2002 - 2005 Issues 1 to 10 ZXF10: 53 LOOKING FOR UNIQUE? ZXF merchandise: treat yourself to a piece
worked a lot better had it been of 21st Century ZX Spectrum memorabilia... full cover) - a homage of sorts to the artwork of John Harris (who designed the cover to the original Spectrum manual, introduction booklet and Interface 1 & Micro- The ZX Spectrum on Your PC drive manual). Issue 6's cover "well-written and superbly presented" - took me ages and was inspired by Micro Mart Oliver Frey's CRASH issue 36 cover. Downloaded over 2,000 times and featured on Issue 7's cover was a detail from a the Retro Gamer cover disk, this guide to photo of my own Spectrum soft- Spectrum emulation on the PC is the perfect ware collection (passed through a introduction for ex-Spectrum users returning to whole cocktail of PSP fiters). Issue their first ever computer. Written by ZXF editor 8 - a popular cover, apparently - Colin Woodcock, The ZX Spectrum on Your is testament to what you can do PC teaches you how to use modern PC with a digital camera and a sand emulators to play all those old favourites, as pit on a bright Sunday morning well as some of the more advanced features (sorry to those of you who imagin- on offer too. You've read the electronic ed me digging away on a beach version, now enjoy the luxury of a profession- somewhere, but the ZXF expense ally printed paperback! account wouldn't stump up the bus fare). Issue nine was straight- 78 page paperback $11.99 (about £6.60) forward - a Christmassy 3D stero- gram featuring Horace (I'd always thought that Spectrum sprites might lend themselves particularly well to stereograms and wanted ZXF Mug to experiment). This issue's cover is Now you too can own a mug to be over- a play on the phrase 'The ZX CH Spectrum on your PC' and EAPER THAN possesive of at the office! Y involved a PC keyboard blue- OU THINK! $14.99 Now just $12.99 (about £7.15) tacked to the wall of the ZXF office and an LCD projector. Take advanta ge of super-low exchange rates 'The ZX Spectrum on your PC,' of course, is another project to have $1 = £0. come out of ZXF. As is ZXIF, the 55 approx Tile Coaster (ZXF07 cover design) interactive fiction software label The perfect home for your ZXF mug (which will see more releases in (other mugs also compatible). future, I promise). And the ZXF website. And a number of articles $5.99 (about £3.30) for Micro Mart magazine. And a sizeable contribution to last year's Your Sinclair revival issue. Gratifying things, for sure, ZXF Mousepad although the most gratifying thing ABOVE: The first issue of ZXF was produced using Pressworks 2 and of all, by a very considerable The popular issue 8 Manic Miner cover is now a converted to PDF format using the freeware program PDF 995. margin, is the sheer number of durable, clothtop mousepad. Graphically fairly unambitious, the DTP file for the issue weighed in at countries in which ZXF is read and a slice under 9MB. Also, PDF 995 had a few difficulties with fonts in enjoyed. $12.99 (about £7.15) those days, so the typface was kept at Arial throughout to avoid complications - even so there were a few difficulties (with Well, that's it for now. Just one last apostrophes) ocassionaly. JAWS PDF, however, experienced no such check to make sure the fridge problems, and at the same time that this was introduced (issue 4) the door's open. And I'm out of here. Currency confusion? $1 = £0.55/€0.80 approx (exchange rates can vary) so $5 = £2.75/€4.00 approx, $10 = £5.50/€8.00 approx and so on. Out of the door... down the Please note: ZXF merchandise is provided by www.cafepress.com, an American company, and items sent outside of the US will incur an inter- DTP software was also upgraded to Greenstreet Publisher 3. The way national shipping fee of $7.00 (approx £3.85/€5.60) for one item, with additional items charged at $4.00 (approx £2.20/€3.20) per item thereafter. was clear for some much more complex and creative work! The DTP street... feeling the sunshine... file for this issue, for example, weighs in at over 150MB. In ten issues smelling the air... Did I shut all the www.cafepress.com/zxf also the pagecount has gone up from 28 to 56 pages. windows? Oh crap... ZXF10: 51
support. for example, Willy crosses the screen almost twice as quickly as There was no border effect in he does in Spectactulator, al- Aquaplane, whether or not the though the 'Debug' option shows a “Fast rendering” option was on. The speed of around 103%. Overscan demo doesn't look too hot either. fZX32 also plays Cobra without flickering sprites. It also managers a The sound on Fairlight is pretty un- near-perfect rendering of the Over- pleasant to the ear. scan demo. Its rendition of the Fair- SpeccyAl K plays a mean game of light music is hideous – but in Cobra, however, with non-flicker- fairness, the release notes do say Above: ZXGP32 Options menu ing sprites, provided that “Fast ren- that the beeper will be improved in dering” is off (the default mode). the next release. The music on Fairlight is tolerable but not perfect. “Overscan” pro- duces a reasonable effect in the fZX32 (Xmas edition) Conclusion border, but it's not in synch with the This is probably the sleekest and Although the current generation of effect on the main part of the most capable emulator currently GP32 Speccy emulators can't com- screen. available on the GP32. It starts up pete with what's available on with a splash screen (based on a Windows, and they might not all be Head Over Heels room with a vari- SpeccyAl K 0.7 able to cope with the special ef- ety of game characters in it). It fects in demos, they will generally Curiously, SpeccyAl K loads with then impresses further by attempt- give you a decent play of your border emulation switched off. This ing to automatically identify the favourite Speccy games. tends to leave artefacts from the games you have saved onto the It would be nice if emulator authors startup or Options screen remain- card (in \GPMM\ZX). For example, could either agree on a directory ing in the border area, so I suggest Manic Miner displays as “Manic in which to look for snapshot and switching it back on straightaway Miner (1983) (Bug-Byte Software)”. tape files, or if they could all pro- (use both shoulder buttons to Although this approach can clearly vide a multi-directory browser. reach the Options screen). There only work for games known by the wasn't any obvious impact on emulator, it is a nice touch. (Note At the moment, fZX32 seems to performance. however that if you add any have the best general usability, The file selector (right shoulder games to this directory, you will with perhaps some problems get- button) allows directory browsing, have to rescan it.) ting the timing right. SpeccyAl K is probably the next most capable in which is a definite plus point. There fZX32 seems to be the most capa- terms of its functionality. is autoloading of TAP files, plus SNA ble of the emulators here for load- support, and, supposedly, Z80 ing different formats. It loads from support, although my 128K snap- inside ZIP files, it loads Z80 and SNA (c) 2005 Matthew Wilson shot of Fairlight 2 didn't seem to files (it is the only emulator here load. Also, attempting to load a file which I could get to load as 128K seems occasionally to cause the Fairlight 2 snapshot), it has TAP and HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GAME? GP32 to reboot. partial TZX support, and fast-load- The keyboard popup is another full- ing and auto-loading of tape files. Rare doesn't even begin to describe this title... if in fact it exists. The coding system screen image. Note though that, SELECT brings up the usual pop-up used by Sinclair suggests that it does, but other Sinclair silver inlay re-releases of the unlike elsewhere in this emulator, it's keyboard. This version is quite us- Ultimate titles - although hardly common - do crop up on ebay from time to time. the B key to select a key. able and can also be moved Not so Tranz Am. The image above is a mock-up; if you have seen the real thing around the screen. then ZXF would love to hear from you. www.cwoodcock.co.uk/zxf Joystick selection is between Cursor, Sinclair 1 or 2, and user de- There seem to be some timing Read more on page 42 fined keys – there is no Kempston problems on fZX32. In Manic Miner ZXF10: 8 ZXF10: 49
