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Disk 9 News
* * * * * N E W S * * * * *
The All Formats Show, held in London on 18/5/91 was not the
resounding success that other such shows have been. I think that
holding it on the same day as the cup final didn't help, but I
also think that from a Sam point of view, there was not such a
great turn out of Samco as there usually is.
P.B.T are now distributing the Sam on Samco's behalf, and as
such took up a fair proportion of stand space. Also nearby was
Blue Alpha Electronics, who showed me their Sam mouse, (more of
which later). They were selling both their Sound Sampler and
Voicebox, both of which have had improvements made to them, and
both of which are good value if sound is your forte.
Whilst on the subject of the Sampler, Adrian of Blue Alpha tells
me that there is some new software being written for it at this
very moment. He gave me a preview copy, and I must say that it
improves the sampler no end. I can't wait to see the finished
version. The new software will be available to existing sampler
owners as a free upgrade, when it is ready. Watch these pages
for details.
Brian Gaff was there, with his handy little amplifier for sale,
also Brian had Outlet Magazine for sale on behalf of the Cavers
brothers, who could unfortunately not make it to the show.
GM Software were selling their popular GM_Base and GM_Calc and
Bob Brenchley was selling back issues of his Format Mag.
A newcomer to the Sam scene was Captain Coupe, a new disc mag
for the Sam. We hope to have a review of issue one by next
issue.
On the new software side of things, Enigma were at the show
selling their latest conversion, KLAX. This is a very good
conversion, and with a bit of luck you should find a review
somewhere in this issue.
I think for me, the only letdown of the show, was that Alan and
Bruce did not make an appearance. I think that people go to
these shows to meet these two, and not having them there made
the Sam end of things seem flat. Let's hope their absence will
not prove habit forming.
A small snippet of info from Darren Talbot...
Could you not send orders for his colour dump to him, as P.B.T
now own the rights to it.
You can still order Stylewriter off him at his usual address.
________________________________________________________________
The "MESSENGER" had still not made an appearance up to the time
of writing this, but it is hoped to have it ready by the 9/6/91
Birmingham Show.
________________________________________________________________
Adrian of Blue Alpha expects to have his Sam mouse ready for
sale at the All Formats Show on 9/6/91 in Birmingham.
Cost is yet to be worked out, but the mouse itself is based on
an Amiga (spit) mouse and will plug straight into the joystick
port. This means that there will be no unsightly interface boxes
cluttering up the back of the machine. Adrian assures me that it
will be fully compatible with Flash, and usable from BASIC, so
that you can incorporate it into your own programs. Give him a
call for more info.
****************************************************************
STOP PRESS...
I've just had a call from Adrian to tell me that
the cost of the mouse will be £29.95 complete. He also hopes to
have a WIMP envoiroment and a patch to make FLASH run smoother,
ready to go with it at the Birmingham Show on 9/6/91.
****************************************************************
* * * REVIEWS * * *
REVIEW OF SAMTAPE4
BY JEFF JENNINGS MEMBER NO. 296.
________________________________________________________________
Having used SAMTAPE in other versions and updating regularly I
have found the past versions easy to use and very well
presented.
For those users who have not used any of the SAMTAPE utilities I
will start this review with a brief description of the utility.
SAMTAPE 4 comes on a Disc (or is that Disk - I can never tell
which it should be) and is essentially two main utilities the
first one being SAMTAPE which is a Spectrum Emulator enabling
the user to Load a Spectrum program and by the use of the Break
button of the SAM return to a Menu which gives functions of
loading and saving to Disc, peeking and poking contents of the
RAM (infinite lives and such like). It also enables the users of
the plus D interface to load their +D Snapshots directly into
the SAM and save out to SAM disc.
SAMSPEC this is a utility for the more serious user and enables
software that uses printers to access the printer interface (if
one is fitted), via the SAM. In general the program you want to
transfer needs to be able to be broken into as alterations in
Basic are needed to enable the program to access the SAM printer
and Disc Drives.
Those are just brief descriptions of the main programs on the
disc, now down to the review.
The main differences between this version and its predecessors
are that SAMTAPE4 cannot be copied to other discs for Backup
purposes ie. I used to have a collection of favourite Spectrum
Games on several discs which had a copy of SAMTAPE on it however
this version I cannot do that and have to use the Master Disc
then swap discs to load a game!! I find this a wee bit
annoying. The other differences are in SAMTAPE and SAMSPEC you
can compress the Snaps in order to get more on a Disc. You can
also change tha palette colours for a program. SAMSPEC has its
own differences mainly being a search function which searches
for lines in the Spectrum Basic which contain Load, Save,
Verify, Cat and some others. This being useful so as to not
have to look through a whole listing. It also has a Function
which writes a section of basic in order to use SAM's Disc and
Printer functions. There are other useful programs on the disc
enabling the user to customise PCG's DTP package, and Tasword2,
the manual also has tips for converting other speccy utilities.
Im sure I have probably missed other functions but I only use
SAMTAPE predominantly for games and I rarely use SAMSPEC however
not being a programmer I found that even I could get some
programs to work through it.
In Conclusion I found the whole package very easy to use and the
manual is well laid out and presented and even an idiot like me
can cope with it and even understand most of it. My only gripe
is in SAMTAPES inability, unlike its predecessors, to copy
itself onto other discs, having had this luxury before it is a
little difficult to get used to. On the whole I would heartily
recommend this package.
