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EDITORIAL
Well, once again I sit down at the keyboard, and try to think of
something to say to you all. It's actually some unearthly hour
in the morning, and it's raining outside (again!!!). Still, here
goes..
We still seem to be keeping up our previous output of one issue
per month. When we first started this venture, we planned to get
all the scraps of info and bits of programs together and maybe
fill an issue every 2 months. Since then you have been great,
sending in items for publication so fast that we had to shorten
our deadlines to every 4 or 5 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me
the variety of letters, tips and programs which pass through my
hands. We are a very lucky club to have such a dedicated
membership. This doesn't mean that you can sit out there and
think that because you've sent in something, you have done
your bit, keep sending the stuff in, I can only publish what
you send, and the mag will live or die on the memberships
involvement.
Also you members out there who have not contributed anything
yet, I'm waiting for at least a letter from you. Is there
anything you want to see in the mag, is there anything that you
don't like about it? Please write and tell us. You may not be
able to write programs, but all of you can write English!! you
filled in the application form, didn't you!!! So lets hear your
views, gripes, praises or just write and let us know you're
alive!!
While on the subject of contributions, I will make sure that any
letter sent for publication is put into the next issue released.
I think that letters should not be left to pile up issue after
issue, and that news, hints or Sam gossip should be published
straight away. Programs on the other hand are not so important
as they are still the same programs a month or 2 after writing.
So anyone sending in a program may not see his (or her) name in
lights straight away.
One last thing (for now), if you send in a program or routine,
could you please include a REM statement somewhere in the
listing with your name in it. It makes it so much easier for me
when compiling the mag. I look forward to hearing from you all.
Dave Tonks (Editor)
THE OOPS DEPARTMENT!!!!!!!
A couple of gremlins got into issue 4 through the "EDITOR
ASLEEP" loophole. I can only offer my apologies and assure you
that I have taken myself to one side, and severely dealt with
myself. (it was quite nice).
1) There were no proper instructions for the DIY MENU. These
are now in the program notes of this issue.
2) Samscratch II would not load off the menu. To cure this, load
up issue 4 and press ESC on the main menu screen. Now EDIT line
9100 and change the DATA that reads "SAMSCRATCH" to read
"SCRATCH II"
Now resave the program with:- SAVE OVER "MAIN" line 1
3) There is a small bug in the SECTOR CHECKER programs, (both
Samdos and Masterdos versions).
Load up either program and press ESC. Now change line 8020 to
read:-8020 GOTO 140+(100*(TR>127))
Now re-SAVE the programs with:- GOTO 9030
Both programs are treated in the same way.
From:- Peter Coombes Member No 53
19, Woodview Road,
Marham,
Kings Lynn,
Norfolk, PE33 9JX
Dear Dave and team,
I would like to thank you for putting
together an excellent disc magazine, the three issues produced
so far have been brilliant.
I thought I would write to let other members know of the find I
have made regarding monitors for SAM. I could not justify to the
Wife the cost of buying a dedicated monitor for SAM, but I think
I have found a good compromise. I looked around at the different
TVs with SCART connectors on but all seem to cost around £250,
until I went into ARGOS, they do two models of BUSH TVs both
having SCART connectors. They are basically the same, the only
difference being one is fitted with a Teletext board. The price
of them are £154.99 and £199.99 for the Teletext one, both are
14 inch screen. I checked the operating manual before I bought
one and the SCART connector has both composite video and RGB
inputs on it, so I bought one purchased a monitor lead for SAM
plugged it all together and DA-DAA, it all works really well, I
now have really clear text on my screen even in mode 3. Now I
know that some will say that you cannot beat the quality of a
monitor and I know this, but trying to pursuade the wife to
allow you to fork out £250 for as she sees it, a TV that cannot
pick up Corry Norry is a waste of money so I have now reached
what I see to be a very good compromise and keep her happy. By
the way the model and ARGOS catalogue numbers are:-
BUSH 2714 £154.99 Cat No 530/4969
BUSH 4814 £199.99 Cat No 530/4983 (Teletext)
From:-Graham Ward
13 Queens Drive West,
Peterborough, PE1 2UU
Dear Brian,
I am currently running MasterDos and when I try to
save it as code 491529,15700 and then re-boot using F9 my Sam
does not do a lot although it seems satisfied when the Dos is
saved from 65536. I also notice that when I am using Tasword
that upon saving a file it fails to VERIFY and when I re-enter
using "goto end" that the file has been erased although it was
saved and is intact. Would Dr Andy Wright please offer some
explanation for these occurrences. Other than that I think that
he has done a fantastic job on the DOS. Many congratulations.
