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PROGRAM NOTES
FADE MK2 by Martin Vale
Well. It seems that FADER isn't all that good after all. Ho
hum. When the colours fade out, they flicker, and sort of
disappear with a shutter effect. Oh dear. Only one solution.
Solve it.
The problem lies in the fact that Sam BASIC isn't quite
fast enough to change 16 palette colours while doing
calculations smoothly. So that's why I wrote a new version. FADE
MK 2 uses MEM$ to POKE the palette colours, in a string, to
addresses &55d8 and &55ec, the Colour Look Up Table. What this
means is that the colours go directly to the palette 'pots'
without having to go through the BASIC interpreter stuff
for the PALETTE command. And, using MEM$, all 16 colours can be
POKEd at once!!
In FADE MK2, there is the option to change the FADE speed.
This is chosen with F9 while waiting to fade (that is, after
you've changed the border colour). "Time delay in 50ths of a
second" is printed at the top of the screen. Press a key from 0
(manual change) and 9 (slow) to 1 (fast). In manual change, any
key except F0 cycles the FADE step by step. After the speed has
been chosen, the screen that was 'underneath' the text gets
replaced, so that the top of the screen isn't written on.
FADE MK2 also has the option of loading a new set of colour
combinations, eg to FADE to white, or green etc. This is
accessed by pressing 3 on the main menu. The loading procedure
is the same as loading up a picture. I have included a set of
colour combinations to FADE to white. I will be making more
colour combinations in the future.
Apart from the new changes, the program is just about the
same, but a little tidier.
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A.I.Speak by Martin Vale
Okay, so you've done all your homework / marking /
paperwork (delete as applicable), you have some time to waste,
you decide to use your new Coupe, and you can't think what to
do. Should you play Defenders. Or have you completed it? Should
you write a program? Or a game? What about writing a letter? If
you don't want to do any of these, load up A.I.Speak, a
completely useless, but often funny, program.
It is a random conversation generator, with some
intelligence. What it does is have a conversation with you.
Purpose: to enhance communication between men and machines
(sort of).
Right. A.I.Speak has loaded up, now what? The screen has
gone white, with the message "Welcome to A.I.Speak. Please talk
to me, I'm bored" appearing somewhere near the bottom of the
page, there is a small flashing cursor just below the "W",
waiting for you to type something. Type something. The program
automatically sets the first letter as a capital, even if you
typed it in lower case. The program can handle two 62-character
lines. When you've 'said' something, press RETURN.
Oh look! A message has come up. It could be "Greetings!" or
"How are you?" or "Get lost" or one of the other 37 stored in
the program. It might not make sense, eg. if you typed "How are
you today, SAM?", it might reply with "Pity". It might not, but
it might.
The more time wasted with this program, the funnier it can
get. This is because it stores some of the things that you've
said to it. It can store 60 at a time, and once in a while,
displays one onto the screen. It might not make sense. The way
to get around this problem is to swear.
Here is a real example of the program at work:
Hiya! My name's David Hooper, and I'm looking for a penpal,
male or female, aged 13 - 4000
Ha ha ha!!!
Good joke, wannit!
Well then - what's your name?
Martin
Please excuse me. I'll just get a bucket...
My name's not that bad!
How are you?
Fine, fine
Pity.
.. which goes to show that it can sometimes seem to have a
sense of humour. I'll leave you to work out how to return to the
Supplement for yourselves. CLUE - you have to type it in.
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CENTRE TEXT by W.McGrugan
This is a neat little DEF PROC that allows your text to be
centred on the screen display. It is very easy to use, and there
is an example and explanation within the program.
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CHORDS by M.Stack
This is a very interesting program, that lets you play chords
using the F keys. Those of you who understand BASIC, may like to
ESC from the program and study how the sound chip was used in
this instance.
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KEY DEFINE by M.Stack
A ready done routine that when loaded allows you to define the F
keys to preset definitions. There is a list of definitions
given, so that you can make a note of them.
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COLOURCLIP anon
Another screen of MODE 4 bits and pieces for you to use in you
own programs.
AUTO-FLASH by R.EVANS
Yes, it's another FLASH mod, but this ones a bit different. With
this version, you can SAVE the whole of FLASH to disc with all
the settings intact, so that next time you LOAD it, it will
default to the settings that it had when last saved. This means
that you can have your own personalised copy of FLASH which
boots up to your requirements. Instructions for putting onto you
own disc and how to use it are given in the program.
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COLUMNISER V3 by D.Hall
This is an updated version of Dave Hall's original "COLUMNISER"
with more features added. For those of you who didn't see the
first one, Columniser is a program which takes Tasword II files,
and splits them into columns for you, rather like a newspaper
layout.
You may also be interested to know that Dave has also done a
Masterdos version which is available throught the Supplement.
Please see "NEWS" for more info.
CALENDAR PRINTER by D.Hall
If you've every wanted to be able to print you own calendars,
then this is the program for you.
All that you require is a printer capable of condensed mode and
you're away. The program can print out any 12 months of any
year up to 2009 and is very easy to use. It will also print out
the cover for you!
Full instructions and hints are included in the program. I've
tried it myself with an Epson RX80, and it worked a treat.
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SLIDESHOW (Various)
This months pictures are not Amiga or ST rip offs, but screens
that have been drawn by members. I've put a small basic
slideshow program on the disc to display them. You may want to
alter it to use for your own screens.
If you have any screens that you have drawn, we would be only
too happy to publish them.
INSTR$ by B.Mumford
This is the second article in the "BASIC MADE SIMPLE" series.
This issue Brian learns how INSTR$ works, and gives you an
explanation as well as a demo of the command.
All of it is in BASIC, with plenty of REMs scattered around to
help you understand it.
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RESTORER II by D.Talbot
This is an updated version of the RESTORER that was published in
a prevoius issue. The difference with this one is that it will
unerase DIRectories when using Masterdos. It will also unerase
programs on ramdiscs.
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BLITZKREIG by M.Stack
An intriguing little game from Mathew, which will have you
scratching your head for a good while. The idea is to find a
hidden target on a grid, by deduction and logic.
Full instructions are included in the game.
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BOXES by D.Tonks
This is a simple DEF PROC which can be added to you BASIC
program, to give you the new command "BOX".
There are several parameters that you can specify to give you
either a filled or empty box, a choice of colour and position
and size of box. There is a full explanation within the
program, plus a demo of what it can do.
If you choose the "ERASE PROGRAM" option, everything but the
DEF PROC will be erased, which can then be saved to your own
disc for future use.
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DECO-DATA by S.Monk
Another one of Steve's useful databases. This one lets you store
all the info about your house that you need when re-decorating.
Such as floor sizes, amount of paper and paint for a room etc.
There is even a size estimator built in, to help you work out
areas.
Selecting "ESCAPE" from the main menu, will bring you back to
the Supplement.
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A CHILDS GUIDE TO THE SOUND CHIP by J.Saunders
A very informative article, plus demo, of how to start
understanding the Sam sound chip.
John, like many of us, got very confused reading technical
articles on the sound chip, so he sat down and wrote his own,
easy to understand guide.
The text has the option of being printed out and the demo is in
BASIC, so you can study it for further help.