TZXF IS HERE >Cassette version of ZXF up for download It's a project I personally was seriously begining to doubt I'd ever Hopefully you'll have arrived at something not Epilogue: The Soundtracker compiler get even close to completing. But TZXF, the cassette version of dissimilar to the following: ZXF Magazine, is now a joint UK-Romanian venture and, thanks to Even though it's a completely different subject, it the help of Cristian Grecu - who got in touch with ZXF just after would be awfully impolite of me not to tell you issue nine had gone out - the first two issues are now ready to pull how to use your music outside of the tracker. What 13 G#2 5C4B off the Internet and load into a real Spectrum. you need to do is save your track from 15 G#2 5A4B Soundtracker, and then fire up the Soundtracker The cassette versions are for a 48K Spectrum and feature the compiler (available from World Of Spectrum, news section of each issue along with the editorial and game 16 G#2 5C4B unsurprisingly enough). Load the saved reviews. Each issue is a BASIC program with a small machine 19 C-2 5C3C Soundtracker data, then hit 'Compile Song' and code routine giving 42 column text (Sinclair's own Print Utilities, in wait for it to do its stuff. Then go to 'Merge Play fact). Cristi typed up each magazine on his HC-2000 (a Roma- 21 C-2 5A3C Routine' and choose where the music is going to nian Spectrum clone) and I edited his output using a combination 22 C-2 5C3C reside in memory - 49152 is the usual address to go of BASin for making alterations to the program and Spectaculator for if you don't have any better ideas. You're then to check it all looked ok. Loading screens were put together ready to save the compiled data file, and as you using ZX-Paintbrush, BMP2SCR and YASPIC. Just to round things Copy this to the second half of the pattern again do so, you'll be told a bunch of important of, copious use was also made of Taper. (rows 24 onward), and we're pretty close to our addresses. The first one is for the initialise routine, An international effort, then, in many ways. Which has made the final version. There's one last mystery to explain, which will reside at the address you chose - you project very satisfying. After all his hard work, ZXF wanted to learn though, and it's back in the sample editor. Edit need to call it before playing the track, and again a little more about Cristi and so I asked him a few questions: sample number 6, and use the M key to set both when you want the AY chip to shut up. The player rows of 0s into 1s. You know all about the bottom routine proper starts 6 bytes further on, and you ZXF: Tell us a bit about yourself. row - a digit 1 in that line masks out the white need to call this every 50th of a second while the CG: Let's have a look at the "ZX certified" people: 8% of them noise - but we now turn our attention to the row song is playing. In Basic, it looks like this: passed the exam. These are the masters of the ZX Spectrum. But above. This masks out the volume setting, let's think a little at the others 92%. Average users, most are still effectively silencing the sample. But why on earth using the ZX Spectrum, others have a small website about it, all of would you want to do that? Surely if you wanted 10 CLEAR 49151 them used and were impressed by this wonderful machine. Well, a silent sample for whatever reason, you'd just set 20 LOAD "my_track"CODE I'm just like them; just a guy who felt in love with the ZX Spectrum; the volume level right down to the bottom? a guy who prefers staying in front of a blinking cursor, working on The answer is that it turns off the square wave, 30 RANDOMIZE USR 49152: REM initialise a program that will never be used by anyone, rather than going while still allowing envelopes to do their stuff. (For 40 PAUSE 1 to the disco or to a soccer game. the more audio-minded among you, it fixes the 50 RANDOMIZE USR 49158: REM play ZXF: How did you first come into contact with the Spectrum? Was signal in the full-amplitude 'on' state, so there's no it a UK model or a Romanian clone? wave produced, and consequently no sound, 60 IF INKEY$<>" " THEN GO TO 40 unless you move the signal up and down by 70 RANDOMIZE USR 49152: REM silence CG: I first met the ZX Spectrum in 1994: I was five years old, and changing the volume.) In other words, this gives the Spectrum era has just faded. My father gave me a HC-85 you a pure triangular or sawtooth wave, which is (Romanian clone of the 48), and taught me how to load games. smoother and quieter than the triangular and If you want to have more than one tune kicking Later, I learned BASIC, assembler and various utilities. Last year, square wave mish-mash that we were working around, then save the subsequent ones out from an old dream was accomplished when I bought a HC-2000 with just now. The fact that it's quieter is the compiler without going through the 'Merge (clone of the 48, with internal FDD unit), that I’m still using today. particularly fortunate, because there's no way of Play Routine' step. Before calling the initialise playing envelope-based notes at (say) half ZXF: Do you mostly use real hardware or do you prefer emulators? routine, poke (initialise address + 1) and (initialise volume. CG: Even the best emulator can’t be compared with a Spectrum address + 2) with the start address of the track you that works perfectly, on a color TV. I have never written a Return to the pattern editor, and from row 24 want to play. Machine code programmers will find program on an emulator. onward, change all the notes that use envelopes ample opportunity for hacking the player to suit A or C to use sample 6, with envelope A. Hear the their own evil plans. ZXF: When did you first learn about ZXF? What caused you to difference? There are two things to bear in mind And, if I'm not mistaken, that just about wraps up want to get involved with the TZXF project? when working with 'muted' samples - firstly, our tour of Soundtracker's capabilities. From here changing the note from F-2 to anything else has December 2004, Christmas Eve. Out of ideas, I was navigating on on, all that remains is to take this knowledge and no effect whatsoever, and secondly, because the World of Spectrum website when I saw a link to the ZXF apply it towards your own creative ways. Good you're not mixing waves there's no audible 'cue' to website. Following the link, I found a very interesting magazine for luck and happy composing! both advanced and beginner users, presenting the development know when you've hit the right pitch - you have to of the ZX Spectrum in the 21st century. I found the TZXF project play it by ear. In our case we've already got our an opportunity to help someone, especially because I can values worked out, though, so no worries there. (c) 2005 Matthew Westcott contribute a little to the development of the ZX Spectrum. ZXF10: 10 ZXF10: 47 MEDIA
