to the computer room every two or three days, so
don't get miffed if I don't reply immediately.

Colin Macdonald's e-mail address has changed, but he'll tell you
about that later (yes, he's actually written something).
CA                      Spectrum's Rule

It turns out that everybody at Nottingham University used to own
a Spectrum when they were kids (or at least a Commodore) and
during my explanations of what a SAM is, I naturally mention the
word Spectrum.  I've now had hordes of people coming in to play
all their favourite Speccy classics!  I've had Atic Atac, Manic
Miner (they were impressed by the SAM version), Dizzy, Bruce
Lee, Ghostbusters, Head Over Heels and countless others played
to death.  There's been lots of people saying that they wished
they hadn't sold their Speccy because they had a thousand games
for it.  None of them want to buy a SAM though, the swines.

If anyone knows a poke to give you infinite lives on Dizzy 4,
please send it in.  There's so many things I can do that I
always end up drowning before I can try new things.

As you can see then, it's been a bit of a hectic few weeks, but
it's given me loads to talk about, so I might change
universities every month.

CA                  The Gloucester Show...

Rather late on Friday night (or Saturday morning), I set my
alarm for 5:15 and went to bed.  The plan was to wake up, eat a
cold pizza and have a 45 minute stroll to Nottingham station,
ready in plenty of time to catch the 6:45 train.  Simple.

At 6:15 I opened my eyes and looked at my watch.  Aaaarrgghhh.
What had happened?  Why hadn't my alarm gone off?  Oh, I'd set
it for 5:15 pm.  Oops.  Anyway, there was no time to worry about
that - I threw all my stuff into a bag and began running.  I got
into the city centre at 6:40, and promptly got lost.  I gave up
running (actually, to be honest I couldn't run for more than 20
seconds anyway) and strolled about looking for somewhere I
recognised.  I eventually turned up at the station at 7:10 and
the train had been on time (for the first time in history).  The
next train wasn't until 8:22, so I spent 35 minutes reading
every magazine in the newsagents, bought one of them and sat
down reading.

The train journey wasn't so bad, just an hour and a half late.
CA        Today Quedgeley, Tommorrow, The World (ahem)

I was chatting to some bird from Nottingham Trent Uni for most
of the journey, so it passed swiftly.  All this time, Colin had
arranged for someone to wait for me at Gloucester train station
- sorry Gav.

I eventually turned up at 11:30, to be greeted with lots of
jokes at my expense.  Unfortunately, the number of people
attending didn't seem to be very good compared to usual, but
hopefully this is down to this month's Scottish show.  All the
usual programmers turned up and chatted away about stuff they
are working on.  I deliberately avoided talking to Christina
(the one girl there) because of the stick I got last time.
Colin Macdonald didn't seem to be worried about it though, the
sly old fox.

Revelation were showing off their latest release, Grubbing For
Gold.  If you actually read what I write, then you should know
about this little gem.  It looks really great, and Dave Handley
was proud to show it off to the onlooking crowd.
CA            Hardware, Hardware and More Hardware

Nev's hard drive was up and running at last.  All it was able to
do was load and display screens, but all of the hardware is
finished and Nev was taking orders.  Loading was damn quick and
thankfully 100% accurate (eg. no dodgy flashing pixels).  You
can be sure we'll be the 1st with any news.  Or maybe 2nd.

As ever Jupiter, Zodiac, Atomik Software and SAM PD were there
in their full glory selling their latest, erm, stuff.  Phoenix
turned up late (surprise, surprise) (joke).

The main shock of the show happened while I was stood talking to
Derek Morgan at the SAM PD stand.  Simon Cooke spotted me from a
million miles away, and like an eagle homed in on me and pulled
me towards his SAM.  What was he showing off?  Had he finally
finished 'Statues of Ice' after five years?  Well, not quite as
big a surprise as that actually.  Simon had a prototype of a SAM
accelerator board with Lemmings running at a very fast pace.
The only problem was that the picture was all weird - there were
dots everywhere where it wasn't updating the screen.  Simon
CA                     Bargains Galore...

offered some clever 'Not my fault, honestly' explanation for
this and assured us that all would be fixed.  Hopefully Simon is
going to pull his finger out and get this project finished, but
it could be a looong time so don't hassle us about it.  If
something happens, we'll tell you.

That disc company were there again offering discs at even
cheaper prices than before - just 18p for a SAM disc, so once
again, I stocked up on blank discs for another 6 months.

Colin Piggot was showing off his Quasar board again, in
particular a Star Trek demo which looked pretty impressive.  The
sound was a bit fuzzy, but that could be because his speakers
were two boxes with holes banged in them with a pencil.  Colin
didn't seem to be having a very good day selling Quasars, so I
quietly sneaked off.

As well as all these people were a few Speccy companies or
people selling lots of games, but I'm at the stage where I can't
CA                       The FRED Stand

be bothered to get the Speccy out any more.

And finally, there was the most important company in the
universe - FRED.  We were selling dozens of classic programs as
usual.  Unfortunately, the C library hasn't been checked
thoroughly enough for a release, but that's now being looked at,
so be ready for a near release.  Colin was sporting a new FRED
T-shirt, which incidentally are on sale for just £15.  They're
not easy to describe, but if you imagine the FRED logo in 3D,
raytraced, turned a sexy milky blue, rotated round a bit and
placed in front of a reddy background (get the idea?  I doubt
it).  Also on sale were bargains galore, such as our back issues
at superb prices and discounts on a number of games and
utilities.  And let's not forget that SAMSprite was released at
the show with a huge A4 manual to accompany it.

Stefan Drissen had made the long journey once again and was
doing his usual trick of attaching loads of SAMDacs around his
neck and attempting to sell them to the unsuspecting crowd.
CA                   A Very, Very Nice Man

At about 12:30 I was stood minding my own business when someone
came up to me and said, "Are you the editor?".  "Yes", I proudly
replied.  "Why do you have to write such rubbish?", he asked.
What a nice man he was.

The show went on until about 2:30 - 3:00.  The attendance didn't
really seem to pick up at all, but most people hung around for a
good few hours.  Colin packed up with a smile on his face, so it
was clear then that FRED had covered their costs.

After the show finished, half the SAM community took the pub by
storm, and Lee Willis beat everyone at pool (git, git, git).
Everyone collapsed when Colin offered to buy about 12 people a
drink!!!  He's obviously been spending too much time away from
Scotland.  That night, the FRED team spent a night in
Gloucester, accompanied by Stefan "Do You Come To Gloucester
Often?" Drissen (good chat up line, Stef), Martijn Groen and Rob
Tyler (who no-one knows).
                                            MACDONALD'S BIT.....
CM                 SAM tackles a bigger wave

By now, you're probably well aware that there is a collection of
SAM users that communicate prolifically over the Internet - it's
not unusual for those of us with email accounts to receive well
over a hundred messages a week. These same users have also set
up a World Wide Web site - the Web has had a huge amount of hype
in the last 12 months, and many claim it to be the future of the
Internet. Anyway, on this site there is a complete listing of
all hardware and software ever released on SAM, a who's who of
the SAM world, technical and non-technical information about SAM
- in fact, anything someone notices isn't there, usually soon
is! Also using the wonders of free University Internet access,
SAM piccies, MODs, games and utilities can all be downloaded.

This is great for us students who have the time during the day,
but the one thing SAM was missing was a Bulletin Board. Acessing
a Bulletin Board (BBS) involves getting your computer (with a
modem) on a phone line and dialling up. Once into the BBS you
can swap messages with other callers from all over the world,
download files, upload your own files for others to download,
CM                         BBS-city

play games against the other callers, or simply spend a bit of
time having a browse around. The bad news is that we don't have
a modem for SAM yet, so you'll need a PC, Amiga or ST - with a
modem - with a phone line (and the money to pay the phone
bills!). It does seem a bit ironic that you need a PC to access
a BBS for SAM, but until someone produces a modem for SAM,
there's no other way - we'll simply have to put up with
transferring files to and from another computer.

Anyway, the whole point of this little article is to announce
the availability of the first Bulletin Board for SAM! Most of
you will remember Dave Whitmore's name from the SAM Adventure
Club, but now, Dave has started up Dalmation BBS - and if he
puts in half as much effort to Dalmation as he did to SAM's
adventures, I'm sure we'll have a thoroughly excellent BBS for
everyone to enjoy.