I have also got a copy of DTP from Cardex for the Sam and find
that when I try to do any printing, on my Brother M-1109, that
it form feeds for about one page and then starts to print. Has
anybody got any suggestions please?
I am also interested in creating digitized pictures for use in
a video which I am trying to produce. I understand that Romantic
Robot sell a digitizer for the Spectrum, which won't work on the
Sam. Is it feasible to use the digitizer to produce Spectrum
screens and then convert them for use on the Sam, if so would it
be possible to use Spectrum screens in Sam's mode 4?
If I have any programs to offer the other members how do you
require them to be set out?
ED's REPLY...
You are right about Masterdos not working when SAVEd from 491529
(or 229385 on a 256k). I think this is because it has a routine
that automatically moves it from 65536 to its proper home.
Therefore when you SAVE it off from 491529 and then load it back
the routine still tries to move it from 65536, but of course
it's not there.
The VERIFY command in Masterdos doesn't work, but in the case of
Tasword, break back into BASIC, and DELETE line 1040. Now
resave the BASIC back to the disc, the files will not now be
VERIFIED, but Tasword will now work with Masterdos.
You can set FLASH to MODE 1 and LOAD in a Spectrum screen$. Now
if you reselect MODE 4, you will have a Spectrum screen$ in Sam
MODE 4. After any changes that you want have been made, it will
save to disc as a normal Sam screen.
________________________________________________
FROM:- DARREN TALBOT
2 YEW TREE AVE
NORTHENDEN, MANCHESTER M22 4 DX
Dear Dave,
Please find enclosed a disc containined my version
of "Play Your Cards Right".
I started to design my own deck of cards for a number of games I
had planned but I soon got bored and gave up. Your cards in
issue 4 of the Supplement were very welcome.
When I last spoke to Brian Mumford we were discussing the bugs
in Masterdos and on his request here is what I have found out.
1) Verify does not work.
2) When I was writing a small program using DATA statements I
accidentally typed DATE instead of DATA. When I entered the line
with a list of strings after it the computer reset. This also
occurs if you use more than one string after the TIME command
eg. DATE "dave","daz","brian" or TIME "12:30:00","more".
When I spoke to Brian he mentioned that the FORMAT to "D2"
command no longer worked. Please pass on the message that the
command is still there but now requires you to type FORMAT
"d1" TO "d2".
The "LOAD n" command will load any file regardless of what
directory it is in.
Doing a BOOT 1 to reboot Masterdos clears out all Ramdisks so
beware.
I have the SAM BUS and the 1Mb memory and I find it extremely
useful when I read my SAM SUPPLEMENT or OUTLET to use the Ram
Disk.
eg FORMAT "D3",4,160 SET UP A 780K RAMDISK
BACKUP "D1" TO "D3" COPY THE DISK TO THE RAMDISK
POKE DVAR 111,3 MAKE ALL REFERENCES TO D1 USE D3
BOOT or F9 LOAD THE ISSUE FROM RAMDISK
Using this method makes it much faster to load the articles in
the magazine especially the Gallery or OUTLET'S Demopix.
EDs NOTE::Darrens very playable little game is in this issue
under the name of "HI-LO".
FROM:- John Saunders
North Down,
Dodds Lane
Chalfont St. Giles
Bucks, HP8 4EL
Those of us who are enthusiastic enough to acquire and
read this excellent mag may already be familiar with fractals
and the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. Those who have not yet come
across this entertaining subject may be interested to know that
it involves the use of the computer screen to show
representations of the effect produced by the iteration of
mathematical concepts or formulae, used as the x, y co-ordinates
of a succession of 'PLOTs', or, alternatively to determine the
colour codings of sets of pixels. SAM buffs will have come
across this already in the demonstrations provided at purchase
of the machine. Further information is available in a 2-monthly
publication called FRACTAL REPORT obtainable from John de Rivas
at West Towan House, Porthtowan, Truro, Cornwall, TR4 8AX.
