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EDITORIAL and GENERAL RAMBLINGS
Well, again I sit here in front of my Sam, at some unheard of
hour in the morning, trying to think of something to write. I
think I'll start with a couple of moans at you lot out there.
First of all, the standard of programs that you send me is of a
high standard, but I do wish that you would send me some kind of
instructions for them. The smaller programs are not too bad, but
with the larger programs, there is only one person who can write
adequate instructions, and that's the program's author!!!!
This doesn't apply of course to all of you, as some programs
come complete with full textfiles, but a lot of you are not
doing your programs justice with the instructions. Yes, I can
write a few lines for you, but these will only be the vaguest of
details. So please, please, give the other members the full
benefit of your work by supplying full instructions.
Secondly, I could do with some letters off you. Not that I don't
get some now, but they all tend to be quite long and descriptive
which is great, but as well as these, I could do with your views
on the Sam world in general. What system do you run, what add
ons have you got, or would you like to get. In fact your views
on anything, no matter how controversial. This doesn't mean that
I don't want the long descriptive letters, I thought that a few
short one might be nice as well.
Also whilst on the subject of letters, please don't use
Wordmaster if you can possibly help it. I know that it's a great
program, but it takes so long tidying it up in Tasword. Now
there's a good idea for a conversion program for you to think
about.....
OOPS DEPT..
In issue 15, neither the animate lesson nor the machine code
lesson fully print out the file. Change the "69824" in line 910
to "73408" on animate and "73728"on the M/C lesson to cure the
problem. (SORRY!!!!).
"Riverside"
Welsh Road
Offchurch
Leamington Spa
CV33 9AQ
TEL.0926 315884
To SAM SUPPLEMENT.
Dear Brian,
I don't know about you, but I am getting increasingly fed
up with the way in which one new facility prog after another is
appearing with a few improvements over previous ones, but rarely
without some limitations which counteract them. "OUTWRITE" has
the big advantages over Tasword 2 of better keying and bigger
files, but the control key choices are pathetic and the fact
that one cannot insert in the first line of a para (with offset
start) without losing the offset, spoil it for me. Also what is
the point of the multiple FONTS if they cannot be transferred to
the printer? "STYLE WRITER" is interesting but far too slow to
be usable. LERM assembler, Toolkit etc. have several silly
limitations, which should be easily overcome by the author. It
is, for example crazy not to be able to single step the ROM. The
Spectrum PICTURESQUE EDITAS & MONITOR has a much better single
step facility. As for the new "COMET" assembler, I can see no
advantages in it and several very severe disadvantages, such as
no line numbering and no associated disassembler & single step
facilities.
I cannot help feeling that your magazine might find a way
of helping this situation. It might be helpful to have a sectiom
where criticisms and suggestions could be more blatantly
presented. The basic problem is probably that progs are written
without a full specificatiom. Also authors seem to be reluctant
to make mods once a prog is finished. Presumably because they
have moved on to something else or are just fed up with it!
I am preparing an outline specification for a
Disassembler/Assembler/Monitor which I will send to you. Perhaps
you could put this up and ask for comments or additions and see
if it will influence authors.
One general point is that programmes such as I have
mentioned all use machine code to attain the necessary speed
(except STYLE WRITER). They also tend to include functions not
requiring high speed in the M/C routines. It can be very helpful
if as much as possible can be put in Basic so that the user has
a better chance of introducing his own improvements.
Best regards Mike Haine
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mr S.J. Monk.
31 Southbourne,
Washford Farm,
ASHFORD,
KENT TN23 2UB.
0233 626085
Dear Members
First of all may I wish you all a very happy and
fruitfull new year. As we say goodbye to 1991, it's worth a
glance back to see what has happened in the world of SAM in the
past twelve months. Well we have seen two mice introduced , The
Messenger, The Sound sampler, and on the software front we have
seen The Midi package, a few more games released, crowned of
course, by Prince of Persia, the Personal banking system has now
been released and also the excellent Sound machine software
package is now available.
