To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ Tim Parsons
Subject: AQR Cartridge (Ram Disc)
Through the pages of Micro Mart I got
an AQR Quarter Meg Cartridge made by
Advanced Computer Products for my M128.
For a start it was an unknown quantity,
I had an idea what it was by reading my
ADU (ADFS Utilities Rom) Manual, in that
it could be loaded with 16 * 16k Rom
images etc. I did in fact find this idea
to be a bit of a pain.
I then spied a review in the at one time
recommended Micro User, that got me look
ing for an ACP 1770 DFS version 2, with
a little luck, a fellow SoliNET member
came to the rescue, this Rom is now a
permanent rom in my Master. With the AQR
Cartridge fitted when I switch on I get
Advanced 1770 DFS (320K Ram Disc),if the
members are not aware a Ram Disc is in
memory and not in a Disc Drive, as a
result there is no Noise or Wear and it
all happens very much quicker !.
Did you spot the mistake, 1 quarter of a
Meg. is 256k, so how do I get 320k, well
the clever gadget takes into account the
64k of SWRam as well, or 32k, or however
much is available at the time.So this is
added to the 256k of the AQR Cartridge
and totals 320k capacity.
The Disc is then Formatted for use with
a command which is in the ACP DFS, after
which it can be configured as any Drive
number you wish, preferably Drive 0, it
starts of as Drive 8 !.The whole side of
a DFS 80t Disc can be copied onto the
RAM Disc, from where all the programs
will run without ever making a noise,
ideal of course for a suite of programs
which continually access the Disc, you
must remember to of course copy the Ram
Disc back to a real disk, before switch
off if there have been any changes to
the DATA !!.
I have found one particular program that
greatly benefits from being on a RAM
disc, and that is a very good rendition
of REET PETITE by Jackie Wilson, do you
all remember the video on Top ofthe Pops
the Malteser with the big mouth with big
red lips ??, no I dont remember it
either !!. My copy came from Bombay.
I hope I havent got anybodies hopes up
too high, cause I have never seen any
more available anywhere.
But I can recomend the weekly purchase
of Micro Mart, you should be able to get
a few bargains, like I have in the past,
and Ive made a few more friends into the
bargain.
Mind you I understand that Jim Hay had a
raw deal once.
By the way an added bonus of the ACP DFS
is that it CAN read and write to Watford
Electronics DFS formatted 62 file Double
and Single Density Discs.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ Tim Parsons
Subject: Hard Disc Drive
I have a spare Rodime 5 meg Drive, it
does work, it is slow and it is old and
it is BARE, it is also full height and
HEAVY (for posting).
I know it works cause I have had it
fitted in my Hard Drive Assembly to help
locate a fault in it.
Does anybody want it, or should it be in
a Museum ?
I have at the moment a fully working
Hard Drive set up fitted with a SEEGATE
251-1 40mb Drive, if this should ever
pack up, I would be very upset, does
any of you know what sort of drive this
is SCSI or IDE or whatever ?, can it be
directly replaced with a different make
or model of the same capacity, if any
body can help I would be very pleased to
hear from them, I could then explain in
more detail the type of Host Card and
Controller that I have.
I find a Hard Drive is absolutely
indispensable, it is one of those things
that until you get one, you never know
how you survived without one.
But then on the other hand, there is
another saying, what you never have you
never miss !!!.
OH DEAR. At the time of writing 12/12/93
my dearly beloved Drive has just died,
hopefully it will soon be restored to
its former glory, I feel sure my "spare"
drive will be no good cause I reckon it
is the Power Supply !!!.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2T (Jack Tourle)
Subject: K1J's conundrum
The £30 is a red herring. The manager
asks for only £25, so out of the £27
paid by the guests, the waiter puts £25
in the till and £2 in his pocket!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2T (Jack Tourle)
Subject: 4TK's plea
I am sure that many of us husbands
will sympathise with Henry Frost's
plight. But he's lucky that he gets
keyboard time while shopping is done;
in our household I do the shopping!
To: K1J + 999
From: 4MD
Subject: Conundrum explanation
The penultimate sentence of the
conundrum in Issue 31 is designed to be
misleading. Instead of reading
"...and 2 pounds in the waiters pocket
is 29." it should read "...and 3 pounds
from the manager equals 30."
