About this Issue

ABOUT ISSUE 22 -------------- THE DISK MAGAZINE ----------------- There are no Teletext articles in this issue. As always, all articles can be printed from the menu by placing "P" before the article number. The articles featured are as follows: Introduction / News Contains important 8BS news, including news of issues 23/24 Discussion / News Discussion of topics relating to 8BS plus some other computing news About this issue This article, containing an outline of what is in issue 22 Program Documentation Further information on three pieces of software User Comments I am glad to be able to include a much fuller selection of constructive comments on members' programs this issue - please try to keep this up! TBI update Around a dozen new disks have been added, including large amounts of sound samples, graphics and clipart, and more Messages Section Including any messages to you personally at the end Do you remember? An article by Steven Flintham looking at the past of the computer world and speculating about its future, together with related ideas from me and someone anonymous (all of it is mainly non-technical) Presenting Programs 2 The second part of Steven Flintham's series, this issue covering Teletext screens. As usual, Steven's article comes with a number of example programs, some of which supply very useful routines for your own programs - see the article and the software menu Beeb & Arch Comparison An article by M.T.Farnworth (author of Power Raider, owner of an A5000, shareholder in Acorn etc.) explaining the disadvantages of an upgrade from a programmer's point of view Piggy-backing ROMs An article by M.G.Needham explaining how to piggy-back two 16K ROMs so that one of them can be selected at a time with a switch 2x16K ROMs on one EPROM An article by Hugh Williams explaining how to blow two 16K ROMimages onto one 32K EPROM, then install the EPROM into a 16K socket in a BBC B and switch between the two images with a switch Note that the latter two articles are only really of use to BBC B owners, as the Master has plenty of scope for ROM expansion in any case (see earlier issues). THE SOFTWARE MENU ----------------- GAMES & DEMOS The games featured this issue are Push-the-Bale by Carl Wheat, an extremely challenging game with fifty screens (see Program Documentation for further details), and a Trading Simulator by Chris Richardson, which allows you to control a freighter sailing round the world - both entertaining and educational (instructions are within the program). Also included are two very impressive demos from Lars Osterballe, and a graphical demo from John Ilsley (patience is very much in demand here). MUSIC Theo Gray has supplied Debussy's "Little Negro", and I have also included "Airwolf" (anyone remember the television programme?), Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (I know this has appeared before, but I like it), and "Land of Hope and Glory" by The Micro Musicians - with some imaginative musical effects. TELETEXT EXAMPLES This option allows you to load any of the four example programs which accompany Steven Flintham's article on designing MODE 7 screens. It would probably be a good idea to print out the article, then load up and study the programs while you are reading it. OTHER ITEMS The items featured are: Area Calculator - A program by David Stillman which calculates the areas of many different 2D shapes, and also displays the formulas required. Units Conversion - A program by John Ilsley which converts between all sorts of units of measurement. DFS => ADFS Utility - Chris Richardson's conversion of the program previously featured; this one allows the use of a single drive. How about some documentation Chris? *CLONE Utility Sourcecode - The sourcecode of the program by Lars Osterballe, essentially an advanced version of *COPY for the DFS. See Program Documentation; the program itself, ready-for-use, is in the file CLONE. *VIEWCON Utility - Dr. H.L. Clarke's converted version of VIEWASC which appeared on issues 19 and 20. ViewCon converts View files into standard unformatted ASCII textfiles, as required for 8BS submissions (and as used by BBC PD & others). See Program Documentation. VIEWCON Utility Sourcecode ARCHIVED SOFTWARE ----------------- There is a great deal of archived software on this issue. Please read carefully the instructions below, as new de-archiving software is used in this issue. If anyone has any difficulty please let me know. ARCHIVED SOFTWARE DETAILS ChLttrs is the Chain Letters game by David Shepherdson, a very well-programmed and fun game, which is well-suited to educational use. Run by *EXEC !BOOT; instructions are included. ApplEtc contains several programs by Stephen Johnson, including a VAT calculator and a very well-presented menu program. Run by *EXEC !BOOT. All the other files are graphical screens, created by David Stillman (WB PD), Adam Sandman, Gareth Moore (GLM PD) and Andrew Snodgrass. To load each screen, select the appropriate mode, then *LOAD <filename> FFFF3000. THE DFS VERSION There are several archives, in directory A on both sides of the disk. You should copy each individual archive onto a blank formatted disk. You can then use EITHER the Dearchi ROM image from issue 21 (load into SRAM, initialise, use *HELP for info), or use the file :0.D.BDARK from this issue (copy it into the $ directory of the blank disk and use *BDARK <archive filename>.) The exception is the archive :0.A.MODE1. If you copy this archive and BDARK into :0.$ of a blank disk, you will not have enough room for all the dearchived files on the same side of the disk (although you will only miss one picture). An alternative is either to use the Dearchi ROM if you have SRAM, or to copy the BDARK file into :2.$ and the MODE1 archive into :0.$, then type *DR.0, *LIB:2, *BDARK MODE1. Finally, the file RLOAD as produced by de-archiving ChLttrs will not work correctly. You should delete this, and copy :0.E.RLOAD from this issue disk into the $ directory of the disk on which you have de-archived ChLttrs. THE ADFS VERSION Chain Letters and Applications Etc. are ready to run from the main menu. The MODE 1 screens are de-archived ready to load in (MODE1, *LOAD <filename> FFFF3000). To de-archive the other software, you will have to copy the archives onto a blank ADFS disk. Then you can either use the Dearchi ROM supplied in issue 21 (load into SRAM, initialise, use *HELP for info), or use the file :0.D.BDARK from this issue (copy it into the $ directory of the blank disk and use *BDARK <archive filename>.)