No kidding. :-x The receivership announcement was so sudden. The software houses must have got wind of all this way before as they all jumped ship ( apart from Enigma Variations ).
It was a bit of a surprise to the software houses, no advance warning. I've heard from a couple of old developers from software houses in 1990, and MGT going under was a big reason why they lost interest. It was quite interesting to hear recently about a couple of potential ports/remakes that were on the cards - putting together a magazine article about them. But before going into receivership, a lot of companies were waiting to see how well the Sam sold - and of course a lot of potential users were waiting to see what software came out for it before they bought a Sam. It was a bit of a vicious circle.
Also what didn't help was a lot of companies only really got to see the Sam just a few weeks before it was launched, and only got their hands on the actual machine when it was launched. If they had got them a few months before there could have been a lot of software ready for the launch but the Sam was already running late so it was pushed out to market with next to no software support.
Colin
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
The SAM was released at a time of great hope - and it was disheartening that it failed. I remember having to guiltily explain to my parents that the makers of the computer they'd finally bought me (to replace the aging Spectrum) had gone into receivership. I still remember how upset they looked, and how annoyed I was at the time by how positive all the Spectrum magazines had been about the SAM's potential...
I didn't get my first Sam until early 1993, after both the MGT and SamCo liquidations.
It still had potential even then, and to this day I still enjoy the Sam :)
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
I don't believe there is a piece of hardware that could be considered a spiritual successor to the Spectrum, or rather any kit that embodies the spirit of the 8 bit age.
This may seem odd but I feel that Linux in some ways is the natural extension of the period, as it embodies the idea that anybody can hack (the old school definition) a computer and extend its capabilities in unseen directions, or just have the freedom to muck around with the core of the machine / OS. To me that is what the Sinclair machines and the 8 bit world in general encouraged us to do, and something that has been lacking in the M$ centric computing world.
I certainly agree with that sentiment (having no Microsoft based systems at home at all). MS actively discourages experimentation and hacking. Linux, BSD - and even Solaris these days - do exactly the opposite and provide the tools to do so.
Imagine if we'd had to sign a draconian license agreement like Vista has to have been able to use the Spectrum... yuck.
I didn't get my first Sam until early 1993, after both the MGT and SamCo liquidations.
It still had potential even then, and to this day I still enjoy the Sam :)
Oh. Don't get me wrong, it was at least a couple more years until I bought the second hand Amiga. I used to dabble extensively with the more powerful version of BASIC (although it used to crash the computer quite frequently - try doing a DRAW TO command with three parameters for example). I could load games at double speed from tape using the High-Speed tape recording trick. But overall, I think it failed due to too low spec (it needs a faster proc to keep up with the better graphics), too late, and should have come with a disc drive as standard.
I seem to remember that at the time the Sam was released i was 100% certain it would fail because it was released too late.
Perhaps you are right. But, then we'd had one on preorder at a local computer shop for a few months at least, so we were committed to buying. I seem to remember it missed christmas, correct? In the absence of any real hardware, my parents gave me a card with a real cheque in it written out to me with the sum of "one SAM Coupe computer". :)
Oh. Don't get me wrong, it was at least a couple more years until I bought the second hand Amiga. I used to dabble extensively with the more powerful version of BASIC (although it used to crash the computer quite frequently - try doing a DRAW TO command with three parameters for example). I could load games at double speed from tape using the High-Speed tape recording trick. But overall, I think it failed due to too low spec (it needs a faster proc to keep up with the better graphics), too late, and should have come with a disc drive as standard.
Yeah, DRAW TO was bugged with the original ROM, and a disk drive should have been standard from the start but that itself was delayed an extra month or two as well. Although by the end of 1990, 512K memory, one disk drive, and ROM version 3 was the standard.
But, then we'd had one on preorder at a local computer shop for a few months at least, so we were committed to buying. I seem to remember it missed christmas, correct? In the absence of any real hardware, my parents gave me a card with a real cheque in it written out to me with the sum of "one SAM Coupe computer". :)
Heh, nice christmas present!
The first lot did get sent out just before Christmas, around the middle of December '89.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Although by the end of 1990, 512K memory, one disk drive, and ROM version 3 was the standard.
