Fred 35

Issue 35

July 1993

Magazine

BM                         Editorial

I'll  begin by saying that this has been a very traumatic month.
Not  only  were  there  no  tickets  left  for  the Manic Street
Preachers concert in Glasgow, but it seemed that after three and
a  half  years  of  faithful service, my Coupe had died. Bizarre
patterns  would  come  up  on screen at random intervals, and my
disc  drive  seemed  utterly  unable  to  load  and  save things
properly  (a  serious  problem when attempting to compile a disc
mag, believe me!). Yup, things looked bleak to say the least.

Luckily,  I  was  born with tremendous powers of obsevation, and
after  about  a week of this I eventually noticed that the front
coloured-bar screen proclaimed I had 256k. Aha! The problem? One
brief  "disciplining"  of my extra RAM chip later, and voila! No
more  bizarre  patterns.  Phew. My disc drive still seemed to be
finally  taking  its  revenge  for being dropped on its head two
years ago, but a quick session with the drive cleaner soon put a
stop  to  that little burst of insolence. And, you'll be pleased
to  hear,  I  was  at  last able to get FRED 35 done. Good news,
methinks.
BM                         Editorial

I did start wondering exactly why I go to the trouble of putting
a  contents  page  on  the  letters  section  but  not  the main
magazine.  Then  I remembered: so that I can put into effect the
nice layouts of what is actually in the contents. So that's that
explained.  I  have  to  confess  I'm  starting  to  run  out of
aesthetically  pleasing  arrangements  though, so be warned that
the  contents  page  may  soon go to the same strange limbo that
Fastline and the SCPDSA seemed to end up in...

I  have  at  last  got  hold of an aerial switcher for my telly.
Hurrah!  Hold  on a mo; I think I'll just press a button and see
what  my  Amiga's  up  to...  [click] ..... [click] Hm. Nothing.
Perhaps  I  should switch it on. Well, I think that demonstrates
admirably  the  luxury  in which I now reside, don't you? And it
only  cost  about  4 years' wages. That's Tandy's prices for you
though. I bet they're only about 8p in Argos.

Finally,  if  anybody  needs  to know where to find an arcade in
Aberdeen, I can now help. And it only took 3.5 hours to find...
BM                           News

The  news section; traditionally not a particularly full part of
the magazine. In fact, it does get tempting to just miss it out.
Nothing  much  to report this month, but oh! Just you wait until
next issue! We have an absolutely HUGE announcement to make, and
I'm not exaggerating one little bit! It's MASSIVE!

But what is it about? No, I'm sorry, I can't. And don't use that
tone  of  voice  with ME, you impudent tyke. I don't know, young
people today....

There  are  actually  a couple of things brewing for next month,
but I'm just not allowed to tell you. Sorry.

One  thing  that  I  AM  allowed  to tell you, although I wish I
didn't  have  to,  is  that YS is finished. After umpteen years,
this,  the  only  Speccy  mag  that  was  any good, is unable to
continue  as a viable marketable magazine. Good luck to those at
the mag, I hope you all find something else soon.

BM                         End of YS

Now  that the last Speccy magazine has finally closed, it really
does  look  like  the  end of the line for the Spectrum. With no
widespread  coverage  of  games, I don't think it'll be too long
before  the  games  just  stop  coming  out.  Getting  things in
perspective   though,  11  years was an extremely good innnings,
and  I expect the real Speccy enthusiasts will keep it simmering
along.

For  us  SAM owners though, it's possibly even more of a a blow.
The  Spectrum  at  least  had  it's  day, while the SAM is still
waiting for that all important breakthrough.

It  could  be a blessing in disguise though: perhaps people will
stop  thinking "Speccy emulator" whenever they hear the name SAM
Coupe.

Where  exactly is the SAM headed now? West Coast are planning to
relaunch the Coupe sometime, and now that the Amiga A600 is down
to £200 it would be suicide to try to directly rival the Amiga.
BM                       SAM's Future

No,  the  best  way  for the SAM to be promoted is to push the 2
features  that  are  not  available  on  Amigas and STs: namely,
user-friendlyness  and  user-friendliness. Okay, the Amiga whups
the  SAM in terms of power. We all know that. I can honestly say
that  I've  never  written a single program on the Amiga though.
The  fact  that  there is  no "built-in" language (while SAM has
BASIC as soon as you switch on) means that to write any programs
you have to go out and spend money. I for one have not written a
single proper program on the Amiga.

The thing that concerns me is this: how are little kids going to
learn about programming and computers if:

(a) consoles are so popular, and
(b) "proper" computers are intimidatingly difficult to use?

If  SAM  is  directed  at first time users, as a step BEFORE the
Amigas  and PCs, not INSTEAD of them, there could well be a good
future for it.
BM                       General Stuff

Anybody  got  a copy of the SAM version of KLAX they don't want?
The  reason  we're  asking  is  that  when it was published, the
publishers  didn't  even  give  the  programmer  a  copy  of it!
Disgusting  isn't  it?  Anyway, being the kind people we are, we
thought  we'd  try  and  help  this  poor,  exploited  victim of
circumstance,  and  get  him  a nice shiny boxed copy of it. And
that's  why  we  want  to  know  if anybody has a copy to spare.
Please,  if  you  do,  get in touch, and help alleviate at least
some of the unnecessary suffering of the world...

More 256K expansions in stock, people. Get ordering! We also now
stock Steve Nutting's DTP package.







BM                    Reviewers Required

Due  to  the  fact that I never get round to reviewing anything,
and  I  expect most of you believe I'm going to be biased anyway
(I'm not, but you probably won't believe that), we've decided to
ask for some volunteers to write the review.

What's  in  it for you though? Quite simply, you get to keep the
software  you  review.  Plus  you get your name in the magazine,
which  really  ought  to  be  enough you know. Oh yes. In my day
there  was  none  of  this "financial settlement" caper. After a
hard  day at the mill did we expect to get paid? 'Course not, my
old  mince  pie [what the %#*@?! - COLIN). But oh no, there goes
Colin  sayin'  we  'as  t' give out games an' fings like any ol'
rubbish. I dunno.

I'll just slip out of moaning git mode now. If you think you can
fulfill our needs (and no, I'm NOT going to say "Oo-er"), please
get  in  touch (no illiterate people please). State what sort
of  software  you feel you're best suited to. I expect only real
hard-workers will say "puzzle games".
BM               An Article from Calvin Allett!

Hah! At last! Somebody has taken note of my countless pleas for
articles! Yeah!

Calm down Brian, relax, breathe deeply, there, that's right...