OCEAN VIDEO don't drown out the melody. row zero and leaving the rest at 0000 - but don't do that, because we're about to add some more Going back to the main tracker screen, we can >Dedicated video page notes there in a minute. If you want to go back to enter our chords into channel C of our pattern. The playing plain vanilla samples with no ornaments, theoceanexperience.co.uk is a following notes will give us a simple but effective put F00 as the last three digits (effectively selecting new website and discussion rhythm: ornament number 0, a special 'do nothing' forum started up earlier in the ornament). year by ex-Ocean employee Mark R Jones and aims to 00 F-4 5F01 collect together all sorts of 01 --- 0000 Envelopes artefacts regarding the experience of working at 02 F-4 5F01 The boffins who designed the AY chip didn't know anything about trackers. They assumed that Ocean in the 80s and 90s. One 03 --- 0000 of the most interesting pages is people would tend to pick a volume level for their his video collection page; as 04 --- 0000 notes and stick to it. In an effort to liven things up a bit, they introduced the concept of envelopes - well as the fantastic Commer- 05 F-4 5F01 cial Breaks documentary (see these allow you to vary the volume level last issue) there's a 72 second 06 F-4 5F01 continuously over time, so you can have a note 'Chegwin Checks It Out' 07 --- 0000 that starts at full volume and fades to nothing, or feature where broadcasting one that swells from nothing to full volume, or one legend Mr Keith Chegwin visits 08 F-4 5F01 that repeatedly fades in and then out... The full set the Ocean coding parlour to 09 --- 0000 ask all the questions on the lips of 80s Britain. Even more 10 --- 0000 interesting (as if anything 11 F-4 5F01 could top that) is the behind-the-scenes home 12 G#4 5F01 movie of Cheggars and 13 --- 0000 his film crew setting the whole thing up; be 14 G#4 5F01 amazed as you 15 --- 0000 witness such trade secrets as smiling 16 --- 0000 and nodding at the 17 G#4 5F01 camera to look 18 C-4 5F01 interested... 19 --- 0000 20 C-4 5F01 CHIPTUNES GALORE Figure 3.3 21 --- 0000 >Online radio examination 22 --- 0000 Sincere respect is due to CSS and of permutations is shown in figure 3.3. 23 C-4 5F01 WoS Forums regular Sharopolis for Of course, with Soundtracker samples we can do an absolutely cracking radio all that and a lot more besides, so you might documentary on ZX Spectrum wonder why we bother with envelopes at all. Well, The right hand column is where the ornaments music presented on Flat four they have one important trick up their proverbial come in to play: the 5 refers to sample 5 as usual, (www.mcld.co.uk/flatfour) during sleeve - you can take any of the repeating the F is a special instruction to tell the tracker to the first couple of weeks of April. envelopes (8, A, C and E) and speed them up to use an ornament, and the 1 tells it to select Produced with his mate Dan, insane degrees, much faster than the 50Hz limit ornament number 1. (The zero is... well, just a zero.) Sharoplis presents the programme, that comes as standard with Soundtracker. When taking the listener on a journey Copy rows 00-23 to rows 24-47, using the 'Move you do that, it stops being a way of adjusting the that starts with some modern AY Text' facility we covered last time, so that we have volume of the waveform, and starts being a tracks and an interview with AY the chords covering the whole pattern. waveform all of its own. A nice juicy triangular or Riders artist Matthew Westcott sawtooth wave to be specific - one that's
k I should point out that if you have a zero in the 'F'
u (aka Gasman); from there we are . particularly good for bass lines, although on g column, it will continue to use the last ornament r treated to a rare interview with o . special occasions AY musicians will be particularly
e played, so in that respect it behaves a lot like a
l the legendary Tim Follin, creator u daring and use it as the lead instrument. s zero in the 'sample number' column, and in fact
p of so many classic ZX tunes in the a
c . we could get by with just entering the 5F01 into Because they're controlled in hardware on the AY eighties and one of Matthew's w
w
w ZXF10: 12 ZXF10: 45
THE DEFINITIVE LIST OF SINCLAIR RESEARCH SOFTWARE FOR THE ZX SPECTRUM - a working document!!
First column gives actual spine codes, second gives order form codes. Order form codes NEW COOKIE guy on the market does do... recently introduced ZXCF highlighted in red are confirmed - i.e. they have been seen on a Sinclair order form. Order technology into this device, form codes in black, therefore, are 'assumed'. Thus the slightly 'out of sync' numbering >Remake of early Ultimate classic from Backgammon to Scrable is not a typing error. All Spine codes are confirmed except resulting in the ZX Spectrum SE/CF. G29/S, 4037, 4331 and 4332. You know Cookie. Of course you SMITH ANALYSIS ZXCF is the amazing Compact Flash interface by Sami Vehmaa do. Help Charlie Chef make his >Willy creator to be immortalised cake by deflecting the ingredients for any Spectrum, giving it from the pantry into the mixing Emulator author Adrian Robson potentially enormous high-speed GAMES storage potential without the bowl and at the same time, of has contacted ZXF about a new G1/S 4000 Games 1 need for any hard disks and all G1/S 4000 Games 1 E18/S 4317 Magnets course (I mean, it's not like you project he is working on: G2/S 4001 Games 2 E19/S 4318 Early Punctuation their associated clutter. If you ever get to do only one thing at a "I’m writing a book about G3/S 4002 Games 3 E20/S 4319 Speech Marks want to see what a ZXSE/CF G4/S 4003 Games 4 E21/S 4320 The Apostrophe time in a Spectrum game - Matthew Smith, Manic Miner, Jet especially those knocked out by would look like, it is already G5/S 4004 Games 5 E22/S 4321 Capital Letters Set Willy etc. This will be an A5 available in emulation using FUSE: G6/S 4005 Pastimes 1 E23/S 4322 Castle Spellerous Ultimate - where would be the G7/S 4006 Pastimes 2 book that people can buy and just select the Spectrum SE model G7/S 4006 Pastimes 2 E24/S 4323 Alphabet Games challenge in that?) avoid any G8/S 4007 Biorhythms 4324 4324 Oil Strike some of the money will go to from the emulation list, activate nasties that might escape from the charity. The book will cover G9/S 4008 Space Raiders 4325 4325 Weathermaster the ZXCF interface and you have G10/S 4009 Chess 4326 4326 Planet Patrol pantry or dustbins that will make Smith’s early years, Manic Miner, your job harder. Fans of Cookie a working ZX Spectrum SE/CF G11/S 4010 Flight Simulation 4327 4327 Disease Dodgers Jet Set Willy, All other versions of environment. G12/S 4011 Planetoids 4328 4328 Alphabetter will no doubt be delighted to learn Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy, G13/S 4012 Hungry Horace 4329 4329 Wordsetter that they can now re-live these Screen shots etc, chart listings, Recently the ZXSE website at G14/S 4013 Adventure A: Planet of Death 4330 4330 Spellbox cake-making frolics in glorious hacking, what the future holds for http://zxse.raww.net/ has also G15/S 4014 Adventure B: Inca Curse 4331 4331 Soundabout ?? these two could be G16/S 4015 Adventure C: The Ship of Doom technicolour thanks to Space-Time Miner Willy and a bunch of other been updated, including updated 4332 4332 Bodyswap ?? the other way round Productions Ltd, who reside in that G17/S 4016 Adventure D: Espionage Island 4333 4333 MacMan and the Caber Eater stuff. I’m about half way through links and a new ZX Spectrum SE G18/S 4017 Reversi corner of the web to found at 4334 4334 MacMan in the Treasure Caves at the minute and I’m very and Timex 2068 software archive. G19/S 4018 The Hobbit 4335 4335 MacMan's Magic Mirror www.spacetimegames.co.uk. The pleased with what I have so far. I 99% of the Timex software in the G20/S 4019 Embassy Assault 4336 4336 MacMan and the Great Escape remake - for that is what it is - is a want this to be the definitive book archive will run on the ZX G21/S 4020 Horace goes Skiing 4337 4337 Number Painter collaboration between coder Spectrum SE using the Timex 2068 G22/S 4021 Backgammon 4338 4338 Estimator Racer about Matthew Smith and Miner G23/S 4023 Cyrus-IS-Chess Steve Watson and graphics person emulator. The archive also Willy, and I’m hoping that people G24/S 4022 Horace & the Spiders LANGUAGES OddBob. And it runs on Windows. who already know a bit about it includes emulators which will run G25/S 4024 Scrabble Yes. all will find something interesting in on the ZX Spectrum SE for the G26/S 4025 Flippit L1/S 4400 FORTH there to read." ZX80, the ZX81, the Timex 2068 G27/R 4026 Jetpac L2/S 4401 Micro Prolog (with help from Paul Farrow and G28/S 4027 Pssst L3/S 4402 Zeus Assembler G29/S 4028 Tranz Am ???? in theory - never seen NEW LABELS Alvin Albrecht) and Shadow of the L4/S 4403 Monitor and Disassembler G30/S 4029 Cookie L5/S 4404 Print Utilities Unicorn SE. Shadow of the G31/S 4030 Chequered Flag >Download for 3 inch disks SE NEWS G31/S 4030 Chequered Flag L6/S 4405 Sinclair Logo Unicorn, if you didn't know G32/S 4031 Bubble Buster A simple, yet elegant idea from >Andrew Owen update already, was a 64K Spectrum G33/S 4032 Driller Tanks PERSONAL swordheart. Well where does one game by Mikro-Gen that required G34/S 4033 Eric and the Floaters Andrew Owen has also been in G35/S 4034 Stop the Express P1/S 4500 Cattell IQ Test go to get 3 inch disk labels from touch with ZXF to update us on a peripheral device to be G36/S 4035 Zipper Flipper these days? Not to Dixons, that's the progress being made on his plugged into your Spectrum which 4036 4036 Match Point BUSINESS 4037 4037 ?????? for certain. Not even to the guy two projects, SE Basic and the ZX replaced its 16K ROM with 16K's 4037 4037 ?????? no known title - a mistake? 