To: 999 (all members)
From: K2D
Subject: PIAS 18
Superior have recently released the
latest of their Play it Again Sam
series- number 18.
Below are my thoughts and impressions
of the compilation.
First is Holed Out! I remember buying
this Golf Simulation several years ago
when it was first released by the Fourth
Dimension who have since then moved on
to producing games for the 32-bit range.
I was impressed and thought it was well
worth the money I paid for it. Unfortu-
nately, my version was tape-based and
the 'holes' had to be loaded in which
was, in my opinion the only drawback.
To see a game as polished as this one
put on a compilation with two other
previously full price games was an
excellent offer, I thought.
Holed Out! has impressive 3-Dimensi-
onal Graphics which add to the realism
of the game and are drawn fairly quickly
considering the complexity of the screen
. Animation on the game is limited to
the swing of the club and the movement
of the ball,but for what little there is
, it is achieved well. When a player has
managed to reach the green, there is an
overhead view of the player on the green
and the game then becomes a putting sim.
The game is easy to learn, even for
somebody who has never played golf befor
e -like myself. The screen is set out so
that the player can see exactly what he
or she is doing; that is what clubs are
selected,how mcuh power to use , where
the ball has landed e.t.c.
For the more experienced player there
are options for hazards to take effect
such as bad lies in the rough, wind
influencing the path of the ball, bunker
hazards e.t.c. The options even accomo-
date for left-handed players.
With the game there are 2 sets of cour
ses provided, 36 holes to play in other
words. In the days of 4th Dimension
'Beeb' games and Impact Games, extra hol
es were available, but in my opinion 2
couses are enough for the games player.
However, for the golf player..try writin
g off to superior Software.
This game alone is worth the price for
the compilation and because of it's size
,it is provided with a disc of it's own!
E-Type is another game bought by
Superior Software for their new compi-
lation, and is another game that I
bought myself on tape when it was first
released. This has to be the best road
racing simulation that has been release
d for the Beeb. It came at a time when
games like Out-Run were being released
for other computers and the BBC Micro
was stuck with companies constantly
releasing games similar to CITADEL,
Arcade Adventures was the official name
I think. This lead to users writing in
to magazines such as the Micro User
asking for more conversions. Superior
eventually got the message and released
a series of conversions. The Fouth Dim-
ension,however, started to release game
s which were not conversions, but simi-
lar. The few game that they released
were as far as I can remember,all
highly rated. E-Type is a typical exa-
mple; moving away from the small grap-
hics that BBC Micro users had been used
to, it gave large animated sprites in t
he form of cars and scenery. The game
is very fast,playable and realistic.
Learning the controls is not difficult
but learning to control the car is.
Once you have, however, you will be
addicted to travelling distances up to
twenty mile at high speeds. The game
has evrything you would expect from a
racing simulation: road hazards and
varying scenery.
One of the most impressive aspects
of the game is the different scenery
the game has between the four circuits
and the use of colours to add to the
atmosphere of the circuit.
To Conclude E-Type is an enjoyable
and addictive racing simulation.
It's only drawback is that to
complete each track an increasing
distance has to be covered- up to
18 Miles. After a while even the wide
range of scenery and background avail-
able on E-Type becomes repetitive and
eventually tiring, but this is a small
price to pay for the enjoyment the
game gives and no price at all for
racing enthusiasts.
It was good to see a new release by
Superior : Citadel II. Obviously enou-
gh, this is the sequel to the best-
sell Citadel. The game was a 'platform'
arcade game on a big scale with differ-
ent scenarios such as desert,ocean and
the castle where the main game was set.
The sequel is much the same, but with a
different background story and puzzles.
Citadel does not break any records,or
stand out from the many games of this
type that have appeared over the years.
However,like Citadel it is colourful
and is by no means boring. The game is
interesting and entertaining with
enough variety to keep your attention
for another go. On another compilation
it would have outshone the rest.
Finally, the last of the four games
on the compilation is Nevryon,which is
yet another game from the 4th dimension
and is, in my opinion, the best game on
Play it Again Sam 18. I read somewhere
a few years back that the author was so
sick and fed up of games of this style
appearing on other computers that he
decided to write an original one but fo
r Acorn's 8-Bit range. What he came up
with is everything the compilation's
advert promises it to be : graphically
brilliant and super fast with sound fx
as good as you could expect. I can't
understand why a game as good as this
did not give other programmers the
incentive to produce other games like
Nevryon. Surely, they would have sold
in large enough amounts to justify a
company like the 4th Dimension produ-
cing it. Sadly though, it looks like
Nevryon is the final commercial game
of this type. I wonder if Nevryon was
a bestseller, or if the 4th Dimension
were successful in the 8-Bit market.
For those who missed the chance of
buying the game when it was originally
released, i would strongly reccomend
buying it now, as I have done. This
means that if we apparently didn't give
the 4th Dimension enough support,Super-
ior Software will benefit from it!