Thank  you Calvin Allett. Well done. Calvin has written a couple
of  articles  in  fact,  so  we'll have the other one at a later
date.  For  now  though,  read  about  the  topic of programming
languages and their history...










-------------------------------------------  By  Calvin Allett
Programming - The Languages And The History  BitaByte Software
-------------------------------------------

Let's  get  one thing straight right now, this little article is
not  meant to be an authoritive study of each and every language
and  their  origins  but merely an insight into some of the most
popular for those who don't know much about languages.

Most  people buy a computer mainly to play games with the excuse
that  it's  going to be educational, but one way or another just
about  everybody  discovers  programming, if only to decide that
it's too difficult and that they'll never learn.

The  ones that give up are the losers as programming can be, and
is,  one  of the most enjoyable aspects of computer use. In fact
I'd  go  so far as to say that programming is MUCH more fun than
playing a game - ANY game - and it is much more envolved.



Programming  is  a challenge; a challenge to get the computer to
do  exactly  what  you  want  using the rules of the language, a
challenge  to  the  brain  to  use  logic  and  best of all it's
creative.

Programming  languages  come  in two main "flavours": high level
and low level.

High  level languages are fairly easy to understand and learn as
they use words like English. BASIC is a High Level language, but
there are others such as Pascal and C.

Although these languages are easy to use there is a problem with
high  level  languages:  before the computer can understand them
they  need  to  be  translated into the computer's own language.
This problem is got around in one of two ways and these are:-

Compiled  Languages  -  with  a  compiled language you write the
program  and  then compile it into machine code, because all the
translation is done at the compiling stage the program runs at a
much greater speed.
The  drawback  with  compiled  languages  is  that they are much
harder  to debug; if you make a mistake then you have to go back
and change the program before compiling it again.

The  other  way  in  which High Level languages are converted is
with   an  Interpreted  Language.  With  these  the  program  is
translated one line at a time as it is being run. These are much
more  friendly and if you make a mistake then you are told where
the  mistake  is. The disadvantage with Interpreted Languages is
that they are much slower.

As  well  as High Level languages there are Low Level languages.
These  are  far  closer  to  the  actual  instuctions  that  the
computer's  processor  uses and so are harder to learn, but they
run at the fastest possible speed.

Assembly  language  is  a  Low Level language, though instead of
having  to  deal  with the millions of numbers that the computer
actually uses this language allows you to use "mnemonics". These
are usually four letter codes that represent different functions
to the computers processor.
Lastly  there are "In-Between" languages which offer most of the
power  of a low level language but are easy to learn like a high
level one. Languages such as C and Pascal are good examples.

Languages:-

Fortran (FORmula TRANslation)

In the early days of the computer all that was done on computers
was  mathematics,  because  the  languages at the time were very
dificult  to  use.  In 1954, Fortran was invented. It translated
mathematical  formulae  and  problems  into  a form the computer
could understand.

As  people  slowly started to realise that computers were useful
for  more  than just calculations, more languages were invented.
Perhaps  one  of  the  most  important of these before BASIC was
COBOL, which stands for COmmon Business Oriented Language.

COBOL  was  invented in 1961 shortly before BASIC arrived. BASIC
stands for Beginners All-purpose Symbloic Instruction Code).
BASIC  was  invented  by  Professors Thomas E. Kurtz and John G.
Kemeny in 1964 at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, in America.

At that time there were VERY few people who could program and so
they  invented a language that could be picked up easily because
of  it's  similarity with English. The language has been scoffed
at  many  times  over  the years but it still remains one of the
most popular and is an ideal starting block.

In  1969  Nicklaus Wirth of Zurich, Switzerland invented Pascal.
Pascal is a High Level language like BASIC but is more difficult
to learn because it is "structured".

The  way  Nicklaus saw it was that programmers make two kinds of
programming  errors: syntax and logic; syntax errors are where a
word is mistyped or the program doesn't make sense. Logic errors
are  where  the  computer  can  happily  carry  out whatever the
program  asks  of  it,  but  the  programmer  hasn't thought the
program  out  properly and it isn't actually what he wants it to
do.

As  most of the time that is spent writing a program is actually
spent  de-bugging  it,  Nicklaus  thought that he would design a
language  that  limited  the  chances  of confusion and thus the
chances of making logical errors.

Pascal insists that programs are entered in blocks or procedures
so  that  the  flow of the program is clearer, each block can be
indented  so  that  it  is  easier to read and there are no line
numbers; instead it is compiled and so they are not needed.

As  well  as these popular languages there have been many others
over the years such as COMAL by Borge Christensen of Denmark.

Many people thought that ADA which was designed for the American
Department  of  Defence was a very important language because it
was  designed  to be a single standard language so that it could
be used on many different computers.

As  well  as  the  multi-pupose  languages  there have been many
languages  designed for specific puposes such as LOGO.

There  are languages to deal with mathematics, games, demos and
just  about anything you can think of.

So  many  languages to suit so many purposes that ANYBODY should
be able to find a language that they like.


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


                    ===(( Brian Again ))===


So   now   you've  got  no  excuses  for  being  ignorant  about
programming  languages!  Thanks very much for that, Calvin. Much
appreciated.





BM                       Disc Contents

Colin,  being  the energetic type that he is, has elected not to
write  anything  for  this  issue, so I'm afraid you're going to
have  to  live  through  another  month of no CM in the top left
corner. Shame... ha ha ha....

So instead, we'll move straight into the disk contents.

CUTEY  is  by AXE. The fact that it's (A) called "Cutey" and (B)
that  it's  be  AXE should warn you that this is not going to be
the  most  practical or productive of programs. I thought it was
funny though, so that's why I've included it. Enjoy.

SOUNDTRACK  IV  was  kindly  converted  by Stefan Drissen, and I
believe it was originally written by Frantisek Fuka. It consists
of  26  different tunes, which are accessed by pressing the keys
A-Z. ESCAPE to return to the menu, and look out for the odd tune
nicked  from  the  film  industry  (the  Indiana  Jones theme is
particularly good).

BM                       Disc Contents

CYCLOPS  is a disc utility by Peter Hutchison which is much like
SID  and  DIRECTORY  OPUS  on  the  Amiga. The fact that the two
latter utilities are treated like gods should give you some idea
of  just  how  useful a good disc util can be. Full instructions
are included in the program.

BUB  is  the  first of our games this month, and is by the great
Bunj  Wobl.  It does start off a bit slowly, but once you get to
level 4 and upwards you'll really start to like it. Instructions
are included.

MCODE  23. Steve Taylor seems to have done two part 23s now, but
we'll not complain. This month, some info about how to write for
his up and coming WIMP thing. Thanks once again then, Steve.

