TECHNOPHOBIA - Dave Whitmore Hello again, and welcome once again the the techie region of the mag. Phil asked me if I'd like to have a technitorial bit, and seeing as I have to edit my technical bits (Oooer), I said why not. The reason for the title Technophobia has nothing to do with the mag. It is just a little paranoia on my part, due to that damned advert on the TV at the moment. I recently went to the hospital with my wife to see the ultra- sonic scan and see our unborn baby for the first time. It was a fantastic experience and the bloke on the advert voiced exactly the same kind of sentimental waffle that I was going around telling everyone. The advert however had the ultimate aim of selling Life Insurance, suggesting that I'd better update my policies. What use of technology, bloody marvellous blackmail technique though. Clever *@#$%&? !!! Anyway, I digress. I'd like to start the column by saying thanks to you all for your support and contributions. Let's start with.... THE WORKS TEXT FORMATTER by David Haire Member David Haire, has sent in a very useful routine that can be found in this section. The code file "SPLSTR.bin", when loaded at 16384, can be called by a BASIC PROCedure, to justify text strings up to 512 chars long to any WINDOW. The demo which describes the routine in detail and a text file that gives source code notes can be loaded from the TECHNICAL MATTERS option 2. I have used the routine myself in a BASIC adventure demo I've been working on, and can recommend its use. The demo when over has been left to STOP - so you can fiddle around with the BASIC and get to know it. It is pretty easy to follow and if your anything like me, you will be playing with the PROCedure PRINTIT a$, for hours. This is just the type of thing we are on the lookout for. Thanks David. Next to rave about is... ADVENTURE DEMO by Nigel Kettlewell Nigel Kettlewell's Adventure Demo - untitled as yet, is really something to get excited about. The 'small program' as Nigel modestly calls it, is written in 100% machine code, uses MODE 3, and has provision for many more locations, vocabulary entries, objects and graphics to be included later. Just one thing though, don't try to complete the adventure, Nigel has sent in the example for demo purposes only, so we'll have to wait to see the finished game. Nevertheless, it's an excellent example. Just as a point of interest, the SAM TEXT PAGER that you are reading this article with now, is another of Nigel's works. - Thanks again Nigel, it's great to have you on the team. You will find the demo in the SPECIALS section Well, what else have we got? I've written the promised PAW to SAM disk article. The idea is quite simple in concept, but it is a bit of a bugger (excuse the language-but it is!) to try to explain. I'm really quite surprised that no-one thought of it before, but then again, they probably did and there's only me who's daft enough to try to explain how it's done. Dave Ledbury tells me that he is going to have a go at adding some MODE 4 graphics to a PAWed game. In theory, it should be no trouble to do this. So far, I've not tried this out, but Dave suggested that you could PEEK paw flags from Sam BASIC, in order to decide which MODE 4 screen to display. The effect would be, that from within PAW, when a certain condition is met ie; EXAMINE ZOLA, one of the (usable) flags could be given a value, then an EXTERN jump to Spectrum Basic line, that when using Speclone's NEW, will jump to a Sam BASIC line that PEEKs the state of the flag. Depending on the status, ie; IF PEEK flag 12 = 1 THEN POKE SCRAD, MEM$(ZOLAstart TO ZOLAend), where start and end are the (yep, you've guessed) start and end of the code block with the picture of ZOLA. This will POKE the current MODE 4 screen with the piccy. You have a quick gawp at the MODE 4 picture of ZOLA THE GORGON, press a key, and line 1 of Speclone is executed and ZAP's you back to Spectrum BASIC, where it finds that the command after NEW was STOP. STOP is EXTERN's way of jumping back into PAW where the action after EXTERN could be anything you want eg; MESSAGE "You take one look at Gorgon Zola and you turned to stone" TURNS END etc (a bit drastic but who cares). Or alternativly Zola could be a special kind of Gorgon and the player could be turned to cheese, and observe the scenario until he is fully digested by a ravenous rat. Is there anyone out there writing a PAW adventure now? You could think about improving it with Sam compatibility, adding some mode 4 stuff or even extending it to Sam mode. The adventure could be written in parts to be loaded from a MasterDOS RAMdisk, or any number of quirky little Sam effects could be added. It's worth thinking about. It is a pity that RAMTOP is so low with Speclone. Some humourous or deadly serious animations could be done from BASIC to add life and excitement to a game. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There is no firm evidence of any imminent SAM Adventures for release, but there are plenty of rumours going around. On another subject... SPECTRUM COVERAGE So far we have had very little criticism or comment about our coverage of Spectrum adventures. I will admit that we do seem to presume that you all have a Spectrum. If you don't have one then I imagine that you may find our club disk a bit of a white elephant. We intend to cover less Speccy stuff and more and more Sam stuff as it becomes available. I suppose we are just a bit premature in starting a club exclusivly for Sam people, but we intend to be here when the Sam adventures we all want arrive, I hope it's not too long. What can we do? All that Phil and I can suggest is, if you don't already have a Spectrum, and you can't benefit from our spectrum coverage, you may consider trying to get hold of a cheap second- hand ZX Spectrum 48k (rubber keys) or Spectrum+, maybe play around with it for five minutes, copy the ROM, and then bung it in the attic. You can usually find cheap second-hand Spectrums in the pages of MICRO MART. Try to find one that does not have an inflated price due to the `750.49 worth of software included in the 'bargain buy', and if the Spectrum is ~in need of slight repair~, don't let this put you off. You can enquire to what the fault is, and if it is only the fact that a few of the keys don't work, due to the keyboard membrane needing replacement, don't worry, so long as the main hardware (including MIC socket) is intact, and you can get the proper display, and most importantly, are able to type SAVE "SPECROM" CODE 0,16384, then that is all you will need. A faulty Spectrum bought this way may save you a few quid. ---------- I know that this is not the mags section but... I've just seen Enceladus 8. What a mag... and what a