The waiter has obviously robbed the
three customers of two pounds such that
they have paid 27 pounds instead of the
25 pounds intended by the manager.
ie. The 5 pound refund becomes a 3 pound
refund with the 2 pound difference
being pocketted by the waiter.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3PM
Subject: K1J's Conundrum
Tut! Tut! It's all down to the General
Theory of Relativity. You've stumbled
in the fourth dimension and tousled
future and past event cones.
There's now `25 in the till..yes? The
three diners now have `1 each and the
waiter now has `2. So what's the
problem?
Look behind the past event horizon and
you will see the `27 the diners used to
have less the `2 the waiter nicked for
his future. It's still in the till.
But if you do find a pound..it's MINE.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum and furthermore
.. Nil Illigitimum Te Carborundum.
To: 999 (all members)
From: L1M
Subject: The TD-ROM
help offered
The TD-ROM is only suitable for use
with the 8271 Disc Controller. It then
works perfectly. All help is offered
by a Menu, which gives you all kind of
messages.
The message "Searching" comes up when
you change the Option from fast to slow
I created a TD-disk with help from a
little program, which is chained by the
!Boot, thus automatically calls the Rom
by *TD. It is a very clever program and
can be used for loading two Roms too.
To: 999 (all members)
From: L1M (Janny Looyenga)
Subject: WANTED OLD 'USERS'
Is there anyone who wants to get rid
of his/her old Electron Users from the
year 1990 as they did not appear anymore
in Holland then. And I am too interested
in the very old ones before May 1984.
When you are looking in your cupboard:
Maybe you'll even find:
A & B Computing from April '85
June '85
Acorn User from January '84
March '84
Micro User from January '84
December '85
Post a message and let me know!
Or did you find even more older ones?
From the beginning '82/'83 ??
To: 999 (all members)
From: L1M (Janny Looyenga)
Subject: MASTER 512
Is there anybody who knows or has a
program which supports and uses the
512 card - without having to load DOS?
There are new ROMS for the 1Meg Board:
who can tell their numbers?
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2I (John Wilson)
Subject: Educational Uses
I am the proud owner of two lads,
Matthew (6) and Ben (9). Both are keen
BEEB users and I am convinced the
machine has helped their education as
well as providing hours of fun.
We have acquired quite a mass of real
educational software (much of it from
Rickett's excellent catalogue) and of
course, the expected selection of games
and adventures. Nearly all of it is in
regular use, so I don't want to sell
it yet, but I am keen to hear from
anyone with offspring of similar ages
who may be interested in swaps, loans,
advice etc.
A final request: After aeons of trying
to complete Pantheon I obtained the
cheat sheets, but I've still got a
problem. When we try to assemble the
space ship at MARK 23 the whole screen
breaks up and corrupts. Any thoughts?
To : 999 (All)
From : 2J3 (C.J.Richardson)
Subject: For Sale
Software on tape: All software on tape is yours for 30p
an item unless otherwise noted. This
price does not include post and
packing.
Graphics adventure creator. BBC only.
Castle of Riddles.
Draughts and Reversi.
Alien 8. Game.
On Tape: 1.00p (large box+manual)
Mini Office II BBC only
10 Computer hits. Games including:
Chuckie egg. Ghouls. Gisburne's
Castle. Tarzan. Special Operations.
Tales of Arabian Nights. Felix and
the Factory. Eddie Kidds Jump
Challege. Mr EE. Sorceror of
Claymorgue Castle. £1.00 for this
item.
Pole Position.
Missile Control.
Utilities package. Containing:
Sound shaper. Envelope editor.
Epson screen dump.
Teletext Screen Editor.
Disassembler.
Karls Kavern.
Hell driver.
Bug Byte Graphics package.
Space Jailer.
Warehouse.
Hunchback.
Vortex.
Caveman adventure.
Repton 2.
Yie ar Kung Fu.
Winged Warlords.
The Mine.
Escape From Moonbase Alpha.
Lazer Command.
Mr Wiz.
Felix in the Factory.
Manic Miner.
Arcadians.
The Computer Programme Volume 1.
(Tutorial with manual).
BBC Welcome Tape.
Instant Recall database.
Software on disc:
All items are £1.00 each unless
otherwise noted. Prices do not include
postage and packing.
Gemini Database
Cheat it Again Joe 4
Revs plus four tracks.
Bulletin Board system. Two discs £2.00
Commstar auto Dialling software plus
manual.