E-TUNES; more smart tunes which were sent in by Stefan Drissen.



BM                       Disc Contents

TURBO  WORM.  Alright,  I'll  come straight out and say it: it's
another  one  of  those games where you have to collect numbers,
and  your  body  grows  in proportion to the value of the number
collected.  I  know  we've  featured  about a squillion of these
things on the mag recently, but this one (by Neil Maclean, I may
as  well  put  in  here) is hot! Damn hot!! Even if you swore to
throttle yourself with a rabid ferret next time you found a worm
game  on FRED, I'm confident you'll like this. Keys are A, S, K,
M (left, right, up, down).

INVADERS  - more from Chris White, programmer extraordinaire and
general superstar.

SPELL  HELP.  Could it be coincidence that it's just below Chris
White's  column?  Who  knows.  Whether it is or not though, Marc
Broster's helpful proggie simply reeks of quality. The title is,
I   imagine,   pretty  self-explanatory,  and  instructions  are
included.

BM                       Disc Contents

BITS  N  BOBS  has  an  educational  program,  a strange pattern
drawing  thing,  and a couple of games this month. Asteroids, by
David  Lewis,  is  a version of, well, Asteroids really. You can
use  the  joystick  or  Q-A-O-P-Space,  with CNTRL and SYMBOL to
rotate the gun. It's one very difficult game, believe me!

Dan's  Diamonds  from  Dan  Doore  is a bit of a Tetris rip-off.
'Nuff said there I think.

Chemistry  test  is  a  program  which  asks you questions about
chemistry.  Oh,  the  fun I used to have in chemistry... Back to
the subject though. This is the second program from Marc Broster
this  month,  and  is  rather  spookily  his  second educational
program. Oooh....

Ghost  Art  is  a  bizarre  pattern drawing thing, for want of a
better  description. Load it and basically just see what it does
yourself.

BM         FRED 36 - Bon Anniversaire Monsieur FRED!

FRED  36  sees  FRED  entering its FOURTH YEAR of existence, and
that is surely something worth celebrating. We think so, anyway.
We  hope  to have lots and lots and lots and lots (ad infinitum)
of goodies for you, so don't miss it!

Amongst other things we  hope to have an index of issues 1 - 36,
plus  a  "playable" demo of Steve Taylor's new WIMP thing, which
I've  already  seen  and  it  does  look  good  -  a  mixture of
Workbench,  Windows,  and any other graphical user interface you
care to think of. But of course, as Steve's writing it, it'll be
oodles better than anything a mere PC can come up with...

We'll  also have the usual demos and things, but the main reason
you  don't want to miss issue 36 is that we'll be revealing what
has to be the biggest news of the year, and what is arguably the
biggest  thing that's ever happened to the SAM! Intrigued? Good!
You're gonna have to wait though...


BM                      Send Stuff In!

The  usual  page  now:  please  keep sending in material for the
magazine,  as  we  are  as  dependent  as ever on getting demos,
games,  utils,  screens and articles. In fact, unless I suddenly
become  adept  at  machine code and develop and incredibly hyper
imagination I'd guess we always will be!


                          Come on now,
                      Please don't be shy,
                      We need your stuff,
                       I'll tell you why:

                     This mag needs games,
                         And demos too,
                   Plus screens and letters,
                       And all from you!


Good eh? No? Charming!
BM                          Credits

Editor: Brain McConnell (as seem people insist on calling me)
Thanks to:

Marc Broster          AXE                     Steve Taylor
David Lewis           Stefan Drissen          Neil Maclean
Banzai                Frantisek Fuka          Chris White
C Paige               Peter Hutchison         Andrew Chandler
Calvin Allett         Bunj Wobl               Ben Harding
Mark Martin           Tim Butler

Cheques payable to:

FRED Publishing,  (at)                           [redacted]
[redacted]




                        >>}} MUSIC + SOME BIZARRE FICTION!! }}>>
BM                       Music Reviews

Hello  there  pop-pickers!  Dave Nice here, doing some more work
for  "charidee".  Ho  ho ho. Had ya fooled there didn't I! Ahem.
What have we got for you this month then?

            The Replacements - Let It Be
                    Therapy? - Nurse
              Polygon Window - Surfing on Sine Waves
                     3-Lux 3 - Journey Through Ambience (video)

                 The Replacements - Let It Be

This  was  their last album, although singer Paul Westerberg has
just  released  a solo album. This one dates back to 1984, and I
managed  to  pick  it  up  for  "only" £10.49. Woooh! What a low
price...! (Much sarcasm).

The  only reason I bought this was because somewhere I read that
the Replacements were pretty like the Lemonheads.

BM                        Replacments

I'm  happy  to  say they are a little like the Lemonheads, but I
would  hardly  call their sound identical. Coming in at a pretty
short  33  minutes, it's even the same sort of length we've come
to  expect  from Evan Dando's lot (bearing in mind that this lot
were shakin' their thang long before the Lemonheads of course).

This is a bit of a mixture. Some tracks are very punky with lots
of "attitude", while others wouldn't sound too out of place on a
Springsteen  album  (albeit  a  very good Springsteen album). In
general,  a very laid back album for some tracks, while just the
opposite  in others. It's also pretty good. Overall though, just
7 out of 10 because it's short.







BM                     Therapy? - Nurse

I don't know about you, but when I used to think about Therapy?,
I  always  associated them with very very fast, frantic music to
get  up and dance like a mad thing to. This album is not in fact
like  that,  and  a lot of the songs are actually pretty "calm",
although  that's  maybe not the right word. "Not really all that
fast"  is  probably  a better way of describing things, although
some eloquence is sacrificed.

The  single  Teethgrinder  is  on this, but tragically the other
single  Screamager/Shortsharpshock  EP  isn't.  Darn. That was a
fine  song,  that  was.  By  the way, anybody willing to sell me
their CD single (for I loathe and detest tapes and vinyl) please
get in touch.

Anyway, a not-bad album. Not brilliant though. I'm going to give
this one 7 out of  10 as well.



BM          Polygon Window - Surfing On Sine Waves

Following  on  from  my  recent  introduction  to  the  world of
ambience  via  The Orb (who else?!) I went out and got this, and
really don't quite know what to make of it! (a frisbee..?)

It's not ambient, apart from on a couple of tracks, and it could
possibly  be  the  least  commercial  album  EVER, in the entire
history  of  music.  One  track  in  particular,  Quoth,  Select
magazine  described  as "A group of cybermen playing football in
the street with a tin can", and it is. Funnily enough I did hear
it on the radio once. THAT was interesting.

