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EDITORIAL
First of all I would like to welcome you all to the first
issue of "SAM SUPPLEMENT". As you probably know, it is an
offshoot of the S.D.C. which has been running successfully for
coming up to four years now.
We hope in the coming issues to bring you news, hints, tips,
discussion and fully working SAM programs. This of course all
depends on you the members. If you all sit out there and let
the us do all the work, I think that you will find that it will
be a very boring magazine. What we need is YOUR support (no not
your truss!). If you have anything to say about the SAM, or if
you have written any type of program or routine, then let us
see it. It doesn't have to be mega-amazing, just useful or
interesting or even entertaining we will publish all types.
I, as editor, may not agree with your views, but that will not
stop me publishing them! We don't want this newsletter turning
into the SAM appreciation society, and both sides of the SAM,
good and bad, will be welcomed.
We also hope to offer a helpline. Several of our club members
have worked on the SAM developement and may be able to sort out
any problems that you may be having. If your problem baffles
even them, then we will publish it and see if any other member
has any ideas. Conversly, if you yourself have a hint or tip
that may solve someone's problem, then please send it in to be
shared with the other members.
This brings me neatly on to how to write to us.
If you want your letter to be included in the SUPPLEMENT you
will have to send it in on some form of magnetic media. I am
afraid that none of the team is really interested in re-typing
your 4 page printout into a form that can be used. If you own a
Spectrum, you can sent a Tasword II file on either tape or Opus
disc (40 or 80 track). If you can't do that you will find in
the program section of this issue, "SAMSCRATCH". This is a
small but fully working word proccessor, which we are giving
you to write to us with. Full details can be found in the
PROGRAM section.
When writing, could you please include your full name and
address, plus a phone number if possible. If you don't want any
of these published please say so in your letter. I will not
publish any article or letter that arrives without a name and
address. It would also be helpful to us and other members, if
you stated what you are using in your system. E.G. have you got
a drive, what make of printer, what ROM/DOS etc. This will make
it easier for members to relate to when comparing problems or
trying out a routine. Hopefully, in the future, we may be able
to publish a list of members and their systems, so that personal
contacts may be made.
The SAM SUPPLEMENT comes out every 2 months, on the first week
of that month, so we must receeve your contributions by the 20th
of the preceding month to be sure of inclusion in that issue.
If a personal reply is needed, the cost of return postage would
be appreciated.
So you know who "WE" are there is a list of the team at the end
of this letters section.
We hope you enjoy the SAM SUPPLEMENT, and support it fully.
Dave Tonks (Editor)
***LETTERS***
FROM:-Brian Mumford (NEWSLETTER DISTRIBUTER)
57 St. Saviours Rd.
West Croydon
Surrey CR0 2XE
Welcome to the first issue of SAM Supplement, those of you who
are also members of the Opus Discovery Club, will know me as I
have either written to you, or had the pleasure of speaking to
you on the telephone at some time. I hope you will enjoy the
SAM supplement as much as the Opus Newsletter, and I hope you
will contribute to its success. The idea for this mag came from
a conversation I had with Dave, one of many I might add, and
within days Dave had given birth to the SAM supplement as you
see it, he has worked very hard getting it this far, now it is
your turn to help it continue, please do not let Dave have
wasted his time and effort. The demo of mine in this issue is
all because of Dave's efforts in helping me understand the ROLL
and SCROLL commands, and if I can do it so can you, so come on
lets see some of your efforts no matter how simple or complex.
As Dave has said in his editorial the SAM Supplement is run on
the same lines as the Opus Newsletter,it is a mag for the
members by the members, with the same aims to help each other
get the best from our computer, so if you have found a new way
of doing something or an interesting routine, let us see it,more
importantly, share it with the other club members, no matter how
simple,it may be the answer to some one's prayers.
For those member's with Opus's, we are shortly going to supply
Paul Cheffings of EXCOM fame with a SAM so that he can work on
an Opus Emulator, we are lucky in the fact that also one of our
members is Dr Andy Wright the man who wrote the ROM in the SAM,
he has agreed to help in any way he can in this project. I or
Dave would be very interested in hearing from anybody who is
working on a similar project for the Opus or any other computer.
We shall, in the SAM Supplement give advance news of items in
the Opus Newsletter, and the Newsletter will do the same for the
Supplement, but we will not be repeating each other's articles.
Please help make your Newsletter a success by contributing
either an article,a hint,a letter,or a demo.
FROM:- Les Phillips. The 'SALES & WANTS' man.
