Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett
--- Ian Spencer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:

 
 - Original Message - 
 From: Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no
 Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 2:36 AM
 Subject: What be classed as the standard nowadays?
 
 
 I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what
 Dos
  is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the
 relation
  with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with
 BDos
  to effect a 30 percent Put speedup?
 
  Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested...
 
 Yes, it is possible to get B-Dos to work with
 Masterbasic I use it all the 
 time.
 Ian
 

Cheers :)

I thought the manual looked a bit `fiddly` so haven`t
got into it yet, but found a few tips in SAM
Revival...

Cal *_+



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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

  
 My Sam system/set up is
  
 Sam 512, 1 floppy, Atom with CF card 256 and slave
 Harddrive  Maxtor 7 gig an 
 old PC spare drive.
  
 (slave drive when in use powers from an old PC psu)
 
 
 with a  small switch fitting to switch the CF card
 to master or slave , 
 normally set  to master.  
 
 Comms interface with PC serial mouse [thanks to 
 Edwin]
 
  
 PC keyboard interface [ thanks to Colin]
  
 Boot Rom V2 [thanks to Edwin]
  
 BDos 1.7n 
 
 Steve(spt)
got anywhere with Bdos, but  interested...
 
 

Wow !!! thats one hell of a setup :) I think the CF
card route is the way I`ll go when I finally get back
to using a real machine...

sorry for more questions, but is the boot rom
something  like the ones Steve Nutting was doing back
in the day, i.e. to fix disk corruption, or is it
(hopefully) to possibly boot up with extra code for
newer stuff?

Cal *_+


P.S. 

Once again thank you so much for the scanning of the
MasterBasic manual in particular, but also
MasterDos...  (not here enough so need to get these
thanks in, hehe)... there`s a fair few folk like
Arjun, monty.mole and Sadako over at WoS dying (time
permitting of course) to get into SAM Basic and
needing specifics of tips and tricks so these come in
really handy :)




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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 
 --- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
  I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what
  Dos
  is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the
  relation
  with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with
  BDos
  to effect a 30 percent Put speedup?
  
  Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... 
 I'm sure that someone managed to get Masterbasic and
 B-Dos running together... B-Dos is definately the
 one
 to use if you consider using an atom or cf interface
 :)
 

Cheers, ... yes, the CF card route is sounding soo soo
tempting :)

David, did you ever remember what the cheat was for
Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying something
about a combination of two things/sets of key presses
at different times and a clue like Ice cream or summit
 I was pretty drunk all last year so I could
indeed have imagined even the conversation let alone
the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the screens on
SAM version..

Maybe could be a tip/cheat in SAM Revival or ZX-Shed
if you can shed (haha, dips head in shame) any light
on it... 

Cal *_+



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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Colin Piggot
Calvin Allett wrote:
 sorry for more questions, but is the boot rom
 something  like the ones Steve Nutting was doing back
 in the day, i.e. to fix disk corruption, or is it
 (hopefully) to possibly boot up with extra code for
 newer stuff?

I think the bootrom Steve was refering too is the Atom Bootrom - which was
written by Edwin - which will boot from the Hard Drive or CF when the Sam is
powered up.

Floppy disk corruption on reset is fixed by having an alternate 8MHz clock
signal going to the WD1772 disk controllers.

Colin
=
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/


Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Colin Piggot
Calvin Allett wrote
 David, did you ever remember what the cheat was for
 Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying something
 about a combination of two things/sets of key presses
 at different times and a clue like Ice cream or summit
  I was pretty drunk all last year so I could
 indeed have imagined even the conversation let alone
 the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the screens on
 SAM version..

David wrote an excellent six part series on Manic Miner for Sam Revival
(appears is issues 3 to 8) looking at all sixty of the Manic Miner screens
in detail, with hints and tips, some scans of the original drawings for a
few of the levels too as well as behind the scenes gossip and anecdotes from
when the game was being developed back in the early 90's. A very interesting
read overall. Manic Miner also features on the coverdisk with issue 9 of Sam
Revival should anyone out there not have this classic!

Colin
=
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/


Re: Hi Dudes *_+ Full message

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote:
  from my quick lookabout (and on pay per minute so
 very
  quick) I`d like to say nice one to Colin, jeez you
 do
  a lot for the scene, the new games are looking
 cool,
  especially Harlequin which I somehow missed out on
 on
  older systems... be great to see this on SAM...
 
