Alchnews Z88 USER
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AlchNews and Z88 USER Issue 36, MAY 2001 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: SPRINTER—21ST CENTURY SPECTRUM THE “LINX PC” : THE Z88’S MISSING BROTHER? SIMON GOODWIN’S SERIAL CONNECTIONS PART 2 +3 SOUND DISTORTION CURE KEN BEER’S BACK TO BASICS 1 INDEX ISSUE 36 3. EDITORIAL. 4. NEWS & VIEWS. 7. GACs THE WAY TO DO IT. An intro. To our new series on GAC. 8. THE LINX PC. Documents relating to a German version of the Z88. 13. TRADING POST. Squeezed in early. 14. HARDWARE: Curing sound distortion. A guide to repairing the faulty sound in certain +3s. 16. SPRINTER. A comprehensive and in-depth look at what is being hailed as the 21st century Spectrum, written by the designer himself. 25. SERIAL CONNECTIONS. The second part of an ingenious RS232 handshaking system by Simon Goodwin and Mark Swift. 28. BACK TO BASICS. Ken Beer looks at graphics. 30. A MINER TRIAD. Richard Hallas takes us through the wonder of the in game music of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. 35. HINTS & TIPS. A mini helping from Jack Lawrie. 36. W.N. RICHARDSON ADVERT. Credits Big thanks to the following contributors: PETERS PLUS LTD. For their SPRINTER info. YERZMEYEY for bringing it to us! (and all the latest news and demos) DENNIS GRONING for letting us know of the LINX PC. MIKE LEE and his article on curing +3 sound problems. SIMON GOODWIN for his serial article and QL and Amiga support. RICHARD HALLAS for his great article on Matt Smith’s music JACK LAWRIE and KEN BEER for their excellent contributions. 2 EDITORIAL It was absolutely fantastic to see, in develop much further than the the flesh, Matthew Smith on the Pentagon and Scorpion ever did in television quite recently. I don’t the UK. think anyone has become such an elusive talked-about person on this You may have to build it yourself, scale in the computer business. and the parts needed may not be The mystery of his disappearance readily available new, especially as was ranked high up with Lord they use older AT style PC Lucan, Shergar and that guy from accessories but, if the price is cheap the band The Manic Street and the money transfer is secure, Preachers. they should sell well. Price is going to be a very important factor simply When you sit back and look at the because it will never amount to big picture, you can understand why much more than a hobby machine Matt did the disappearing act that he (although I hope I am very wrong). did. He was worshipped as a God by Spectrum owners, all because of We are already in negotiation with a couple of games he wrote. But, the manufacturer to become the back then, his games were official UK (and perhaps European) revolutionary. Despite admitting magazine supporting it. Spectrum himself that Manic Miner was a compatibility is the key to its ‘tribute’ to the earlier Atari classic success and a springboard into Miner 2049’er, this and the follow more powerful development. This up, Jet Set Willy were remarkable. was the ‘make or break’ factor in the Colourful graphics, in game sound, SAM and also the Pentagon, fiendish puzzles and, in JSW, the although I think the difficulty in ability to roam around at will. paying for the Pentagon put many Nobody, past or present, has or off. ever will be as respected as him. His games even spawned dozens of I am sorry for delaying a couple of follow ups, all tributes to his original articles which have been promised, template. but put back once again. This includes the GAC adventure series, Matt was a genius and, now he’s the second part of the QL emulators back, I think he should now take and a look at emulating the Acorn advantage of that - he need never Archimedes. The sheer volume of buy a pint again! Sprinter material took more space than I thought. I’ll try and get them The Sprinter looks like a remarkable in for next issue. We’re also looking piece of kit. Although it is hard to get for new writers. excited about the few pictures we’ve seen so far, it has the potential to Andy Davis, Editor. 