________________________________________________________________
F.Hindle
Mem. No.17. 7 Clough Road
NELSON
Lancashire
BB9 0PE
Tel:- 0282 64359
REVIEW OF GM's SPREADSHEET
GM-CALC
GM SOFTWARE, 48 MAIN ROAD, CRYNANT, NEATH,SA10 8NP
£9.99 inc p & p.
256k SAM. Single Drive.
The program has been developed using SAM Basic, thus giving the
opportunity for those with programming skills to modify and add
to the program.
On reading the documentation which accompanied the disc I felt
a little bit overawed; and would have liked more simple detail
eg. How to get back into the program without loss of data, once
an error has taken you into Basic. The only way I found was to
use LET REFRESH = 1: GOTO 930. This after much headscratching.
However this was only a draft of the proposed manual, so
perhaps this sort of thing can be dealt with in the final copy.
Having said I was a little overawed by the manual, when I came
to use the program, I was pleasantly surprised how user
friendly it was.
A sample spreadsheet comes with the disc, enabling one to try
out all the commands available. There is a good HELPSHEET in the
program. Four pull-down windows each with their own menu.
MENu 1. Recalculate MENU 2. Load File
Help/Info Save File
Clear Directory
Graph Sheet
MENU 3. Print formulas MENU 4. Range Copy
Print Range Range Erase
Pica Sort Range
Comp Pica Month Data
NLQ
Comp NLQ
Menu 1 is self explanatory, and gave me no problems.
MENU 2 Gave no problems.
Menu 3 Will print every formula you use in your spreadsheet.
Limited me to the first four commands, due entirely to
the inability of my printer to use the last two Fonts.
MENU 4 Again, no problems.
Will copy any block designated.
Will erase any block.
Will sort any block.
Will print the months in either row or column.
I did find however that I was unable to obtain a printout. This
though, again, was due to my printer not accepting the dump
command.(SHINWA CP-80). However by using two pokes[POKE SVAR 31,
4:POKE SVAR 35,75 courtesy of ANDY WRIGHT] that problem was
solved.
To sum up; I found myself quite at home after a couple of hours.
The program was something I had been looking for, and although
it was slow, due to being all in BASIC. Nevertheless I found it
a very versatile program, and at £9.99 good value.
********************** REVIEW OF LOVEHEARTS ********************
& GEMSTONES
by DAVE TONKS
Review by Jeff Jennings Memb Number 296
It may be unusual to review these programs in SAM Supplement as
they are the work of our illustrious Editor Dave. But I feel
that I must review these as any software for the SAM should get
an unbiased airing and exposure.
I purchased these two new titles for the SAM at the All Formats
show in Birmingham off Dave himself.
LOVEHEARTS.
This as with all Dave's previous Games is a mixture of Mind Game
and Arcade Game, and the object of the game is to get boy to
meet girl after he collects the Hearts. This as always is not as
easy as it sounds as the boy is moved around a 'room' but
continues in the direction he is set off in. There are 12 levels
and yes, you guessed it gets harder as you go on. It is a VERY
addictive game that I would thimk will appeal to all the family
(I've only just got to the SAM to type this because the rest of
the family have all gone out).
The cost of this Masterpiece in frustration ( go on Dave tell me
how to get past level 6) is £3.99 (a snip).
GEMSTONES.
Gemstones is another game to bend your mind on. It entails
taking different shaped and coloured gems from a pouch and
placing them on a grid next to a gem of the same colour or same
shape. The difficulty arises when you need to place a stone
where it adjoins different colours and shapes. You only get to
see one gem at a time which makes planning all the more
difficult.
A very good addictive game and again a snip at £3.99.
(Thanks for the reviews Jeff, the cheques in the post!!! ED..)
* * * K L A X * * *
by Enigma Variation
Reviewed by Dave Tonks
I think that you all must have gathered by now, that I like a
good puzzle/thinking game. Well here we have one!!
KLAX is loosely based on the world famous TETRIS, but in 3D.
There are tiles, as in Tetris, but they are rolling towards you
on a conveyor belt.
You are in control of a "CATCHER" which can move the full width
of the belt and is used to catch the tiles as they fall off the
end. The catcher can also tip the tiles off into stacks, thus
building up piles of different coloured tiles.
A "KLAX" is 3,4 or 5 of the same coloured tiles in a row. Either
across, diagonal or vertical.
Any tiles that are missed by the catcher drop into the void, and
you are only allowed 3 such tiles. The catcher can hold up to 5
tiles at a time, so forward planning is vital.
The graphics and sound are well up to the Sam standard, and
there are plenty of control options.
This game will either enthral you or drive you mad, but which
ever way it grabs you, a well worthwhile buy.
________________________________________________________________
CAPTAIN COUPE (first impressions) by Les Philips
Overall I thought it was so juvenile as to be completely
immature. The language and presentation was childish and the
spelling and grammar was shocking, a poor reflection on current
standards. More specifically, there was nothing out of the
ordinary about the sound demo, nothing original in the screen
shots, and I had seen many of the gallery pictures before-some a
long time ago- there are much better available now.
Finally, I would have thought that some instruction was
desirable in respect of the only program, i.e. uneraser.
If the editor is to continue "swiping" other peoples material,
he should be told that it is courteous to acknowledge the
originator.
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