 There are certainly a few great classics from the
 Gremlin lot, Harlequin is
 certainly my favourites. I've done a bit more work
 on it as well as Thing on
 a Spring.

I was getting back into ST`s and in particular under
emulation a few months ago, and I think the one game I
didn`t download was Harlequin, as I`m looking forward
to it so much(due to it being scrolling, and obviously
the first professional accelerated game)... I`ll check
the original versions after I`ve discovered it on SAM
:)

Have you had any articles in past SAM Revival`s
regarding any tools/environments you use when
developing games? 

For instance do you have a generic mapper, or do you
knock something up for each game? I`ve been putting
off doing one but recently decided to get all those
tools done which have needed doing (hence dabblings
with Flash).

also, if you have one... which route did you decide
on, is it 16*16 ala Amiga or 8*8 tiles?

Oh, and yes, Gremlin have an amazing catalogue,
Avenger would be beautiful on SAM... but that is just
a dream (like also Great Escape in colour,hehe) :)


 But I am also concentrating on the revamp
 of Conquest and some of
 the other unreleased games from Hydrasoft that I now
 own. There'll be a
 development update on both software and hardware in
 the next issue of Sam
 Revival showing how I am getting on with things.
 

lol, :) scrub questions above, I see these things are
best for inclusion in the mag...

Who was Hydrosoft? I don`t think I`ve heard their name
before?


Can I just ask if it would be a good rough estimate of
about 4.5 times original speed for the finished
version of Mayhem... I mean under emulation in
meantime for dev, I`ve spent the last four weeks
working on graphics for a new accelerated game called
`Jimf and Oobs go Whack` and not sure quite what can
be pulled from uncompiled Basic turbo`d, but some
practice and a profiler have quite astounded me with
what can be done with MasterBasic`s faster commands...
 

(p.s.) the 4.5 times comes from the fact you say
memory will be uncontended... good luck with the
project as well :)

Cal *_+





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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote:
  sorry for more questions, but is the boot rom
  something  like the ones Steve Nutting was doing
 back
  in the day, i.e. to fix disk corruption, or is it
  (hopefully) to possibly boot up with extra code
 for
  newer stuff?
 
 I think the bootrom Steve was refering too is the
 Atom Bootrom - which was
 written by Edwin - which will boot from the Hard
 Drive or CF when the Sam is
 powered up.

Sweet, sounds cool... 

 
 Floppy disk corruption on reset is fixed by having
 an alternate 8MHz clock
 signal going to the WD1772 disk controllers.
 

I seem to remember this, is it a Mod that all you guys
have had done (possibly 10+ years ago), is it a Mod
you provide service for (as Im not alowed near
electronics, hehe) :)

I suppose it`s not as relevant nowadays what with all
the HD`s and CF cards... I remember people (or rather
magazines and web based `accounts` of SAM) always made
it a big deal, but at the time I ALWAYS used to eject
disks, it became habit very quickly... apart from
unexpected crashes of software/machine and the quick
hurry to eject, lol





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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote
  David, did you ever remember what the cheat was
 for
  Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying
 something
  about a combination of two things/sets of key
 presses
  at different times and a clue like Ice cream or
 summit
   I was pretty drunk all last year so I could
  indeed have imagined even the conversation let
 alone
  the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the
 screens on
  SAM version..
 
 David wrote an excellent six part series on Manic
 Miner for Sam Revival
 (appears is issues 3 to 8) looking at all sixty of
 the Manic Miner screens
 in detail, with hints and tips, some scans of the
 original drawings for a
 few of the levels too as well as behind the scenes
 gossip and anecdotes from
 when the game was being developed back in the early
 90's. A very interesting
 read overall. Manic Miner also features on the

Im looking forward to getting those issues :)

 coverdisk with issue 9 of Sam
 Revival should anyone out there not have this
 classic!


Don`t forget Money Bags Special Edition with a
thumping soundtrack is on the same disk/issue *_+
 
 New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/




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Re: Hi Dudes *_+ Full message

2005-11-12 Thread Colin Piggot
Calvin Allett wrote:
 Have you had any articles in past SAM Revival`s
 regarding any tools/environments you use when
 developing games? For instance do you have a generic mapper

Erm... i've mentioned briefly some of my tools in the magazine over the last
year or two, such as the mapper I used for the three Money Bags games -
which evolved slightly for each game but I always made sure it was backwards
compatible should I need to load files from the earlier games.