In order to whet some appetites there are, in this "Supplement",
a screen from the SAM demo and two simple SAM programs adapted
loosely from two given in recent FRACTAL REPORTs. There are many
programs in the 12 or so issues already published, but I have
insufficient knowledge of some of the languages for which they
are written. I think it would be most useful if someone would
take on the task of translating these into SAM basic. The Coupe
copes well, and reasonably quickly with the programs, but the
restrictions of its number crunching ability and of the coarse
TV screen will become evident in due course to any who intend to
go very far with the subject. It is worth mentioning that the
SCART facility gives much more satisfactory pictures than the
normal co-ax cable to the T.V., though not all 14" sets equipped
with the SCART socket work using this connection.
EDs NOTE.. John's programs and screen$ are in the PROGRAM MENU
uner the name "FRACTALS"
_______________________________________________
FROM:-Len Bennet
19 Main Rd,
Crombie, TEL: 0383 872022
Fife, Dunfirmlin KY12 8JY
Dear Dave
I have just read J.L.Phillips' review of the Voicebox speech
synthesiser and I agree with him totally. It is definitely
overpriced at 39.99. Even at the original price of 29.99 (which
I paid for mine) it is still too much to pay for what, to my
mind, is an amateurish attempt to provide us Sam owners with
what could be a very useful peripheral for the future.
The Currah Microspeech I used with my Spectrum was easy to
program and, when fed to an external amplifier, the quality of
speech was far superior to the Voicebox.
If anyone out there has bought a Voicebox and do not use it
because of the poor sound quality, do not despair. If you have a
small knowledge of electronics, can use a soldering iron, and
do not mind invalidating any guarantee you may have with the
Voicebox, then I have the solution.
I have in the past attempted to make a speech synthesiser from
articles in electronics magazines with some success. Not having
any more use for it I decided to experiment on the sound output
stages of the Voicebox. Output from the speech I.C. at pin 24 is
in the form of a pulse width modulated signal. This must then
be converted to an analogue one and filtered by means of the
few surrounding components. It occurred to me that the Voicebox
components at this stage were quite a bit different from the
magazines circuit, and also the Currah, which both had similar
circuitry at this point.
So, what I did was to disable the filter stage and supply to the
amplifier (741 op-amp) and connected pin 24 of the speech chip
to a small circuit board containing the new filter layout and a
conventional dedicated audio ampifier. The amplified signal is
then suitable to be fed into an external amp. to give you that
much improved sound quality. The 5 volt supply for this board
can be taken from the Voicebox board at the point where it was
disconnected from the 741. Because the new ampifier board
incorporates a preset volume control, it can be adjusted to suit
the input of your external amp. There is room to stow this small
board in the Voicebox case, just make sure it is secure and
insulated.
I tend to do some drastic things sometimes! When I first got my
Sam I liked everything about it except for one thing-THE COLOUR
The white and obvious plastic-looking case really cheapens the
look of it, and gives it the appearance of a toy, which we all
know it is not! So off I went to B.& Q. to look through their
auto spray paints and came away with B.L. Champagne by Holts.
I tried spraying a small piece inside the case first to see what
effect it would have on the plastic, then gave the whole case
about three coats (after taking off the keyboard of course!)
The "Sam Coupe" badge had to go as red white and blue looks
hideous against champagne! All my add-ons get the same
treatment but only after I am satisfied they are working
properly, because I am sure this would invalidate the guarantee.
My SAM setup now is 256k , new Rom/Dos, one internal drive, ext.
drive/printer interface driving a dodgey J.Bull 80 tr. double
sided drive which can be used only one side! My printer is a
Centronics GLP for which I desperately need advice on how to
print mode 4 screen$. These are all "built in" to a desk I made
myself (I am a joiner to trade) which has a stereo amp and
speakers and a special tape load/save switching unit
incorporated.
Keep up the good work.
EDs Note.. Len's SCREEN$, which gives you a wiring diagram for
his Voicebox mod, is in the ODDS and ENDS menu.
....