OK - I know that there are perhaps only a few FRED readers that
have access to the kind of equipment needed to access Dave's
CM                         BBS-city

BBS at the moment, but if you do, you'll need a few details :

The number is 01744 614150 but don't call yet! Because this
phone line is Dave's home phone, he can only operate the BBS on
Saturday's from noon to midnight at present. He is hoping to
extend the operating period if things go well, but if you have
any queries about Dalmation BBS or want to arrange a BBS session
outside these hours, give Dave a ring using a normal phone
(although, obviously, not on Saturday afternoons or evenings!!)

The board officially launched on the 21st October, and I thought
I would log on to wish Dave all the best - as well as scope out
what was there. Well, everything worked perfectly - Dave has
made provisions for all manner of conversation topics and file
areas. The only problem was that being only the second ever
caller (I believe Simon Cooke was the first), there wasn't a
great deal of stuff. However, I did download a few files - a PC
converted piccy of the SAM logo, a photo of Simon Cooke (guess
who uploaded THAT file...?!), and a handful of text files
CM                         BBS-city

covering topics from file compression on SAM to how to make best
use of the BBS and swap files between your SAM and another
computer.

If you have access to a modem setup, I would strongly recommend
checking out Dalmation - the SAM needs to keep expanding into as
many new areas as possible, and it's great to see Dave doing his
bit to help things along. If you do log on, remember to give
Dave a bit of encouragement and thanks - oh, and send me a mail
as well - I promise to reply!

Dalmation BBS - run by Dave Whitmore

01744 614150 on Saturdays noon-midnight, until extension
announced. Dave can be contacted by phone on the same number at
other times (usually early evening is the best time to catch him
in).


CM                 It's all change ... maybe

I know everytime I write, the word 'degree' tends to occur far
too often. But in case any of you have been fortunate enough to
forget, I am now in my fourth year - Honours year. The first
three years of my computing degree were relatively straight
forward - we got lectures, we got given courseworks, we studied,
we got exams. This suited me fine - I am a reasonably quick
learner when it comes to computing, so if I couldn't make it
into University for a few days because of FRED, no problem - I
caught up easily enough. Everyone knows that scheduling and
organisation is not my strong point, so leaving courseworks to
the last possible minute (while I got on with FRED work!),
worked fine.

This was because at the end of each of the first three years we
are told either 'pass' or 'fail'. Simple as that. All I had to
do was scrape a pass each year. For example, my attending a
certain Welshman's wedding the weekend of my final degree exams
- I had already almost amassed a pass level from my courseworks,
so I only had to get a minimal amount of points in each of my
CM              Does BSc stand for Biscuit-head?

exams in order to pass the year. And if you remember me proudly
adding a few letters after my name in July, you'll know that I
did indeed pass.

However. With fourth year, everything changes. I already have a
standard degree, whereas this year I am studying to turn that
into an Honours degree, and unfortunately, an Honours degree is
graded - whilst a 3rd class Honours degree is a pass, sadly, it
is not of much use. A lower second class is very acceptable,
whilst an upper second is excellent. Remaining, is of course the
award to which I am setting my sights, the first class.
Admittedly, it's probably a bit unattainable for me - but I'm
certainly going to try for the best possible grade.

Sacrifices have to be made. Indeed, a lot already have. The one
time legendary socialising status has been hung, drawn and
quartered. Already just in my third week back this year, I have
been seen going into University on days off, during evenings,
and, shock horror, even on Sundays!
CM       Glorious Dundee, on the banks of the river.tay

I don't predict any alteration to the usual FRED service in the
future - either the magazine, the software or simply the orders
side. However, the phone line must once again bear the brunt of
my trialling education. I will still answer the phone when I
can, but these may be rare occasions and then only for brief
periods. Can I ask that if at all possible, all correspondance
is carried out via the post. It's not so bad - the Royal Mail
are actually behaving reasonably well at the moment (apart from
a few FRED61 discs arriving suspiciously faulty!), and you'll
probably get a reply quicker than if you were waiting for me to
answer the phone! For those cursed with email facilities, I can
be reached on [redacted]

I do apologise for this inconvenience because I've always liked
to be easily contactable in need of a problem, but I hope you
understand. Subscriptions to FRED are simply subscriptions to a
magazine, and while I am, as always, very happy if I can help -
it would be easier if I knew that the phone only rang if it was
something urgent.
CM                          Pee-cee?

I mentioned the other month that FRED was trying out something
new. To put it simply, in late Easter I was put in touch with a
PC programmer. After a few meetings (although he's from
Liverpool, I've only been there once to meet him - we've also
met in Carlisle and London ... don't ask!) we started discussing
the idea of his team developing a racing game for the PC, with
FRED as publishers.

The project has gone through stormy patches - one minute
everything's going fine, the next minute, everything seems to
have taken a downward spiral. At present, the game is
progressing nicely - we were aiming for a Christmas launch, but
short of a few minor miracles, it looks like things will be
delayed slightly.

I wish I could give more details, but there isn't really much
more to tell which is definite. At present, we don't have a
distribution deal for the UK or an outside publishing deal for
the other PC markets - what we do have is a potentially great
CM                       ar? rsvp asap.

game, with a unique twist for a racing game - a storyline! As
well as a few attention grabbing tricks up my sleeve...

Sadly, I don't think I'll be able to launch it under the FRED
label, so a division of FRED will be created for the PC launch -
at the moment we're thinking of naming it Actual Reality, but
this hasn't been finalised. Because of this, the answering
machine may change message but that doesn't mean anything on the
SAM side will change.

The long and short of the PC project is that if it succeeds,
FRED / Actual Reality will live long and prosper, continue to
support SAM and release more PC titles. If for some reason, all
the big companies that make billions out of the games industry
do a good job of stopping us being successful, I'll be applying
for jobs come Summer! So, for you, worst case scenario is that
FRED continues as normal, best case is that FRED suddenly
becomes a successful company, and who knows....?!

CA                           News

FRED would like to apologise for the slight delay with SAM C
update discs and the SAM Vision library.  However, FRED has
commissioned Jupiter Software to fully test these discs.
Hopefully, the update discs should reach you soon, if they
haven't already.  The SAM Vision library should follow soon.
Jupiter are said to be VERY impressed with the new library, so
you can be sure it'll be worth the wait.

As mentioned in the show report, FRED are now selling some
rather sexy T-shirts.  If you read the description in the
report, you'll see that by buying one, you can walk the streets
in style!  And what will one of these exclusive pieces of
clothing cost you?  Just £14.99.  OK, it's a little expensive,
but that's because not many will been done.  You'll be one of an
elite (or coupe?).  Cheques to the usual address.



                                           Huge Bargain >>>>>>>>
CA        ****************  BARGAIN  ****************

However, if you're looking for a superb Christmas bargain, Colin
Macdonald has just told me of a FRED pack which he will be
putting together.  The pack will contain a number of FRED
momentoes for you to keep and remind you of FRED, or for you or
friends to use for their correct reasons!  Of course, as this
will be another souvenir, FRED will not be making any profit on
it.

The FRED pack contains: A FRED T-shirt
                        A FRED Pen
                        A FRED Calculator
                        A FRED Diary
                        A FRED Badge
                        A Best of FRED disc (compiled by me!)

All of this will cost just £20!  I hope you'll agree that it's
an absolute bargain, so please, whether it's for the sentimental
value, or the damn useful value, buy it (either with your own
money, or tell Santa it's the best present you could ever want).
CA                            News

One thing we must stress.  This is a separate thing to the other
FRED products, so **PLEASE PAY FOR THE PACK WITH A SEPARATE
CHEQUE**.

Of course, you can also see the practical advantage.  If you
want to buy your dad a present, you could give him the pen or
the diary and have all the rest to yourself!  And you could give
your really irritating little brother the badge and just take it
back once he's stabbed himself a few times!

The Best of FRED disc contains the very best programs to ever
have appeared on FRED in the last five years.  It has been
compiled by me, so it's a bit like "FRED - The Editor's Cut"!
I've taken a lot of input from other people, and I'm sure you'll
see it is the best SAM disc you can get your hands on.