All  the  instruments  on  this sound like they were recorded at
some  factory  somewhere,  and  it's very difficult to get into.
It's not really music for dancing to, and if you tried "chilling
out"  to  it  you'd  probably  go  mad. Very strange. In fact, I
don't really like it that much. 6 out of 10.



BM           3-Lux 3 - A Journey Through Ambience

From  a title like that, you could be forgiven for thinking that
this  contains nothing but very ambient music. And, you would be
correct for it does contain just that. It also contains a lot of
computer graphics and strange video effects.

This video's 80 minutes long, which is good, and the music is of
a   pretty  high  standard.  Some  of  the  visuals  are  a  bit
irritating,  but  most  are  good. There wasn't as much computer
graphics  as  I  was expecting and hoping for, but what there is
can be quite mindblowing - a dozen raytraced 24-BIT colour balls
bouncing  on  the  bottom  of a swimming pool anybody? It really
adds  to  the  effect  when  you  know  what it would take for a
computer to produce some of these effects.

Overall  I  was  very  chuffed  with  this, and copied onto tape
straight  away.  A  good  way  to  discover new "bands", and I'd
recommend  this.  8  out of 10. By the way, one track is by Sven
Vath,  whose  album I've just bought and will review next month.
Now  though, some very strange fiction...
                        PHASE THE FIRST

                         Bob's Day Out

Bob  was  quietly strolling along the beach when he tripped on a
speck   of   sand   and   was   hit   full  in  the  face  by  a
mechanical-lashing seaweed which thrashed away mentally, causing
no  obvious  effect  except  for  placing  his arms into his leg
joints  while  his head protruded from an arm socket; proving to
be  quite  enjoyable as he was a contortionist. But when a young
girl saw him he was forced to lumber into a cavern with her over
his shoulder whilst laughing horribly and stupidly. However, she
was  not defeated: she had with her a trusty Aquabus - a type of
early elephant gun prone to backfire.

Do you know what she did with this Aquabus? Well, she stuffed it
right into his grotesque nasal features, penetrating a sinus - a
serious  blow  for  Bob  which  would  not be very healthy if he
survived this anti-climax to an excellent series of events where
he'd  battled  with  a 3ft 9in wench (well built) with a serious
lack  of  ammunition  on  his  part  -  except for of course, an
extremely large Aquabus stuffed up his swollen nostrils, causing
immense  time paradoxes which led him to believe the girl was in
fact a very tasty meal at a medieval banquet.

"Gning",  he said, "Ptoing Ptoing Plonk Wheee...", went the girl
as  tomato  bombs  hit  her square in the eyes and mouth with an
unprecedented retaliation.

What she didn't know was that Bob had a tomato bomb for a brain.
As  it exploded she used Extra-Sensory-Perception to reverse the
consequences  of  the damage to her rather delicate countenance,
which  is of course dabbling in the occult to achieve superhuman
feats;in  this  case  winning  the  Drunken  Olympics which have
events  like  'Defeating  Quasimodo-Lookalike with the Small But
Perfectly Formed DLT Treble-Top Trophy'.

Bob  proceeded  to  wrench  the Aquabus from the recesses of his
sinuses,  but  was  abruptly  stopped  when  the girl pulled the
trigger  on the Aquabus with an evil grin of delight preceding a
gargantuan  explosion  that blew a pink mass through the back of
Bob's head, to which she said, "If this is what it's going to be
like getting dinner everyday, I'm going back to the city!".

She  began to leave the cavern but encountered Bob's disembodied
soul  at  the entrance.
"Moan, wail, moan, boom - kapow, splat, moan", as he relived the
events  of the past few minutes.
"Damn  and blast," said the girl with disappointment, "I'm going
to belate for tea and crumpets at Mrs. Ribblensteins."


                        PHASE THE SECOND
                   Tea at Mrs. Ribblenstein's

"Ptoing  ptoing  plonk",  went  the  bell  as  the girl rang it,
bringing  back  memories of todays demonic struggle with Bob the
Hunchback - 'The bells, the bells!'.

"Here's  that  brain you wanted ma'am", said the waitress as she
handed the pretty girl the mound of jelly-like spaghetti-looking
ooze on a plate. "It's a pity about your husband", she added.

"At  least  he went the way he would have liked best", said Mrs.
Ribblenstein.
"How's that?" enquired the waitress.
"Humping his secretary!", Mrs. Ribblenstein muttered.

The  waitress,  Tracy,  on  hearing  this, remembered she had no
"buns  in  the  oven"  and  rapidly  disappeared  up the stairs,
leaving  Mrs.  Ribblenstein  alone with her brain, which at that
very  moment  started  rhythmically  beating  like  a heart. The
beating turned into a pulsating-bulging.
Then, as the cat was making a bolt for the far door - clever cat
-  the  seething mass exploded. An oozy, dirty-green gel covered
the  room  - all over Tracy's upholstery. The cat became riveted
to  the spot (how that happened, no-one ever discovered) and the
glowing  red  orb  that  had  been  left  on the table, from the
explosion slid off towards the petrified cat, devouring it alive
and glowing yellow as it consumed his testicles.

Mrs. Ribblenstein tried to scream, but could not as a globule of
tomato  ketchup hit the door. It flashed through all the colours
in  the  spectrum  and  at least fifty that weren't. At this she
felt  truly  threatened  and  tried yet again to scream and, yet
again,  was interrupted by a falling ceiling. Through the rising
dust a scantily-clad Tracy and Bob lay fuming. Mrs. Ribblenstein
ran  towards  Tracy, "The Lesbian and Gay Movement lives again",
she cried when, from underneath the rubble , Claire Rayner poked
her head, flapped her "wings", rose up, and took the full impact
of  Tracy  on  her  left and Mrs. Ribblenstein on her right, she
called "Seconds away! Round One!".
Suddendly, Bob awoke in a crumpled heap on his bedroom floor. He
sighed with relief as he realised he'd been dreaming. Just as he
relaxed, a glowing orb rolled out from under he bed....



BRIAN:  Now  come  on. They were WEIRD!! What I want to know is,
what were they on, and where can I get some of it!! Seriously, I
have  to say that those must be the strangest two "stories" I've
ever  read.  Congratulations  to  the authors, Ben Harding, Mark
Martin, and Tim Butler.

That's all from me. See you next month!

Letters & Reviews

BM                          Contents

      01 - Contents
         04 - Letter from Andrew Penny
           06 - Letter from Robert Pain
             10 - Letter from Jill Angus
              12 - Letter from Mark Sturdy
               15 - Letter from G Robson
                18 - Letter from J Marsh
                20 - Review of PC Suite
               22 - Last Page










                    Letter from Andrew Penny

Dear Brian / Stefan,

First  things  first:  I  believe I owe Stefan an apology. Sorry
Stefan,  I  was  a little out of order wasn't I. It won't happen
again, promise!

