To: 999 (all members)
From: E3Y (3.Spaceman)
Subject: New kid on the block
Hey there 8 bitheads! I've only
recently joined-up so I've got a few
things to say and submit. Hopefully
you'll find them around this and the
mags to come.
I can't say that when I went looking
to see if any 8 bit PD libraries were
still going that I expected to find
such an exciting group going on. I
think Chris should be nominated for
some sort of 8 bit M.B.E. for services
above and beyond the call of duty to
the Acorn market!
Another man who's doing wonders if you
hadn't heard is David Bradforth over
at ProAction. Give him all the support
you can people! Speaking of ProAction,
I felt the review of their TimeSlip
game in 8BS-56 was overly critical.
Okay, the fact that the game won't
actually work on a standard Beeb is a
pretty clear pointer that somebody in
the testing department must have been
slacking off but the game DOES have a
password feature and a couple of very
enjoyable subgames.
On the subject of games...
Whilst trawling through Chris's
extensive disc pool catalogue I came
across 8BS-43 which features "cheats
for Ghouls and Destiny". Destiny? I
don't ever remember hearing of a game
called Destiny except as a rumour of a
forthcoming Superior release from
years back (obviously). Has anybody
heard of this game - or is it just me
in the dark?
AnD aNoThEr ThInG! All those mystery
*FX calls that just didn't get
documented in the (t)rusty User Guide.
Rooting around in Andrew York's disc
utility program (as featured in 8BS
issue 56) I identified the *FX command
that was doing strange things to my
3½" disc drive. It was *FX255 and it
causes my disc drive to work faster
and also controls the soft-break reset
MODE. The number after the 255 can be
used to set this. For example:
*FX255,200 will restart in MODE 0 when
BREAK is pressed.
*FX255,207 restarts in MODE 7, etc.
I don't know about anybody else but I
never knew that before. As I say, it's
not in the User Guide.
Anyway, that's goodnight from me and
goodnight from him and I better get
this in the post if I want to catch
the deadline - honestly, it's just
like being back at school!
Ta-ta,
3ason Spaceman
From: 15A (Steven Flintham)
Subject: Article idea
Just a thought if any hardware people
are reading this and looking for an
article idea...
Years ago (early 90s?), Acorn User
did an article on repairing a BBC B
and showed that at the time all the
spares you could possibly need were
(if I remember correctly) still
available.
It would be interesting (well, I think
so!) to see what the situation is
today with regard to obtaining spares
(preferably new). For instance, are
the RAM chips used in the BBC B still
produced?
From: D6F (John Crane)
Subject: Jon Ripley A3010 Drive
Castle Technology
Ore Trading Estate
Woodbridge Rd
Framlingham
Suffolk
IP13 9LL
They do a floppy drive for `35 inc
vat.P+P is extra.
I occasionally have problems with mine
as well.Although not to the extent Jon
has.Sometimes it throws a disc error
or is disc formatted error ? The discs
which can cause problems in my case
are always the older formats,ADFS M or
L and DFS when using the !DFS utility
and usually it's discs formatted on
a pre RiscOs machine.Having a Hard
Drive,my floppy drive doesn't see a
lot of use and I've never had any
bother with 800k (D) or (E) or 1.6MB
format discs.Also my "computer room"
can get very cold and condensation
could be a contributing factor. If I
leave my A3010 on for a while and then
switch off and reboot this often helps.
If a new drive is bought, I would be
interested to know the outcome.
From: E4P (W. Woodall)
Subject: New Member
My aim: To support users of any of
the BBC computers for as long as
possible. Many of you may already
know me from past contact. My knowhow
has accumulated over the past twelve
years+. So I am reasonably competent.
My main interest is Basic programming
and I am willing to give info or
advice wherever it is needed. So feel
free to drop me a line any time at:
89 Monks Dale, Yeovil, Somerset,
BA21 3JB
The latest 8BS software use some
excellent methods on the TB1-00 disc.
I look forward to a fruitfull exchange
of ideas and programs, for many years.
Although I dabble with DOS on my Master
512, PC's are not on the agenda, unless
my wife wins the Lottery.
Cheerio for now! Bill.
From: 3WU (Fred Price)
Subject: Xmas Time
That annual thing called Xmas is
just round the corner again, when
parents are pushed by the younger ones
wanting everything on God's earth,
including TeleTubbies, but it has one
advantage, It's only once a Year
So let me take this chance to wish
you all a Merry Christmas and a very
Happy New Year
Fred
PS.Keep up the good work Chris.
To: 999 & 4WL (Martin Wilson)
From: D7Y (Andrew Medworth)
Subject: BT - Free calls
You may have noticed our little
discussion in recent issues of 8BS
about the possibility of free local
calls being offered by BT. (If you
missed it, most messages are on the
last message files in 8BS-56, 57, and
58.) First of all someone (I've
forgotten who, sorry) wrote in to ask
why BT didn't offer free local calls
like some cable companies have been
doing. I very hastily wrote a reply
which stated that BT would not be
offering this service because of a
recent gridlock in the USA caused by
Internet users.
Then Martin Wilson wrote back,
rightly pointing out several mistakes
I made in my rushed piece in 8BS-57.
First of all, Martin is right in
saying that the Internet need
not necessarily mean that BT will not
offer free local calls. He also raised
some good points about offering a
limited free call service.
In the light of these points, I felt
my piece was shown up as the
overstated case it is, but I did not
mean it to be, and so I will try to
explain.
I said that BT would not offer free
local calls in any form because of a
recent interview in an internet
magazine with a BT representative, who
stated this fact, not because of my
own belief because of the AOL saga.
Secondly, I agree with Martin that
BT is a ripoff and a monopoly, and it
is not good to have to pay them
anything at all (!). I meant to say
(without explaining properly) that
paying for individual calls has some
advantages as well as the obvious
disadvantages.
Thirdly, if BT were to offer this
system, they would make us pay for
calls to Internet providers as we have
to at the moment, in other words you
pay 1p a minute or whatever when you
are on the Net. This is what cable
companies, notably Cable & Wireless,
have been doing with their free call
systems.
Therefore, we have to ask the
question "Are BT really going to offer
us a deal that entails us paying them
less than we are at the moment?" That
depends on how many people would
actually pay them more, because they
don't make many calls (there would
have to be a flat rate everyone pays,
and that could be larger than the
amount someone pays on their standard
bill), and how many would pay them less
because they make lots of calls.
So, Martin, you are more right than
I was! I hope members now realise that
I don't really like paying BT, so I
can now be crossed off your "total
idiot" blacklist. Although sometimes I
wonder...
Andrew Medworth D7Y
From: D6G (Sprow)
Subject: Sales galore!
Sorry for missing the deadline to the
last issue - time just slipped by! I
assume that Chris will have combined
two lots of submissions into a big
Christmas issue though.
Thanks go to all those who have
ordered odds and ends from me in the
past months - over the summer I was
able to make a donation to Guide Dogs
for the Blind for
*** NINETY FOUR POUNDS ***
which they were of course grateful
for.
There are however still things to buy
and a snippet from the list is
included elsewhere on this issue.
There are some Christmas offers too so
make the most of this rush of blood to
my head!
Hope you find the utilities I've sent
handy,
Sprow.
email: rps102@york.ac.uk
8BSmail: D6G
fax: 01625 431067