I'd better make this clear once more - make cheques for the FRED
pack payable to FRED Publishing for £20, but make the cheque
separate from any other payment.  Thanks, we hope you like it.
CA                       Disc Contents

The other day, I was looking through all my old FRED discs which
I was given when I became editor when I came across a disc from
Scott Inwood.  I haven't a clue why this utility got missed, but
it really is very impressive.  It's a complete screen archiver
and viewer.  It was originally intended for viewing FRED
screens, but due to time and memory, this isn't possible.
However, for your own personal collection of screens, this is
possibly the best storage program I've ever seen.  There are
full instructions to get you going, so you shouldn't have any
trouble.  The three example screens are from the Best Of FRED
Disc - the only new section on the "Best Of" disc.  Many thanks
for this, Scott, and sorry for the delay in getting it on FRED.

Andrew Collier has been asking about why we don't put E-tunes in
section E (E for E-tunes).  Well, it's because we all know and
love slot I as the E-tunes slot.  However, this month only, I've
put it in slot E.  This is because Andrew has written a new
E-tunes player, and what a cracker it is too!  Far too many
scroller effects to talk about (I'll probably stick with the
CA                       Disc Contents

slower readable one when I write the scrolly from now on), a
parallax starfield, and mainly it doesn't load each tune one at
a time!  It loads them all at once and operates on a CD type
system.  Load it up, and drool at it's newness and magnificence.
Thanks Andrew - another plus in the Mnemotech box.  I wonder if
Entropy can fight back (what a cunning way of getting
contributions).

OK, OK.  I know that the next item is another mines game.  I
know I said that Andrew Collier's mines game couldn't be beaten
and would be the last one for a very long time.  However, you'll
understand me putting this on when I tell you it is for Driver
and it is superb.  It is almost an exact copy of the PC version,
and let's face it, a desktop system isn't a desktop system
without a version of Minesweeper!  Unfortunately, I don't have
the name of the person who wrote this.  It was given to Colin M
at the show, so if the author is reading this, please write in
and make yourself known, otherwise I can't pay you!  Many, many
thanks.
CA                        Chaos Rules

And next, at last, we are able to bring FRED readers the BEST
Spectrum game ever.  Yes, it's Chaos by Julian Gollop.  You may
remember a few months ago that Julian declared all his games on
the Spectrum to be public domain.  Colin and I chatted about
putting something on FRED, and now we have decided that Chaos
should go on.  Putting Spectrum games on won't be a regular
thing - in fact, it probably won't happen again, but Chaos is
such a superb game that it doesn't matter.  Many thanks go to
Julian Gollop - the best programmer who ever lived.

Anyway, the Chaos rules (crikey, this won't be easy).

OK, you are a wizard.  Simple enough.  Your mission is simply to
destroy the other wizards that are alive, and these will either
be controlled by your friends or by the computer.

When you start, you can select the number of wizards you want to
use - 2 to 8.  Then select the computer's intelligence level 1-8
(8 being the most powerful).  Then, one at a time, you must type
CA                        Chaos Rules

in the name of your wizard, choose whether he should be computer
controlled or not and then his graphic and colour.  It doesn't
matter which graphic or colour you choose - it makes no
difference.  I'm not sure if this is a common thing, but on my
computer, some keys tend to repeat.  If a key does, press
SHIFT+0 to delete one character.

The first human player will then be given a menu, consisting of
1 - Examine Spells, 2 - Select Spells, 3 - Examine Board, 4 -
Continue.  If you've played before, you'll know what to do.  If
you haven't, select 3 to examine the board.  This is the main
playing area and at the moment should only contain the number of
wizards you selected.  The keys to move the cursor are the ones
around the letter 'S'.  Q is up-left, W is up, E is up-right, A
is left, D is right, Z is down-left, X is down, C is down-right.
S is the select, or fire button.  Key 'I' will tell you
information about the wizard or creature the cursor is over, 0
will end what you are doing, and K is the cancel key.  Press 'I'
over your wizard.  You will notice a number of statistics.  The
CA                        Chaos Rules

key ones are DEFENCE (How well you can defend yourself), COMBAT
(How well you can attack), MOVEMENT ALLOWANCE (How far you can
move) and ABILITY (Whether you are really good at casting spells
or not).  The rest do mean things, but there isn't any need to
worry about them for the moment.  Press 0 to get off the
information screen and 0 to go back to the menu.

Pressing 1 will let you examine your spells.  Once you've played
the game a few times, you will rarely bother with this.  You
should now see a list of spells, beginning with A-Disbelieve.
Apart from Disbelieve, you have one of each of the spells.  You
have an infinite amount of disbelieves.  You will also notice
that the spells are different colours and all have either a
star, an arrow or a dash by them.

The colour tells you how likely a spell is to be cast.  By
selecting the spell when in the 'Examine Spell' menu, you can
see the percentage chance as well.  In general, these are the
percentage probabilities (+ or - 10%)
CA                        Chaos Rules

WHITE - 100%, YELLOW - 80%, LIGHT BLUE - 60%, GREEN - 50%,
MAGENTA - 30%, RED - 10/20%

There are far too many spells to explain here, but here is a
brief run-down of some of them:

ORC, ZOMBIE,   - These are all creatures.  When a creature is
GOBLIN,          cast, it can be used to kill other creatures
CENTAUR,         or wizards.  This is the main tactic of the
DRAGONS,         game, so it is useful to build up an army of
VAMPIRE,         creatures.  You know if a spell is a creature
SKELETON,        by examining the spell and if a load of
WRAITH, HORSE,   statistics come up where movement is greater
LION, HYDRA,     than 0, it's probably a creature.  More about
Etc.             creatures later.

MAGIC FIRE - Starts a fire, which spreads and destroys enemy
              creatures and wizards.
GOOEY BLOB - A gooey slime spreads across the map, devouring
CA                        Chaos Rules

              creatures and wizards.  However, unlike FIRE,
              this can be attacked and destroyed.

MAGIC BOW, WINGS, ARMOUR, KNIFE, SWORD, SHIELD - These give your
              wizard extra defence, attack or a new skill.

MAGIC CASTLE, MAGIC CITADEL - You can hide in these until they
              disappear.

SUBVERSION - You can attempt to cast this on a creature and if
              you overcome their magic resistance, they become
              yours.

VENGEANCE, JUSTICE, DARK POWER - This will make the selected
              wizard's creations disappear if his magic
              resistance is overcome.  Alternatively, it can be
              cast on single creatures.

MAGIC WOOD - Eight trees are cast if there is room.  Then, you
CA                        Chaos Rules

              or any other wizard can go inside the tree and
              wait until it gives you a new spell.

SHADOW WOOD - You choose where to cast eight trees.  These trees
              can attack enemies creations.

MAGIC BOLT, LIGHTNING - Zaps something close by.

A Word About Chaos and Law - Chaos and Law are like good and
evil in Chaos.  Spells which are Chaotic have an asterix (star -
*) by them, spells which are Lawful have an arrow (↑) by them,
spells which are neutral have a dash (-) by them.  When more of
a certain spell is cast, the 'atmosphere' becomes more of that
type.  This is shown on the main menu.  Eg. above the options,
it may say (CHAOS ***) denoting 3 extra chaos.  When there is a
lot of Chaos, Chaotic spells become easier to cast, and vice
versa.

Creatures Take 2 - There are 2 types of creature, real and
CA                        Chaos Rules

undead.  Skeletons, Zombies, Ghosts, Etc. are undead and can
only be attacked by other undead things, but can themselves
attack anything.  Real creatures can only attack other real
creatures.  It will all become clear with practice.

When you cast a creature, it will say  ILLUSION (Y/N).  If you
select Y, then the spell will definitely be cast, but it can be
DISBELIEVED by other wizards.  If N is selected, then their
difficulty depends on the colour of the spell, but if the spell
succeeds, it can't be disbelieved.

There are lots of other tricks to Chaos, but these are too
numerous to explain.  Some creatures can be ridden by wizards
(Eg. Horse, Unicorn), which is useful.  All of these sorts of
things are best learnt by playing the game.

On each of your goes, you get to move each of your characters
once.  Do this by moving the cursor with the keys around S, and
S to select.  It will then say 'MOVEMENT - x' where x is a
CA                  Last Page Of Chaos Rules

number.  That's how far it can move.  Roughly, diagonals count
as 1, then 2, then 1, then 2, etc..  Once he has moved, he may
be able to fire.  If so, move the cursor to where you want him
to shoot, and press S. If you don't wish to move the full
ditance, or don't want to shoot, PRESS K TO CANCEL.