4038 4038 Panama Joe on the market who does bulk-buy Spectrum SE. Regarding the worth of game to supplement the B1/S 4600 VU-CALC DVDs, replacement ink cartridges remaining 48K that you then 4039 4039 Return of the Jedi: Death Star B2/S 4601 VU-FILE former, the official website at Battle and an interesting line in novelty loaded in from tape. All very B3/S 4602 VU-3D www.worldofspectrum.org/sinclair B4/S 4603 Collector's Pack crystal. No. These convenient basic/ has been updated with complicated and the SOTU SE EDUCATIONAL B5/S 4604 Club Record Controller downloadable pages, however, new links and the latest version of emulator cuts out a lot of the B6/S 4605 Small Business Accounts E1/S 4300 History 1 are designed to be printed off his extended version of Sinclair mucking about. B7/S 4606 Which? Tax Calculator 1983-84 onto A4 sticky labels and cut out. E2/S 4301 Geography 1 4607 4607 Tasword Two BASIC (0.94B, released 16/12/04). Development of software for the E3/S 4302 Inventions 1 Simple. Now A4 sticky labels the 4608 4608 Tiny Touch 'n' Go Andrew has also added informa- ZX Spectrum SE is on hold for the E4/S 4303 Music 1 tion on the differences between time being, however future E5/S 4304 English Literature 1 ROM CARTRIDGES E6/S 4305 Make a Chip previous releases on the manuals E6/S 4305 Make a Chip releases promised include a ZX E7/S 4306 Music Master page. He now has all the code to G9/R 5300 Space Raiders Spectrum emulator (16K/48K) and E8/S 4307 Beyond BASIC G10/R 5301 Chess finish this project, but it's currently a debugged version of 128 Basic E9/S 4308 Chess Tutor 1 G12/R 5302 Planetoids on hold again while he works on (hopefully with an extra 16K in the E10/S 4309 Learn to Read 1 G13/R 5303 Hungry Horace something else. RAM disk). When he gets time E11/S 4310 Learn to Read 2 G22/R 5304 Backgammon E12/S 4311 Learn to Read 3 Andrew will also be releasing Elite G24/R 5305 Horace and the Spiders Regarding the ZX Spectrum SE, E13/S 4312 Learn to Read 4 G27/R 5306 Jet Pac Andrew's hardware enhancement DX, featuring minor graphic E14/S 4313 Learn to Read 5 G28/R 5307 PSSST of the original ZX Spectrum enhancements based on the NES E15/S 4314 Cargo G29/R 5308 Tranz Am version (Ian Bell's favourite 8-bit E16/S 4315 Glider G30/R 5309 Cookie produced in collaboration with E17/S 4316 Survival Yarek Adamski, Andrew has version, so I'm told). ZXF10: 14 ZXF10: 43
IN DENIAL Activision to retro gaming site is unquestionably final; Game- www.gamestage.net asking them stage, however - although they >Permission matters to remove Activision and Electric acknowledge this right - express With the rise in popularity in retro Dreams games from this site. In a distain at denials received gaming it was perhaps inevitable long and rather confusing thread nonetheless ("We really hope that a few copyright holders at WoS Forums, the owner of that someday all enterprises will would examine their ownerships Gamestage asserted that he had understand our point of view afresh to see if there was any new received this email but that its and let us distribute their cash to be made in their handling. contents were confidential. WoS products with no 'buts'"). The And so, over the past few months, at the time had received no such expectation is sort of that request from Activision, which was companies should permit distribution permission has again in fact the Sinclair cassette version place of the old codes. G36/S become a topic for hot debate, rather confusing since WoS has a distributon. first page Google ranking for both of Jet Pac was incorrectly coded was the last game to use the old sparked by the very firm denial of The difference in approach is "Sinclair Spectrum" and "ZX G27/R). By this time the silver label code system (Zipper Flipper); distribution permission by Paul perhaps best illustrated through Spectrum," whereas Gamestage's design had been introduced and instead of G37/S the next game McKenna (no, not the hypnotist) of the two websites' recent ranking on these search terms is so this was the style used for these to be released (Match Point) Thor and Odin titles at responses to yet another nowhere near this high - if titles too. came with the code 4036. For the www.worldofspectrum.org. This development in distribution issues educational programs E24/S Activision were looking for websites So Jet Pac, Psst, Tranz Am and particular piece of action was met - the emergence of a brand (Alphabet Games) was the last to contact regarding the distribu- Cookie ended up being released by outrage by most WoS regulars - new retro software label called title to use the old code system; tion of Spec-trum games, how did on cassette by Ultimate, on ROM not so much by the decision itself Retro-Soft and their arrangement instead of E25/S the next program they come across Gamestage cartridge by Sinclair in the 'old' as by the manner in which it was with the Shaw Brothers regarding came with the code 4324. The before WoS? Sinclair design, and then by Sinclair communicated ("It appears that their back catalogue of games. only other range affected was the on cassette again - this time in the you have on your site various In the end (from what I can make The deal means that Shaw Business range: 4607 was the silver label design. Extremely games that are MY copyright and out - the thread was a record 16 Brothers titles will be removed number for Tasword Two where confusing. And it gets worse. ownership. I intend to take pages long last time I looked) from free distribution, and this is the expected code would have We're not actually sure that all four proceeding against you and your Gamestage chose to share the how WoS covered the news: been B8/S. company!"). Although Mr Activision email address it had with titles were released as silver labels. We have another confirmation McKenna did become a great Martijn, who then contacted the Jet Pac, Pssst and Cookie are all Why the change of codes and that retro gaming is still deal more polite in subsequent company only to be told that - yes known to exist for certain as silver why, specifically, were these growing fast: The brand new emails (a testament, no doubt, to - these titles were denied. It has to labels - these titles are in fact particular numbers used with retro software label Retro-Soft WoS maintainer Martijn van der be said they did put this rather considered to be the gems of the which to introduce it? It turns out, signed an exclusive deal with Heide's superb diplomacy skills), more politely than Paul McKenna. Sinclair range on ebay, fetching in fact, that these codes were the community were unprepared Shaw Brothers, to bring various much higher prices than other actually being used at least a to forgive him for assuming the Game Gamestage? Hmmm... This of their games back to silver label Sinclair software - year earlier, alongside the old worst of us and blundering