Issue 16, July 1985 - Letters Page
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TOY SHOPAt Eldon Square in Newcastle the assistant in the computer shop needs a visit from the big boys.When I visited the shop with a Commodore user (his name's Paul Mallabar but I don't suppose you're interested) (Nope. Ed) and asked if the assistant had a Spectrum in stock, he said no. What's more, he even gave my friend a letter saying that compared with the Commodore, the Spectrum's just a toy. I think this man's a real (at this point the letter has a nasty attack of the editorial red pen. Ed). Do you agree? If I get this letter published I'll take it into the shop and show it to him. That should make him feel a bigger ... (more red pen. Ed) Jonathan Barry Tyne & Wear Don't start dragging us into your squabbles. And as for the big boys, there's no one at the YS Tower Block over 3ft 6ins. Honest. Troubleshootin 'Pete.
FOR ...May I add a point to your Speed Trial review in issue 14? I may? (S'pose so. Ed) Thanks. I bought a Wafadrive in December '84, and I got what I thought was a wrong 'un.Well, a letter to Rotronics brought an offer of a replacement and this was despatched before they received my Wafadrive. A phone call came the same day the Wafadrive was delivered enquiring if things were OK. They weren't, so they suggested my Speccy spent a holiday at their place for a check-up where a faulty ULA was found and replaced. Marvellous service, don't you think? The Wafadrive may not be as fast as some but this more than makes up for it. Finally, how about a Patching Up the Drives for Wafa owners? A E Denison Wortley Any takers on that one? Ed.
AND AGAINST ...After seeing your bit on the Wafadrive in Frontlines of November'84, I sent to SMT for more info. I was impressed, so I thought, great I'll send for one. Forty-two days later (another twenty-eight day promise down the drain) it arrived.Having scanned the manual to find out how to load a program, I tried to load | f o r u m Write to us - there's a bundle of free Spectrum software for this month's Star Letter! Write to Forum, Your Spectrum, 14 Rathbone Place, London W1P 1DE. |
Why else would I put you in the
awkward and potentially
dangerous situation of
publishing this insinuating
piece of garbage!? (Sense at
last. Ed). I just hope that he
doesn't box you in the ear-
socket, that's all! He might
even sack you!! (I should be so
lucky! Ed.) You really ought to be more careful about offending your boss you know. My kindest regards to Bodger, I mean Rodger for all the hard work he's put into YS as Editor, and good luck to you Kev. (Hmmm, we'll have to think of a nickname for you too!) Anthony Mayers Clywd Nickname? Huh, they'll be giving me a number and locking me away if I receive any more loony letters like this. What do you think has really happened to Roger? Still, they say he's being well looked after and there's a bed reserved for me. Ed.
MEGAHACKPssst, wanna be an instant hacker? Then load a copy of YS MegaBasic right now (you do have a copy don't you?).Once it's loaded, you're asked to Press 'm' to copy to a microdrive (aaargh, I feel an attack of BAD SECTORS coming on). Instead, quickly press the following sequence of keys: g,a,m,l. Do it as quickly as possible as you've only got four seconds to press all four keys. For all your hard work you'll be greeted with a message usually hidden from yer average Speccy user. Andy Taylor Sheffield And of course, there's no chance of us letting on what the secret message is. You'll just have to take a butchers at your own copy of YS MegaBasic for that. Now, what we'd really like to know is, what do the letters stand for? We can work out m.l, no problem, but who's g.a? C'mon Mike, name the mystery person - we think the world should be told!
Star Letter
After your request in Program
Power for a short routine that
would only allow kings to be
placed on empty files in the
Patience game, YS issue
14, here are my alterations
to allow you to do just that. | ||||||
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This was not the only problem. The tape inside the 64K wafer had snapped and the 128K had packed up altogether. The Wafadrive O/S was also refusing to accept legal commands. All the wafers were entrusted to the postman. A fortnight later I received a call apologising for the problems and then the new wafers arrived. My troubles are still not over. The Spectral Writer wafer has given up the ghost again though I did manage to save it to tape this time. The O/S still fails to accept commands and another 128K wafer has packed in. Is it just me? Robert Emery Sheringham, Norfolk Could be. But then again we'll wait and see how others have fared. Troubleshootin 'Pete.
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UP 'N' DOWN UNDERIn Circe, YS issue 14, why is Tim Hartnell holding a book upside-down? Is it because he's Australian?Please tell me as I've never managed to program upside- down. James Harrington Scunthorpe OK, James you spotted the mistake. The photo was, of course, printed the wrong way up. The book was really the right way up all the time but Tim, being an Australian, should have been upside- down. Ed.
OFF 'IS ED?Don't keep us nosey-parkers in suspense any longer! Where has Bodger Munford, I mean our, good ol' Ed, gone skedaddling off to lately? Could the rumours be true? Has he really done a bunk with the petty cash and you- know- who's missis!? (Tell me more. TP.)Of course, I fully realise, thing (I can call you thing, can't I?), (Call me whatever you like, just stop writing me letters. Ed.), who your new boss is. | |||||||
THE YS TRAINSPOTTER AWARD
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Keep your eyes open and you
too could be catching a YS
Trainspotter's award!