It seems you bought your SAM at the perfect time in fact! The problem was that once the receivership was announced it didn't seem sensible to invest more money into the SAM (to us). The computer was already a big purchase for me/my folks.
It seems you bought your SAM at the perfect time in fact! The problem was that once the receivership was announced it didn't seem sensible to invest more money into the SAM (to us). The computer was already a big purchase for me/my folks.
Would have originally cost you another 35 quid for a 256K upgrade to bring it up to 512K, and 80 quid for a disk drive. A fairly hefty amount to upgrade the original model.
Although... ROM3 would have been free if you registered your Sam ... MGT did send out ROM2's to a hell of a lot of folk, and then ROM3 shortly before they went bust. Once SamCo was set up you had to pay 15 quid to get ROM3.
It's quite surprising the number of 256K / Low ROM revision Sam's out there ... still popular bits of hardware I make to upgrade the old machines!
I think we must have missed this first batch. We got it from some tiny store in Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham.
Let's see.... *digs out a few folders of archived stuff* ... I've found a 1991 Dealer List to go by (during SamCo's time)....
Computer Wize - Sutton Coldfield - that the place?
Colin
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Would have originally cost you another 35 quid for a 256K upgrade to bring it up to 512K, and 80 quid for a disk drive. A fairly hefty amount to upgrade the original model.
Although... ROM3 would have been free if you registered your Sam ... MGT did send out ROM2's to a hell of a lot of folk, and then ROM3 shortly before they went bust. Once SamCo was set up you had to pay 15 quid to get ROM3.
It's quite surprising the number of 256K / Low ROM revision Sam's out there ... still popular bits of hardware I make to upgrade the old machines!
Yes, the floppy drive would have made a world of difference...ah well. Just curious (I can't remember): how much did the original machine retail for in 1989/90? And how did you install the new ROM versions?
Let's see.... Computer Wize - Sutton Coldfield - that the place?
It could well be - my memory fails me. I remember going to the shop with my Dad - small and packed with stock. It sounds familiar, but then that could just be because I've read the name a few times now :)
It's excellent what you are doing keeping SAM development alive. How is the accelerator coming along? Also, did you ever get to try out the SAMCo graphics accelerator (Kaleidoscope)?
Yes, the floppy drive would have made a world of difference...ah well. Just curious (I can't remember): how much did the original machine retail for in 1989/90? And how did you install the new ROM versions?
Just pulled out a MGT price list ... ?169.95 for 256K, no drive, or ?249.90 with one disk drive. Then ?89.95 for a disk drive on it's own, and ?39.95 for the 256K memory expansion.
Changing ROM was pretty straightforward. Open the case up, lever a chip out a socket and plug the new chip in. Jobs done.
It's excellent what you are doing keeping SAM development alive. How is the accelerator coming along?
Thanks!
The prototype of the Mayhem Accelerator has been running sweet since the middle of last year, boosting the Sam up to 20MHz. I've got one or two glitches to sort out in the final PCB designs for it then it'll be out, just a matter of finding the time to sort it out.
If you've not watched them already - scroll down the main page at www.samcoupe.com and you'll find a few videos i've recorded showing games etc running with the Mayhem at varying speeds.
Also, did you ever get to try out the SAMCo graphics accelerator (Kaleidoscope)?
Kaleidoscope wasn't a graphics accelerator. It was a couple chips, a few transistors and a few resistors to 'pull down' the Red, Green, Blue signals to slightly change the colours.
Released as part of the Hardware Design Kit, and in a standalone version, the Kaleidoscope was utterly useless - I wrote a full article for it (in Sam Revival issue 15 last year) explaining exactly what it did and I didn't let it get off lightly with regards to just how utterly useless it was!
Colin
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Kaleidoscope wasn't a graphics accelerator. It was a couple chips, a few transistors and a few resistors to 'pull down' the Red, Green, Blue signals to slightly change the colours.
Released as part of the Hardware Design Kit, and in a standalone version, the Kaleidoscope was utterly useless - I wrote a full article for it (in Sam Revival issue 15 last year) explaining exactly what it did and I didn't let it get off lightly with regards to just how utterly useless it was!
Maybe I'm thinking of something else then...? I got the name Kaleidoscope of Wiki. I remember articles about a new graphcs chip that would significantly improve the SAM's graphics - 4096 colours at once etc. (Not that it really needed this - it needed a Z80 speed boost to cope with the graphics it already has.)