in with incident in particular has high- commercial status. Apart from fetching much higher prices than coding system. The series of such threatening language. lighted for many the different ways selling the original Spectrum pretty much any other Spectrum 'Sinclair Special' four page in which copyright issues are versions, Retro-Soft announces software. But what about Tranz advertising supplements, tucked A key issue highlighted by Mr treated between WoS and other to remake those games for Am? We can infer its silver label into a monthly magazine (I can't McKenna's emails and the debate emulation sites such as mobile phones. existence from the silver label seem to work out which magazine they gave rise to was that of Gamestage. Martijn's copyrights Although of course these existence of the other three - possibly Sinclair User) reveal this copyright belonging to the page on WoS games were removed from Ultimate-formerly-ROM-cartridge on their order forms, where companies employing software (www.worldofspectrum.org/permits) the archive, it looks like the titles and their cassette spine products are listed using both sets writers in cases such as this, not to gives a very clear summary of his Spectrum's future is as bright as codes, but no-one appears to of codes; Chess Tutor 1, for the software writers themselves. It views regarding copyright and he ever (especially considering it have ever actually seen this example, is listed with the code appears that Steve Wetherill, a displays all emails he has received was picked before other product. Does it even exist? If it E9/S to the left of the title and former employee of Mr McKenna regarding permission, listed systems)! does and a copy ever manages 4308 to the right. and - by Mr McKenna's own according to both software houses to find its way onto ebay it's been admisson - star programmer of and individual programmers (that's Gamestage, on the other hand, speculated it could well fetch Further anlysis of these order forms many of the titles concerned had a lot of emails). Gamestage does reported the event in much three figures. If it doesn't exist... (WoS currently hosts Sinclair indicated that he was happy for also claim to be actively pursuing more negative terms (and also why doesn't it exist?! Specials numbers 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6) his titles to be distributed from distribution permission by writing to confused 'Retro-Soft' with 'Retro- reveals that these order codes WoS; Mr McKenna was very quick software companies; in contrast to Trader'): But we're not done yet with the were in fact used for all Sinclair to point out that this permission products - not just Spectrum WoS, Gamestage doesn't show any More sad news! This year silver label mysteries - an even was not Mr Wetherill's to give. software. Spectrum hardware actual evidence of this, other than seems to be getting worse for bigger one lurks just around the items were given codes starting Since the McKenna denial there listing the companies they claim to Spectrum fans and corner. At some point during 1984 with 3000, ZX81 hardware items have been further distribution have received permission from, but Gamestage! Retro-trader Sinclair decided to change the were given codes starting with developments, perhaps the most the key difference is deeper than company has signed an spine code format; all of a 1000 (including the ZX Printer) and prolific revolving around an email this. The gist of Martijn's stance is exclusive license contract with sudden, four digit codes - each ZX81 software got codes starting allegedly sent by software house that the copyright owner's decision The Shaw Brothers, which starting with a 4 - appeared in the ZXF10: 16 ZXF10: 41
OCEAN HAUL >Microdrive data recovered Covered elsewhere in this issue's on your real speccy and load news section is the opening of *MOVE theoceanexperience.co.uk - a 3) Boot the Introduction cartridge new website and discussion forum .mdr file on Spectaculator and started up earlier in the year by ex- load *MOVE + turn on "Load from Ocean employee Mark R Jones Audio Source" dedicated to documenting the experience of working for Ocean 4) In Spectaculator, do a File>New as an employee in the 80s. A and create a blank cart (.mdr file) rather significant find in February 5) On your real Speccy set *MOVE was the discovery of a load of old to backup a cart to tape microdrive cartridges which Mark had used to develop various 6) On Spectaculator, set *MOVE graphics in his time at Ocean. to restore a cart (and thus to the .mdr file) from tape. Start it going Announcing the find on his website in February, it was at first a bit of a 7) On the real speccy, put the head scratcher as to how the cart to backup into a microdrive data from these cartridges was to and start *MOVE backing up to be salvaged. But once Spectrum tape preservation expert Andy Barker What happens it that the real got involved it wasn't long before Speccy backs up the cart and those carts were well and truely saves it to tape. mined for their data. In addition to early versions of now well-known However, Spectaculator is on the loading screens such as Wizball other end of the audio cable with and Arkanoid II, the cartridges *MOVE running in restore mode so also contained previously un-seen it just writes the data to the .mdr graphics for an unreleased version file. Magic! of Total Recal as well as Athena mock ups that were never used Right: Evolution of a loading screen and some graphics for an Ice- - from early ideas to finished work. Hockey game that was never released. A major find, then. You can explore all the pictures at: ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/ PLUS 3 PRINTERFACE sinclair/games-extras/MarkRJones/ >Perfect printing for your +3 ,2, etc. (on mine it went red, oran- During the discussions that took ge, yellow, etc) on the centronics From WoS forums comes a nice lit- place over at WoS regarding the connector, and which pin it corre- tle DIY project. guesser writes: project a rather nifty little routine sponds to on the D-type. devised by Geoff Wearmouth for The +3 has a centronics compat- Then solder the ribbon cable in the transferring real microdrive able printer port, which is connec- same order to the female D-type. cartridges to their virtual .MDR ted using a standard FDD edge equivalents was brought to light by connector. NOTE 1: some of the cables go to Spectaculator author Jonathan the same pins, solder all these pins A peice of ribbon cable about 5" Needle. The trick requires together in a row, and then just tag long is crimped into the connec- THE ULTIMATE SINCLAIR DESKTOP? Spectaculator emulating Interface the ribbon into the lump of solder. tor, and then the other end is 1 hardware, of course, and on The Stonechip Echo Amplifier is an extremely opened out to 34 seperate wires. NOTE 2: the ribbon cable is num- rare find these days. It's special because it both this and your Spectrum (with bered in alternate rows for disc The +3 manual shows the number- was one of the very few third party peripherals IF 1) the 1984 introduction drives, for this cable the ribon goes ing of the port, and these have to to adopt casing that mirrored Sinclair's own cartridge with the *MOVE program in the order; on it. This is what you do: eventually match the same numb- shape and style. It sits perfectly next to a ers on the centronics type plug at 1, 19, 2, 20, 3, 21, 4, 22, etc (18 and rubber keyed 48K. 1) Connect your Speccy's MIC the end of the normal cable. 36 are non existent). socket to your PC's line-in socket. The model shown is on loan to ZXF and was Just open up the printer cable, NOTE 3: if your centronics cable cleaned up using wipes and an electric 2) Boot the Introduction cartridge and write down which wire is No.1 has a wire going to 36, IGNORE it. toothbrush. It came without a power supply or instructions, but a standard 48K PSU works fine. ZXF10: 18 ZXF10: 39