Yes  you  are very clever, and by trying, and indeed succeeding,
to  get  to  know  SAM  in and out, you have proved that you are
neither a misguided soul or wasting your time.

Please  let  me  explain  why I wrote that letter, controversial
though it was.

I still believe that the SAM computer is a great machine, and is
capable  of  doing  MUCH more than it is doing at the moment. So
much  so  that  I  have  been trying for quite some time to help
remedy  the  situation  myself  by  having  a  bash  at  my  own
programming.

                    Letter from Andrew Penny

Now,  I  am  progressing,  but  very  slowly,  (It's  very  time
consuming  learning  to program a computer in it's own language,
and  having  to find and correct all your own bugs, isn't it!?),
therefore  it can be VERY frustrating to see someone as talented
a programmer as Stefan, using all that skill that for the moment
is  beyond  my  reach,  not  for  exciting things like DUNE, the
SIERRA  ADVENTURES, or MONKEY ISLAND etc., but to force poor SAM
once more to pretend it is a SPECTRUM!

So  hopefully  you  can  now see how, on the face of it, someone
like  your good self, Stefan, can look like you are wasting your
time  with such projects, to someone like my sad misguided self,
who  would  give my right arm to have such skills and be able to
have a crack at programming MONKEY ISLAND.

Now,  After  the  heat  of the moment had passed, and after your
reply in FRED, I understand and admire what you have been doing.
Keep  it  up!  But  remember, you are not the only one who would
like to see MONKEY ISLAND on the SAM!
                    Letter from Andrew Penny

    Right, on to another point now I think. Brian, you keep on
saying that we cannot afford to buy licences for popular games,
but if my memory serves me right, (.....it was a long time ago
now!), that other brilliant programmer, (..some memory eh!!..),
managed to give us the excellent PRINCE OF PERSIA without buying
the licence to do so, why can't other big name games come our
way via the same method ?????.












BM                   Reply to Andrew Penny

Well!  What  can  I  say?  I'm sure the great god Stefan will be
appeased  (more  or  less) by that torrent of praise, so you can
once  again  sleep safely at night. There's another of his great
conversions  in  this very issue, as it happens.

As for the subject of licenses and conversions: if you think the
cost of Prince of Persia was a phone call to Domark and a packet
of  jelly  babies, you are ever-so-slightly wrong... This was an
extremely expensive project, and I've been led to believe that a
quite  frightening  proportion  of  the royalties ended up in Mr
Domark's pockets.

We  are constantly trying to obtain licences however, not on the
basis  of  "How  much  cash  will  it take then?" but "Oh go on.
Please.  It  IS a British computer, y'know..." You get the idea.
Unless  software  houses  are prepared to just do it as a favour
(with  slight  financial  leverage)  there's nae chance, laddie.
Still,  we  may have some fairly good news for you next month on
the license front. We'll see.                            - BRIAN
                    Letter from Robert Pain

Dear Brian,

I bet you are sick of my name by now, but here's another letter!
Firstly,  thanks  for  putting my little game on the menu. About
the  game,  there are actually TWO cheats, each giving 10 lives:
pressing  SYMBOL, and pressing F2. To general readers the SOS on
the  bat  is my working pseudonym - Sphere (me) of Strato, which
is a "team" cosisting of only me.

You  want a techy question? Check this: how are fonts stored and
how  do  you  go about creating a new one? Brian, about coloured
BASIC  lines,  am I going blind or what because I can't find F/A
in  the  manual. Please enlighten me as to how they are created.
On the subject of manuals, what is there in the technical manual
(only a rough idea - I'm just interested that's all).

And  now,  whatever happened to... Lord Insanity, Paul Angel (of
Sound  Machine fame), Statues of Ice, CODIGO, Electron Affinity,
and the SAM Coupe Megademo (and what are they doing at the mo?)?
                    Letter from Robert Pain

On  the  subject  of  ESI's  demos,  I  read in YS that they had
released  a demo called out of colour. Where can I get this demo
from?  Finally on the subject of demos and PD etc, are there any
reliable sources of SAM PD left anywhere?

Now  some  general  points:  what is the OUTDEX situation? Is it
going to happen in the near future or not at all? Is there going
to  be  a  rather large BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA for FRED 36? Or is
that  info a bit hush hush? Lastly in the amazing TETRIS, is the
speed  of  the  blocks  related  to  points, lines, or number of
frames  elapsed  since  the  game  started?  I've  got 283 lines
(pretty  good  huh?)  and  wonder  if any genius has done better
(very difficult).

Must go now, bye until next month (probably).




BM                   Reply to Robert Pain

Yes, we felt we'd been a bit unfair with last month's deliberate
exclusion of Robert, so here he is this month in all his glory.

We'll  pass  your  techy query on to Brian Cavers, because I for
one have not got the faintest idea how fonts are stored. You can
use  Flash!  to  create new ones, although it's not going to win
any prizes for user-friendlyness.

Oh alright. To change the colours in BASIC lines you press CNTRL
and  P (paper) or I (ink) plus a number. CNTRL + I + 4 therefore
changes  the  paper  colour to green, and it's on page 178 in my
manual,  although I'm hardly surprised you missed it: it doesn't
exactly leap out of the page and grab you by the throat. Roughly
speaking, the Techy Manual contains things like system variables
(full  lists)  and  assembly language instructions. Don't buy it
though - the plot is just AWFUL! (har har har)

To  be  honest  I  don't  know  if  there  are  any remaining PD
distributors.
BM                   Reply to Robert Pain

I  don't  think  there are, but now could well be the right time
for  a new PD library for somebody with the right skills. At the
start there were millions of libraries and very little software,
now  it  seems  the software is emerging but with nowhere to go.
Most  large  demos  are  a  little TOO large to realistically be
included  on  FRED,  so where else can they go? Any PD libraries
which are still going, please get in touch.

If  LI,  Paul  Angel,  CODIGO, ENTROPY, or ESI are reading this:
what's happening then lads?!

We  are  hoping  to  include  a FREDEX next issue (it depends on
whether  I  remain sober long enough to write the database thing
or  not,  really.  We  are  hoping  that Issue 36 will be "a bit
special",  but  as  ever it's up to our faithful readers to send
stuff in...

283  lines  on  Tetris? Not bad, not bad. 15 more than I've ever
had, anyway. Humph.                                      - BRIAN
                    Letter from Jill Angus

Dear Sir,

PLEASE,  PLEASE  PRINT THIS LETTER IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF FRED! IT
IS MY LAST HOPE!