The White House TEL:- 0258 880394
St, Catherines Well
Milton Abbas
Blandford, Dorset DT11 0AS
Because of the unfortunate situation regarding MGT, it may well
be some time before it is possible to receive from MGT, or it's
successor, the service which is so useful in helping to
understand and perhaps overcome oddities in behaviour which are
expected when a new system gets into the hands of a large number
of users. Until this situation improves, SAM users can only look
amongst themselves for assistance, and this newsletter can serve
an admirable service in facilitating contacts between users
seeking advice and information. For instance, I would dearly
like to hear if anyone else has noticed - and even better
overcome - a feature of the screen display.
My set up is the SAM (updated ROM and DOS 2.0) with drive and
Philips CM8833 monitor. When the screen background is a light
colour, particularly white, dark lettees have shadows. In some
cases, a second faint but clear image of, say, dark letters can
be seen about an inch to the right of the original. Manipulation
of the monitor controls can alter, but not eliminate the
phenomenon. It does not seem to be a feature of the monitor,also
being present when using RGB input to a Ferguson MC01. Another
user has also noticed this effect on his SAM. It has the
appearance of requiring a simple adjustment, but of what?
Any help or suggestions would be very welcome.
FROM:- R.Murfet
4 Ludlow Way
Croxley Green
Rickmansworth
HERTS WD3 3SH
(This letter was originally sent to the S.D.C)
Dear Peter,
Thank you for all the work you put into th club, it is
much appreciated. I have purchased a Sam Coupe, and I hope that
the club supports it. As far as the BUGS in the ROM is concerned
I have found:-
(1) Loading Spectrum programs nearly impossible.
(2) When first switching on and BOOTing, the Sam reports
a LOADing error, (switch off and back on, and all is OK
(3) EDITing lines to the work area will only list half the
line and then corrupts the listing.
(4) INPUT problems, it will run
10 DIM sam$ (2,37)
20 INPUT I
but when you change the DIM statement to sam$(250,37)
Sam returns an error message:- 29 NOT UNDERSTOOD
(5) MGT admit to a DRAW bug, I have yet to find this.
I hope this makes sense to you. Finally in a phone call to MGT,
they said they will solve the problem by June 1st.
Keep up the good work,
Yours Sincerly, R.MURFET
EDITORS REPLY:-
(1) The Sam is much more sensitive to tape LOADing than the
Spectrum. There is an article by Brian Gaff in this issue, which
explains it.
(2) This is a fault I have not come across before. Can any other
member help out here?.
(3) This bug is well know in the old ROM. Again it is dealt with
in this issue.
(4) Yet another Rom fault. Try:-
10 DIM sam$(250,37)
20 KEYIN "INPUT I"
(5) The DRAW bug is actually in the command "DRAW TO", and can
crash the machine when certain values are used.
FROM:- Fred Hindle
7 clough Rd,
Nelson,
Lancashire
BB9 0PE
(This letter was originally sent to the S.D.C.)
Dear Peter,
I have just received, and confirmed the news that MGT
have gone into receivership. I purchased the Sam, communications
interface and disc drive. Since the first day my troubles began,
first I had to return the interface. My printer refused to
operate through it; and some 4 weeks later it was returned to me
the fault having been a loose connection.
Then I found that the command DUMP would not function. This was
confirmed by one of the clubs letters.
Then came the news that the ROM was being replaced. I contacted
MGT and was glibly told I was on the list, and my ROM would be
sent to me in due course.
Affer reading in the newsletter, that some members had already
received their ROM; I tried on numerous occasions to phone MGT
in an attempt to obtain up to date information, without any
success. I wrote to them, but failed to receive any reply. It
was then that I contacted the Trading Standards Office, and it
was they who after contacting the Swansea office; relayed to me
the news of the receivership being in force. This as you are
probably aware, means no goods can leave MGT's premises.
As a member with little or no computer technical gen. This
leaves me up the proverbial creek without a paddle. I wonder
if any other club members are in the same canoe?, and would be
pleased to hear of any means that are available, in order to get
my Sam unit fully operational.
Fortunatly I had at least the common sense to hang on to my
trusty Speccy and Opus.
--oOOo--
THE SPECTRUM DISCOVERY CLUB.
76,Mannville Road, Keighley. West Yorkshire. BD22 6AT.
May I take this opportunity to welcome you all to this new
venture the Sam suppliment. To those of you who are new to The
Spectrum Discovery Club I would just like to give you a brief
rundown on our history.
The club was formed some three years ago by dedicated users of
the Spectrum computer and Discovery disc drive,(hence the name)
The club has up to now issued 20 newsletter discs and 11 Library
discs of members own programs. Now that the Spectrum is being
superseeded somewhat by the new Sam Coupe we thought that it
would be a natural progression to offer the same dedicated
service that is currently being enjoyed by Discovery owners.
In Dave Tonks (your new Sam Suppliment editor) you have one of
the best Basic programmers available in the country today.He has
proved a valuable addition to the Discovery side of the club for
many years and since getting hold of an early Sam Coupe as been
one of the leading lights with sam programming and debugging.