.NET ZX run using the engine). The major >New Spectrum emulator in works ones are TADS, Hugo, Inform, and AGT. There are quite a few more, .NET is how Microsoft see the future some still active, but most not of programs on the PC. Etc. It's a updated in years on the free upgrade to Windows XP that ftp://ftp.ifarchive.org/if- can be had from microsoft.com. archive/programming/ directory. And Adrian Robson is writing a new Spectrum emulator in it. What are your future plans for WinPAW and how do you see Currently a Spectrum Emulator these fitting in with the directions Without a Name, Adrian wants his IF is taking as a genre? emulator to be orientated more towards the casual Speccy game- Currently the next version will add player than the hard-core emulator Export capabilities in ACE format junkie; with this in mind he's putting and being able to import a lot of thought into making database changes from a text support material such as instructions file. Sometimes when you have a and inlay art accessible. multitude of changes it is easier to Spectrum Emulator Without a Name recognises snapshots and displays type them into a text file than to In its current state the emulator screen$ and basic info in the panel to the right of file names. Clicking go through all the screens in offers no support for tape files; it on 'instructions' brings up inlay text in a seperate window; unfortunately Windows. doesn't emulate the Spectrum's SEWN doesn't recognise WoS text instructions, these have to be re- WinPAW lists BLINK's messages. border and it only covers the basic formatted in RTF before being saved into the instructions folder. If you'd I really don't know how these fit in 48K and 128K models. A way to like to help Adrian out (he's very keen for others to get involved) you with the directions IF is taking as a go, then, but a promising start. can email him at [email protected] genre. My main idea is to make WinPaw as easy to use and versatile as possible. NEW MODULES One aside, this is not the first time I >ZX-Previewand ZX-Blockeditor wrote a version of PAW. Back when PAW & Quill were originally Last issue we brought you news of out, I wrote a version, strictly to the first of Claus Jahn's ZX Modules, see if I could do it, which actually ZX-Paintbrush and ZX-Explorer. looked like PAW & Quill in ALGOL, Collectively the modules are the main programming language intended as a replacement for on the Burroughs mainframe Claus' previous project, ZX Rainbow (Burroughs is now Univac). Very useful: the incorporation of flag metadata saves all that trying to Second Edition and the next two work out which flag controls whether the ogre has eaten a mint or not. have now been released. Actually, I have never been too good a solver of text adventures. I ZX-Blockeditor displays a breakdown have actually completed 4, one of the contents of a TZX or TAP file the original Colossal Cave and allows you to move these about adventure by plodding thru it for to your heart's desire. It's a nice little months and months. The others I tool which I tried to use in the had to get some hints from the creation of TZXF, but I kept getting internet. I did write a TADS version loading errors from the resulting tape of the Very Big Cave Adventure files created and ended up going once. And, as already back to good old Taper. mentioned, I have been working ZX-Preview works either on its own or for years on an adventure based with ZX-Blockeditor and displays upon Philip Jose Farmer's 'World of screen$ data and other goodies the Tiers' series. I have now started from your selected Spectrum file. it in AGT, TADS, & WinPaw. My main thrust after I am done with The next module under 6.0 is completing the WinPaw development is the rather nice version of the 350 point Colossal looking ZX-Editor. You can check up Cave Adventure. It is maybe 25% on its progress, as well as grabbing completed, but I know I can do the above at: http://home.arcor.de the stuff to complete it. /clausjahn/spectrum/ www.winpaw.com Simple editing. And you can keep the Spectrum font too. 7 3 : e , , l . 0 s e s t , s b d 1 d n e i h r s p 5 o u t s i t r s t e n s o b t F e t r e i t b s A r n e r l e i r t a y y h n u l l X o u e u e i d t l l a d u y a s t a r f t r l l r o y p g n Z n n a a i u a n o o m d p o h u e e r s m f o a u t t u i s r c m p r e r e e t m k i i d n r e a f r s t s s e v e e d e m n i i t C g m o t , o t n b a h e a v d n n t r e c P n n i e R o T Y d i r i h h o a a v a z m e a e t e m h . c R S h e n e a t y t , n v i e t p o k E s e m , r s a g d d s , e d a d a a s n y c o a u V f t - r a o n b n n s h g a a s a t i e o E b e o t n r d w o C a s s a t s n t d , M l i , s r i b s o n t P s s l , n I n n o i . e n l i r u M i o t A e c o a s s f e e i o r , ( l t a e e m 2 r o w s S s n f s a g r u p r s . d n 9 h c y p a e A t o l e i t s e n s b l y t a 9 e a e A i i n e n n r s - r g r i e g g s a s 1 i b r e g r y ) k z e s o e n P w i a n . h a a r y a e i v e 6 a e g a , t y B y g l c r p e . m e p t p l t l s 8 d n m g h a n s w t a b i e b n e a e e 9 A ’ i a u u C e c a w r p t e s e k r r e 1 o e s g J p n r r f . 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X e c h y g e t e r b i n s k u e g u e r n m a i t e X a S Z r b l r r o i t 9 e b d c t a m a f r [ a u Z r t o m A u n e g f s o t i i o b a g e [ e n n e e i h e A E y o e a t y K s r o p u z o ! a g f a i e v e r e v e w l ' d U n t n p . y I ! p y g ] w y h R o e l h C h e S e e g o s e m l e g t e r e k t [ e a u [ r e t e n t , a r d l r S v i i k ] c s B l e t n u u a I t h g t s k e i n i A i v c o m o s n t w ! n u a u , u ! [ e o a a I u v a o s b f s s c h a s i n d s s u , i R o i a i k t S a s p r w t r e i s n o s t m s n [ h i l n e t s s g r a h ! f g t S h d ' i r c a O t d e s r t y t i [ i t A s T o r s t a c p e i i F e b a 0 a h t G o l d m d a s e s l t s t h e p I . . t k l l a o f a e r r t t d t o a e ] ! ' i t ! n 2 j k e e g J e K s h r a , ! o s n u u h f e i r r s l p a t t r r l u t n f g y r p u I a ] g , g , e e o l C a S u : o g w d e n n o o o o e r h e u - ] a o m t i F r c y n g n n a f f r f p h s i i i A s t w [ - e o u Y 0 l h n w y u t T m p a n n C n z z u i a p e r t u r i s s B u I r o a o . o t b o r t t r 1 i a r o t m a k t k k h ! a a y s e ' . s s y D g [ m g t i u n i p p e e c a a ! g n n n f g g g r e E l F n g n p o e m m p d f o v r j p e e y s e e n F E m a a i a u N e i o a a a e g d r v u o n o u n i i u a o n X e e e s F o p X h h h h E o t B A h h e o s t [ T b t t S m Z K B m K o A C [ i c c s G s d m T l T m C T e B i T R Z S ZXF10: 22 ZXF10: 35 find faults and reassemble it with a Sinclair SuperBASIC OS ever used by anyone who complete sets - in practice, only program (Multidos_bas, in the matters. My understanding is that - after Sinclair sold out and firms like Quanta library) - I still use the QL to for firmware reasons, embedded PST bought up the 'stock' from read such disks as 'modern' the other side of the USB - these Amstrad. controllers can't read the FM drives are not capable of reading (single density) format used by the the 256 byte sectors standard on This explains why so many 'new' original TRS-80 and Genie WD-1771 Opus discs and many earlier Spectrums released to retail came disk controller - and transferred to micros, and can only read disks in reverse serial number order - last a 3.5" 1.44Mb Qdos floppy to be with the physical layout of MSDOS - in, first out. ;-) The collapse of copied to the hard drive of the 9 or 18 sectors per track, of 512 distributors Prism was the fatal Amiga 4000 on which I'm writing bytes each. This is OK for Qdos, ST blow to Sinclair as it released this note. Amigas can read Qdos and later MacOS disks, but could Spectrum systems to retail at 180-1.44Mb, all Disciple, Plus D, be confounded by the use of a below Sinclair's cost price. Even Opus Discovery and +3 floppies as tenth sector on MGT format disks, though production was soon if they were native AmigaOS - or also an