SAM sales have steadily increased over the year, more especially
overseas, but also a fair few within these shores. I myself, as
a SAM agent, have sold more SAMs in December than our local shop
has sold Amigas (what ever they are!) . Just as a piece of
advice, if your do become an agent and sell SAM to your friends,
then it's worth phoning SAMco to check they have received the
order, and when they expect to despatch it. They are only human
and things do get overlooked. All of my orders were honoured
for Christmas and I also reiieved my payment before Christmas. I
must admit I did have a slight panic on my hands five days
before Christmas, but all credit to SAMco, they came up smelling
of roses just in time .
So what about 1992 - Well this year could be so good for SAM if
all goes to plan.
SAMco are to release a monthly News disk for a small fee, now I
for one URGE you to subscribe to this, I don't think I'm giving
away any secrets, But Alan Miles is hopeing to get several
thousand regular subscribers. It will then stand the SAM in
better stead with the news stand rags. It is hoped that with
enough regular subscribers, one of the larger publishers will
see that there is a market for a SAM specific magazine on the
news stands.
You have been warned, so if you don't subscribe you can't moan !
I for one will continue to sell SAM to the bods out there and I
hope you will too. I think it's our best chance to get SAM
recognised for what it is . I hope to see the SAM supplement
continue to prosper, and also the other excellent disk based
mags. SAMco are to launch an assault on the schools this year
and we can all help by making sure that our local schools have
at least heard of SAM, if not seen one in action. I have written
to two of my local schools and I have become acquainted with a
school governer of one , it all helps spread the word if nothing
else. So do try, don't just leave it to someone else and then
wonder why no-one's heard of SAM, or there's nobody near you
with a SAM.
If you would like to contact your local schools as I have, SAMco
do a special deal for schools. An order form and educational
software list is available from SAMco on request, the list is
quite impressive with over 100 titles or modules available from
various software writers.
On the hardware front there are plans for at least four new
pieces of hardware for 1992 and I think this year is going to
see some superb sofware released for our blue footed friend.
Finally, it was nice to see so many friends at the All Formats
show in London on December 14th its always nice to see you and
have a chat, and I wish John Wase, John Croghan, Peter Bell,
Frank Harrop, Dave, Jean and Brian and anyone else that knows me
(is that a cliche or what) A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR.
And to those who don't know me, or think I'm a boring old fart ,
well A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AS WELL. (some-one has to write to
the letters page or it would be empty)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Cooper,
Member no.-????? Can't remeber. 157 Newtown Road,
Carlisle,
Cumbria,
CA2 7LL.
Dear Dave,
Just a couple of points raised in issues 13 and 14.
First of all, S.J. Monk. Thanks very much!! Even when I am
bored, I don't start an argument with an MSX owner (no offence
any MSX owners!) and say that the SAM is better than it! But
I'm sure we all agree on this, SAM is miles better than an MSX.
Come on everybody, please feel free to flood me with loads of
suggestions on how I can pass away those boring hours, I'm sure
S.J. Monk can. If you didn't know, I'm 13.14 on Saturday the
4th.
Secondly, Duncan Monroe's letter in issue 14. Screen
darkening. If you have an early SAM, say Dec. 1989, like mine,
or early 1990, then you might get screen darkening, or a
'ghosting' effect (like a shadow going up the screen) on your
screen. I got some information from Edwin Blink of Holland,
which some of you might know because of the music samples he's
done on Kim Wilde and Def Leppard. I've already done this
improvement and it has stopped the 'ghosting' and seems to have
sharpened the picture slightly. Here it is......
First of all you have to open the SAM up. If your SAM is
still under guarantee (but this would mean you have a more
recent SAM) then remember that this will be invalidated. So,
open up your SAM. On the PCB there is a black square in the
middle. For anybody who doesn't know this is the ASIC. To the
bottom left of the ASIC is a resisitor marked L5. Solder a piece
of wire over the top and bottom connections of L5, In other
words, short circuit it. When you put the SAM back together you
should have no ghosting, and I think no screen darkening. If
your SAM blows up don't blame me!
I also have some information on how to make a home made 256K
expansion for your SAM, which costs about a tenner to make. If
you want the information sheet, write to me with an S.A.E., and
I'll send you a photo-copy.
I must mention though, both of these improvements I got from
Edwin Blink in Holland (I wouldn't know the first thing on how
to do any improvements on the SAM), so all credit goes to him.