If I haven't made much obvious, sorry.  Stick with the game, it
really is superb.  The best way to learn Chaos is to play it,
and if you get stuck, write in and I would only be too pleased
to help.  Maybe at some show in the future, we could have a
SAMmers Chaos competition like Y.S. did....

Once again, can FRED say many thanks to Julian Gollop for
allowing Chaos to be made wide-spread.  THANK YOU!





CA                       Disc Contents

"The" Interview this month contains Tim 'WWWeb Man' Paveley.
There's quite a bit of interest in here, so read on...  Which
reminds me, if there's anyone you want to see interviewed, write
in and we'll see what we can do.

In I, we have something that you may say 'OI! That's been on
FRED before' to.  Well, yes, but this is a different version.
It converts modules to a readable E-tracker format.  You still
need to create instruments and tidy it up, but it's very useful.
For starters, it's not Shareware so everyone can use this
without having to pay.  Secondly, it's written in machine code,
so is quicker than Colin Piggot's version.  Thirdly, it has a
number of new things, including no bugs and it recognises more
module functions.  It's by Solar Flare and is the first FRED
program to have been sent along the miraculous e-mail system.
Thanks, Stefan.

CRIPES!  I've actually used Stefan's converter, and it runs at
lightening speed.  That's amazing.  Erm, well done Stef!
CA                       Disc Contents

Jellytext this month has a new helper, and consequently Matt's
mind has been affected and he's pushing the family mag thing a
bit too far in places.  Of course, it's even more hilariously
funny, but if you're liable to be offended by occasional
swearing, and, erm, a blocky picture (say no more), then don't
load this.  Matt Round (and Graham Goring) will get slapped
wrists for this, don't worry.  Thanks Matt and Graham, keep up
the good work - even if I do read it and just say "Ho ho ho, OH
NO, HE CAN'T PUT THAT!  Ho ho ho.  OR THAT!  OH NO.  Ho ho ho."

While I'm on the subject of Jellytext, please write some
articles for it if you have time.  I know a few people have used
the editor and decided their stuff isn't good enough, but I'm
sure that's not true.  Besides, this is your chance to get the
sort of discussions that you want in FRED.  Even though it's all
jokey, we will welcome serious matters and talk about them in
the light they are intended.  It's your chance to shape FRED!
Send contributions to Matt or FRED.  Thanks.

CA                       Disc Contents

This months adverts are the first that have been paid for, so
please do look at them.  The people who have paid for adverts
deserve their fair share of responses, so please have a look,
and if anything interests you, write for more information - you
don't have to buy anything until you're sure, but if our
advertisers get a response, they'll keep coming back.

And another 6 issues have passed, so it's about time FREDEX got
updated.  If you haven't seen FREDEX before, it's basically a
catalogue of items that have been on FRED with descriptions and
a handy search option.  Search for your fave things, or just
browse through at leisure.  Thanks should go to Brian McConnell
for this as he did write it quite a while ago.  Cheers.

And let us not forget the absolutely stunning menu.  The first
one ever to have a game in it, and please note that it is
written in SAM C.  We have the man in the interview to thank for
the menu.  Better late than never.  Many thanks, Tim Paveley.

CA                      Competition Time

It's about time we had another competition.  This time, it's an
idea I had.  This may seem like we're turning into Format, but
believe me, it's only being run for my selfish reasons.

Anyway, the competition is a programming one.  The challenge is
to create the best text converter.  That is, the best utility
that can convert PC (or any other format) text that isn't 64
column and is full of character codes into SAM 64 column text
(MODE 3: CSIZE 8,8).  The winner will get copies of Klax,
Defenders Of The Earth and SAM Strikes Out, as well as the FRED
voucher when the winner gets put on FRED.  And just to clarify,
when I say 'copies', I do mean LEGAL copies.  Sigh.  Why does
the word 'copies' mean two very different things?

The deadline for this competition is 20th January, but the
earlier you can get things in, the better.



CA                          Thanks

Editor (and debugger extraordinaire) : COLIN ANDERTON
Company Director (and contributor!!) : COLIN MACDONALD

         An Infinite Amount Of Gratitude Goes Out To:

  Julian Gollop                              Driver Mines Bloke
     Scott Inwood                          Andrew Collier
        Tim Paveley                      Stefan Drissen
           Matt Round                  Graham Goring
          Victor Cooper              Doug Young
             John Hancock          Dean Nicholas
              Martin Wilson      Brian McConnell
                Nigel Ackroyd  Alan Groves

FRED (issues 1-63) are available from FRED Publishing,
                                      [redacted]

  FRED's PD section, plus 3
    film reviews follow
CA                        It's Back...

Before Dean starts, can I apologise for missing out last months
PD section.  Disc errors won, I'm afraid.  However, FRED's
regular PD reviewer, Dean Nicholas is back with this months
installment, and I hear next months is already waiting at
Colin's house.  Blimey.  Take it away, Dean...

DN                         PD Section

Hello again, and welcome to FREDs amazing PD nit, where we find
out what's out for those of you who are a bit bit out of pocket.
This month we have a couple of newies from SAM PD, and guess
what? They are both great (well, what did you expect with them
one being written by Matt Round, the other by Stefan Drissen?).
Enough rubbish, on with the reviews.

VCR by Matt Round

VCR stands for Video Casette Recorder.Eh? Well, it is basically
a program that plays a selection of Grab/Put blocks in quick

succession, and allows you to view them and things like
that.Only one sequence comes with it, but more are (apparently)
on the way.The one that does come is a Star Trek:The Next
Generation action sequence.The blocks can be shown in either
full screen size or quarter screen size.The full size screen is
a little confusing to say the least, and it is very difficult to
determine exactly what is going on.However, simply switch it
down to quarter size and you can really appreciate what is
happening.The quality of the clip (which is roughly 5-10 seconds
long) really is superb, and the speed at which it is  played is
very impressive.Other things that you can do with the clips are
play it backwards or forwards, advance each frame one by one,
change the palette scale, and change the size and speed.The
control system is also very user friendly, as it utilises a menu
bar at the bottom of the screen.

Overall, it is a very impressive piece of PD, and well worth
your  1.50.I suggest that you order it today.

Rating: 85%

Solar Flare by Stefan Drissen

Next up we have a compilation offering from Stefan Drissen.It
contains quite a lot of stuff in it, mostly unseen, and is as
such rather excellent value for money.First is an E-Player, the
same one that used to be on Fred before Andrew Collier's effort
took over.It contains 8 tunes, the majority of which have been
heard before in some place or another.Next there is a program
called Ditherer which changes the cyan colours in supposedly
grey screens to proper greys, to enhance the look of them.It
does produce a noticeable difference, but would probably not be
used that much.Next we have 4 converted Speccy demoes.The best
on is The Lyra II, the forerunner to the Coupe's III.It is
amazing, and puts SAM demoes to shame, especially the dancing
woman and the digitized music.The other ones (Silly Demo, Living
S**t and Rende-vous) are okay but not memorable.After this is
Stefans contribution to the infamous Statues of Ice, which is a
nice but not really amazing demo featuring a wraparound Entropy
logo.Windows demo is an insight into what could have been a fine
version of Windows to SAM.Larry demo is a demo of what could

been Leisure Suit Larry for SAM.It is funny, especially the
questions asked before the game to make sure you are over
18!Lastly on the disk is the new Mod player demo, which was on
FRED 58.

Overall, this disk is great value for money and features some
good stuff on it.Get it.

Rating:88%










                                                Keep Reading....
SAM PD Catalogue

It may seem a bit strange to review catalogue, but  that's  what
I'm going to do.SAM PD have just released their entire catalogue
on disk just like the SCPDSA did  in  their  later  years.On  it
there is a  list  of  their  entire  collection,  along  with  a
description of each product.There is also a demo of the  (rather
awful) game Safari Sam, and a demo of the latest Mod player like
the one on Fred 58 and the Solar Flare demo.The Screens  section
is basically several screens advertising Sam  PD  products,  and
there are also small demo/adverts for SAM2SAM and Network Sigma.
I guess that because it is a catalogue I can't give it a mark,
but I do suggest you get it as it is much better than the paper
version in my opinion.








