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Disk 11 News
*********** SAM COUPE MOUSE ***********
(The official one from Samco )
Reviewed by Steve Monk.
Well at last it's here, the SAM mouse .
What do you get for your £39.99. Well you get an Amiga / Atari
mouse complete with mouse house; you get the mouse interface
that sits beside your Coupe and is connected to it by a lead
about 12 inches in length with an eight pin Din plug on the end
that plugs into the mouse port on the back panel.
Also supplied is a disk with mouse driven programs on it.
THE MOUSE.
----------
Well not a lot I can say here as it's a standard mouse , it
feels nice in the hand and the two buttons are nicely sensitive
and function with slight pressure , they are micro-switches so a
quiet click is heard when operated , the mouse runs across a
mouse mat smoothly . The colour matches that of the coupe .
THE INTERFACE.
--------------
This is a piece of equipment that I would have preferred not to
have as it would have been nice to plug the mouse straight into
the mouse port as was originally planned , but we all know the
story behind that. Anyway as it is it's fine , it doesn't plug
into the Sambus or expansion port so there's no use of valuable
add-on space . It plugs into the mouse port via a short length
of cable so you can sit it beside your Coupe or behind it .
The interface is boxed into a normal size SAM Interface box with
a 9 pin D type socket mounted in it which is where you plug your
rodent .
On inspection inside the box (something I do to see the quality
of the printed circuit board etc), the standard is upto SAMCO'S
usual good design , the printed circuit board itself is a well
laid out affair with no wire links and the tracks are tinned.
The circuit board shows no signs of being rushed together
although I believe Samco were pressured into a quick release of
the mouse due to the Blue Alpha joy mouse being released .
THE MOUSE DISK
---------------
The disk contains 3 programs to try your mouse out with .
The first is a mouse version of FLASH, the second is a basic
mouse program to draw all over the screen, it has several REMs
in the listing to show you how to use the mouse commands in Sam
basic . The third is a game called slider , its the old theme of
muddling a picture up and you have to un-muddle it. There are
ten pictures to un-muddle. I spent three hours playing this
game when I got my mouse , it works very well and is a lot of
fun. Also on the disk is a short piece of code called MDRIVER
which must be loaded in to memory to allow you to use the mouse
commands XMOUSE , YMOUSE AND BUTTON.
SO WHAT DO I THINK
------------------
The mouse version of FLASH is a pre-production version, it still
has a few flaws, the most noticeable is when running the mouse
quickly there are a few gaps in the line plotted on the screen,
and some of the funtions don't work properly yet. When running
the mouse over the options boxes, the program seems to get
muddled up a bit and sometimes does some strange things . These
are problems within FLASH and not the mouse, as it works
perfectly with the other two programs. It says in the on-screen
instruction that a new version of FLASH will be sent out when
completed. I only hope we don't have to wait months for it. I
would have liked to have seen a little more in the way of
guidance on using the mouse in your own programs , it would have
been nice to have a routine included that prints and enables you
to move a pointer around the screen for use in your own menu
systems etc. These routines will no doubt surface from users in
the near future. I had the choice of this SAMCO mouse or the Joy
mouse from Blue Alpha , I was swayed towards the Sam mouse
because it will be the mouse most supported by Software writers
(having said that the Joy mouse will work where a joystick is
catered for ) but I'm happy with it and it works well in all
modes. So come on all you software Experts, lets see what you
can do with this !. The SAM mouse £ 39.99 available from Samco
now !
----------------------------------------------------------------
Review of
"Escape From The Planet of the Robot Monsters"
by Simon Walsh Atkins
When I got this game, I was pleasantly suprised with the
packaging, a big box with colourful, cartoon style drawings all
over it. When loading up the game, you are faced with another
one of Enigma's great loading screens. Once loaded, there is
atmospheric music straight away and a series of screens also
adds to the atmosphere as it introduces you to the mission.