In Brian Mumford your disc distributer you have one of the most
helpful and dedicated computer users it has been my pleasure to
know and work with these past three years, any problems with
discs or anything else for that matter Brian is always at hand
to help out either answering himself, or finding another club
member who can answer your problem.
As with the Discovery side of the club, (edited by yours truly)
Dave will need your help to make this suppliment a success. We
have prided ourselves over the years that the club is really run
by you the membership and wouldn't survive without your programs
articles, reviews and any odd bit of information you may come
accross. Don't be afraid to write in with any sort of article or
problem. If you come accross anything that proves useful to you
it's a good bet that the rest of us will find it useful as well.
On the Discovery side of the club we have built up a dedicated
team of helpers over the Years, Bill Bowes with his helpline,
Les Phillips with his sales service to name but a few. Well, I
should imagine that Dave would be glad of any one who would feel
that they can help put this suppliment together in the same way.
I too hope to send in the odd article over the next few months
now that my new Sam is up and running,although I can't promise
to be another Dave Tonks!
Anyway I've prattled on enough, I leave you in the capable hands
Dave and wish the suppliment all the best.
Kind regards
Peter Lilley. (Editor Spectrum Discovery Club)
********************
* T E A M L I S T *
********************
DAVE TONKS....EDITOR 37 PARKER ST,
BLOXWICH,
TEL:-0922 406239 WALSALL,
WEST MIDLANDS WS3 2LE
_____________________________________________________________
BRIAN MUMFORD..DISTRIBUTER 57 ST. SAVIOURS RD,
WEST CROYDON
TEL:-081 689 1439 SURREY CR0 2XE
_____________________________________________________________
LES PHILLIPS..SALES/WANTS THE WHITE HOUSE,
ST. CATHERINES WELL,
TEL:-0258 880394 MILTON ABBAS,
BLANDFORD,
DORSET DT11 0AS
_____________________________________________________________
KEITH TURNER QUASAR SOFTWARE
17/19 DURHAM ROW,
LONDON E1 0NP
_____________________________________________________________
JOHN WASE GREENLEYS COTTAGE
BISHAMPTON
NR. PERSHORE
WORCS. WR10 2LX
_____________________________________________________________
PETER LILLEY 76 MANVILLE RD,
KEIGHLEY,
TEL:-0535 667059 WEST YORSHIRE,
BD22 6AT
_____________________________________________________________
DR. ANDY WRIGHT CLUB ADDRESS
_____________________________________________________________
****************************************************************
* READ THIS *
* READ THIS *
* READ THIS *
* READ THIS *
* READ THIS *
* READ THIS *
* *
* BECAUSE, AT THE MOMENT, THE SAM IS AVAILABLE WITH A LEAST 2 *
* ROM AND DOS VERSIONS, WE HAVE ATTEMPTED TO CATER FOR ALL *
* VERSIONS IN THIS MAGAZINE. THIS HAS IN SOME CASES, PROVED *
* VERY DIFFICULT, IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE. I HAVE THEREFORE DECIDED *
* THAT AS FROM ISSUE 3 OF THIS MAG, ONLY THE NEW VERSION ROM *
* AND DOS WILL BE GUARANTEED AS FULLY TESTED. THIS DOESN'T *
* MEAN THAT THE MAG WON'T WORK WITH THE OLD ROM, BUT THERE *
* MAY BE PRORAMS THAT WILL CRASH. AS THE NEW ROM IS NOW *
* AVAILABLE FROM SAM COMPUTING, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU THINK *
* ABOUT GETTING YOUR MACHINE UPGRADED BY THE JAN 1990 ISSUE. *
***************************************************************
STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS...STOP PRESS..
. .
. I'VE JUST HAD MY VERSION 3.0 ROM DELIVERED, AND AFTER FITTING.
. IT FOUND THAT THE ONLY PROBLEM THAT I'VE GOT WITH IT, IS S
S THAT TASWORD SAM DOESN'T WORK WITH IT. T
T I'VE BEEN IN TOUCH WITH ANDY WRIGHT, AND HE SAYS IT'S A O
O PROGRAM FAULT THAT CAN BE CURED WITH A PATCH IN THE BASIC. P
P IF YOU CONTACT EITHER ME OR BRIAN MUMFORD WE WILL SEND YOU
THE DETAILS. P
P DONT LET THIS PUT YOU OFF GETTING THE VERSION 3.0 ROM, AS R
R THIS IS THE ONLY FAULT THAT I CAN FIND WITH IT UP TO NOW. E
E S
S .
S...STOP PRESS....STOP PRESS....STOP PRESS....STOP PRESS........