I  am worried that my boyfriend is having a fling behind my back
-  with  his  bloomin'  SAM  Coupe. He waits impatiently, tongue
hanging  out of his mouth, every month for the new FRED disc and
once  he gets it - you've guessed it - he is unavailable dot has
been  scanned.  Not  that I'm insulting your "disc-magazine", it
really  is  quite  good (I've sat through many issues!), but all
I'd  like to say is: if you're reading this DOUG*, GETT OFF YOUR
BUTT AND TAKE ME OUT!!


PS Yes, I'm the one who bought him Prince of Persia, in the hope
it might cure his obssession. It didn't.

* As in DOUGLAS MURDOCH of ESKBANK, MIDLOTHIAN
BM                    Reply to Jill Angus

Well well well. First of Jill, sorry for spelling your name with
a  "G". It was me that messed up, not Doug. I'd hate to think of
the consequences if it was him that got it wrong....

You  may  or  may not feel comforted by the fact that you aren't
the  first person to have been neglected in favour of the Coupe.
Let's  face  it;  one  look at SAM's sexy blue legs and even the
most warmblooded male is going to fall in love with it. I'm sure
you've felt the uncanny attraction yourself upon occasion.

My  advice to you is this; paint your legs blue, stay out of the
sun for the next couple of years (ideally, move to Moscow - they
seem  very  Coupe-coloured  there),  and slap a SAM logo on your
forehead. What more could a man want?

Finally,  to  Douglas,  the villain of the piece: I wish I could
have  seen  your  face when you read this. Oh, how I wish! And I
know   it's  difficult, but you really ought to spend a bit more
time away from your Coupe.                               - BRIAN
                    Letter from Mark Sturdy

Dear Colin & Brian,

Looking  at some of the letters and articles in recent issues of
FRED,  it  seems  that  a lot of people have lost touch with the
idea  of  what  the Coupe is meant to be about. Dig out some old
issues  of  CRASH or YS and turn to one of the early SAM Surgeon
or  SAM Forum pages. Find MGT's original 4-page advert in SU. Do
you  remember  the  great  feeling of hope and optimism when the
Coupe  was  first  launched?  That's  what the SAM is about, not
pathetic  little  letters from people more interested in numbers
on  a piece of paper than whether the machine actually does what
it's  intended  to do. I get the feeling that these people would
be  far  better off with an Amiga 1200 and a sticker saying "SAM
Coupe" (far be it from me to copy YS's jokes...).

You may argue that that age of optimism is long gone and nothing
can  be  done  about  the  so-called  commercial  failure of the
machine.

                    Letter from Mark Sturdy

What  hardly  anyone seems to realise, however, is the fact that
the SAM is still a very viable computer, if only we can persuade
the  high  street retailers and the big software houses of that.
It's  no  good just one person writing  a letter to Psygnosis or
WH Smiths - what we need is a campaign run by FRED, FORMAT, ZAT,
YS  and  all  the  other  SAM-related magazines and user-groups.
Together,  we can prove to the corporate giants that the SAM can
cut it with the best of them.

Keep the faith! (I don't believe I just said that)









BM                   Reply to Mark Sturdy

There's  no  doubt  that the SAM scene is greatly changed from a
couple  of  years  ago, but that spirit of optimism went hand in
hand  with  a  great  deal  of naivety. Nowadays people are more
realistic,  and those innocent optimistic days of 1990 seem long
gone.

The  SAM's  future,  I  agree, is far from inevitable. Even now,
there  does still remain the chance of widespread recognition. I
don't  know  if  I'm  allowed  to tell you my reasons for saying
this, because Colin's answering machine is on and the deadline's
approaching fast so I don't have the time to keep trying. If the
SAM does take off though, I'm sure you'll notice though.






                                                         - BRIAN
                     Letter from G Robson

Dear Colin,

I  have  been  most  impressed  by  with the samples of ETracker
music  appearing  on the last few issues of FRED, and I wondered
if  it  would  be  possible  for  you to issue a disc containing
nothing  else  BUT  examples  of this music? I don't know enough
about  music  to  be able to use something like ETracker myself,
but I certainly enjoy the samples on FRED.

If  such  an idea is not feasable, is there any way in which one
can  copy the examples from FRED on to another disc? I've looked
at  the items on the Directory list, but cannot sort out what is
what,  and in what order they would have to be copied. Are there
a  few  key entries which must be copied first, then followed by
tune  entries?  Do  these  have to be repeated for each disc, or
once  entered,  will  they run any of the ETrackertunes on other
discs?


BM                     Reply to G Robson

Like  coming up with a FRED Index, producing a disc brim full of
E-Tunes  is  certainly one of the things we'd like to get around
to but never seems to get done. Seeing as I'm lucky enough to be
on  holiday  at  the  moment  I'll have to seriously think about
getting some of these little projects a bit closer to fruition.

For  the moment though, you're quite free to take the tunes from
the  magazine and store them on a separate disc. Here's what you
might like to do:

1-  In  recent issues anyway, all the actual tunes are named E1,
E2,  E3  etc on the disc, so you should be able to find and copy
these over to another disc.

2-  Stefan  Drissen's  E-Tune  player  (ie the one we use at the
moment)  needs  the  files E-BASIC, E-TEXT, E-SCR, and E-PLAYER.
E-TEXT  and E-SCR aren't actually essential, but failure to copy
them over just causes problems.

BM                     Reply to G Robson

3-  Right.  You've  got  your  disc with DOS on it, plus all the
files  prefixed with "E-". Next you copy over the tunes from all
the  discs  you  want. It doesn't matter what you call them, but
you  will  have  to  change  some  of  them  as  you cannot have
countless  files all called E2. You may as well call them E1-E50
or whatever.

4-  Now the last part, and the only "complicated" bit. In actual
fact  it's  not  too tough though. Reset, do a BOOT 1 to load in
the  DOS and then MERGE the program "E-BASIC". Look down through
the program and you'll come across some data statements like so:

             9999 DATA "E1","ANDY MONK, UNTITLED"

Here,  "E1"  is  the filename, and "ANDY MONK, UNTITLED" is what
comes  up  in the title bar. Simply alter the data statements to
your  own  needs.  As long as the final data statement is in the
form:        9999 DATA "",""
then the program will work. Simple eh?                   - BRIAN
                      Letter from J Marsh

Dear Colin,

Please  find  attached a cheque for £9.99 for Days of Sorcery, I
hope it's not too difficult to get somewhere.