All of the above are available from:

                             Sam PD
                           [redacted]

Solar Flare and VCR are priced at £1.50, while the catalogue is
only a quid or free if you send a blank disk and an SAE.

Thats all for this month, hopefully next month we should have
more than two and a half reviews.If you feel like writing a PD
review then send it to FRED and Colin will put it in (it doesn't
matter if it's already been covered, it always help to get more
than one point of view).Goodbye.


                            Doug Young's Film Reviews Follow....
DY                        FILM REVIEWS

Review of POCHAHONTAS - Disney's latest blockbuster
Certificate           - Universal ( U ) Playing length - 81 mins
Director              - Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
Star Voices           - Mel Gibson, Irene Bedard, Russel  Means,
.                       Linda Hunt and Billy Connolly

Pochahontas is Disney's 33rd full-length animated extravaganza.
Pochahohtas tells the extraordinary romantic tale of an American
Indian princess who saved an Englishman's life - Pochanohtas  is
Disney's first dramatisation on an actual historical event.

The story is set in 1607 and focuses on the conflict between the
British, arriving in  the  New  World  to  find  gold,  and  the
resident Native Americans.

The original tale  has  it  that  Pocahontas,  daughter  of  the
Algonquin chief Powhatan, took such a  liking  to  the  handsome
english officer Captain John Smith that she was prepared to swop
places with him when he was threatened with execution.

Now Disney has added its own distinct flavour to the  epic  yarn
and from the opening credit sequence, when we're  introduced  to
the lyrical lifestlye of the Indians - set  to  the  captivating
number Steady As the Beating Drun - to the thrilling climax, the
movie casts its own magic spell.

All of the animation throughout the  film  is  excellent  and  a
pleasure to the eye, all though this  is  quite  common  to  all
Disney films, e.g Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and  The  Little
Mermaid.

The voices of all of the characters have been excellently chosen
, the two best voices are ; Mel Gibson as John Smith  and  Irene
Bedard as Pocahontas.

This film is a must for all, but it will  be  most  offering  to
small children. An excellent  script  supported  with  excellent
animation and  a  good  choice  of  voices  makes  this  a  very
enjoyable film.


OVERALL 94% ( If you don't like feature  length  cartoons,  this
film might surprise you and make you change your mind )

              -----------------------------------

MORTAL KOMBAT
Director   - Paul Anderson
Stars      - Linden Ashby, Robin Shou, Bridgette Wilson, Cary -
Hiroyuki Tagawa, Christopher Lambert
Classification - 15

Based on what's said to be the most successful video game ever,
this all/action adventure pits the skills of three contrasting
human combatants against a bizarre and deadly foe in the
forbidding Outworld.

There the good guys , SONYA BLADE, JOHNNY CAGE AND LIU KANG must
pool there considerable physical talents and mental abilities to
defeat the evil sorcerer SHANG TSUNG before he can claim the
realm of Earth for his own dark master.

All of the characters from the first two games have been
included and most of them have been portrayed by good actors,
the best being Christopher Lambert as the God of Thunder - Lord
Rayden and Robin Shou as Liu Kang.

If you liked the game you will absolutely love this film,
streetfighter who ?

An altogether martial arts film with a bit of a bizarre twist
included.

OVERALL 90% ( A must for all action film lovers )

                -------------------------------

SPECIES
Director - Roger Donaldson
Stars - Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen,  Forest  Whitaker,  Alfred
Molina, Natasha Henstridge, Margaret Helgenberger.
Classification - 18

In short, it's a suspense thriller that combines the  very  best
elements  of  classic  sci/fi  plots   down   the   years   with
state-of-the-art effects and thrilling designs.

The design was done by ocsar winner H.R.Geiger ( the person  who
thought of the alien in the most successful film of 1979,  ALIEN
), a Swiss-based designer,artist scupltor and architect. He  has
once again successfully acheived an astonishing fusion of  flesh
and  machine  -  a  form  that  Geiger  has   described   as   '
BIOMECHANICAL '.

The plot of the film is that  scientists  inject  a  mixture  of
different dna sources in to a young girl, hoping  to  acheive  a
better life form. Unfortually fo the scientists every thing goes
totally wrong when the injected DNA combines with  the  original
Dna of the young girl and produces a new  organism,  the  result
being a stunning 21-year old woman whose only  objective  is  to
mate with human beings and propogate her aggressive species.

So there you have it across between Basic Instinct  and  Aliens,

but what does it actually come out like? well it is  fabulous  !
For the last few years I didn't think anything would be able  to
better Aliens, but this film puts in firmly in its place.

Its got everything violence, sex, aliens and even a plot  to  go
with it what more could you want. The  film  definetly  deserves
the 18 certificate with it's explicit sex  scenes  and  gruesome
violence. I reckonmend this film to  anyone  who  likes  actions
films, sci-fi films or erotic thrillers.

One things for sure, you  won'T  be  able  to  get  bored  while
watching this film, because everything is set  at  such  a  fast
pace, basically it's excellent, go see it.

One point to end, this film isn't supposed to be thought  of  as
the next Alien film of Predator film, but  it  is  a  very  good
contender, Alien 4 ( scheduled for a christmas 96 release, while
Alien vs Predator has been terminated with a project  gap,  make
any sense to you? ) is going to have to a brilliant film to take
back it's crown of being the best sci-fi film, as by  the  looks

of this film it has well and truly lost it.

OVERALL   97%  (  ESPECIALLY  IF  YOU  LIKE  ANY  OF  THE  ABOVE
MENTIONED TYPE OF FILMS, ESPECIALLY ALIEN AND PREDATOR ).

OVERALL 90% (IF YOU DON'T REALLY GO FOR THE ALIEN TYPE OF FILM )


                   ------------------------

CA                           Ta-ra

More next month from Dean and Doug, plus a show report or two
from some of the other people who were there.

See you then - I'll do my best to get FRED 64 out in time for
Christmas.

Letters & Reviews

                    Letter From John Hancock

Dear FRED Publishing,
              CONFESSION: I have just bought a second-hand
Amiga. [FOOL! - CA]  Sorry but hey (!) it was dirt cheap.  What
I'd like to know is if it might still be possible to get my
hands on an IFF picture converter for my still-much-cherished-
if-slightly-p***ed off Coupe (FACT: ever since I got the A500 my
SAM's 256K expansion has had a tendancy to wobble out of its
sockets and cause a reset.  Bloody fiddly thing it is too.  Has
anyone else had the same problem?)  I remember an advert for one
such piece of software having been advertised in the long since
dead PUBLIC and maybe even in Fred itself.  (I had to mention
Public as it is about the only time I've ever had any sizeable
demo published in a Sam diskmag - For anyone who can remember
Vectorbobs from Hell etc. I am truly sorry!)  Anyway do either
of the two Colins have any idea what I'm going on about?  And do
they really care?

I've been messing about a lot in Sam C.  It's a flippin' good
program, well worth whatever I paid for it.  But when will we
                    Letter From John Hancock

get those extra libs?  Personally I can't wait.

    That's all for now then.  Thanks in advance for the Freds
and hope you all enjoyed Alton Towers.  (oh and sorry this is
not on a disk).

                             John Hancock












CA                   Reply to John Hancock

Are you surprised that your poor little SAM is feeling a bit
rejected?  Not only do you buy a different computer, but you had
to buy an Amiga of all things.  It's not even a better computer.
When will people learn?  Actually, erm, John, friend, I'll sell
you my Spectrum for the bargain price of just £960.  Deal?

Anyway, of course we care about your problem (the IFF converter,
not your tendancy to buy rubbish computers).  FRED is the caring
company.  This won't be the only way to convert pictures, but
what most people do is to get an IFF-BMP converter for their
other computer and then use the BMP-SAM converter to get it onto
your SAM.  Someone may have written an IFF-SAM converter, but I
don't think it's been on FRED.  If anyone else can help, please
write.

Glad you're getting to grips with SAM C.  If you've read the
news section, you should know what's going on.