3 NEWS & VIEWS HELLO SPRINTER visit: The big news this issue is the launch of the Spectrum super http://z80stealth.emuunlim.com/ computer—SPRINTER. The cover photo shows a stunning example of Z88 BOOK SALE what can be produced by its picture Vic Gerhardi of RAKEWELL has a editing program 2D STUDIO. limited stock of Z88 books for sale. They comprise of: The machine itself resembles more of a scaled down PC than a scaled Using your Z88 - Patrick Hall Z88 Computing - Ian Sinclair - £9.99 up Spectrum, boasting AT style Z88 Magic - Vic Gerhardi - £14.95 connections and peripherals, Z88 A Dabhand Guide - Trinity Concepts - impressive 4Mb RAM, 256k video £14.95 RAM, 16 bit audio and up to 256 BBC BASIC(Z80)Ref Guide - DJ Mountier Z88 Printer Driver - Dave Stewart colours! Read all about this beast, and see lots of pictures, in our plus a full set of Z88 EPROM magazines (I special feature later this issue. have not checked this but there Special thanks to Yerzmyey are a lot of them!) Bookovski for bringing it to our On offer to users of the Z88 Development attention! Mailing list for THE LINX PC £60 plus carriage Was originally going to be our cover story and feature this issue until the This offer is strictly first come first news of Sprinter, the Linx PC is a served so don’t be disappointed if long lost missing brother (or some (or all) have gone. German cousin) to the Z88. The feature (in German only) begins on GAMESTAGE TO FEATURE A.R. page eight. Garry Lancaster noted SOFTWARE that despite being an identical clone A new retro games site has of the Z88, it’s some 50g lighter! He approached us to host our large puts it down to ‘heavy ink’ used on collection of software on their site. the Z88’s printed logos! Their aim is to feature both Spectrum and PC programs, which Z80 STEALTH UPDATED ties in very nicely with our article in The fantastic Stealth Spectrum / the next issue about multi format Pentagon emulator has been games (see our first review of Driller updated and now features ‘general in issue 34. Their site is at: sound emulation’. This means that http://gamestage.topcities.com/ Spectrum music will be played more like the Amiga! For more details NEW DEMO PROGRAMMER and to download the latest version, Bookovski tells us that TDM 4 (musician known from K3L group) is There's a downloadable snapshot of in HOOY-PRGORAM now. the game for each city, the site uses Bookovski is honoured, because Jasper so you can play each city on they think that TDM is currently the it's page, there's a big ass old run best zx musician! down of the mission, the buildings, the defences and the map - all NEW MEGADEMO tastefully done in the original black The HOOY-PROGRAM / RAWW and yellow :) ARSE collaboration have just written PONDLIFE - a new mega demo, The only bad side is that not having one of the first of the year. You can the original box I can't quite download it from: remember the storyline exactly so some of what I've written will need http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ correcting once other people read it demotopia/Pondlife.zip and tell me it's wrong. Issue 3 of Raww Arse’s (Formerly http://www.summerblue.net/ Extacy-3) electronic magazine games/tau-ceti/index.html SUBLIMINAL EXTACY has finally been released. Get it from: D.I.D. TO CHANGE http://papaya.raww.net/taps/ It came as very sad news to us in subxtc3.zip March that Michael Brűhn and Joyce Cook’s magazine DESERT TAU CETI FAN SITE ISLAND DISKS was to finish. This just in from Toby Douglass: However, it is only changing format from paper to CD. The reason is A couple of years ago I wrote a because Michael is very proud of comprehensive set of pages all the colour magazine (and with good about Tau Ceti - a game I absolutely reason), but production is very loved on my Speccy. expensive and he doesn’t want to revert to B&W. I've realised I ought to get it linked to on a few speccy sites so people can The new magazine will still have the actually *know* about the pages. same look and feel, but will simply be ‘electronic’ as a Microsoft Word They're pretty cool, even if I do say format document. The magazine will so myself :) If you're not familiar with also have a special viewer program the game, you had to travel in your for anyone that doesn’t have Word. hovercraft type craft through a large The CD will also be filled with lots of number of cities (first person programs games and other useful perspective, no less!) collecting programs and material for Speccy cooling rods to shut down the main freaks out there who don’t have reactor. internet access. 5 As a special feature for the change, mid way through when MANIC Alchemist Research has kindly MINER and JET SET WILLY were supplied full and original versions of discussed. MS Word & Works for Michael to distribute. Not only did we get to see the games but we actually saw Ian Lee Our only concern is to how this not only TALKING to Matthew would affect readers who don’t use Smith, but sat in a bedroom a PC, but I think that in this day and PLAYING Manic Miner on a rubber age, would be a very small minority.