OK, the game's up! I found the mistake. Yes, believe it or not, I have. Guess where? I was reading through the |
May Top 20 and at number
16, there's Chequered Flag.
Well, the bit at the end says
"Rev right up and win the
race in this speed bike fun!" Bike? BIKE? It's about CARS! Spelt C-A-R-S. Honestly, I couldn't put you in charge of a C5. You silly boy, Ed! Take 10,000 lines! Wally, Bikes? Hah! Keith Whitmore (aged 11) Basildon I must not have any more sill ideas like the YS Trainspotter Award. Ed. I must not have any ... | |||||||
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Secondly, renumber line
1643 to 1642, and then include
the new line: 1643 IF ATTR(3,pp*4)=36 AND c$(1)<>"<graphics M>" THEN GO SUB 1784: RETURN J Sneideris Gildersome, Leeds. Well, we didn't have to wait long for that. I s'pose you're a Jack of all trades. Troubleshootin 'Pete.
JETLAG III wasn't very happy with issue no. 14 of Your Spectrum. I'm moaning because of the Jetman program you printed. After typing it in, my mate and I spent about fifteen minutes figuring out why it wouldn't work. Finally, after much stompin' about, we found there was a bug in line 460. It should have read LET P=65278. I find your mag by far the best for the Speccy (there is no other serious contender), though it was a bit of a shock after typing in the excellent MacMan to find Jetman. Please keep the standard high.Neil Forster Bedford Feeling better now? Good. You might have liked Jetman better if you'd typed in our version instead of your own! Your correction to line 460 may have got your program working, but line 460 is already correct in our books. You'd better check that you haven't made a typing error somewhere else in the program, and that your line 460 edit is not just a patch-up. So there! Not very happy ... moaning ... Someone pass me some of the grovelling letters to cheer me up. Troubleshootin! Pete.
THE LAST POKEAt last, I've done it! I've found a POKE to get rid of Jet Set Willy!! It's: POKE JET SET WILLY, BIN. And it works.Mal Goodman Leeds Nice one, Mal. We've found a similar POKE for the Ed. It's POKE ED, PUB. Works every time! Troubleshootin 'Pete.
WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMSAaaaagh! Disaster! Save me! You've guessed it! Another one back to Sinclair! If I remember rightly that's the fourth one in two years. Another two months without a Speccy! I can't stand it! In |
December, when I had a
Speccy, I sent off for YS
MegaBasic and on the seventh
of Feb, I received a little parcel
addressed to me. (So we got
something right then? Ed) I
immediately dashed up half the
stairs and hopped up the other
after bashing my toe on the
wall, gave the Speccy a 9 volt
dinner and typed in the famous
phrase - none other than
LOAD "". I then started the
tape and waited for two
minutes and seventeen
seconds. I only have one complaint. Why does it keep crashing if you make a mistake on a MegaBasic command? (But I thought YS readers didn't make mistakes. T.P.) And also, who is George? Why is he waiting? Anyway, now I must go back upstairs, trying to avoid |
bashing my toe and lie back in
a darkened room to wait for
the arrival of my Speccy. Ian Comerford Wallasey Are you sure it was just your toe you bashed? George? Waiting? Will someone explain or I'll start to think it's me who's nuts. Ed.
TOO HOT TO HANDLE?Not all of us sit around on Saturday mornings contemplating our navels (well we don't all live by the sea like you. TP.) (Idiot! Ed.), Oh, no! Some of us type in the listings contained within your wonderful mag. (Careful, I can feel an attack of crawling coming on. Ed.)On one certain Saturday morning recently while sitting at my MFI budget computer desk, banging away at the |
rubber keys, I discovered that
someone at YS had messed
around with the UDGs listing
on page 17 of the May issue.