                  Letter From Martin R Wilson

Dear Ed

Keep  the  Fred  diskzines  coming as at the moment its the only
time   my  neglected  Sam  gets a taste of electricity. Actually
tell  a  lie it gets powered up for Sam Supplement as well. I've
started a 'C' programming course on Wednesday evenings at Yeovil
College but after using the Sam version and then using Turbo 'C'
on the Colleges PCs I get a bit confused about syntax. As I also
have  a  PC at home I'm concentrating on that to help my course.
I'm  not knocking the Sam version its just simpler for me to use
the  same  version  at  home and college for the course. The Sam
will  be  phased in once I get a grip on 'C'. The home version I
use  on  the  PC is not a full compiler it only runs the program
using the IDE.  [Tut, tut, dodgy - CA]

There  seems  to be a lot of hardware projects happening for the
SAM  to  improve  sound  and storage but like many what I really
would  appreciate would be an accelerator. What ever happened to
the  Z800  16bit  Z80  chip  that could run at 12mhz and which I
                Letter From Martin Robert Wilson

think  was used in the MSX-3 that only sold in Japan? Could that
be  used  as  the  basis  of  an  accelerator?  How  about a 2nd
processor that plugs into the expansion port?

Another query is how do you improve the output of the scart RGB?
I  connect  my  SAM upto a PACE MS1000 satellite receiver to get
quadraphonic sound but the picture on my television is too dark.
To  be  honest  if  I  connect  it to my Loewe tv(as seen in Red
Dwarf) directly its even darker. However when I connect it to my
Microvitec  Multisync  monitor  theres plenty of brightness. But
thats   normally   downstairs  connected  to  my  PC.  Is  there
something  I can adjust in the PSU to provide a bit power to the
PCB?  Obviously  I  wouldn't  try  this  without  some  informed
knowledge.

Lastly  the  game  many  want converted to the Sam is Elite. How
about it? If you ever convert it to the Sam I'll be the first to
buy  a copy even if its £25. Why not suggest the project to that
brilliant  programmer  of  Sam  C.  I'm  sure David Braben would
                Letter From Martin Randy Wilson

consider  allowing  it.  No  one  reasonable is expecting filled
polygon  graphics  or  sampled  sound just an improvement on the
spectrum  version  with  more  colour, better spot effects, more
ships  and  missions.  Hidden  line  vectors are fine. One thing
which  would  be nice is a network option. Then myself and other
Sam  users  could organise the occasional meeting for some grand
playing sessions.

Another  game  which  would be a lot simpler to convert would be
Time  Pilot.  I've  always been a great fan of this game. As you
probably  know  its plays in a similar way to asteroids with you
stuck  in  the  middle and able to move in any direction. Theres
clouds  which  appear above and below you. You never stop moving
in  your  chosen direction and each wave is based in a different
time zone with a large enemy at the end of each wave. Its a well
old  format but very successful versions have been  done for the
C64  and  BBC.  I  don't  remember  ever  coming across a decent
spectrum version.

                 Letter From Martin Ruby Wilson

Yours faithfully

Martin R Wilson


Now to merge in my sales list.

[Martin has a number of things to sell, but I can't take up 300K
of disc space listing it all.  Martin has a number of Spectrums
(48K, 128K, Plus 2, etc.), spares for all Spectrums and Amstrad
NC100, Multiprint, an Amstrad CTM644 monitor for use with the
coupe (for £45 but no speakers) and a number of other speccy
related things.  Tel 01935 25974 for details. - CA]

WANTED.

Elite for the Spectrum Plus 3(not the cassette versions).
Elite for the Opus Discovery plus Discovery drive.

CA                Reply to Martin Rover Wilson

Have I got your middle name right yet?

Pleased to hear so many people are keen to learn C.  Make sure
you do play with SAM C, we're always after C programs and the
new library that will be coming out in the near future will
revolutionize the language on the SAM.

As you'll know if you saw my show report, an accelerator is
being worked on, but once again I must stress that it could be a
very long time before we see it.  We don't want to seem as if
we're not supporting it, but many things haven't made it and
have left people disappointed.

I had the same problem about darkness on my TV.  The trick is to
find the knob with a picture of a sun thing on it and turn it.
As if by magic, your picture will brighten!

Of course, I suppose your problem could be slightly more
technical than that, but Colin hasn't offered an explanation.
CA                Reply to Martin Rrrrr Wilson

If anyone else can help, please write in.

In most cases now, a programmer will decide what he would like
to write and then FRED (or another publisher) will sign a deal
for that game.  It's not very often that the publisher asks
someone to write a certain game.  I'd like to see a SAM version
of Chaos, but no-one ever listens to me...

Thanks for your suggestions anyway.  If anyone can help Martin
on any of his points, please write in and we'll include the
letter.








                     Letter From Doug Young

Dear Fred/Colin,

Well hello to another letter from me to you, along with the
other 1000 odd Sam readers. Well if this letter gets in the
letter section on Fred 63, I will have made it three months in a
row, hope so.

First off, thanks for the answer to my questions, and in return
I have enclosed a disk full of goodies for you, and they belt
you straight in the face in the form of reviews (you said you
wanted them last issue, so I've done a few on Sam products, a
few on music items, a few on videos and probably a few more on
other things)

I will be releasing a complete disk of all of the animated
characters in Mortal Kombat after Christmas for a couple of
quid. The only problem I'm having is with the amount of frames
of animation I can have (I'm using Sam paint initially), with
the four screens I can only have 12-16 movement frames, as the
                     Letter From Doug Young

sprites are 2/3 screen size, which leaves about 7 frames per
character, and that's a bit jerky. So what I'm wondering is...
does the new sprite maker, Samsprite allow you to create
animation of up to 200k?

Oh as you asked I filled in that questionaire thing and I would
also like to say that I will most certainly be buying a hard
drive.

Well hope u like the disk contents, keep up the x-cellent
editorial work and I will probably write another letter/other
stuff for Fred 64, as for now, adios Amigos

Douglas Young -M.D.L. Software

P.S. not a single plug required this month, makes a change!!!
(then again I should have an advert in the advert sction so
that's a bit of a double negative, isn't it?)

CA                    Reply To Doug Young

Watch it, Doug - if you keep writing letters to FRED, you'll end
up as the editor after a while!  Or is that your plan?  Did you
realise that was the way I became editor, and you've decided to
overthrow me?  Is that it?  Or do you have nothing better to do
with your life?

Just kidding, Doug.  What would a letters page be without your
blatant plugs for your own programs?  It wouldn't be worth
reading.

No plugs???  What do you mean?  What was that huge "I'm
releasing this disc for one quid, keep reading the letters
section for more information" bit about if it wasn't a plug?
Still, as you've got an advert, I'll forgive you (again).

SAMSprite can handle 255 frames of animation.  The only problem
at the moment is that it can only work with 8x8 and 16x16
sprites and backgrounds.  Add-ons will follow, but I'm not sure
when.  See ya' next month.
                    Letter From Alan Groves

Dear Colins,
         Just writing to say how much I enjoyed the latest
Gloucester show and to congratulate you and all the other
companies on producing such an excellent display.  It has been
the first show I have attended; Devon is a long haul by bus,
but I'm pleased to say it was worthwhile.  It's nice to finally
meet the Fred team, I'm just sorry that Brian was once again
unable to attend.

    Unfortunately, I won't be attending the Scottish show, but
hope to come to the next Gloucester one.

    I was writing mainly to enquire when the excellent Retros by
Matthew Round will be released.  There have been a few mentions
of an imminent release, but no further news.

                        Many thanks,

                             A. Groves
CA                   Reply To Alan Groves

Glad you enjoyed the show.  Sorry I couldn't talk to you for
longer, but there were people wanting to give me money, so how
could I refuse?!?

Retros IS being worked on.  Now, how do I handle this one?  Do I
tell them the truth and say that Matt is a lazy swine, or do I
say that there are a number of technical problems which are
being worked on?

Seriously though, Retros is being written.  I rang Matt the
other week and he was programming it at the time.  It will be
released soon, we promise.







                Letter From Nigel Arthur Ackroyd

Dear FRED EDITOR

 my name is Nigel Ackroyd, you might have heard that name before
if you regually read SCUM (but i left last yeear).  I am writing
to tell you about some sad news (but with a happyish ending!!!)