A load of robots have taken over planet X, and are holding the
humans there hostage, they are using the humans as slaves to
build even more robots. You must, on your own, or with a mate,
travel to planet X and wipe out all the robots with your ray
gun. You must also destroy all the computers, each one taking
one shot from your ray gun.
The game operates in isometric 3D, and has rotational control,
e.g. you rotate your man with the left right controls, and then
push the forward control to make him walk in that direction. If
you walk into one of the hostages, then he/she will be beamed up
to the mother ship. There are three different types of robot,
the first are red robots, which when killed, leave behind green
crystals which increase your ray gun's power. Secondly, there
are big mean robots who, although being slow, shoot fireballs
everywhere. Finally, there are little silver robots, who fly
around the room, trying to collide with you.
You can play either Jake or Duke, one wears a green suit, and
the other a red suit, so there is no "where am I" confusion that
you get on some 2 player simutaneous games. Each character has 2
credits, and each credit is made up of 3 lives. Each life is
made up of 4 energy blocks which are depleted when you get hit
by something, though food can replenish your energy. Sometimes,
instant death is caused by contact with a deadly blue ball, or
getting splatted by some spikes which shoot out of the walls
unannounced. Zapping boxes will reveal some bonuses, like more
bombs, food or shields. Increased ray power can be obtained by
collecting the green crystals left behind by the red robots. A
more powerful raygun means that you can dispatch your
adversaries more quickly.
Graphics and sound are excellent throughout. There are some neat
touches like the way you scramble back up a wall if you fall off
it. Everything is well drawn, like the big reptilons, which you
have to face every other level. The game is also big and
challenging and will provide entertainment for hours.
Any Sam-owning games freak should buy a copy - NOW.
----------------------------------------------------------------
WHICH MOUSE? (Les Phillips)
After reading in Issue 10 the brief descriptions of the two
rodents now available for the Sam Coupe, I took an opportunity
to compare their operation and, hopefully, to arrive at a
decision as to which is the one most likely to suit my purpose.
Externally, the main obvious difference between them is that
the SamCo unit has a boxed interface with a cable plugged into
the mouse port, while the Blue Alpha mouse contains its
interface and plugs into the joystick port. Both mice are
microswitched.
The main difference between them - a significant one - is that
the SamCo unit, once initialised (which would normally be done
by any programme written with a mouse control option), feeds the
x,y coordinates continuously to the computer, i.e. the 'normal'
method of operation. The Blue Alpha unit operates differently in
that it emulates the joystick, sending signals equivalent to the
pressing of keys 6 to 0. This difference could be of major
consideration and be the basis for your choice of mouse.
As there is a shortage of mice-specific programmes available
for the Sam, operational use is difficult to assess. The SamCo
unit comes with a disc containing a sliding block puzzle
programme and a customised version of FLASH. The puzzle does not
make any particular demands upon the mouse and hence is of no
assistance in deciding upon its overall usefulness. The
customised version of FLASH affords a better opportunity, and
the mouse operates as would be expected by comparison with other
mice and computer systems.
The Blue Alpha mouse has no demo programme supplied with it,
but will work with FLASH via this programme's joystick option.
Because its method of operation virtually overlays keys 6 to 0
and hence involves keyboard scanning, the response of the
pointer to mouse movement is not at all what would be expected.
If the mouse, for instance, is moved quickly, the pointer is
left behind and never catches up. This results in having to
adopt an unusual method of mouse movement. This could detract
from the mouse's suitability for certain simulation games. The
instruction sheet details POKES which are said to improve this
aspect of behaviour.
So, you must ask yourself - what do I want to use the mouse
for? There are not yet a sufficient number of mouse-specific
programmes to justify the purchase of a mouse for use with such.
Programmes of this type are sure to appear, particularly now
that the mouse is available, and I strongly suspect that such
programmes will be written in accordance with the 'normal' mode
of operation of the SamCo mouse.
If, however, you prefer use of a mouse rather than a joystick,
the Blue Alpha unit, because of its operation by simulating key
presses, will enable you to use the mouse with any Sam or
Spectrum programme which is written to provide use of the
Sinclair joystick protocol or redefinable control keys. My
experience with other computer systems has frequently indicated
that mouse control can be much more sensitive and amenable than
use of the joystick. I suspect that the difference may not be so
obvious, if at all, using the Blue Alpha system.