The last column of this should
read 255,239,213,85,85,42,
l6 and 0. After altering the data and running the program I was overcome by the fumes from my ZX printer, and what's more, I was rushed into intensive care, but I dare not go into detail over where the tubes where placed. (Have I missed something here? Ed.) As a result I am demanding compensation of either a Porsche 924 or a Trainspotter Award (whichever is the more valuable). Jon St Annes-on-Sea Can there be any doubt about their relative merits! As it is you're not getting either. Ed. | ||||
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ONE DUMP AHEADRecently, I bought a Tandy DMP 105 Printer to use with my Spectrum. The main reason for choosing it was the price (under £200 complete with | tractor feed) and the fact that it supports RS232. It was also easy to wire - Tandy's instruction book gives all the details, especially bearing in mind the odd way Sinclair insists on sending data via the |
RXD line. Anyway, it worked
fine first time and it's giving
good service. My only problem was that I didn't have a hi-res dump program, so remembering Andy Pennell's Dumps of Distinction in issue 4, (how could any one forget it? Ed) I decided to have a crack at the necessary modifications. The main problem is that Tandy in their wisdom only allow for 7 dot feeds in graphics mode. However, in character mode you can select as few or as many as you need. So, it's necessary to select the elite mode and adjust for 3 dot line feeds before changing the printer to graphics and entering the routine. Then returning to text mode before doing a line feed and back to graphics prior to doing the next line. That done, the bit pattern for printing needs to be flipped and have bit 7 set (ie. add 128). The assembler listing shown is a Zeus dump of my efforts. Finally, may I join the ranks of many readers to congratulate you on your excellent magazine. It is without question, in my humble opinion, full of useful and interesting information, programs and reviews. Derrick Lambert New Milton, Hants. C'mon, cut the crawling. I dunno, some people will say anything to get into print. Since when has a YS reader had a humble opinion? Still, one bit of useful and interesting info is that Dumps of Distinction is this month celebrating its first birthday! Celebratory champagne may be sent to the usual address. Ed. | |||||
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[see assembler listing below] | |||||||
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L, 00010 ; Shade Copy for the 00020 ; TANDY DMP 105 Printer. 00030 ;Adapted from A.Pennell's 00040 ; Routine YOUR SPEC. #4 00050 ; 00060 ORG 50000 00070 ENT 00080 START LD A,27 ;select 00090 CALL OUTCH ;elite 00100 LD A,23 ;chars. 00110 CALL OUTCH ;******* 00120 LD A,27 ;set 00130 CALL OUTCH ;small 00140 LD A,91 ;line 00150 CALL OUTCH ;feeds. 00160 LD A,3 00170 CALL OUTCH ;******* 00180 LD A,18 ;Graphic 00190 CALL OUTCH ;*Mode.* 00200 ; 00210 ;Andy's Routine Starts.. 00220 ; 00230 LD C,0 00240 NLINE LD B,0 00250 NXY PUSH BC 00260 CALL #22AA 00270 LD B,A 00280 INC B 00290 LD A,1 00300 L1 RRCA 00310 DJNZ L1 00320 AND (HL) 00330 EX AF,AF' 00340 LD A,H 00350 RRCA 00360 RRCA 00370 RRCA 00380 AND 3 00390 OR #58 00400 LD H,A 00410 LD B,(HL) 00420 EX AF,AF' 00430 LD A,B 00440 JR NZ,INK 00450 RRCA 00460 RRCA 00470 RRCA 00480 INK AND 7 00490 LD HL,TABLE 00500 ADD A,A 00510 ADD A,A 00520 LD E,A 00530 LD D,0 00540 ADD HL,DE 00550 LD B,3 00560 OUTLP LD A,(HL) 00570 CALL OUTCH 00580 INC HL 00590 DJNZ OUTLP 00600 POP BC 00610 INC B 00620 LD A,B 00630 CP 176 | 00640 JR C,NXY 00645 ; *** 00646 ; Andy's routine ENDS 00650 LD A,30 ; Char. 00660 CALL OUTCH ; Mode. 00670 LD A,13 ; Do 00680 CALL OUTCH ; C/R 00690 LD A,18 ; Graph 00700 CALL OUTCH ; Mode 00710 INC C ;CONT. 00720 JR NZ,NLINE 00730 LD A,30 ;Char. 00740 CALL OUTCH ;Mode. 00750 LD A,27 ;Reset 00760 CALL OUTCH ; to 00770 LD A,91 ;Twelve 00780 CALL OUTCH ; dot 00790 LD A,12 ;line 00800 CALL OUTCH ;Feeds 00810 LD A,27 ;set to 00820 CALL OUTCH ;Std. 00830 LD A,19 ;Char. 00840 CALL OUTCH ;set 00850 END RET 00860 TABLE DEFB 135 ; Black 00870 DEFB 135 00880 DEFB 135 00890 DEFB 0 00900 DEFB 131 ; Blue 00910 DEFB 134 00920 DEFB 131 00930 DEFB 0 00940 DEFB 133 ; Red 00950 DEFB 130 00960 DEFB 133 00970 DEFB 0 00980 DEFB 134 ; Magenta 00990 DEFB 128 01000 DEFB 134 01010 DEFB 0 01020 DEFB 132 ; Green 01030 DEFB 130 01040 DEFB 129 01050 DEFB 0 01060 DEFB 130 ; Cyan 01070 DEFB 128 01080 DEFB 130 01090 DEFB 0 01100 DEFB 128 ; Yellow 01110 DEFB 130 01120 DEFB 128 01130 DEFB 0 01140 DEFB 128 ; White 01150 DEFB 128 01160 DEFB 128 01170 DEFB 0 01180 OUTCH PUSH BC 01190 PUSH HL 01200 RST 8 ; CALL 01210 DEFB #1E ; RS232 01220 POP HL 01230 POP BC 01240 RET |
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