Overall, the most striking feature of
P.I.A.S. 18 is it's value for money.It
contains three of the best games I can
think of which all were previously full
price game, for example Nevryon was
`15 and Holed-Out! was `20, together fo
r a relatively low price, with a new
release as well. It's funny that three
of the games were all originally relea-
sed by the 4th Dimension, isn't it?
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2U (DAVID BROWN)
Subject: CUMANA PAD
HI ALL YOU BEEB MEMBERS AS A NEW
MEMBER TO CJR 8-BIT CLUB I WOULD LIKE
TO THANK ALL THE MEMBERS THAT HAVE
GIVEN ME A LOT OF HELP. MY QUERY IS
THAT I HAVE A CUMANA TOUCH PEN DOWN PAD
WHICH I HAVE PLUGGED IN TO MY BEEB "B"
IT HAS ON THE PAD 2 ARROWS POINTING UP
AND DOWN ALSO WHEN YOU PUT THE PEN TO
THE PAD THE LIGHT LIGHTS UP AND PEN
DOWN COMES INTO OPERATION BUT I HAVE
NO TAPE OR DISK 5.25 SINGLE DRIVE FOR
ME TO OPERATE THIS TOUCH PAD ANY BODY
WHO CAN HELP PLEASE TELEPHONE DAVID
AFTER 6PM ON 0233 621053 ASHFORD KENT.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3A (Sue Williams)
Subject: Folio - Word Processing
Does anyone have the word strip and
instructions for the word processing
package 'Folio'. I am also having
problems with my disc as when it is
printing in the display format the
printer slips and the top of the word
does not line up with the bottom. Any
suggestions? I am also looking to
purchase any Educational programs
which would appeal to my 2 boys aged 4
and 6. My phone number is 0256 862
463. Thanks!
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3F (Jacquetta Morris)
Subject: WANTED # PANASONIC PRINTER
I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR A
PANASONIC 24 PIN PRINTER (KXP1123)
IN VERY GOOD CONDITION WITH, HOPE#
FULLY LIGHT USE AND MANUAL. PLEASE
CONTACT ME AT:
78 BLAKE HILL CRESCENT, LILLIPUT,
POOLE, DORSET. BH14 8QS
I AM A NEW MEMBER AND MUST SAY HOW
IMPRESSED I AM WITH ISSUE 31.I FOUND
THE HANGMAN AND SNAKES AND LADDERS
GAMES MOST ENTERTAINING.
I INITIALLY PURCHASED MY BBC B FOR
MY NINE YEAR OLD SON SO THAT WE COULD
RUN SOME EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE,
HOWEVER, I AM GETTING A LOT OF FUN
OUT OF IT MYSELF. MY IDEA IS TO WORK
FROM THE WORDWISE PLUS MANUAL AND GET
SOME IDEA OF W.P. I WAS A BILINGUAL
SECRETARY (10 YEARS AGO) AND VERY
MUCH WANT TO UPDATE MYSELF ON NEW
TECHNOLOGY. HOPEFULLY, ONE OF THESE
DAYS I SHALL GET BACK TO THE WORK
SCENE AGAIN!
INCIDENTALLY, IF ANYONE HAS ANY
EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE SUITABLE FOR
MY SON, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K3H (Albert Schofield )
Subject: Tape to Disc.
Chris has suggested that I write some
articles on my pet subject which I
will call Tape to Disc on the BBC
Model 'B'
Some of you may have started, like
myself, with just a cassette based
machine and later had a DFS fitted.
Well, let us suppose that you have
just switched your machine on and
can't wait to get your programs on to
disc. So you load your program, which
is an ordinary basic program, from
cassette, type *DISC, and in no time
at all it is on disc. Then you run it.
If it is a fairly short program it
may work perfectly. If it is a fairly
long program then it will probhably
stop with an error message usually BAD
MODE, the mode being bad because there
is not enough memory available.
The reason for this is because the
DFS uses a large slice of memory. On a
cassette based machine page is
normally at &E00. You can check this
by typing PRINT÷PAGE. On a disc based
machine page is much higher usually
&1900.
However, you can claim some of this
memory back. If the program does not
use any file handling commands such as
OPENIN etc. and most games don't, then
you can lower page to &1100.
So type PAGE=&1100 and run your
program again. If it works OK then add
the following line to the beginning of
your program:-
1IF PAGE<>&1100 THEN PAGE=&1100:CHAIN
"PROG"
Put the filename of your program in
place of PROG. Then when you run your
program in future it will
automatically set page to &1100.
But if your program still gives error
messages with page at &1100 then you
will have to download it to &E00.
To do this add the following lines to
the beginning of your program:-
1CLS:VDU23,1,0;0;0;0;:PRINTTAB(8,10)
CHR$(131)"Downloading...."
2*FX3,2
3*KEY0 *TAPE|MD%=PAGE-&E00:FORL%=PAGE
TO TOP STEP4:!(L%-D%)=!L%:NEXT:PAGE=&
E00|MOLD|MDEL.1,5|M*FX3,0|MRUN|M
4*FX138,0,128
5END
The downloader deletes itself. Your
program will then be in memory exactly
as if you had loaded it from cassette.