If anyone wants to write to me, please do. My address is at
the top of the letter. By the way, I don't usually speak like
this, I sound more northerny, but not Scottish. Why is it a lot
of people think Carlisle (or even Cumbria for that matter) is in
Scotland?????
I don't know if anybody has ever heard of an electric
manufacturer called HINARI (no not HITATCHI). I need an address
for them, so if anybody can help???? I know they still exist.
I have got my drive sorted out at last. It broke down on the
7th OCTOBER 1991!! It wasn't sorted out 'til Thursday 19th
DECEMBER. It was sent back and forward between me and SAMCO
several times, and the SAM was sent back once. Anyway, after the
two and a half months they decided to just replace it.
I eventually got it on the Thursday. At first it seemed okay, so
I 'phoned SAMCO to say so. But then I loaded Tasword 2 up and
wrote a very long letter, only to find out at the end that I
couldn't save with it! I tried again and it didn't work. Then I
tried to load something off the menu, that didn't work either. I
was a bit frustrated at this, but then after I'd tested it
further I realised it was okay on some programs, then noticed
that the disks that didn't work had MASTERDOS as the main DOS
file, and the ones that did had SAMDOS as the main DOS file. I
'phoned SAMCO and told them, and they are sorting it out soon
(they said after Christmas, and it IS after Christmas). I said
it was just because of MASTERDOS, version 2.2. I'm sure I read
of someone in the Supplement having the same problem??
And finally, I'm looking for two DRAM chips, code 44C256-10
(or it could just be 44C256), 100ns access time. This is for the
memory upgrade I've talked about. I can't find anywhere locally,
and I've tried various electronic suppliers. Can anybody help??
Sorry if I've chattered on a bit.
Best Wishes,
Kevin (aged three days off 14).
---------------------------------------
Box 6 Ramotswa
Botswana
17.11.91
Dear Brian and Dave,
I hope you won't mind a double letter but I am in a hurry to
get this ready for the post tomorrow.
I curently use the Z88 as my basic WP because I use it
outside a lot and might just as well use it at home also. I
store the files on a Macintosh Plus but find it a bind because
it is tedious to use the Mac's WPs. Although they are supposed
to be user-friendly they cannot compare for speed and simplicity
with things like Tasword and Pipedream (Z88). I have lots to say
on this subject but will keep it brief.
In spite of Tasword II's excellence, my favourite was
always Tasword III and I curse Tasman every day for not making
it transferable to other systems. So if you can connect SAM to
the Z88 and get Tasword III working I will be in 7th heaven.
My idea of heaven is getting all my old microdrive T III files
onto SAM. If you can do that for me I can do without a lot of
the other exciting things promised for SAM. (Not that I won't be
tempted though!)
Tonight when I wanted to go back to the menu, having just
been playing with (OUTLET) before, I hit "C" instead of "M" and
got inverse instead. Can you explain that?
That's all for now, cheers, Ian Kennedy
Ed's Note..
Plenty of points to ponder in your letter Ian!!
The reason you got an inverse effect when pressing "C", is that
the "C" controls the colour of the text screens. In the early
days of the mag, some members had trouble reading the mode 3
screen, so I added the option of changing the colours by
pressing "C". This will actually cycle through 4 different
colour combinations so that you can choose the best one for you.
-----oooOOO OOOooo------
.
From Simon N Goodwin
Hello again Dave, and happy New Year. I have been meaning to
send you another disk for a while, as you can see from the
outside of this one, but it has taken some time to get it
together.
I was impressed to see your photo in the local EXPRESS AND
STAR, and a good article to go with it, too. Supplement #12 was
as wonderful, as ever, I find myself looking forward to it each
month, as I used to long for the latest CRASH, Your Spectrum,
PCW or Computer Shopper, at different times, in past years.
I was rather put out to see my copyright program SPECTRAMON
on a recent disk, but understand that this was a mistake. I have
a much superior version (about twice the speed, more options
fewer bugs and support for RAM above 64K) but have not yet
worked out the ideal way to handle paging. It was dis-spiriting
to see such a bad port published without my consent or
attribution.