brilliant issue this is. If you don't have this one, you are definitely missing out. The SURPRISE demo, by some Polish guys who go under the name of ESI, is worth the `2.50 alone. I'm not just being nice in the hope that we get a few more mentions either. It is an absolute cracker of a mag, packed full - well about 5K to spare on the disk - but then again, with the text and screen compression routines that they use packs much more in than yer ordinary mag. On the subject of 'nice' mentions, thanks to YOUR SINCLAIR. Many thanks also to Alan Miles for spreading the word in the last ever SAMCo news letter. The idea of a disk taking over from the news letter is good, but I think I'll miss the letter. Along with the quarterly newsletter, the SAMCo hotline also bit the dust, with comments suggesting that the 0898 number is, after all, a mite expensive. I remember the days when you could ring MGT for a recorded message that cost the normal off peak charge. Just one thing wrong with the YS bit though, It mentioned that all you have to do to get hold of our club disk, is send a SAE+disk and 2 stamps or a quid to Phil etc. (My fault, as I probably didn't make things clear to YS - Phil.) I suppose that sounds alright, but our original idea was for people to apply for the free membership first, and then when we have sent the details, along with the application form, the member could order the mag on an issue to issue basis or in future on a regular subscription basis. We can then gather, from the questionaire, information about the systems and which utilities members own. This is so that we can make the magazine suitable for the readers. It's no use us including things aimed at MBasic user's if only 3% of members actually have the utility. So with this in mind, we would appreciate if members could keep us informed of any upgrades they have acquired. You don't have to write and tell us every time you upgrade, but if you could just include a bit of paper with your order, maybe saying "I've just got a 1meg", or whatever, Phil can update the records. You don't have to do this, but it may help us if you do. You could also mention likes or dislikes about the disk. If you feel that you could offer your services in the production of the disk, then let us know. What we could do with are a couple of members with artistic ability. We don't want to be too heavy on graphics, but some good BOOT screen$ of adventurous quality would go down a treat. Maybe something along the lines of what Phil did with the Treasure Island screen for issue 1, which tied in nicely with the review of the game. If you fancy submitting a review with a good screen based on that review,then please do. Any screens you send in would be welcome. Also, while we want to keep the box on the menu page for at least the first year (!!!), we would like to have a different SAM ADVENTURE CLUB graphic each issue. So far, you have had to suffer my own slap-dash art. What's needed is a PUT block about the same size as the one now, it can be the width of the screen, but it should not invade the menu box space. Please send any screen$ or (grab/put) blocks you would like to donate to either Phil or me. Articles of anything adventure related are more than welcome. Reviews will always be needed, but don't stop there, your top five all time adventure greats, and why you persevered with that adventure when every reviewer slagged it off. Solutions and tips for any current adventure. An adventure quiz is an idea, of an adventure related crossword that uses BASIC. Technical articles are a must. If we can share the knowledge and get to understand the what Sam is capable of our machine will perhaps become THE computer for adventures. I don't see why not, It's not as if adventures need the speed of anything more than a Spectrum, and with Sam graphics.... If you have wrote any short stories or would like to write some- thing adventurous, and you would like to see your work serialised. Possibility? Short machine code routines or BASIC bits that can help in writing adventures and teach some of us how certain things can be done. Anyone who is interested enough, and can find the time etc, can have their own regular column or even a full section of the magazine. Don't forget, all members are equal! (Well, on the other hand, it could be said that some are more equal than others right now, but we want this to change). Any ideas you have as members, for the good of the club will most certainly be appreciated. I want to see this column cut down to the minimum in future, due to lack of disk space. Help and contributions will obviously decide how often the mag comes out. Over to you. I have had some valuable help with this issue from member Nigel Kettlewell, with the text pager routine. I'm sure you will agree that this method is much better than the previous.. erm.. botch. Steve Nutting also deserves loads of credit for the use of SC_COMPRESSOR 2. Before we had the use of this fine utility, I was getting quite worried about fitting everything in. I'd put the Adverts, the free game, and the reviews on the disk. The screens for the reviews were originally Mode 1 and strung together as batches with no compression (how about a MODE 1 compressor for Spectrum screenshots ?). It just seemed impossible, with very little room left for important items like letters, Phil's Editorial and all the other stuff. Something had to be done... I found that using MasterBASIC's COPY SCREEN method, to change all the MODE 1 screen$ to to MODE 4 (sounds backwards I know but..), and later saving them using SAVE MODE 2, that the MODE 4 screen$ took up a lot less disk space than they did as ordinary MODE 1 screen$. MasterBASIC is not PD though (not that I think it should be, it's worth every penny), and so we could not use that. In any case the screen$ would have took up too many fileslots. With SC_COMPRESSOR2, and it's useful method of stringing screen$ together, I found that the screens were compressed even smaller than the SAVE MODE 2 method, and the MODE 3 & 4 adverts that use palette line etc, compressed too. Just the job! The utility is available direct from Steve, see adverts for address, at the absolute give-away price of `1.50. I'm beginning to sound like an advert, so I'd better sign off. I'll be attending the All Formats Fair at Haydock Park on Feb 2nd. If you are, I'll see you then. Bye for now END OF WAFFLE : DAVE: 8 JAN:1992 A quick note from Phil: In the above article, Dave mentions about a questionnaire for members. I sent a few out initially, but as most letters were purely enquiries about the club, I stopped for a while. I'll try again soon, when things have settled down a bit, and then we can see what software and hardware we all have!