But I do tend to write the tools specifically for the game in hand, and
there's been a few articles about development of stuff - particularly in the
'Quazars Secret Files' articles - covering unfinished products which include
the untitled Quazar Karts game, and a clone of Shufflepuck.


 also, if you have one... which route did you decide
 on, is it 16*16 ala Amiga or 8*8 tiles?

The Money Bags games used an odd 10x10 tile (can't remember why I chose that
initially - probably as i was rushing things as the original game that
appeared on Soundbyte 15, then revamped for the coverdisk with Sam Revival 9
was written in one week while I was meant to be studying for some university
finals!), but Harlequin as it's using the Amiga/ST graphics will be using
16x16 tiles and Thing On A Spring will be is 8x8.


 Who was Hydrosoft? I don`t think I`ve heard their
 name before?

Hydrasoft were behind Conquest and Mage Fire - two games that were to have
been published by Zedd-Soft (Zodiac Magazine / Michael Stocks) in 96/7. I
know a few Conquest's were sold, but also know of a few cases of people not
getting them or experiencing big delays. Mage Fire as far as I know wasn't
actually released at all (until Sam Revival 12 last month anyway!), the
author has no idea if it was sold or not either as he never receieved any
royalties for either game. (Neither did I - I was involved with the two
games back then adding spot sound effects for the Quazar Surround
soundcard!)

He's always gone down the strategy route, and Conquest especially is very ad
dicitive and playable. More news on the revamping of that, and the other
unreleased stuff, will be in the next issue of the magazine, and will be
sometime on the website too afterwards.


 Can I just ask if it would be a good rough estimate of
 about 4.5 times original speed for the finished
 version of Mayhem...

Yeah, think along the lines of 4-5 times faster.

Colin
=
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/


Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Colin Piggot
Calvin Allett wrote:
  is it a Mod you provide service for (as Im not alowed 
 near electronics, hehe) :)

If it's something you want done, then yes, I can easily do it for you.

Colin
=
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/


Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote:
  I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but what
 Dos
  is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the
 relation
  with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run with
 BDos
  to effect a 30 percent Put speedup?
 
  From

http://home.wanadoo.nl/edwin.blink/samcoupe/software/bdos/bdosinfo.htm
 

Thanks, always lose web addresses :) I think theres
stuff in there not in the .pdf


 = COMPATIBILITY NOTES
 =
 
 Programs which POKE or CALL  directly into SAMDOS
 will not
 work correctly with B-DOS.

S`ok , never really did know much about messing with
Dos anyway in those ways...

 
 Dan.
 

Cal *_+





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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Colin Piggot [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote:
   is it a Mod you provide service for (as Im not
 alowed 
  near electronics, hehe) :)
 
 If it's something you want done, then yes, I can
 easily do it for you.

Thinking about it, it probably would be as even
after (hopefully) when I get my SAM sorted and CF card
and reader I think I`ll be heavily tempted to start
using old workdisks :) 

I LOVE SimCoupe, but you can`t beat a real machine !


 
 Colin
 =
 Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for
 the Sam Coupe
 April 1995-2005 - Celebrating 10 Years of developing
 for the Sam Coupe
 New Website now up: http://www.samcoupe.com/
 




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Re: Missing Disks?

2005-11-12 Thread Calvin Allett

--- Dan Dooré [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Calvin Allett wrote:
  What are the most important disks which you
 remember
  which are missing?
 
 I think most stuff is now up on NVG apart from
 these:

I have a list somewhere on real SAM Coupe disk from
Pat Spencer, who used to trade a lot (and whom I
expect everyone here used to know :) ) I can`t
remember a lot of the names of certain more obscure
disk mags and other software, but I`m sure there`s a
good fifth perhaps of early SAM software missing. it
was nice to see Metempsychosis stuff up on there
finally.

I`ll try to find it, but have imaged most of my disks
and haven`t found it yet, also it might be interesting
to check the SCPDSA catalogues from the early days to
see how things correspond?

I`ve still got my copies which given a month or two I
could hunt out if they would be useful...

 
 These are the files that could not be unpacked as
 part of the achive re-org
 project.
 