What will I do? I will wait until there are more programmes
available for the Sam written with mouse operation in mind, e.g.
utilities with pull-down menus, and simulations of vehicle or
aircraft control. Then a more meaningful comparison will be
possible as it will be based upon use with programmes which I am
likely to use.
SPELLING ATTACK & HIGHWAY CODE reviewed by Andrew Tonks (aged 8)
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
I like both of these games. They both have a picture of Sam on
the front. He is dressed like a teacher with a black hat and
cape.
They are very easy to load, you just put the disc in the Sam,
and press the key with F9 on it.
SPELLING ATTACK is all about choosing the right word to go into
the sentences that Sam gives you. You can choose the letters
that you want to practice, and Sam tells you how well you have
done at the end.
HIGHWAY CODE is a program to help you to learn the roadsigns and
signals. I did not like this as much as the other one, but it is
still good.
You can choose to learn different signs and Sam keeps score of
how you are doing.
I hope that there will be some more of these programs soon.
MASTERBASIC
Price £15.99 from
BETASOFT, 24 Wych Avenue, Kings Heath, Birmingham, B14 6LQ
A partial (!!!) review of Masterdos version by David Hall
Masterbasic has to be merged with DOS to make a single BOOTable
file loaded by pressing F9 as usual. My first impression was
-"what a nice lot of manual". After the rather curtailed User's
Guide it's nice to have some real explanations. Each command has
examples of usage, plus in most cases, a short demo listing. The
supplied disc also has a number of demonstration programmes;-
(later). At the end of the manual is a list of XVARS which can
be poked to alter the way Masterbasic deals with certain
actions, plus a list of the full range of ASCII and keyword
codes in dec and hex and a number of extensions to Masterdos's
facilities , some of which have been speeded up. Ram disc speed
is much faster for load file by number and random file access to
mention just two.
As one would expect, the syntax for some of the commands can get
rather complicated particularly with data handling. However
considering the complex tasks carried out, this is a small price
to pay for the power and flexibility that Masterbasic brings.
The data handling commands alone are sufficient reason to buy
this superb programme.
If you do a lot of graphic dumps then the new dump capability
will be a firm favourite, giving three sizes of shaded dump.
DUMP 1 gives the same size as the current dumpld, DUMP 2 gives a
double size dump, both these are printed across the page. Dump 3
gives an enormous dump which is printed sideways (as per Flash),
and uses about 1+1/4 fanfold pages. All are brilliant although
results will of course depend on the original. XVAR's can be
poked to make Masterbasic match your printer, some examples of
which are quoted (it's a brave man who quotes printer control
codes). Another XVAR controls the number of times the paper is
hit allowing control of dump density. Dump 4 gives an unshaded
dump and DUMP 5 is a text dump. All DUMPS can have a second
parameter added to control height.
Masterbasic also brings an easily implemented ability to save
code files and screen$'s as compressed files, which are
automatically expanded on loading. The space saving on disc
storage can be enormous. The Coupe now has interrupt driven
printing, a real pleasure for word processor users. The size of
the printer buffer is set by the user, Xvars can be poked to
alter the time the Coupe spends between printer and programme.
Type in the next letter while the last one is still printing,
very useful.
Other facilities brought by Masterbasic are interrupt driven
sound, faster and extended PUT & GRAB, split screen displays (
modes 3 & 4 at the same time), extra time facilities for Sambus,
built in European characters, extra CSIZE capablities, faster
conditional MERGE*, exit PROC,DO and FOR plus many more. It will
have become apparent by now why this can only be a partial
review, a full review of every new command/facility would take
up a whole disc by itself. So here follows a brief intro to just
some of the abilities of some of Masterbasic's commands.
The first four commands have become second nature to use and
are sorely missed when Samdos or masterdos are resident alone.