Wop  Gamma turned up last Saturday and hopefully I will complete
it  by  August,  I'm  up to level 80 at the moment. This game is
definitely  the  best  game  released on the SAM since Prince of
Persia.  The graphics, sound and gameplay are brilliant and show
what  the  SAM is capable of. Is there any chance of a Wop Gamma
2? Another 100 levels...

While  wondering  about  Wop  Gamma  2,  what  about a sequel to
Boing!?  The  game itself was well programmed with nice graphics
and  sound,  but was too easy to complete. The advantage of this
type  of  game  on  the  SAM is that it flips from one screen to
another  allowing  you  to  show  the  graphics in full, and the
success Codemasters have had with Dizzy proves that this type of
game is popular.
                      Letter from J Marsh

If  I  don't  write  to  you by issu 36, I'd like to wish FRED a
Happy  Birthday,  and let's hope the SAM has more success during
your 4th year; it deserves to.


                       Reply to J Marsh

Thanks  for  those  last  words,  we  too  hope the SAM gets the
success  it's  due.

Wop  Gamma  2  is  a  possibility, but don't hold your breath! I
don't  think  Boing! 2 is ever going to emerge, but that doesn't
mean  more  platform  games  won't  turn  up. In fact, I believe
there's  a  great  one  lined  up  at  this very moment. No more
details yet though (just be patient!).

I'm  beginning  to  feel  quite  imbecilic about the fact that I
couldn't  get  ANYWHERE  on  Boing!  I may need to dig it up and
complete if only to set my mind at rest that I'm not subnormal!
BM                    Review of PC Suite

Okay,  okay,  so maybe it has been out for centuries; I couldn't
care less. The thing is, I just found out about it recently.

What  it  does  is  allow you to copy files from PC disks to SAM
discs.  This means you can put ASCII text files, as in Outwrite!
files,  onto  PC  disks,  and  then  load  these  into  PC  word
processors.  You  can  also load PC WP files (no acronyms here!)
into  SAM  WPs.  The  files are not "acted upon" in any way: you
can't  start  using PC utils into your Coupe, but code files can
be copied over directly.

That  is the program at its simplest though. It can convert your
PC  text  files (which are ASCII format, but tend to be slightly
different to Coupe 64 column files nonetheless) into files which
suit Coupe WPs fine. And vice versa: Outwrite! files to standard
PC types.

There are various other, more specialised options such as making
files Specmaker compatible, or to suit the Wordstar WP.
BM                    Review of PC Suite

Another feature is that which lets you write your BASIC programs
on  the  PC  WP  rather  than in the SAM interpreter thing. This
seems  to  me  a  bit  too  much hassle to bother with, but some
people may find the idea appealing.

There are Amiga utilities which let you read/write PC discs, and
some  of  you  may be pleased to hear that this is a way to load
AMIGA  word  processor  files  into your Coupe (and vice versa).
More  importantly  (to me, at any rate), you can swap over Amiga
screens  (just code files, remember) onto SAM disks, and then do
with  them  what you will (you do need the right SAM software to
convert the code files into standard SAM screens, remember).

Some people will find this utility utterly indispensable, others
will  never  look twice at it. If you want to swap files between
computers though, I can highly recommend this. It can be slow to
convert  file  formats (ie normal SAM text to standard PC text),
which is my only gripe. Other than that though, it's great!

BM                         Last Page

If  you want to order this package, and I'd advise you to do so,
you may find the following address rather useful..!

                         S.D. Software,
                           [redacted]

PC  Suite  costs  £25.95,  which  is  actually a bit steep in my
opinion,  but  if you're going to find it useful, it's worth it.
Members  of INDUG can get it for just £19.95, by the way. P+P is
£0.50 in UK, £1.20 outside UK.

And  that's another letters section all wrapped up and finished.
Now I can go and relax. Aaaaahhhh....

DIY Space Invaders: MC Tutorial (Ctd.)

Well  after last month most of you proberly thought that was the
end  of  the  game  but you was wrong, You may have notice after
playing  the game that upon dying that it returned you to BASIC.
That's because there were no routines for end of life or for end
of game, and this month I will give you the routines for those.


     First off I had better tell you what you need of the disk :

     File name   Discription


     IN-SOURCE   Comet source file (fourth installment)







 Game Theory
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With this game you only lose a life when you are hit by an alien
bomb  and  as  there're  no  energy type counters then we simply
decrease lives until they equal zero.

Just  for the fun [Fun??! - BRIAN] of it, I have decided to give
three  different  messages  for every possiblity of end of game.
These are:

         ALL LIFES LOST ;ie  no more ships
           ALIEN LANDED ;ie  aliens have reached the bottom of
                        ;the screen
              COMPLETED ;ie  you have gone through eight waves
                        ;of aliens





 Main Area Source Examination
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
****************************************************************
To mix this month's source with the source you should have saved
last  month,  all  you  do is load in the source you have saved,
then  merge  in this month's source. Then find the label MERGER;
this  will  take  you  to  the  start of the merged source. Then
follow and act on the text messages there.
****************************************************************

Now  this  is  going  to  seem  a bit trivial to explain what is
happening  in  the  source,  but to save you looking at the text
from the past few months I will anyway.

 Life.lost
~~~~~~~~~~~
When the ship.state (inturpt sprite one) equals -1 (&FF) then we
have  died  and  the  explosion  sequence  has expired (this was
checked  for  in GAME.LOOP in issue 33). First of all we test if
we  died because the aliens have landed (FLOOR FLAG <>0); if yes
then goto END.LAND.
Otherwise, decrease the LIVES variable and test if it equals "0"
(test  "0"  and  not  0  because  our lives are in ASCII and not
decimal form). If LIVES="0" then goto END.LIVES.

If  we still have some lives, then we set the ship sprite to the
blank  image  (so  we  cannot see it), then set the ship control
program to its main routine, ship state set to 0 (alive) and set
the  wait  counter  (this  is  decreased  to give a delay before
reactivating  the  ship),  to  the  equate  setting.  Then  goto
GAME.LOOP.

 Comp.game, End.lives and End.land
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The  reason  why  these  routines are headed together is because
they all do the following :

First we set the interrupt sprite off and then page the opposite
to  VMPR  low  and clear. Then we put the Invader sign onto this
screen, then print the required text messages as below :



           COMP.GAME uses the text labeled END.COMP.TEXT?, Where
                     the ?? is from 1 to b.

           END.LIVES uses the text labeled END.LIVES.LOST?,
                     Where the ?? is from 1 to c.

           END.LAND  uses the text labeled END.LAND.TEXT?, Where
                     the ?? is from 1 to d.


Then print the "Press Fire" message, fade out the screen, switch
screens, fade in new screen and then wait for the fire button to
be  pressed.  Upon then fire button being pressed we the jump to
HIGH.CHECK  which  does  the high score bits, but you'll have to
wait for next month's installment for that (as space is tight on
disk magazines).

By the way if anybody's got any comments or recommendations then
write to me at the following address :



                         Chris J. White
                           [redacted]


and  I  will  put them into the following months article with my
resposis/modifications to help fellow SAM uses even more.

See ya soon, Chris.

Cyclops User Guide

                       Cyclops User Guide
                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
System Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SAM Coupe 256K min.
MasterDOS
MasterBASIC



Background
~~~~~~~~~~
This program was originally designed for the mouse but due to
poor  accuracy  and  the  low  resolution  of  the screen it was
dropped  in  favour  of  a  keyboard  based program. Anyway, not
everyone has a mouse.