On Disc at 5.00p
The Account Book from Apricote studios
on 2 discs with extensive manual.
Dambusters. U.S.Gold BBC only
Blockbusters. Domark
Summer Olympiad. Tynesoft
Bruce Lee. U.S.Gold BBC only
Repton Thru Time
Brian Clough's Football Fortunes.
Monopoly
BBC Bonanza containing Wizzys Mansion,
Space Ranger, Last of the Free,
Psycastria, Thunderstruck, Ultron and
Contraption.
Play it again Sam 10. 2 Discs 2.00p
Watford Disc Drive utilities.
Boxed, on disc with playing board and
plastic tanks etc, Tank Attack 5.00p
Hardware: Speech Recognition system and Speech
synthesis system. Plugs into the user
port complete with info and software.
Plus SPEECH. £15.00p the lot. This does
not include postage and packing.
Viewstore ROM with manual and disc
5.00p not including p+p.
Books: Transferom manual. 10p
BBC User guide. 5.00p
The Century Computer Programming Course
for the BBC Micro. 1.00p (large)
**Prestel System User Guide. Free
ACORN DFS User Guide. 1.00p
Disc Doctor manual. 1.00p
First Steps with your BBC Micro. 50p
Watford DFS and DDFS Manual. 1.00p
Programming tips from the BBC Micro.
Selected articles from the first year
of the Acorn User. 2.00p (Excellent!)
Cumana disc drive guide. 1.00p
Prices do not include postage. So for
larger books (Acorn User articles for
instance) postage will be about 2.00p.
For smaller books about 50p.
The book marked * is free because it is
a bit dog-eared, but there must be some
body out there that really needs it.
Kits:
For the John Ilsley electronics
articles
Project 1. Moisture detector £1.40
Made up £2.50
Project 2. Continuous alarm £2.20
Made up £3.00
Project 3. Light pen £3.00
Made up £3.74
Kit prices include p+p.
These items unlike everything else from
8BS are NOT dispatched by return of
post. There may be a wait of a couple
of weeks occasionally. Although there
are kits ready for dispatch as I write
this (26.11.93).
Also:
New 5.25" DS DD discs £3.40 for 10 this
price does include postage and packing.
Order any quantitiy at any time. I
always have a large number in stock.
Contact:
C.J.Richardson.
17 Lambert Park Road
Hedon
Hull
HU12 8HF
To: 999
From: K2J
Destroyed Realities Disc-Based Magazine
for the BBC B and Master.
The new magazine's first issue is now
ready and available at the following
address:
Mr.D.C. Lowless, 82 Main Street,
Pembroke, Dyfed, Wales, SA71 4HH
Covered in the first issue :
Public Domain software - an informative
guide to the libraries still running.
Programming articles - Animation using
screen bank switching... even on the
model B. Letterheading in View.
Mandelbrot - using a different plotting
method. Fractal triangles. Games - the
Public Domain game Pantheon.
Graphics/demos - Several compressed
graphics screens. 3D wave animation.
Utilities - Worried about reconfiguring
your master. A program to do it for you
in the event of a replaced battery. A
disc copier which takes advantage of
sideways and shadow RAM on the Master
to copy whole 40T DFS discs in one disc
swap. The disc will cost 1.80 which
includes the disc, the software, and
the packaging. Make all cheques/P.O.s
payable to D.Lowless.
To: 999
From: Chris Richardson
Subject: Last free space on disc
A tiny bit of room so I shall just list
the latest developments 14.1.94 before
quitting for final de-bugging etc.
77 Active members. 108 on the books.
7.26p in credit. YES!!! things are
looking good.
Acorn User Show on 22, 23 and 24th of
April at the Harrogate International
Centre. I have been promised a small
amount of room at this event to show
off 8-Bit Software. I have the promise
of at least enough room to put up a
banner and hand out a few freebie discs
(I know the thought of handing out free
stuff hurts, but it has to be done).
With a bit of luck, we will be allowed
a little more space, enough maybe for a
couple of computers and some hardware
to show off.
More details in the next 2 issues, but
please make sure that YOU can get
there.
For now. Any ideas for the stand (if I
can get one), any ideas/help with a
banner/advert for the show, any
volunteers to help. Any
hardware/software loans/donations for
display, would all be welcomed with
open arms.
By the way. The Harrogate flower show
is on at the same time!
Press Break for Main Menu