option on Atari, Linux etc halted there was no point in 'fixing' MSDOS - format, with free handlers etc - and used by Microsoft for the 'stock' till the gut of machines from Aminet - so they pop up on some distribution sets. Sinclair had supplied for distribution the desktop as icons, and can be cleared, and Sinclair never really Once again thanks for ZXF, I look loaded from like any native disk got over that. forward to the next whenever you (preserving ZX file attributes like feel like doing it, and hope I can Your article about Spectrum disc start line and filetype) by any help you fill it with interesting stuff. systems was interesting though not application as soon as they're in a particularly informative; it's a pity mechanically-suitable drive on any Cheers, you did not mention the Sixword Amiga with the relevant (small, Simon N Goodwin Swift Disk system which was the free) filesystem handler installed. nicest ZX disc expansion, in various XFS handles the most formats with Many thanks for this extremely ways, I used in my time as Crash one file, but there are dedicated informative letter Simon - and I Technical editor. I attach the text MGT and QL handlers freely take pleasure in reprinting your of my review, which you're available on Aminet as well. These article on the following pages. welcome to edit and re-use if you work with 'Catweasel' Zorro and Regarding Linux - well, yes, ZXF is see fit. I've got the hardware in my PCI retro floppy controllers as well definately the poorer for the shed and could dig it out for a as Commodore's standard 'Paula' absence of any information on photo if you wanted and did not one. Linux emulators. The specific want or could not find the Crash Incidentally, I fear your 'prediction' reasons for not having this on my review pics. It didn't work last time I of people being able to read MGT system so far are to do with using tried it, but I'm not sure what part and Opus discs with a USB floppy NTFS as my filing system. A few was playing up. I'd be interested drive in your look forward to 2014 poeple - Simon included - have to hear from others who own one. may be stymied by the same given me a few new ideas to This article has been read from the ignorance that leads people to pursue on this, however, so by the Video Genie disk on which I wrote believe that Windows is the only next ZXF things might be different...
Wallkthrough - by Wiibblle and Blliim for CASA
NEW TO THE SPECTRUM SCENE? Note You meet Bart again (note the reference to manual 214 and the that man this procedure described on page 392), x token, eat token, x token, climb y ob is a The essential sites you need to visit. r ject brief fence, north x 4, x girl (hmm, something very strange is happening), give eal j s wh solu oy. ich c tion doll to girl (and receive the bag in return), x bag, get post office out of Inventory, x epipen, x danollb, x bull,tox tphost office, get post office, look, e ex is v bag. leave (you're asked to find theapmoisnt officee)r.y w www.worldofspectrum.org ed a ell-w nd s ritte ome n ga Leave (the girl now follows you), north, blink at girl, sit down, blink (you The cornerstone of the community: emulation, discussion, downloads and online gaming. North, enter car park, x daughter, x wife, x car, leoafvet, northm,ee.nter he d Ther reappear, alongside the little girl, in the village cafe), stand up, leave, www.spectaculator.com; www.ramsoft.bbk.org; www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html telephone box ("the door won't open" - though, if you waeitsacround, e ar iption e north x 3, enter telephone box, leave (and you find yourself in the someone will appear and actually enter it - you cannot for the momseanrt)e, You'll be needing an emulator to play those games on... a control room). enter field, leave. www.the-tipshop.co.uk X man, get manual 214, read page 392 (note the reference to buttons 2 South x 3, enter cafe, x menu ("unhealthy"), leave, south, enter arcade More tips, hints and pokes for those games than you can shake a pointy stick at. and 98), say to girl "press button", point at button 98, press button 2. (Robby hands you the bull and disappears), x bull ("China. Made in www.ysrnry.co.uk; www.crashonline.org.uk; www.sincuser.f9.co.uk China."), leave. All becomes clear and you are given another task. Enter lift, leave, enter The online editions of all your favourite Spectrum magazines: YS, CRASH & Sinclair User. field, smash bull with post office (and reach the lengthy ending screens). South x 2, southwest x 2, x wasp, touch wasp, use epipen, west x 2, x http://raww.org/ ruins, east, down x 2, x couple, climb over railing, west x 2, south, enter Spectrum news from around the world. Constantly updated! carriage, x rag, east, east ("A man blocks the corridor."), enter cabin Displayed on the Classic Adventures Solution www.sinclairfaq.com (you can't), blink (the scenery changes), west, leave carriage. Archive: http://solutionarchive.com/ All your further Spectrum questions answered. ZXF10: 24 ZXF10: 33
type. The FULL listing also tells you the code address, start or record SWIFT DOS COMMANDS size of each file. MOVE and BACKUP transfer files, or ALTER
microdrive, although CAT and Sixword didn't send an adapter Swift SAVE is about twice as fast as ERASE are noticeably faster. Swift (#14.95), despite requests, so I Disciple's. are still fine-tuning their code, and can't say how well it works. They The Disciple has the edge in terms hope to double the speed of say it's much like the port on the of hardware - it packs 780K, rather many file operations by Interface 1 - in other words, O.K. than 640K onto a disk, although 'interleaving' data inside the for driving an RS-232 printer, but a JAMES ZEUN some of that space is needed for ZX COLUMNS pseudo-cartridge. bitch for anything else. ZX and its configuration file. It has Sinclair Alphacom printers still work. Higgledy Piggledy is a standard joystick and network challanging game and Author: Santiago Romero Published by Compiler Software Price: Free You can plug a genuine Sinclair ports, and a flexible driver for Reviewer: C Woodcock Website: ww.speccy.org/compiler/index_en.php HARDWARE certainly worth getting. When Interface 1 into the back of the parallel printers. The Swift is easier I first began playing, I was a The Swift Disk interface uses the Swift unit, and run microdrives and to use, and significantly more little confused as to how I same black plastic box as Sinclair's disks at the same time. You can't compatible with existing programs. directed my pigs to the ZX Columns is actually one of Interface 1, with the words 'Sinclair' use real microdrives while you're three new games available for Amstrad evidently think a teleporter. It seemed at the and 'ZX Interface 1' filed off and using the microdrive emulator, for download from the Compiler Spectrum with a disk drive is worth time to be an impossible task, covered with plastic stickers. The obvious reasons, but Swift supply a Software website. And they're all £250, or at least £200 - our yet I still managed to do it. I interface fits the original Sinclair program to move the contents of free. There's Another Brick On The predicted price for the Plus Three was disappointed with the Spectrum models well, but it's a a tape into a 'psuedo-microdrive' Wall 2, a remake by Miguel A. this Christmas. If you've already lack of music on the title very tight fit on the Amstrad Plus automatically. García Prada of the game got a Spectrum, and want disks, screen - a game like this Two. deserves a theme tune. In- presented to 2004 BASIC Contest an add-on interface is cheaper at Bytemaniacos (winner of its A Kempston joystick socket skulks and - at least for the time being - game sound effects are TECHTALK category) - a sideways variant on at the back of the box, where the more flexible than Amstrad's Plus pretty basic, even for the Spectrum. However these are Arkanoid/Batty, etc, and Interface 1 serial plug used to fit. The SWIFT