WORD LEFT or RIGHT
Shift plus left or right cursor, moves the cursor by jumps to
the next space after a 'word', the word may be a complete series
of statements giving quite long jumps. Very fast editing in long
lines.
LAST LINE RECALL
Cntrl + up-cursor calls up last command entered , repeated use
moves through all the commands held in the line storage buffer,
which holds up to 256 bytes. Don't know how I managed without
this!!
JOIN
This joins either a stated line to the next one in the prog
list, or the line with the cursor in to the next line.
SPLIT
Chop a line into bits, a real joy this one when trying to modify
long lines. The split is accomplished with the line in the
editing area. A slash '/' at the required split point puts the
first part back into the prog with the original line number, the
rest of the line stays in the editing area, still with the same
line number, which must be altered before entering the rest of
the line ( which may be split again if required).
REF
Andy gives 10 ways to use this command, all are various ways of
searching a program listing for a specified reference. One
obvious and handy use is searching for DEF PROC's. The line with
the first occurrence appears in the editing area, pressing
return calls up the next occurrence and so on. PRINT REF
(reference) gives a list of the lines the reference appears in,
LPRINT may be substituted. Can save a great deal of eyestrain
when hunting for a particular prog bit in long listings.
ALTER reference TO reference
This is a VERY potent command and needs using with care, as ALL
the matching references are changed, unless you specify a line
number range. A command with great potential for programmers.
The example given for this will VAL all numbers in the
programme.
LINE NUMBER TRACING
A Basic trace function, this displays the line and statement
number being actioned. The running speed of programme can be
controlled, the programme can also be single stepped. BRILL!!
The following commands make data handling much easier and are a
must for serious programming.
EDIT variable
Again a command with many uses, some quite complex. Using this
command you can edit a variable entered from the keyboard and
alter it, if the variable doesn't exist then will behave like
INPUT and create it. One very handy use is tracing variable
contents when a programme stops with an error report, can save
long periods of searching and head scratching. This command can
also be used within for example, a database type programme for
altering records.
SORT a$
THis will sort a string array disregarding case. If case is
important, then SORT ABS a$ will sort by ASCII code, 'A' coming
before 'a' etc. SORT ABS INVERSE will sort the array in reverse
order. String slicing can be used giving complex sort options,
this command will also sort string coded numbers (later). Fast
and very desirable.
DELETE a$
Used to remove part or all of a string or an element of a string
array, can be used with slicers. Will not delete part of an
array element. Superb in database usage.
JOIN TO a$,b$
Joins strings together also works for string arrays providing
the array elements are of the same size. If joining arrays then
a single element array should be defined as for instance, form$
(1,50), two such arrays JOIN'ed TO will give form$(2,50). If an
array form$ (50) is JOINED TO an array fred$ (50) then the array
element will have a length of 100. Use LENGTH to keep track of
the size of arrays. Another database winner.
INARRAY
This is the array version of instring, complex, but very fast
and very useful though will not work with arrays of more than
two dimensions...... (WHO CAN !!)
USING$ (format$,number)
This is one we've all beem waiting for (Format Short Spot
readers note). Puts calculations into a pre-defined format for
printing, can also be used for inserting numbers into a fixed
format within a string using LET etc. Numbers in a string array
in this form can be SORT'ed.
SVAL$ and NVAL
These two commands are used for converting numbers into strings
and converting back. Can be enormously space saving and make the
use of random access files simpler, many uses. Allows a balance
to be set between memory usage and precision.
2 chars positive integers between 0 - 65535
3 chars full range of no.s to an accuracy of about 5 digits
4 chars as 3 but accuracy 7 digits
5 chars to Coupes normal accuracy 9 digits.
SHIFT$ (a$,n)
This allows you to force the case into lower, upper, case
reversal or control code replacement in the string. Has a number
of uses like:- IF SHIFT$(i$,1)="y" THEN..... (this deals with
"y" and "Y", another use is PRINT SHIFT$ (a$,4) when a$ contains
a chunk of memory, will replace any unprintable codes with a
full stop. This can actually shorten prog lines as well making
them more dependable. I've put this to good use in Tasword 2.
