After the tearing success of issue 23's
wasitu section I have decided to
include a similar item in issue 25.
This is it! If you are not of a strong
disposition or if you become bored
easily, please press BREAK now.
A new cheat, for MOON CRESTA this time.
*LOAD the main game.
Then type ?&16BF=&60 <RETURN>.
Then type CALL &26FF <RETURN>.
This cheat will stop the aliens
descending and crashing into you.
Someone's just nicked my bike! Fancy
that, I haven't even paid for it yet
and if my experience with insurance
companies is anything to go by, there
is no chance of them paying out.
A bit of a whinge
Once upon a time there was a
programmer. He had the use of a BBC
model B that his daddy used to lend him
from the school he taught at. All of
his programs were saved in DFS format.
As time passed by the programmer's
daddy retired, therefore teminating the
use of the model B. Total disaster,
withdrawal symptoms started to show.
The programmer sold his right leg to
medical research and managed to acquire
a second hand Master 128.
The Master had ADFS. Fantastic, 3 times
the capacity of DFS with a virtually
unlimited number of file names
possible.
There were not too many disadvantages
with the ADFS, no *FORMAT, no *BACKUP,
no *WIPE, no *VERIFY.
The programmer only had a single drive
and had to swop discs 5 million times
to backup. He put these minor
disadvantages to one side because of
the reduced number of discs required.
The programmer joined a user group and
started sending his programs off to
other people. He had to start changing
all his old software so that it would
run in DFS format as well as ADFS. He
had to spend hours sorting out files
from directories which were full of
programs that were not needed. He did
not have a way to copy from ADFS back
to DFS easily.
So he stopped using the ADFS to it's
full extent. He started to put programs
and their related files in directories
on their own. He realised that he could
get discs for 27 pence each and he
found it much simpler to reach into his
disc box and read a label rather than
have to search through directories on a
disc, so capacity no longer mattered.
He realised when looking at other
people's ADFS discs that it was
possible to lose files very easily at
the end of a long chain of directories
unless he used the program CATALL to
hunt through the disc.
Finally he started to prefer DFS again,
simply because he could go *. to see
what was on the disc without having to
type *MOUNT
*.
*.<DIR>
*.<dir>.<dir>
and so on
Simply because he didn't need to hunt
for the utilities disc to backup or
format or verify.
Simply because increased capacity
didn't really matter any more due to
really cheap discs.
Simply because when needed, it was
more easy to transfer to ADFS from DFS
than the other way.
He couldn't understand why he had to
type *COMPACT 0E 72 umpteen times in
ADFS when DFS did it with 1 simple
*COMPACT
He also thought that ADFS was slower
than DFS.
Has anyone guessed that the programmer
was me?
Who de-archives it?
I have included a couple of archives on
this disc. How many people bother
de-archiving it? It would be
interesting to find this out. I know
that some people virtually ignore the
mag and make a bee line for the
software. Do these people ever bother
to de-archive? Mind you I suppose we
will never know because the people that
can answer that question will not be
reading this will they?
When you are sending your comments why
not mention whether you de-archive or
not. If you don't, why not, is it
because you find it difficult or just
cannot be bothered?
If it's because you find it difficult I
may be able to simplify the task.
I hear rumblings about too much text in
issues of 8BS. I reckon that if you are
getting a user group mag/software disc
that there should be a bit for everyone
in that user group.
The members range from those that need
nappies to those that need inco pads
and from gardeners to homicidal maniacs
no offence meant to anyone here of
course. aaaaaaaaaarghhh
To create a disc that would suit all of
these types 100% would not be possible.
I could not help but notice a comment
about program reaction by 0E7 in the
program reaction column.
As I was editing this item into the mag
the why and wherefore of the comment
was lumbering around between the
relatively few active neurones that
still sinapse amongst themselves in
what passes off to be my cerebrum.
The conclusions that they managed to
reach are not worth repeating really,
but how about tossing one or two ideas
into the air and seeing which way up
they up they land?
I have found that most of the discs
sent to me have something on them, or a
letter accompanying. This is the best
part of editing 8BS actually, being in
contact with all of you out there. A
great majority of the comments say how
good the programs are, in themselves
comments like this are nice, but not
constructive.
Comments with suggestions for
alterations or additions to programs
help programmers much more.
Maybe, as 0E7 says, programmers see a
program that needs help and immediately
dive in to it's rescue or finish it off
humanely and start afresh with a
similar idea. I must admit, since
Daniel Shimmin hinted that comments on
programs were not mandatory I
personally have not bothered, something
which I shall try to remedy.
Top and bottom of it is. Keep the
scribblings coming in, anything is
welcome, just look at this drivel and
say to yourself:
"My goodness, I can do better than that"
Then do it!
Interpret it either way:
Well where have you been? In other
words: You took your time.
or
Where is the dustbin? In other words:
This is so bad that I may leave the
disc on top of the telly and pretend
that I zapped it accidentally.
Some of you commented on the pikkies
being an interesting addition to the
text. Unfortunately, there are few new
additions to my repertoire this issue.
How about some of you using a teletext
editor to produce some that could be
inserted into the text? Go on! Go for
it!
I noticed that 20G had a problem with
an 8BS program:
VDU 23,1,0,0,0,0,0,0
Switches the cursor off on the master
but not on the model B which needs
VDU 23;8202;0;0;0;
The 8202 is a two byte number of
course. If you split it up you can make
the cursor do all sorts of things.
Try VDU23;R,V;0;0;0;
Where R could be:
0 = Horizontal timing
1 = Horizontal displayed
2 = Horizontal sync position
3 = Sync width
4 = Vertical total
5 = Vertical total adjust
6 = Vertical displayed
7 = Vertical sync
8 = Interlace and delay
9 = Scan lines
10= Cursor start
11= Cursor end
14 and 15 = Cursor position
Where V is the value
The cursor rolling program in issue 23
made use of R at values 10 and 11
Try VDU 23;10,1;0;0;0;
This makes the cursor start higher up
finishing at the bottom of the line.
Then try VDU 23;11,3;0;0;0;
The cursor is now fatter and higher up.
Have a muck about with it and see what
devastation you can create!
Make sure that you get the ; and , 's
correct. Or it will not work.