 There are stored here as DSK files with the
 offending code inside, if 
 you have
 a copy of these then please upload a DSK version to
 /pub/sam-coupe/incoming.
  ,
 Dan Doore 04/01/05
 
 
 Files and original locations in the tree
 
 
 ./adult/net_23.TDO - cannot read TDO file
 ./disks/misc/treaty - cannot unpack
 ./disks/music/etracker/modules/MikeAJTrackerModules
 1 and 2 - cannot unpack
 ./disks/music/etracker/etrackerdemo - cannot unpack
 ./disks/utils/disk/old/lib30a - cannot unpack
 ./disks/utils/disk/lib30b - cannot unpack
 ./disks/utils/Prntfx - cannot unpack
 ./disks/utils/TIFF LCB - cannot unpack
 ./disks/utils/terminal-emulation/commix - cannot
 unpack
 
 
 There was a stack of stuff by Daton that isn't up
 but I can't remember a 
 lot else.

It`s mainly stuff from Ron Stirling which I`m after at
the mo - he had a very nice (at the time) ceefaxt type
menu system on one disk (Review? perhaps, don`t know
how many issues he pulled off), but as you say, from
memory it is hard to remember :)

edit:  Oops, and sorry I don`t have have of the above
but surely that treaty is David Gommerons little
demo/game? which could be resolved from FRED etc?

probs wrong, again !
 
  There seems to be some disk magazines missing,
 plus
  there was some Australian software for SAM
 distributed
  over here in 93-95 that seems to be not preserved,
 
 ColonySoft?

That`s the one :) couldn`t remember the name

  I can only say that someone from Scotland who`s
 name I
  forget (Derek something ?) seemewd to be
 organising it
  as Shareware...
 
 Derek Morgan - Sam PD?

I think that`s the name, I know he managed to get
either GAC or PAW onto SAM, or at least to get
permission from author around 93/94

If that tallies with the name then that`s the dude...
I tried emailing him multiple times last year with no
reply, due to him buying distribution rights from me
for BitaByte issues 1-5 plus more or less anything I
ever wrote... major :(   ...

I`d be very pleased if I could get in contact with him
if you know or anybody knows his current email. (he
was running a small dance studio in Scotland a few
years ago, if indeed the name is right)


 
  SCPSDU etc, ... 
 
 Justin Ash?

Bingo
 
 Dan.
 
 Cheers for help Dan..

Cal *_+



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Re: What be classed as the standard nowadays?

2005-11-12 Thread david
Can't remember to be honest... but theres 2 parts to
it...

4 keys during the scrolly message - and CLF (Copyright
Liberation Front  aka KLF - as Matthew was a big
fan!) during the game... 

You could always use the NMI button if you want ;)

--- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 
 --- david [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 
  
  --- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
  
   I don`t mean so much hardware (yet also), but
 what
   Dos
   is standard? is it all B-Dos? and what is the
   relation
   with B-Dos and Basic, can MasterBasic be run
 with
   BDos
   to effect a 30 percent Put speedup?
   
   Never got anywhere with Bdos, but interested... 
  I'm sure that someone managed to get Masterbasic
 and
  B-Dos running together... B-Dos is definately the
  one
  to use if you consider using an atom or cf
 interface
  :)
  
 
 Cheers, ... yes, the CF card route is sounding soo
 soo
 tempting :)
 
 David, did you ever remember what the cheat was for
 Manic Miner ? I seem to rember you saying something
 about a combination of two things/sets of key
 presses
 at different times and a clue like Ice cream or
 summit
  I was pretty drunk all last year so I could
 indeed have imagined even the conversation let alone
 the clues, lol, but I`d love to see all the screens
 on
 SAM version..
 
 Maybe could be a tip/cheat in SAM Revival or ZX-Shed
 if you can shed (haha, dips head in shame) any light
 on it... 
 
 Cal *_+
 
 
   

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Re: Missing Disks?

2005-11-12 Thread david

--- Calvin Allett [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:




 I think that`s the name, I know he managed to get
 either GAC or PAW onto SAM, or at least to get
 permission from author around 93/94
 

I think that was in part down to Dave Whitmore ... (in
fact - I think the principle for the PAW conversion
was based on a chat I had with him during an
All-Formats show when I was getting very carried away
with ideas that happens sometimes :))


Re: Missing Disks?

2005-11-12 Thread Matt Craven
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