This  program is a tribute to Amiga's SID program, a very highly
rated  directory  utility which removes the need to use commands
to do everyday file maintenance.

Getting Started
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copy  the  Cyclops program onto another disk and then RUN it, no
other files are necessary.

How to use this program
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The  main  screen  consists of the File List on the left side of
the  screen  and  will  list at most 18 files. On the right hand
side  is  the Command List in two columns. Under the commands is
given  some  information  about  the  current disk and path, the
number of free slots and free space. The file table has a cursor
(">") called the file pointer and the command table has a cursor
too (">") called the command pointer.

Using the file list
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To  move  the  file pointer press either the up arrow key or the
down  arrow  key  (located under the function keys). To select a
file  press  the  space  bar, to deselect it press the space bar
again. (Selection of a file inverts the file name).
If  there are more than 18 files in the directory then press the
arrow  key  at either the top or bottom of the table will reveal
more files. Blank filenames are ignored by the program.

Using the command table
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To move the command pointer press either Q or A to move it up or
down and O or P to move it between columns. Pressing RETURN will
select that command.

All the commands that affect files (Copy, Move, Rename, Protect,
Hide,  Erase,  FStat,  Print,  Read,  Show)  require one or more
filenames to be selected.

Disk  based  commands  do  not  require file selection (Opendir,
Parent, Device, Label, Format, Backup).

To  Enter  a  directory  the  file pointer must be pointing to a
directory name, it does not need selecting.

The Quit option immediately exits the program.
The file commands:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copy  -This option will copy files to new files which you must
       specify when prompted. You may put a different
       destination if required and use the * wildcard.

       eg.       Mynewfile
                 myDir/Mynewfile
                 D2:myDir/Mynewfile
                 Mydir/*

Move  -This works similarily to the Copy command except that the
       original  file  is deleted. This is particularly useful
       for file reorganisation.

Rename-This option will rename either a file or a subdirectory
       to the name you specify.

Erase -This option can delete files or subdirectories. You are
       prompted for each file for safety reasons. Note that
       subdirectories must be empty before deletion.
Protect- This will toggle the file's protection from deletion.

Read   - This option will allow you to read text files saved in
         CODE file format. Press any key to redisplay the main
         screen.

Show   - This option will display pictures which have been saved
         as SCREEN$. Press any key to redisplay the main screen.

Info   - This will display details about a file. It will display
         the filename, its type, its size in bytes, its status,
         start and execute addresses, date and flags.

Print  - This option will print either text files or screen
         files to the printer. It will use MasterDOS' interrupt
         printing facility to speed printing up.

Hide   - This will toggle the file's hidden status, it will only
         affect DIR lisitngs.


The Directory commands:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Makedir- This will create a new subdirectory in the current
         directory. You will be prompted for a name.

Enter  - You must have the file/table pointer pointing to a
         directory for this to work. It will make that directory
         the current directory. The path name at the bottom of
         the screen will change to indicate this.

Parent - This will change the current directory to its parent
         directory.









Disk commands:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Device - This changes the current device (d1: to d4:) and may be
         used to indicate a different disk if you swap disks.
         You will be prompted for the device number (1-4).

Label  - This will change the disk's label name (only shown in
         DIR listings).
Format - This will initialise a new disk for use. It will use
         SAMDOS 80 file max. format. Once the disk is formatted
         you  must reinsert the original disk if using the same
         drive as the currently one used.

Backup - This will copy a whole disk onto a another disk. You
         will  be prompted for the from/to devices (1-4). The
         destination disk must be write enabled.

Quit   - This option will exit the program.



Error messages
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If  an  error occurs then the following message will appear, try
to correct the problem before pressing RETURN:

     Not possible. Error=

Common errors are:

87  Check disk in drive
103 No such drive
105 Not enough space for file
106 Directory full
104 Disk write protected
107 File not found
109 File name used
113 Directory not empty
116 Protected file

Hope you enjoy this program.

All bugs fixes and any future upgrades:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Hutchison
[redacted]

Instructions For Brog's Advanced Spelling Prog

Marc Broster 3/4/92

I am really pathetic at spelling, and I read in a book that this
type of spelling program was quite effective, so I wrote my own.
The  basic  idea  is  that  you  can give a list of words to the
program,  then  the  program  will  test you on them by flashing
(oo-er)  (I'am sorry! I'am sorry! I was looking through some old
YSs  last  night!  Sorry! Won't happen again!) up the word, then
asking  you  to  retype  it.  I  can't  tell  you personally how
effective  it is, as I'am writing these instructions before I've
actually finished the program (!).

So, here's what to do. Once loaded, you will see the menu, where
you  can  1-Do  a quick test 2-Do a full test 3-Add Words 4-Edit
words and 5-Go to the option menu. The difference between a full
test  and  a quick test is that in the quick test, you will only
be  tested  on  words that are below the LEARN setting, while in
the full test you will be tested on all words.
Each  word  has  a value, which is orginally set at 0. Everytime
you  run  the  test and correctly type in the word, the value is
increased  by  one.  The  LEARN setting is set at 8, which means
once you have correctly typed in a word 8 times, you will not be
tested on it again in a quick test.

I  have suppied a list of a few words allready with the program,
but to add your own words, select "Add Words" from the menu. You
can  them  type  in as many new words as you want. Once you have
finished, enter "E" to exit.

To  alter your list of words, use the "Edit Words" feature. Type
in  the  word  you  want to change, and then you will be able to
either delete the word, or change it's value.

There's  a  fairly  extensive options menu, where you can change
the  length  of  time a word is displayed on screen, whether you
want  sound  effects  or  not, what music you want played on the
menu  screen  (There's  a  choice  of 3 tunes), whether you want
animation or not, change the LEARN setting, clear all words, and
delete all words.
You  can also print a list of words (along with their values) to
either screen or printer.

I  hope somebody finds the prog useful, as it's taken me ages to
write...