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EDITORIAL by Dave Tonks
Well, you can really tell that it's mid February. There's about
a foot of snow outside, and the stairs look like a glacier
because we've had a burst pipe in the loft, and the water
cascading through the ceiling and running down the stairs, has
frozen because we have no central heating without the water on.
Still, I've put our only portable heater in the computer room,
so I can sit here and type this,(must get the priorities right!!
!!).
Last weekend Brian and myself attended the All Formats Fair in
London. We had a much better day than we had thought we would,
and there was a lot of Sam activity going on. Alan Miles had set
up a demo area with seating, and during the day was showing off
the Sam's capabilities to anyone who cared to join him.
Meanwhile Bruce Gordon was looking after the normal Sam sales
stand in the main hall.
Andy Wright had finished version 2 of Masterdos, which is
basically version 1 with the "bugs" cured. Hopefully, we
should have an article about it in this issue.
The Supplement stand did a brisk trade all day, and I was
pleased to see a number of our members had come down to see us.
We also gained some new members who had only just bought their
Sams, and needed a guiding hand. We could really do with 3 or 4
Sams set up on our stand, to cope with the variety of tasks
that we are asked to do during the day, but we managed to sort
most people out, using just the one setup. All in all, a great
but tiring day was had by all. Brian and I hope to see a few
more of you at the show on March 23rd.
All this talk of the show brings me neatly onto my next item,
namely a PRICE RISE (SHOCK HORROR!!!!).
As you all know, we work as a non-profit making club, with the
income from mag sales being ploughed back into buying discs,
postage, and general running costs. This works very well, except
that of late we have started attending the All Formats shows.
The cost of a stand plus the electric for one of these costs
over £100 per time, and to be perfectly honest we cannot as a
club afford this too many times a year. On the other hand, the
team think that it is of value to attend these shows, as it gets
us as a club known, and is useful for gaining first hand
knowledge from Samco and their supporters. It also gives members
a chance to meet the voices on the phone or the writers of the
letters. We have therefore had to increase the cost of the mag
to £2.00 per issue or £10.00 for 6 issues. We hope that this is
acceptable to our membership, and that the reasons given are
understood. We will still give you an issue for free, if you
send your own disc and 50p to cover p&p. The new price starts
from issue 7 onwards.
I'll now leave you alone to recover from the shock and to get on
reading the rest of the mag.
I hope to hear from you all soon,
Dave Tonks (Editor)
OOPS DEPT.(ISSUE 5)
The first line of "fract12" should have "MODE 4" put in it, it
will then run correctly.
The Masterdos poke to stop the verify after a FORMAT should be
4656 and NOT 4565 as published.
________________________________________________________________
Mr R.I CLARK
275 HORNBY ST
BURY
LANCS
BL9 5DR
Dear Dave
I am a new member to Sam Supplement but I would like to say
that I am very impressed with some of the screens that you do
for the supplement.
The one at the begining of issue 4 (the MG piccy) is just brill
and I was wondering if you do them on FLASH and if so just how
long it takes you to do one.
I sent a screen of Desperate Dan which I was told will appear
in issue 5. This picture took me around 8 hrs to do, split into
two evenings (e.g. 4 hrs a night) just to get it to look right.
Well I have bought SPHERA from Enigma and would like to say it
is a fantastic game I have so far managed to get as far as
LEVEL 2 and have found out that in LEVEL 1 you have to destroy
the big, End Of Level Monster twice, but on level 2 it seems you
have to get through 3 times. I hve only managed to get past
TWICE, but, by the time you read this I might have got to LEVEL
3.
I have sent 3 more screens for you to look at, the one of the
plane was copied out of a speccy mag which is a screen out of
F 16 game.
One of the other 2 you could use as a screen for issue 7 or just
change the number to what ever issue it is. As for the third
piccy, its just my imagination of what my software house sign
would look like if I could write games and sell them.
Thats all for now but I just must say I hope the SAM COUPE will
be more successful in 1991.
ED's note... Some of the screens I do from scratch, and some I
"borrow" from the St and Amiga, and then re-do them to suit the
theme that I want. It can actually take longer this way, than
from scratch, but on average I spend about 10 hours on a front
screen, using FLASH. This doesn't include any animation.
________________________________________________________________
The White House,
St. Catherine's Well,
Milton Abbas,
Blandford,
Tel: 0258 880394 Dorset. DT11 OAS
February 1991
Dear Editor,
I believe that my experience with FORMAT PUBLICATIONS could be
of interest, and perhaps of value, to SUPPLEMENT readers.
With my Sam Coupe, purchased in December 1989, I received an
advertisement for FORMAT magazine, which stated that the
magazine "...now covers the Sam Coupe", and could be relied
upon "...to show you how to make the most of your new computer".
There was an invitation to take out a 12 month subscription,
which included the incentive of a "free" Sam Coupe software
tape.
Anxious to learn as much as possible about the new computer, I
took out a subscription to start with the January 1990 issue.