HEAD READER (Supplement #2)
The header reader from Supplement #2 is useful and gives a lot
of information, but it gets the ENTRY ADDRESS of disc and tape
files wrong. It assumes that these are stored in the same format
as the file sizes, but alas SAMDOS is more empirical than that!
The correct format (for MASTERDOS as well as SAMDOS) to read
an entry address from a CODE file is as follows:-
PRINT (PEEK(b0) BAND 31)*16384+16384+(DPEEK(b1) BAND 16383)
assuming that b0 is the address of the byte containing the
page number for a type 19 file (directory offset start+242) and
b1 is the address of the next word (offset +243) that holds the
entry offset within the page.
SNAKE (Supplement #14)
I enjoyed playing this game and have a couple of tips. The
version on Supplement disk 14 forgets the high score if the game
ends if you run off the edge of the screen; it appears
correctly, if the snake dies by biting itself. To fix this, move
line 280 to line 34, a new line. Break into the program with
ESC, type 180 EDIT DELETE DELETE DELETE 34 RETURN 180 RETURN.
Easy, eh? SAVE "SNAKE" when you have checked that the fix works.
I think the most difficult targets appear on the bottom line
of the screen. There is very little time to turn if you
gobble these by moving downwards; the BEEP means that your
key-press is missed if you press the key while the sound is
being. I find it easier to approach such targets from the side,
as you don't have to turn so soon after.
Simon N Goodwin
August 1991 - January 1992!
Eds Note..
Sorry about the monitor program being published Simon, I was
given the wrong info.....
----------------------------------------------------------------
DAVID HALL. 77,NEWTON ROAD, STOWMARKET, SUFFOLK. IP14 5AE
TEL. 0449 675828
Dear Supplement,
I have unfortunately discoved a bug in the
version of Samscratch 4.0 that is in issue 16. The problem only
occurs if using the MERGE FILE option with Samdos resident.
Masterdos users will not be affected. The problem arises from
the need to provide slightly different routes for the two Dos's.
As I normally program with Masterdos/Masterbasic resident,
(find it hard work now when deprived of the extra facilities
provided by these two), I did not discover the fault. My normal
'final check' with the Sam at 256K with Samdos seems to have
come unstuck, I must have loaded Masterdos by mistake and so did
not hit the defective lines.
I am sending a short merge routine to correct the problem, it
should be on the disk and named "scratchbit".
To correct the error, load Samscratch 4.0 from issue 16.
Whilst on the EDIT screen menu, press [ESC] to stop the program.
Type CLEAR and press [RETURN], ( the progam occupies less disk
space this way ).
Insert the disk containing the mod, type MERGE "scratchbit" and
press [RETURN].
The replacement lines will load then the screen will go blank,
and after a brief wait you should get the OK message.
Replace the issue 16 disk into the drive, ensure it's not write
protected, resave the program to disk with-
SAVE OVER "scratch4.0" LINE 10 [RETURN]
the program should now be resaved with the fault corrected.
My apologies to anyone inconvenienced by the error.
Of further interest perhaps, I received for Christmas a copy of
FRACTALS IMAGES OF CHAOS by Hans Lauwerier, Penguin Books. This
is a book I would recomend to those interested in the subject,
there are approx. 40 fractal routines listed in the back of the
book. Although these listings are in PC basic, they are
relatively easy to convert to the Sam. The text explains the
theory and maths in the most understandable way that I've come
across so far (which is not to say that I've managed to
understand it yet). My Sam was left running several nights to
provide me with completed screens for breakfast. The screen$ of
the complete Julia set (in several colours) is quite good
inspite of low resolution of the Sam's MODE 4 screen.
---oooOOO OOOooo---
Flexibase Software
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tel.(0905) 775840
David Wornham. 20 The Parklands, Droitwich Spa, Worcs. WR9 7DG
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Dear Dave,
I hope that you had a good Christmas and New Year, but expect
that you are again "hard at it" for the next SS edition. I
request that you consider inclusion of the following in Sam
Supplement.
MUSIC MACHINE AND FLEXIPAGE
Having purchased a copy MUSIC MACHINE from the Sam stand at
the December London show, I have completed working my way
through the manual and can say that I'M VERY IMPRESSED at its
professional looks, feel, capability and general usefulness.