SCUMitor  (SCUM editor) Kevin Smythe (or Kev for short) (Im Nige
for  short  by  the   way)  has  been  in   a  bit  of   presure
recently.His cousin Eddie thinks SCUM has been going down hill
coz I left and less and less people buy it (but still lots).
last month it got all too much and Kev tried to hang himself
useing the lead on the SAM power suply he got cheap from Colin
Anderson (is it still you that is the editor or was you
sacked????) but luckily the wire broke ++he just broke his ankel
when he fell. now hes just got back home but is a bit quite coz
i think they gave him some tablets., WHen i talked to him about
my new Amiga demo he just dribbelled.


                Letter From Nigel Arthur Ackroyd

Im asking FREDDERS (if thats wot you call them!!) to send him
some nice cards to cheer him up. Just send them to Mister
McDonald and hell pass them ,on. write something in it about how
great SCUm is and do it in pernament marker so  then itll still
be O.K. if he dribbels on ita bit.

I will be SCUMitor un till Kev gets better so therell be lots
more of my MEGADEMOS to look forward too!!!!

yours sincerly-Nigel Arthur Ackroyd

PPS Eddie sez you should do Windows"95 on SAM then Micrasoft
can buy West Coast  Computers for lots of money!!






CA                      Reply to "Nige"

You're not very intelligent, are you Nigel?

I'm dreadfully sorry to hear about Kev.  So sorry that I stopped
laughing after only ten minutes.  Could you tell him that he can
pick up another of my dodgy power packs for just £87 - a whole
£10 less than the last one (but only because I feel so guilty).

My get well card is in the post, and I'm sure a number of caring
FRED readers will send Kev one.  Send any to the usual FRED
address.

I really look forward to receiving the free FRED copy of SCUM.
No really.  I'm not being sarcastic.  Don't even know what the
word means.

Tell Eddie that he'd really enjoy sticking his head in a fire.



DY                      Review Of Booty

The  following  text   contains   a   review   of   BOOTY   from
Jupitor/Phoenix software and has been written by D Young ( M.D.L
Software ). This is a perfectly non biased review of the game, I
am saying this as I happen to think that this type  of  game  is
the best type of game that you can play ( a.k.a a platform
game ), well here it is.................

......Booty -Jupitor/Phoenix software.....Price 5.00........

You are Jim the cabin boy and you are on a haunted pirate  ship,
your task is to travel around the 30 decks of the ship  avoiding
the pirates and collecting the booty, from the  above  statement
the game doesn't actually sound that hard or from that point  of
view that interesting to play, right ?  Most certanely wrong !!!

This game is a conversion of the  speccy  version  of  the  same
named game that sold over 500,000 copies.

 The graphics are done by Steve Pick and are really  good,  they
DY                      Review Of Booty

tend to bring depth into the game and make it fell as if you are
jim and you are on a real pirate ship, well that may be a bit of
an exageration in the minds of some, but they really do  have  a
large amount of depth in them and are perfectly  right  for  the
game.

The music is by Lee Willis and is pretty  cool  ,  although  the
music from the speccy one was pretty cool, the sam version is an
incredible amount better, I'm not just talking about the quality
of the music, I'm am also talking about the  catchiness  of  the
tune ( Is catchiness a word? ).

The programming is by Jupitor software, the original is by  John
F Cain (Oh the original version is included free on this).

At first, the game didn't really catch my attention but after  a
few goes I was completely hooked, and I would now say I play  it
at least four times a week, it really is that good.

DY                      Review Of Booty

MY RATING

GRAPHICS         90% ( The animation is pretty fluiant )
PLAYABILITY      88% ( Quite easy, with good control response )
LASTABILITY      86% ( This will increase a lot as you play )
SOUND            82% ( Shame that quazar wasn't ready for this )

OVERALL          86%    < SILVER AWARD >

If you like platform games with a  little  bit  of  strategy  in
them, you'll love this!!!!!!!!!!!!








DY  REVIEW OF FRED ISSUE 62...PRICE 2.00...FRED PUBLISHING......

Well we all know that Fred is easily the best  disk  mag  around
for the Sam at the moment ( and dare I say this ) and has always
been,so here's a review of issue 62.

First up comes the usual items which are, the  Editorial  (  the
usual light heartedness humour and information  ,  an  excellent
combination ), then comes the Letters ( the usual letters,  with
pretty good responses ), Screens (  usually  high  quality,  and
that goes for this issue, although there wasn't really a lot  of
them ), Rachel ( The last episode of a hilarious  comedy  thing,
shame it's finished though ), E-tunes ( same usual type of tunes
but there are a couple of good ones here in this issue, we maybe
will get a Quazar set of tunes  soon,  which  will  probably  be
called Q-tunes), Jellytext (  The  alturnative  editorial,  well
make your own mind up  over  this  ),  Modules  (  an  excellent
version of QUANTERM LEAP, makes this a great modules section  ),
Adverts ( a bit on the small size this month ) and Bits 'N' Bobs
( usual useful little programs and games ).

DY                     Review of FRED 62

Now on to the other parts of Fred issue 62. First  up  is  Dan's
Dept. , this section is a collection of D Doore progs and stuff,
quite useful and enjoyable.

Next is a C libary , can't say anything about this yet,  as    I
haven't got Sam C yet ( but I am definetly going to get it  soon
), though I'm sure that it is really great if you have got C.

Next up is the  only  main  game  on  the  disk  and  is  called
WHIRLYGIG, it's a platform game job, quite fun for a while.

Next up is a rolling demo  of  the  brand  new  game  from  Fred
Publishing, which is of coarse Grubbibg for Gold, it looks quite
good, but as I haven't got the game I can't really criticise  it
in anyway.

Last is a Font designer, Well Font Designer 2  actually,  useful
little prog. that I will be using a lot, and  I  bet  a  lot  of
other sam owners will be using.
DY                     Review of FRED 62


LASTABILITY      85%
PLAYABILITY      95%
SOUND            97% ( WELL THE QUANTERM LEAP MOD IS GREAT )
GRAPHICS         88% ( COULD BE BETTER IN CERTAIN PLACES, SAY  A
BORDER SECTION FOR THE LETTERS AND THE EDITORIAL ? )

OVERALL       91.5% ROUNDED UP TO 92%

Interview: Tim Paveley

=========================The Interview==========================

COLIN: Tim Paveley is a name not as well recognised as, say,
       Colin Anderton (cheer, cheer). However, Tim has graced us
       with his presence on FRED (although not enough),
       producing such classics as the hugely playable EGGBuM and
       the hugely bugged Fortress.

TIM  :  It worked fine when I sent it to you Colin.

COLIN: Not to mention the as yet unseen memory killing (but very
       good, and in SAM C) menu, which nearly destroyed the
       chances of getting FRED 62 out before Christmas, and me
       getting to Uni the next day, and me having a last night
       out with my friends, and me slitting my wrists

TIM  :  Urm, yes, I must confess I'm slightly
       embarassed about that one. I can't believe I've brought
       the great name of Sad Snail Productions into shame.
       However, I must say that when I saw you last you'd
       appeared to make a very good recovery from the wrists.

       Besides, didn't Graham do a spiffing job as a last minute
       replacement.....

COLIN: However, Tim has done SOMETHING right in his life, as a
       few years ago, Tim brought the SAM to the Information
       Superhighway (woo!) with the first SAM World Wide Web
       page. And just to go with technology, we're conducting
       this interview by e-mail (wow!).

TIM  : Actually it was more like 11 months ago. Early Nov '94 I
       think.....

COLIN: 1) Hello Tim Paveley. How's things?

TIM  : Fine thanks Colin. My wallet still hasn't fully recovered
       from the Show, but my Sam is a lot happier about the
       event. I must advise your read ers not to try and carry a
       monitor back from Gloucester to Southampton, but at least
       it still works, or at least, as well as when I bought it.


COLIN: 2) The usual question first - do you have an interesting
       or informative reason for getting into SAM? If not, tell
       us anyway.

TIM  : Well, I read about the Sam in CRASH and thought, "WOW!".
       Quite simply I just had to have one. However, someone
       shortly afterwards offered to sell me an Atari ST at cost
       price, which actually worked out cheaper than the Sam at
       that time. To be honest, I was this close <-----> to
       buying the ST. Things got delayed though, and after a
       while, I decided that I wanted a computer now! so I off I
       went to buy a Sam. This was about the middle of Feb '90,
       shortly after they came out, so the Sam was still very
       new, and unproven at that time. Even the man in the
       computer show tried to point out to me the many any
       possible problems with it, and how it might completely
       fold two or three months later. I'm quite surprised I
       bought it really, considering there were so many reasons
       not to at the time. I remember the man at the shop saying
       that I would be a pioneer, at which point my eyes lit up

       and there was no turning back. I'm glad I did buy it
       though, even if I do still get people reply 'A what?'....