You can create an ASCII version of
this downloader and save it to disc.
Then with your program in memory the
downloader can be *EXECed on to it and
saved to disc. See page 402 of the
User guide to do this. But first make
sure that the first line of your
program is not numbered less than six.
If it is RENUMBER your program or the
first lines will be overwritten.
That's all for this month. I hope
some of you have found it useful. Next
month I will deal with machine code
programs.
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: Help with Stop Press
I have got Stop Press, with Extra!
Extra!, I find I am unable to get the
Utility working that copies a Page
from one disc to another ?, does
anyone else have this problem ?.
Still connected with Stop Press, I
find that I cannot preview Pages, this
routine stops at Line 200 ?.
Does anybody else have these problems,
or is it just me any my particular
copy, oop,s! sorry Chris !.
Any comments (or messages) would be
Welcome
Tim Parsons
40 Coniston Road
Flitwick
BEDS
MK45 1QH
0525 715013
6pm-8pm is best ! otherwise 8pm-10pm
To: 999 (all members)
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: Z88 (part 2)
I have now got my Z88, it is an
absolutely wonderful machine, I have
already found one member who also has
one, does any other member have one, I
would be very pleased to hear from
them, it appears that the Z88 Users
club has closed down. If its anything
like our beloved BEEB's the more we
pull together the better it is for
everybody concerned.
Tim Parsons
40 Coniston Road
Flitwick
BEDS
MK45 1QH
0525 715013 after 6pm please.
To: 999
From: 3SQ (Tim Parsons)
Subject: Help With KEY
I would be very pleased to hear from
members who have got the Key/ITV
database program. I have an
original copy of the ADFS version (for
a Master) but some reason the whole
thing appears to have a couple of very
important menu options missing, like
Backup program disc and create Data
Disc !!. Consequently I cant bloody
well use it at all.
Also I dont have any Example Data
Bases making the whole thing
completely un-useable !!.
I would also be pleased to hear from
anybody who has a Z88, or perhaps you
dont know what one is ?. I dont yet,
but I am getting one very soon, watch
this space.
I would also like to enquire if any
body has a program called Painter,
this version is by ASK !, it is an
Educational prog whereby you have to
guide a little man up ladders and
along platforms picking up numbers,
either Plus, Minus, Divide or Multiply
to try and reach a target figure. I
have an original tape of this prog,
but would dearly love a Disc Version !.
lease get in touch if you can help on
any of the above requests, I will be
very pleased to hear from you.
Tim Parsons
40 Coniston Road
Flitwick
BEDS
MK45 1QH
0525 715013 after 6pm pref. before
8pm otherwise before 10pm TA.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K2H (RON BOYCE)
Subject: SUBSCRIPTIONS
Re comments on introducing subs for
8BS members.
As a fairly recent member I am very
impressed with the quality and range
of 8BS material and prompt service.
I assume that Chris is single,has no
children and is retired, because if
he isn't I just can't see how he can
find the time to do all he does for
8BS members!
To be serious, I would like the
following to be put to the vote:-
Keep all disc charges etc as at
present (they are a very good selling
point) but make a modest annual sub
of, say, `5.
This could provide a kitty of up to
`500 and Chris could then use this to
pay for his overheads, and replacement
of any equipment worn out by 8BS work.
It would also enable him to introduce
any improvements which might involve
expenditure, such as a printed
Catalogue.
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1Z (Roy Crouch)
Subject: BOOKS.
I STILL HAVE THE FOLLOWING BOOKS FOR
DISPOSAL
THE BBC MICRO BOOK BASIC SOUND AND
GRAPHICS.ONE POUND PLUS 50P P &P.
BBC USER GUIDE TWO POUNDS PLUS 1
POUND P&P
To: 999 (all members)
From: K1Z (Roy Crouch)
Subject: HELP.
HAS ANYONE GOT SUCH A LUXURY AS A
MANUAL FOR THE ELECTRON TO SPARE.
INFO ON THE BASIC CONNECTIONS WOULD DO.
THANKS.
To: 483 and 999 (all members)
From: 4TK (Henry Frost)
Subject: My thanks
I am most grateful to 483 for a very
explicit and enlightening reply to my
queries, which is 'manna from heaven'
to an old computer ignoramus like me.
The ARCHIMEDES breakdown I found most
interesting, this was information I
had been unable to glean from
so-called expert salesmen (expert yes
- but at what?) at the various shows I
have attended.
As a result of 483's advice I have now
acquired another issue 7 and an ATPL
board which, with the addition of a
few necessary chips should give me a
machine similar to my sons that I am
at present using.
I would also like to take this
opportunity to thank members (too
numerous to mention by name) who have
helped me in the past with advice,
hardware and software.
Thank you all.
May I mention here that I have also
received great help from (can I call
it 'our co-club') SOLINET.
Regards and best wishes to you all,
Henry.