It's ideal for non musical persons to learn about music writing
and for those already having musical knowledge to use Sam's
excellent 6 channel sound chip with ease. Melodies can be
composed, entered by ear or from a music score, then easily
saved for play back in Basic and other programs. Differing
instrument sounds can also be constructed and saved. I have
updated FLEXIPAGE to easily use MUSIC MACHINED sounds and when I
have obtained Sam Computers' agreement, will include this, with
some demos. on future FLEXIPAGE sales and updates. I am now
looking forward to mags. such as yours including melodies and
differing instrument sounds as "MM Clips" so we can share and
admire each others' efforts.
Keep up the good work - although I subscribe to your rivals
Outlet and Enceladus, both of which often give you a good run
for the best - I always look forward to your monthly disk.
Yours Sincerely
Eds Note.. Thanks for the Christmas greeting Dave, you will
notice that this issue contains such a "music clip", and I hope
to include more in the future.
Peter D Bell
5 Mill Hill Close
Shoreham by Sea
West Sussex
BN43 5TP
Dear Dave,
Congratulations to you and your colleagues for the continuing
excellent issues of SAM Supplement. When the title page comes
up on screen, I now wait to see what will happen next, - either
new screen or music,- before calling the editorial.
Mostly in basic, too, which shows how versatile our 8 bit friend
is compared with some of the bigger machines.
You evidently do take notice of things people write, or say, for
with issue 16 the choice of line feed stays on screen long
enough for the aged to pick. I recall mentioning it to you
at the December All Formats Fair - so that is service, thankyou.
Talking to Frank Harrop, (The chap who used to work with
Marconi I think, as his call sign, G3DVL, comes from the days
when Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog were the first four letters of
the Morse Code alphabet), we considered asking you for the way
to make our own disc labels on the pattern of the SAMSUP issues.
With the advent of the disc storage boxes, I stow mine metal
slide downwards, but as the box fills, it is easier if the disc
title is on the spine. Also, when I release a disc in the drive,
it pops out about half an inch and I like to be able to read the
title without withdrawing the disc completely and turning it
round. Finally, when discs in the box are tilted away, only a
small section of the label shows, so again, a single line title
is handy.
At present I resort to typing on gummed paper, in condensed
font, at double spacing, the disc title repeated three times in
column, like this:-
------------
SAMSUP 16
SAMSUP 16
SAMSUP 16
------------
This is cut out and stuck on the disc cover, on the left side
of the label, so that the middle line is on the bottom edge or
spine, where it can be read in the aforementioned positions,
irrespective of the way the big label is placed.
From the days when I purchased my first 3 1/2" disc for 3 pounds
50, and had but just that one for ages, labels have had a
coloured band, about 3/4" (17.5mm to you youngsters), wrapped
round the cover to act as a storage index.
SDC, SAMSUP, FRED, S&SC, ENCELADUS, etc., don't consult me
first, so I can't keep green for WP and Printing, yellow for
Utilities and so on, as they all arrive with a motley collection
of different colours. OUTLET is crafty, and uses a small
label, easy and quick to stick on.
May I suggest that those who use the full labels arrange to have
the coloured band on the top side of the disc, nearest the metal
slide, leaving the white end to fold over onto the under side,
and the printing reading from the metal slide downwards.
This would allow the printing of the short title, by the
originator, in the positions I indicated, leaving the user to
colour code the spine, if required.
Buy labels with no coloured bar- they are cheaper!
All this might not suit everyone, but would me, so pull up the
ladder, Jack, I'm inboard.
Now to Duncan Munro's suggestion of a dictionary. The idea
sounds good, and I would be willing to help in getting it onto
disc, if I thought it would be of real use.
Most modern PC's have a built in dictionary, yet the adverts
from the firms selling the latter and letters from firms using
it contain spelling errors.
English spelling can be learnt only, as no rules could cover it
satisfactorily. I fear that the education system over the last
thirty years has been at fault, for spelling, (and grammar),
have not been in the curriculum.
One 'fanzine' stated that contributors could send in items
without worrying about spelling and grammar, as they would be
corrected. There were 19 spelling and grammatical errors on
that page.