contains 8K RAM and Three. reasonably fun, but very BASIC in Some of the original holes in the 16K ROM. The ROM is split into 4K only minor things, and when The Plus Three has less than a third its look and feel (presumably it's case have been cut out to make sections, with space for up to 32K. compared to the games of the speed and capacity of the been compiled). And there's ZX this was a classic for the SEGA room for different connectors. The The entire system, including the polished design can be Swift or Disciple. The Amstrad won't Poker by Santiago Romero which Master System that's since been disk drive socket sticks out where disk and printer ports, is invisibly dismissed. I personally hope work with microdrive software, and pretty much does exactly what remade for a number of more Interface 1's network sockets used hidden under the Spectrum's 16K this isn’t the last we see of lacks BASIC file-handling you might imagine it does, recent platforms. And now its the to live. ROM unless the DOS is in use. This Eadwig Addlethorpe. There commands. Most damning of all, although I don't know how to play Spectrum's turn. makes it hard for protected are certainly many directions The disk connector is the same as there's no easy way to transfer poker so we'll just have to trust it software to detect and disable the the creator could take this I must admit I enjoyed ZX Columns is used by the BBC Micro and QL, protected game tapes onto Plus (we'll have to arrange for Sir Clive interface; I have yet to find a character, without restricting it quite a lot more than I expected among other machines, so there's Three disks. Spectrum-specific to give it a go). program that won't SAVE to disk to this one game design. Like to; I was horrified to discover just no shortage of alternative drives. software may be published in that properly. Dizzy, I believe Eadwig could But ZX Columns is my favourite of how much time had elapsed You can plug in up to four format, but I'd be amazed to see be the Spectrum's leading the bunch by far, also pro- playing it on only my first go [which 'modern' 3.5 inch or 5.25 inch The circuit-board is crammed into 'hit' programs released on three character for 2005. Which I grammed by Santiago Romero means it's probably too easy - Ed]. drives; the software automatically the Interface 1 box with no room inch disk alone, with no tape don’t believe would be a bad and with graphics by Davit Masía. It's a straightforward game but it's adjusts to different drive formats. to spare. It is well-engineered but version for other users. thing. It’s overdue that It's basically a also a very addictive one. crying out for some more space. Some old drives can't switch tracks The Plus Three benefits from serial Spectrum users had a Tetris/Connect Swift intend to use their own box fast enough - Swift only allow and parallel output ports, and computer icon to be proud Four hybrid where eventually, saving space and drives six thousandths of a second comes all in one box. In theory it is of. Dizzy did this well for some the aim is to line money by re-designing the logic to step from one track to the next. compatible with the old CP/M time, but with no new official up coloured circuit to use custom PLA chips. The Disciple interface copes with business operating system, but 80- Dizzy games being released gems that slower drives, but you must load a column display hardware will be for the Spectrum. I believe descend in 'configuration' file whenever you needed before most programs will Eadwig could do a good job vertical columns COMPETITION start to use it. The Disciple also work. Frankly, I don't think in fulfilling this role. of three. You limits you to two drives. The Swift disk is very competitively Spectrum users need or want can rotate the priced, mainly because it is only CP/M. colours before Alongside the Swift disk connector available direct from the you drop the is an edge connector for other manufacturers. The interface costs columns, but Spectrum peripherals. You can £75 on its own, or £149 with a VERDICT only when plug in anything that does not use separate 640K 3.5 inch drive and three gems of a 'magic button' to interrupt the The Swift disk is well-engineered power-supply. That's a bargain the same computer. Swift hope to remove and competitively priced. It's fast, price for the drive - you'd be hard colour are even this restriction. friendly and uniquely compatible put to find a similar unit anywhere lined up with existing Spectrum software. After all this standardisation the for under £100. (either printer port almost comes as a The question is, can Spectrum horizontally, The Swift unit competes with the relief to Spectrum fans, used to the users afford a £150 upgrade? It's vertically or Disciple interface, which Franco way Sinclair defied convention. worth it, but only if the restrictions diagonally) Frey reviewed here in March. The The port uses the ultimate obscure of cassette are hampering your will they Disciple costs £90 without a drive. socket - a modified Microdrive use of the computer. You DO get disappear. Both load at similar speeds, but the edge-connector! value for money - a disk drive Apparently totally transforms your system. ZXF10: 28
SPECTRUM +3 SOFTWARE AND USE YOUR VOTE WISELY ON 5 MAY SPARES
, Dear Valued Constituent puter is standing for that a 1980s home com might find it surprising fter all, computers You rliment in your area. A ction as a member of pa f 'human intelligence'. ele any years to pass tests o ave tried and failed for m h at phrase mean? But what exactly does th with the way in which to have something to do pparently it's supposed isions are: A e made. 'Intelligent' dec decisions and policies ar based on evidence not 'us' or 'me') • of all ('all' meaning all, • made for the benefit As opposed to: it reality should be, damm based on how we think rally bored, irritated, • feeling at the time (gene • based on how we're red shitless) HARDWARE: angry or sca to assume that king, year after year, is stake that voters are ma most politians 3 inch 180K disc drive for +3. Reconditioned with 3 months warranty The mi an intelligence. In fact, tians are capable of hum wever, are just as £10 each. These drives can be supplied with cream coloured facias in politi ing test. Computers, ho ld not even pass the Tur and they don't have place of the black facias if wanted -- just ask. wou king as polititians are - able of bad decision ma X Spectrum you don't cap nts. In the case of the Z laries and expense accou Belts for the 3 inch drive £1 each. New. Loads available. (Just send a sa department. even need an IT support S.A.E. with order to cover postage -- correct for up to 20 belts). e whose ts and elect the candidat ake sure your vote coun Using On 5 May, m gnisable error message. Monitor lead to convert +3, +2 and +2A to use an Amstrad CTM644 at least produce a reco air mistakes will ment' software by Sincl colour monitor. £4 each. inning 'Member of Parli n: the award w on your behalf based o um will make decisions 3 INCH DISCS: your Spectr . NEXT looping 3 inch Blank discs: Second-hand good quality Amsoft or Maxell only • FOR .. available memory xt door supplied. All have been reformatted, verfied and relabelled. 80 pence • ettle/vacuum cleaner ne • the activities of the k each or £7-50 for ten. Larger quantities available 100 for £65, 1000 for pson's will include Daley Thom itional software modules Jamie Oliver £450. Add gic Treasurer, Cookie ( mpic Bid, MacMan's Ma and the Oly the ever popular Horace Sometimes available new 3 inch discs at £1 each, please ask. 7p budget re-release) and 3 uction. Weapons of Mass Destr h a feature es and make colour clas y farewell to dashed hop 5/05. JOHN R P KING Sa Vote Spectrum on 05/0 of Daily Mail editorials. 26, GUYSFIELD DRIVE, SOUTH HORNCHURCH, RAINHAM, ESSEX. d be just silly. ommodore. That woul RMI3 7AJ P.S. Please don't vote C TEL: 01708 630477 [email protected] www.pcwking.freeserve.co.uk Vote Spectrum