With this issue, I received a letter of welcome as a member of
the INDUG (Independent User Group), together with an apology
for delay in supply of the software tape. In February I wrote to
FORMAT's editor, Mr Brenchley, requesting details of the
advantages claimed for membership of INDUG as referred to in
NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS.
This letter was ignored, as was a reminder I sent a month
later.
With the November issue, I received notification that the next
issue, i.e. December 1990, was the last due under my
subscription, and offering a 13 month extension for the price of
12. No reference whatsoever was made to the still outstanding
software.
On January 17th 1991, I wrote to Mr Brenchley to inform him
that I had not yet received the December 1990 issue, nor the
Sam Software, now 12 months overdue.
This letter has been ignored.
The foregoing is all factual. I make no comment, SUPPLEMENT
subscribers can draw their own conclusions. I must add that
apart from my own particular reaction to this arrogant and
discourteous treatment, I have found the coverage of Sam during
the 12 months (sorry..11 months!) to be minimal and falling far
short of a reason for extending my subscription.
J.L.Phillips.
A copy of the above letter was sent to Bob Brenchley, and his
reply follows:-
Dear Dave,
Thank you for the opportunity to reply to the letter you
received from Mr J.L.Phillips. It is difficult to deal with his
points in order, so I hope the following will make sense.
First, as most of your readers will know, the final version
of the ROM (V3.0) for the SAM Coupe was only released in
September 1990. Until then we had been unable to produce the
free demo tape because it had to be tested on all versions of
the ROM. We had used several versions prior to 3.0 but the final
version was a long time coming. Once the new ROM was available
we were able to move ahead with selecting the items for the tape
- a mixture of demo routine, utilities, and several extra
SCREENS files for loading into FLASH! or basic. Several items
needed to be amended to account for the new ROM and this often
required getting new ROMs to programmers before they could even
start work.
The first version of the tape was duplicated in mid
November 1990 and a few were passed out to selected people for a
final test. One bug was found, a small one due to change in
SAMDOS. A small change cured this and things were ready to roll.
Alas, at the end of November I lost my assistant, Mrs
Kemley. This, coupled with the rush to do both the December and
January issues of FORMAT before Christmas, has caused further
delays.
In the last week I have taken on two new employees and this
will provide the manpower to enable the free demo to go out to
people soon. I would as a final comment on this subject say that
I have kept members in touch with the situation through the
editorial page in FORMAT.
Next to the subject of letters. Mr Phillips did, as his
leter confirms, receive a welcome letter when he first sent in
his subscription. This clearly stated that letters could not be
replied to - except through the letters column in FORMAT. With
over 2000 full members we just do not have the resources to deal
with correspondence. The 'Hotline' telephone service we provide
for all members is not only for technical problems, if Mr
Phillips had phoned (and the hours the line is available are
very extensive) any problems or questions would have been
answered on the spot. As to his question about benefits of
membership I would again refer him to the original letter he
received when he joined and to frequent items in FORMAT, I won't
take up valuable space on your disc by repeating them here.
I must now totally disagree with Mr Phillip's claim that
coverage of SAM has been 'minimal.' On average (covering the
whole of 1990) over 60% of the printed material dealt with SAM
or was general interest. In fact it could be said that only
items dealing with Spectrum disc systems from a machine code
angle were of no use to SAM users. FORMAT, like your SAM
SUPPLEMENT is dedicated to helping SAM users get the most from
their machine. We were the first magazine to give a full review
of SAM. We were the first to tell people how to load a Spectrum
ROM into the Coupe. We are usually the first with news on the
latest developments for SAM. We currently have an 80% renewal
rate which, for a magazine in the fast changing world of
computers, is nothing short of excellent.
Finally. There has been no correspondence received from Mr
Phillips, nor indeed has there been the proper telephone call,
to report any problem with his December issue of the magazine.
When he does phone, his problem will be delt with in our normal
freindly and I hope efficant manner (although I'm not sure what
we can do now, three months after the event).
I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your valuable space.
Godd luck with SAM SUPPLEMENT. Long may it, and the machine we
both support, survive and prosper.
Yours sincerely,
Bob Brenchley,
Editor - Format Magazine.
FLEXIBASE SOFTWARE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tel.(0905) 775840
David Wornham. 20 The Parklands, Droitwich Spa, Worcs. WR9 7DG.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
16th February 1991
Dear Dave, Brian and members,
As an example of how programmers, magazines such as yours,
and reviewers can work together to the mutual benefit of users,
may I reply to the "first encounter" review of Flexipage given
by Les Phillips in issue 5 of the Sam Supplement?