An inbuilt spelling checker will not change "could of" to "could
have", "there" to "their", "except" to "accept", "here, here"
to "hear, hear" or "it'self' to "itself" to mention a few errors
culled to date, as all are correctly spelt, but incorrectly
used.
The last one suffers from sprayed apostrophes, which are found
frequently before the "s" in plurals, e.g. "disc's", and many a
time in "it's", when the writer does not mean "it is" but "its".
It's time I put that one back in its box.
When it comes to "SCRABBLE", it is far better, and quicker, to
have to hand a real dictionary. The game loaded might challenge
"deteriate" but wouldn't have a clue that "deteriorate" was the
word that should have been placed. A spellchecker wouldn't
help, either.
It amazes me the way the bright youngsters today, many a fifth
of my age, can program in machine code so easily, without making
spelling errors in the mnemonics.
I'm jealous, too, of the way they whip through these computer
games. "I'm up to level 83 in the 'Prince of Persia' ", they
boast.
Not this chap. I've been sold a duff copy. The idiot on mine
runs along a passage, jumps up a couple of times, giving his
head a nasty crack on the ceiling and finishes up leaping into a
lift shaft and landing on a load of spikes. I'm sure it must
hurt the poor chap.
Once I pressed two keys together accidentally, and the chap
jumped up onto the next platform. Is that level 2?
The other one was a waste of money, too. Called "Split" or
"Splot" or something. I was just checking the first screen to
see if it was rolling or scrolling, and all I got was the sound
of three raspberries and a message to tell me the game was over.
Someone told me I should play with my joystick, but I was a bit
chary, as I heard it could seriously affect one's eyesight.
Still I took my courage in both hands, and look where it landed
me.
My cell is quite comfortable, tho'. The floor is soft, like
those bouncy castles at a fair, and the walls, too.
That nice man in a white coat is coming round with breakfast
now. I hope he will untie my jacket sleeves this time, as it is
very awkward sucking porridge thro' a straw.
As I'm penned in, I may write again one day, if I can keep a
clean sheet.
Yours aye,
The Shoreham Pensioner.
.
W. A. GODDARD,
53, MANNION HOUSE,
SCHOLES,
WIGAN, LANCS,
Tel: WIGAN(0942)39977. WN1 3RL.
Dear Dave,
On reading this month's SUPPLEMENT I discovered
that we had much in common. We both took our delivery of our
SAM'S at about the same time i.e. just prior to Christmas 1989.
Mine was to have been with a disc drive but an enclosed note
advised me that that item was to follow. My old Sinclair 128 was
quickly dismantled and the new machine enthroned. Like you I
have never regretted the cost or the day I switched over.
Here I fear the comparison must end as I am afraid I must
admit to being in a different age group to yourself. In fact I
am well on the road to 78. One feature I particularly liked
about the old 128 was its music channel. I have to admit that
this was one feature I felt that the SAM had not improved upon.
Programming music with the 128 was much simpler. I
had also obtained a music utility and between the two excellent
results could be obtained. I secured the manufacturer's data
sheets for the new sound chip and it was clear that SAM had the
answers. It appears on page 100 of the original Manual - SOUND
r,d;r,d;etc. Fuller details were in the Advanced Users Manual. I
really struggled with the 28 registers. Someone with more
patience than I has obviously done the same - Paul Angel. The
result THE SOUND MACHINE.
This new Utility I feel is a must for those who
wish to get the maximum results from this chip in a relatively
easy manner. I look forward to your assessment of this product
but take the liberty of offering my own observations under
separate cover. They may be of help to you.
Finally let me praise SAMCO. I ordered my Sound
Machine on the 25th. November and whilst at that stage the
Manual had not been completed they assured me I would have it by
Christmas. About ten days before Christmas I rang for
re-assurance which I received. Sure enough it arrived on the
Thursday before Christmas by express delivery. Thank you SAMCO
you helped to make my Christmas a very happy one indeed.
May I finally thank you and those concerned with
the production of the SUPPLEMENT for the excellent presentation
I so much look forward to each month. I note that I have used
the word "finally" twice so far - a sure sign of old age. Dare I
use it once again to say that I enclose cheque for the glossary
disk.
(W.A.GODDARD)
.