I could go on and on. The preceeding commands are only a portion
of what Masterbasic will do, not to mention a very skimpy look
at what can be done. I've barely scratched the surface of the
power and range of this brilliant addition to the Coupe. Demo
progs on the supplied disc cover graphics, (PUT GRAB and
compressed SCREEN$), interrupt driven sound demos (which play
while you look through the listings at your leisure),
demonstration sorts, split screen mode 4 graphics + mode 3 text,
plus several others.
Masterbasic will also work with Samdos but of course you lose
some of the facilities. If you haven't got masterdos then it's a
good idea to get both, together they make the Coupe into a most
formidable programming machine. The data handling commands
should allow most programmers (Supplement subscribers anyway) to
programme a data base equal to some available on PC's. It should
be noted that not all currently available progs will run with
Masterbasic since they were not written to do so. One example
being ver 1 of SC-FILER.
Both the Supplement and Outlet run well, as do GM-CALC and
Samtape 2, in fact almost all the progs I've tried it with have
been OK, (though Outlet can cause the dump facility to play up a
bit).
My one regret is that the commands like JOIN TO and DELETE etc
only work with string arrays, perhaps in a future update they'll
also work with numeric arrays. There are no hook codes quoted
for Master basic, I'm not sure if any are implemented.
CONCLUSION :-
Samdos, already a powerful basic is made even more potent.
GREAT, POWERFUL, VERY USEABLE, WELL WORTH HAVING AND WORTH THE
MONEY. IF YOU PROGRAMME AND YOU HAVEN'T GOT THIS THEN YOU'RE
MISSING OUT. As has happened on other machines this could well
become 'required' for some serious software.
----------------------------------------------------------------
.
NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS * NEWS
As I said in the editorial, there's not much news from Samco of
late. Prince of Persia is due for release any day now, and F16
shouldn't be far behind.
Rumour has it that there is to be a new mouse version of Flash
as the one that is being given away with the mouse has a few
bugs in it. We'll just have to wait and see.
Now for some Supplement news:-
We are hoping to finalise our own Sam amplifier and have it
available for loan to members in the next few weeks. It comes
ready to go, and plugs straight into the lightpen port of your
Sam. It will be full stereo, with volume control and a socket in
which to plug a pair of speakers. Speakers can be provided at
extra cost, or you can use your own from the family hi-fi. Cost
will be about 10 pounds excluding speakers or 12 pounds with
speakers. This is only provisional, and we hope to be able to
sell it for less than this, if we can do a good deal with
component manufacturers. The Supplement, also now has a Blue
Alpha mouse for hire, as well as the sound sampler. To hire
either for 2 weeks send a cheque made out for 20 pounds together
with one for 4 pounds. Your cheque for 20 pounds will be
held, and will be returned when you return the item in good
condition. The 4 pounds is to cover a small hire fee and the
cost of postage both ways. (You will receive with the item the
appropriate postage for its return). If the item of your choice
is already out on hire, you will be so informed and told the
date it is expected to be available.
Brian has asked me to mention that he has a fair few small
plastic 3.5 disc bags spare. If anyone would like some, just
send Brian a jiffy bag and 50p to cover postage, and he will
send you a bagful back.
Just a reminder that it is our birthday edition next issue, and
if you haven't already done so, I suggest you order your copy,
as you will be pleasantly suprised when it arrives!!!!!
A late piece of news is that there is to be an All Formats Show
in Leeds, on the 1st September. Both Brian and myself will be
there, along with Peter Lilley, the man who started all this
with the original SDC club.
If you can make it, we we all like to see you. As it coincides
with our 12th issue, we hope to do something a little special.
_______________________________
Dave Ledbury of ZAT fame, has asked me to put out an appeal for
any Automata games that you may have. Also any old PCW mags
featuring Pi man the cartoon strip.
If you can help Dave, he can be contacted at the normal Zat
address. Failing that contact him throught the Supplement.
.
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