I welcome his robust comments, all of which make valid
points, are very helpful and have been, or are being, acted
upon. However, I do feel that he may have missed one relevant
point - Flexipage and the booklet WAS written initially for the
Spectrum, but is CONTINUING with its development for the Sam
Coupe, with purchasers being supplied with FREE updates whenever
they return the original (first copied) disk and SAE. (Is this
unique?) In this way, Sam users, with a dearth of software, do
not have to wait for a "finalised" product (particularly when
from a part-time amateur like me), do not have additional
expenditure in later updating, and can, and do, have their ideas
(and those of reviewers) incorporated whenever possible. A
complete re-printed booklet for the Sam is therefore not
currently a sensible option, but I do take the point about those
sections only relevant to the Spectrum, and must itemise them in
the Sam leaflet, perhaps heading it "SAM USERS PLEASE READ THIS
FIRST"
With regard to the reviewer's frustrations with having to
press W to Wipe etc. item 6 in the booklet headed "Flexipage
Conventions" states "Prompts where the user needs to press a key
are shown on screen with a green background, and in this guide
within square brackets". The choice of key are those shown in
CAPITALS, for example [Amend/Replace/Copy] press A, R or C". I
am surprised that this was found to be "vague" but accept that
the programmer, who obviously KNOWS what he is describing, needs
others to test the clarity of his instructions - a service
admirably done by Mr. Phillips.
Similar items appear in the "Help" mode from the initial
sub-menu:
"Flexipage Convention 1. Screen instructions are shown on a
green background with key(s) to press in CAPITALS. Examples:
[Data/Udg save] press D or Data or U for User defined graphic
save."
"Flexipage Convention 4. Warnings are shown with a red
border and buzz. For example: [Wipe pages] Press W to wipe
existing pages otherwise any other key."
I am aware of the Y/N key convention in Spectrum circles
but consciously chose to avoid this approach as I have in the
past found myself pressing "Y" as an unthinking reaction and
unintentionally losing work. I find that a decision to press W
to WIPE will reinforce this sometimes drastic decision!
I have now acted by including on screen instructions:
[Wipe? press W to Wipe or any other key to return to menu].
With regards to pressing SYMBOL SHIFT ZERO for the Menu, the
booklet first mentions this in item 8 and includes the
underline, stating "PRESS _ (SYMBOL SHIFT ZERO)", with item 5
stating "48K mode single key commands are shown in brackets ( )
where applicable". However, I accept this is not good enough,
particularly for newcomers to Sam without the benefit of
Spectrum use to realise the change of key use for underline. The
Sam leaflet now shows "KEY _ ( underline: SYMBOL SHIFT =)" for
Sam.
Updated editions in Replace mode DO now put the entered
pages into the yellow box in the chosen height, and give a
CHOICE of double or single height characters / UDGs.
Sam versions have 10 sound choices, an increase over the
reported three of the Spectrum version.
Wishing Les the best of luck (I don't think he needs it but
no doubt he will differ) with the review of the rest of
Flexipage, and looking forward to more work acting on his
constructive criticism.
________________________________________________________________
Les Phillips replies... The White House,
St. Catherine's Well,
Milton Abbas,
Blandford,
Tel: 0258 880394 Dorset. DT11 OAS
February 21st 1991
Dear David,
Thank you for your letter concerning my review of FLEXIPAGE in
Issue 5 of SUPPLEMENT.
When a few SDC members decided to take on the task of
providing Coupe users with a regular supply of information and
programmes, it was considered that hardware and software reviews
were probably one of the most useful services we could offer.
The role of 'reviewer' seems to have drifted my way, probably
because I believed I could do this in an objective manner.
As you know, I have been involved with the Spectrum for many
years, during which period I helped found the Spectrum Discovery
Club, and perhaps significantly, have seen the demise of a very
good journal, 'ZX COMPUTING', and watched 'SINCLAIR USER', 'YOUR
SINCLAIR' & 'CRASH' degenerate steadily until they are now no
more than comics. A major proportion of the space in these
survivors has always been filled with so-called reviews. Reading
a fair sample of these led me to the conclusion that they were
no more than space fillers, almost invariably arriving at very
subjective, usually favourable opinions. I was difficult at
times to reconcile the conclusions with the contents of the
review. The reviews tended to tell me more about the reviewer
than about the programme.
When I took on the SUPPLEMENT's reviewer task, I was
determined to regard objectivity as the main aim, and in so
doing make the review of real value to potential purchasers. A
major consideration is that Spectrum compatibility has been a
selling point of the Coupe, and Spectrum users have shown
considerable interest in the machine because of this. In
fairness to newcomers to the computer scene, I have approached
reviews of Coupe programmes without relying on familiarity with
the Spectrum system. This puts me in the position of the
newcomer whose prime, if not only, guidance lies in the
instruction manual.
It is in accordance with this policy that I considered it
valid to make the remarks about FLEXIPAGE. The last sentence in
that 'first encounter' review expresses sentiments in which I
firmly believe, viz., that there is a danger of the merits of
FLEXIPAGE being overshadowed by unecessary complication in the
instructions.
I am pleased to read that you have recognised my comments as
being constructive, that was the certainly the intention.
Yours sincerely,
J.L.Phillips.
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