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8-bit Software (c) Duncan Webster DEC 1991 Issue 17 December 1991 On This Months Disc Quite a few programs on the disc this month and once again it is mostly the work of 8BS members. Seeing as it is Christmas I have tried to empty my music pile and thus issue 17 is quite musical, with a couple of Christmas tunes for both the Model B, Master and the Music 5000. Programs are as follows ... ARCHIVER PROGRAM: This program and all future versions will appear on every future issue disc from 8BS whether or not there is archived software on the disc or not. However, this will be the last issue in which the instructions are supplied on disc. BIRDIE ANIMATION: A rather clever animation of a bird in flight. Not exactly in superb detail but very clever all the same. VIEW FILTER UTILITY: Useful utility which I hope that 8BS members with the View Wordprocessor will make good use of. The utility will strip all the unnecessary codes from view files in order to convert the text to plain ASCII. HEART AND SOUL: Another well programmed piece bearing in mind the limitations of the Model B sound capabilities. MEMORY SCREEN DUMP: Well presented memory dump display routine. Attractive use of colours and although it may not be very comprehensive it is certainly a very quick and useful utility to have to hand. MILES PER GALLON: Well presented program to keep track of your car's MPG consumption. Not very well error trapped so be careful and get used to the program before using it in earnest. MIX EDITOR AND MIX-RUN BUILDER: A very useful mix sound editor. An example mix is provided on the disc with the filenames S.VIV, D.VIVDAT and R. VIVRUN respectively (side 0). Beginners will find it hard to use the program as the manual assumes a certain amount of knowledge from the user. The software is not totally bug free nor is it error trapped, therefore please report accurately any problems, errors and suggestions for improvements so that these can be considered and possibly written into a future version. The manual is avaiable from within this magazine. POLISH CHRISTMAS: A small text presentation of how the Polish celebrate their Christmas. Very interesting and educational reading. Master owners also have the added treat of listening to some classic Polish Carols - 16 of them!!! STOP PRESS .... I have been experiencing difficulties in getting the Polish Carols to work under any system apart from a Master Compact under the DFS Image ROM in RAM Bank 7. Perhaps a member can explain and/or make the necessary modifications to make it run under ADFS?? SEARCH FOR SANITY: Text adventure game which you are either going to love or absolutely hate. Nicely presented though and all "over the top" remarks have now been removed (I hope). SATELITE HAVAC: Sattar Shakoor's excellent first version of his game. Keys are Z for left, X for right and RETURN to fire the laser beam. Game is a little slow but does not spoil the enjoyment too much. Please send any ideas for improvements and hopefully we will see a better version soon. TEXTFILE VIEWER: Also from John Carpenter, the Resolve Textfile Viewer. Nicely presented utility to enable you to view any ASCII textfile. Also has the useful option to view in different modes. CATALOGUE SAVER: Ever lost the entire contents of your disc just because you have corrupted your catalogue? This utility goes some way towards helping by storing a duplicate catalogue elsewhere on your disc which can be called back if needed. ______________________________________________________________________ *** BONUS ITEMS *** Well, seeing as it is the season of goodwill, I have managed to squash a few extra items onto the disc for all to enjoy ... EXTRA REPTON SCREENS: See the Repton Reportage article. Screens are on side 2 of this months disc under the filename R.L1LRep. ------------------ 8-Bit SOFTWARE UTILITY ROM: Must be loaded into Sideways RAM. Provides these extra star commands for your BBC ... *CURSOR <on/off> *DATE <filename><date> *MDUMP <addr> *GRAPHICS *CHECK *FILE *BREAK *HIDE *REVEAL *VDU *CLOSE However, I have no user guide so it is up to you to find out what these commands do and to let me know so that I can tell all members. Model B owners with SWR should load this ROM into their machines using the following procedure ... 1. Make sure the WRITE PROTECT switch for SWR is OFF (if you have one) 2. Enter the Command .... *LOAD <filename> 8000 - press Return. 3. Switch the WRITE PROTECT ON NOW (if you have one). 4. PRESS CTRL-BREAK 5. Enter *HELP BITA for a list of commands. Master Owners can use the following set of commands .... 1. Enter the Command *SRLOAD <filename> 8000 7 - Press Return 2. Enter the Command *INSERT 7 - Press Return 3. Press <CTRL> <BREAK> to reset the Machine. 4. Enter *HELP BITA for a list of commands. -------------------- ROM MUSIC - TAKE ON ME and STOP! Music playing from SWR whilst you get on with writing your next contribution to 8BS - sounds too good to be true? Well try this... Load one of the following into your SWR using the procedure detailed in the steps above depending on whether you have a Model B or Master. Filenames are on side 0 and are called R.STOP! and R.TAKEOM After you have installed one of them into SWR you can play then by issuing a simple star command .... *STOP! or *TAKE And the music plays! Rom 'n' Roll! -------------------- MUSIC 5000 CHRISTMAS PIECES I haven't forgotton all you M5000 owners (now 5 of you at 8BS) and I have included some seasonal pieces for you to play non stop over the festive season. Filenames are on side 2 of the disc and are called 5.XmasFor and 5.XmasTal. Both are quite good. To load, enter AMPLE as Normal and then press TAB from the Studio 5000 mixing desk in order to obtain the "%" command line. You may then insert the issue 17 disc into drive 0 and execute the following ... % *DRIVE 2 - selects drive 2 % *DIR 5 - selects directory 5 % "XmasTal" LOAD RUN - will play "Xmas Tale" % "XmasFor" LOAD RUN - will play "Xmas Forever" % Happy listening! ------------------------