Plans for The Acorn User Show at
Harrogate on 6th and 7th of May 1995
are well under way.
8BS has been invited to attend once
more. I am looking for volunteers to
come and help at the stand. Any help at
all will be appreciated. If you can
only make it for a couple of hours your
help would still be welcome. Bear in
mind that if you do come to help, you
will receive a free pass to the show.
If you do wish to come along to help,
please let me know as soon as possible
so that I can order the necessary
number of passes. If you don't think
that you can help, then please come
along anyway just for a chat. This is
going to be an 8BS get together again.
I will require help on the Friday
(setting up), Saturday and Sunday
(packing up). This year Gill will be
unable to come along and help, so your
help is vital! I shall probably be
camping in the trusty inflammable VW
close to the show somewhere to keep
costs down. I have three tents, so if
you fancy a couple of nights close to
nature, just let me know. I can promise
that you will keep warm if the VW lives
up to it's reputation.
Remember that there is only one more
8BS issue to go before the show (41).
In fact the show falls right in between
the planned issue 42 deadline and issue
dates. The deadline for issue 42 will
be strictly adhered to and the issue
date will be brought forward one week.
Details in issue 41.
Disaster! Thanks to Mick Needham for
pointing this out to me before too many
people received version 2 of CJR 3 the
STD database. Total foul up caused by
my misunderstanding how the new codes
were going to work. I have decided to
scrap the whole thing as I do not have
the time to correct the data.
Therefore, if you have a copy of
version 2 of CJR 3, please erase it
immediately as it is misleading. Some
of the codes are wrong. You are welcome
to send it to me with return P+P for
an exchange of your choice. DO NOT USE
version 2 of CJR 3 as it is WRONG!
Stephan Richardson has kindly offered
to go through the data and correct it,
so all is not yet lost. Watch this
space.
Another foul up. On Fast Access Volume
2, the ADFS compilations (FAC-2-7 to
FAC-2-12). The main menu was
misleading. It proudly announced that
it was volume one. This is now
corrected.
APOLOGIES. The first few issues of 8BS
39 do not state that the Patience Game
is Master Only. My apologies for any
confusion that this may have caused.
My only feeble excuse is that Beebug
did not mention this in their menu
either.
Kevin Hallam pointed out to me that the
text info for the game Mirror of
Khoronz on BBC-135 was in View format
and very difficult to read if you don't
have view. I have added a plain text
file that will *TYPE to the disc. This
only took me a few seconds to sort out,
so if any of you have similar problems
with discs in the library, please let
me know.
Thanks to Jim Robson K7B for adding the
fancy bits to the Bingo program on CJR
1. The bingo caller that uses Superior
Software Speech now says all those
extra bits like "two fat ladies 88"
etc.
This old chestnut refuses to lay down
and pop it's clogs.
There has been much discussion by
members of late regarding charges.
I would like everyone to know that I
have no intention of making any further
changes to the charges for the
forseeable future. Thankyou! Messages
discussing the charges issue will be
greatfully received and published (all
messages received are published unless
they contain naughty bits) and then
carefully ignored.
Many people ask what the TBI stands
for. (T)oo (B)ig for (I)ssue. Duncan
Webster chose this name. When he could
not get a large submission onto an
issue disc, he announced a disc too big
for issue was available. He further
extended this idea to XBI, e(X)tra
(B)ig for (I)ssue. The XBI collection
was a collection of ADFS discs. I
removed the XBI section from the
catalogue and incorporated it into the
TBI pool later.
Now there are a whole range of three
letter codes, all of which I hope are
self explanatory!
When I took over the running of the
group there were about 20 discs in the
TBI section, 13 in the XBI and 20 8BS
issues. Now there are over 700 entries
in the 8BS catalogue!
TBI-61-2 InterText 2D More text from
bulletin boards.
As a result of the above addition,
TBI-61 has been re-named to TBI-61-1
TBI-71 Radio Amateur, was ADFS only,
now also available as 1D.
TBI-73 Radio Amateur, was ADFS only,
now also available as 2D.
TBI-75 Plato Republic on 2 ADFS discs
or 2 DFS discs. Menu driven. Split up
into small files to enable you to load
them into your text editor.
TBI-76 Mark Twain. What is Man? Crime.
Two books avaailable on one ADFS disc
or TWO DFS discs. As TBI-75, the books
are split into manageable chunks, all
menu driven.
Updates:
CJR-1 Bingo program
CJR-3 v.2 IF YOU HAVE IT, ERASE IT!
FAC-2-7 to FAC-2-12 (minor alteration)
BBC-135 Text addition.
TBI-70 Tape to Disc. More additions
from Albert Schofield (text from this
issue).
Thanks to Richard Sterry for mentioning
8BS in an article he wrote in RadCom a
Radio Communications magazine just
before Christmas. I have never had such
a response from an article. A good 50
or so enquiries have resulted from the
article up to writing this. The good
old Citizen 120D+ has been hard at work
printing out catalogue summaries.
A point worth mentioning is that you do
not have to receive every issue of the
8BS magazine to maintain your
membership of 8BS. If you miss a couple
of 8BS issues, it does not really
matter. You can also get back issues of
any of the 8BS issues at any time. If
you forget to send off for an issue,
don't worry, your membership of 8BS
will not lapse. I have mentioned this
as, on a number of occasions now,
members have come back after 6 months
or so with profuse apologies, wondering
if they were still members.
Don't forget the intro screen
competition!
You are invited to submit an intro
screen for an 8BS issue. Each screen
used will earn you a prize.
The screen can be in any mode. It must
feature the words 8-Bit Software (or
8BS), Issue (whatever) reasonably
prominently.
Mode 7 screens are welcome. How about a
little animation? There is nothing to
stop you writing a short program for
instance.
I leave the rest to you, come on you
lot!
A free disc of PD software goes to the
writer of every screen used.
James Cavanagh has donated a two disc
package from Garland Educational
Software as a prize. This package will
go to the first screen submission that
requests it.
It contains: Pyramid, Casino,
Wordsquare, Seabattle, Pick-a-Pair,
Three Men's Morris, Ba-Awa, Ming-Mang,
Six Men's Morris, Fox & Geese, Tablut.
Well, that's it until next time. I hope
that you enjoy this issue.
PRESS BREAK