COLIN: 3) Were your first computer programs the ones we saw on
       FRED?

TIM  : Definitely not! I used to have a reputation for not
       having a life and staying in programming my Speccy when
       all my mates were hanging around on street corners acting
       hard. When I got the Sam I continued writting programs,
       such as the classic "Tim is Great" Version 2.04b. I think
       my first 'useful' program was a Disk Utility. Basically
       it allowed you to do everything you could do in SamDOS,
       but with far less ease! I dabbled with all sorts, before
       I finally had the guts to send something into FRED. I was
       really surprised when it was published. Since then of
       course, I've sent all my programs to FRED, out of some
       strange feeling of loyalty. Besides, I know I get maximum
       publicity from FRED, even if I have changed the name I

       write under for every program. Occasionally I dig out my
       old speccy tapes, and have a good laugh, but I think
       everyone has some of 'those' programs lying about for
       sentimental reasons.

COLIN: 4) Where did the idea for the classic game EGGBuM (FRED
       57) come from?

TIM  : It's a classic, so soon? Actually the idea came from my
       friend Steve (Manga of Sad Snail Productions). I had just
       sent off the highly playable and totally bug free
       'Fortress' to you, when already I had the urge to write
       something new. Graham Goring had been hassling me to
       write something with GamesMaster, so I had a brain
       storming session. Eventually Steve told me about a game
       called 'Croco Magneto' which he'd played on his Amstrad.
       I thought about it for a while, and decided that the
       concept was going to be fairly easy to convert. (oh how
       naive I was then). The game basically got written by
       Steve telling me what he wanted things to do, and then

       I'd go off for a while and write them. I was quite
       impressed that Steve got so inv olved. Dispute owning an
       Acorn, he quite likes the Sam, he even wrote the
       landscape routine I used in Fortress.

COLIN: 5) Is it true that you're considering writing EGGBuM 2?
       Perhaps in time for the X-mas or New Year issue????

TIM  : Hmmm, do I detect a subtle hint in that comment? Yes and
       No. We have been toying with lots of ideas for EGGBuM II.
       But at the moment we are not sure when we are going to
       write it. The thing is both of us want to do all the fun
       stuff like designing all the different sprites, but
       neither of us want to make a start on the code :-)

       I must confess we have also been wondering whether to try
       and actually sell EGGBuM II for money, assuming we can
       get it to an even higher standard from what it already
       is. Rest assured, if we do, we'll make sure FRED gets a
       fully playable sample, showing off some of the new

       features. Maybe for the next Show....

COLIN: 6) Any plans to give FRED a working SAM C menu? (The disc
       is in the post, by the way)

TIM  : As soon as I get the disk, I will fix it, it will work,
       no really. The problem you see is that it was the first
       program I'd ever managed to complete in a day, and I was
       feeling really good about it, so I didn't really bother
       to test it fully, and made a few too many assumptions.
       You should think yourself lucky that I wrote you one. I
       was sat there with this tune, when I suddenly thought
       "Hey, why not write a menu?" I wanted to do one that was
       different from normal, hence the fact that it has a built
       in game. See, I could have lied, but no, I'm being fully
       honest with you. Besides I'm sure it's just you not
       knowing anything about anything ;-)

COLIN: 7) Moving along, could you explain to the simplest of
       people (no offence, CM) what a WWW page is.

TIM  : Urm, I can try! The World Wide Web (WWW) is basically
       just lots of pages of text spread over lots of computers
       all around the world, which you can view using a fancy
       bit of software called a WWW Browser. The nice thing
       about them, is that there is a whole load of standard
       'tags' which you can add to the text to achieve certain
       effects. The most useful effect, is the ability to turn
       sections of the text into a 'link' for another text file
       somewhere else. So say I was reading an article on the
       X-Files. Then there might be a 'link' so that I could
       look at an article on the wonderful Gillian Anderson, and
       on that page there might be another 'link' to a list of
       all programs she has been in.

COLIN: My mum's called Gillian, you know.  Close, huh?

TIM  : Then there are all sorts of other things you can do. All
       the text is automatically justified, but you can set it
       up in all sorts of different styles, such as numbered
       lists. As well as highlighting text using bold or making

       it larger. You can also insert pictures in with the text,
       or even use a picture as the 'paper' that the text is
       written on! Waffle, Waffle, Waffle.

COLIN: 8) Zzzzz. Oh, you've finished. Thanks. Why did you decide
       to set up a SAM Web page?

TIM  : For several reasons, mainly selfish I must confess. I
       suddenly found out that I was allowed to set up my own
       Web pages. However I get totally sick of the 'bog
       standard student Web page' which simply has a link to the
       X -Files page, and a couple of links to 'dodgy' picture
       sites. So I thought I'd try to so something useful. It
       seemed to me that there wasn't actually any pages
       anywhere dedicated to the Sam Coupe, so I though 'why
       not?' and promptly wrote my own. Admittedly they started
       off looking rather sad. I had a couple of pages of stats
       about the Sam that I had pinched from the manual, and
       that was about it. I had this 'News & Gossip' page,
       except I never had anything to put on it. (hint hint)

       Then all of a sudden I started getting lots of reviews
       and things to put on it, mainly from Graham Goring, and
       so it began to grow into what it is today. Of course, it
       didn't help that I had to move then a week ago,
       especially since you'd just told everyone on FRED the old
       address, but that's life.

COLIN: 9) What does the Web page have on it of interest, and
       what does it involve, etc, etc, yawn?

TIM  : The quick guided tour? It has a whole list of questions
       and answers about the Sam, it's history, and where it's
       going. I've tried to put in blurbs about every game,
       utility and piece of hardware I can think of, as well as
       some reviews. I've got some 'technical' type pages,
       including how to build your own joystick splitter. There
       is a who's who in the Sam world, as well as some business
       addressess, and price lists. Finally there is a list of
       other people with Email addresses, who don't mind getting
       a message from people.

COLIN? 10) Wow! What can us mortals do to help?

TIM  : I'm glad you asked that Colin. The main problem is that I
       get fairly out of date. Basically, I'd really like it if
       people who look at them could point out anything that's
       missing from them. Or even send me a review I could use.
       Anything really. I guess it's a bit awkward for all those
       people who don't have email and the like. But I know
       there are a lot of students who read FRED. Just think.
       You could have your name in print!

COLIN: 11) Is it true that you don't sleep?

TIM  : That is a complete lie. If I ever find out who started
       that rumour I'll force them to play StarShot until they
       can score over 1,000,000 points.

COLIN: 12) What are your plans for the future?

TIM  : EGGBuM for the Archimedies, EGGBuM 2, a Working Menu.....

       I always seem to have a large collection of half finished
       programs. Mainly coz I tend to lose interest in them. The
       other thing is that a lot of the programs I do write tend
       to have a very specific use, so I guess they wouldn't
       really be that suitable for FRED. Actually, there are a
       lot of SamC programs I'd like to write but I tend to feel
       happier writting Utilities, so I'm waiting on the DOS
       library to come out. (Feeling confused yet colin?)

COLIN: No, not at all, I can follow all the technical stuff. DOS
       - Disc Or Something. See? Technical genius. Ow, my head
       hurts. Let's move on.

       13) Thanks Tim. Erm, one last question - how do I
       download onto disc from P-mail?

TIM  : P-Mail? Pegasus Mail? No Idea.

COLIN: Useless cretin.


TIM  : If your system is anything like mine, (ie running under
       Unix) then I find the easiest thing to do, is to save the
       letter to a folder all by itself, and then FTP it onto a
       disk. Of course, however you end up doing it, you are
       going to have to reformat it all to 64 columns :-p

COLIN: Erm, yeah, that'll be it.  I'll, er, FTP it onto thing in
       folder, etc. Help. Bye.

TIM  : Good Bye Colin, nice to have had the chance to talk with
       you again so soon.

Tim Paveley ....@/

- Tim Paveley - Maths with Computer Science - University of
Southampton

Sam Coupe Web Pages: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~tsp93ma/Coupe/