Or maybe it is the same thing - and just I didn't realise it was going to be so crap. Didn't one of the mags run a piece suggesting everyone stump up ?100 in advance to cover development cost? They needed a thousand people to agree or something.
I'd say the SAM Coupe although that never really caught on. I'm not sure if anything will be the same as the Spectrum. Does anyone still own a SAM Coupe? I've never met anyone who does!
The PC200 could have been the successor to the spectrum if it caught on but it was a massive failure.
Maybe I'm thinking of something else then...? I got the name Kaleidoscope of Wiki. I remember articles about a new graphcs chip that would significantly improve the SAM's graphics - 4096 colours at once etc.
Kaleidoscope was the 32768 colour thing, but useless :) (Released briefly by SamCo in 1992)
Didn't one of the mags run a piece suggesting everyone stump up ?100 in advance to cover development cost? They needed a thousand people to agree or something.
That was for something different - an idea to have a totally new custom chip designed and manufactured for the Sam. Only got 60-odd replies if I remembered correctly.
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Does anyone still own a SAM Coupe? I've never met anyone who does!
I've got 7 or 8 in this room at the moment ;)
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
That was for something different - an idea to have a totally new custom chip designed and manufactured for the Sam. Only got 60-odd replies if I remembered correctly.
That's what I remember. So it never got built?
I don't suppose you have any magazine references for this do you? I can't seem to navigate the mags or search them efficiently.
I don't suppose you have any magazine references for this do you? I can't seem to navigate the mags or search them efficiently.
Nope, never happened. It was still only just an idea at that stage anyway. It was mentioned in a small bit in YS and that was it. I'll dig out what issue etc later.
What I really think would have been far more benefical back then was more software rather than (possible) hardware upgrades. Have to support what's there instead of having to make users splash out to get another perhaps compulsory upgrade - and even with new hardware that's no guarantee that there will be software to use new features!
A lot of Sam hardware has fallen by the wayside due to zero software support over the years - external memory, speech synth, other sound hardware... . I had to make sure that didn?t happen back with the Quazar Surround soundcard when I started developing back in 1995. I had to make sure the software support was there and with Soundbyte continuing up to 2004 with a lot of original content, and support in other companies games I made sure it wasn't destined to become an expensive paperweight!
It's always a gamble designing new hardware, especially with the costs of development! Hopefully the Mayhem Accelerator won't fall into the paperweight catagory either, it retains full compatiblity and is useful straight away with all past software - giving games extra ooomph with the variable speed settings (very useful with a lot of the slower games), and already there?s a couple of enhanced pieces of software to make use of it and quite a few things in the pipeline.
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Over the last week or two Simon Owen has released two emulators that run on the Sam - emulating the Galeksiji and Orao computers - the latter being 6502 based and having to have the CPU emulated on the Sam's Z80 (needs the Mayhem Accelerator to really make it run at a decent playable speed!)
I know of a couple games that are on the go, and there's a couple ports of games in the works too - one being Rebelstar.
I've got a few bits and pieces on the go myself, but it's a matter of time and prioritizing what I need to do so i've got a couple of software projects that have been mothballed for umpteen years ... such as Chrome which was going to be a 3D 'doom' style shooter ... one day i'll dig them out and continue!
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
I'd say the SAM Coupe although that never really caught on. I'm not sure if anything will be the same as the Spectrum. Does anyone still own a SAM Coupe? I've never met anyone who does!
The PC200 could have been the successor to the spectrum if it caught on but it was a massive failure.
The funny thing is that it did catch on in a certain sense... because there was a low amount of commercial software, a quite massive little ? scene built up with what seemed like everyone who owned one learning or continuing (from speccy) to program for it... there was most of the time a few paper mags, and upwards of 10 different disk mags coming out every month. Apart from the bigger companies ignoring it, it never once felt to me at least, that it was ill supported for software, or for people owning one, you might not have lived near anyone else owning one, lol, but the scene was so brilliant and well known that it was a machine where you`d make a lot of good friends through the machine :)
As far as whether it could/or was the same as the Spectrum (in feeling I presume you mean) then it feels to me just like the 48K, what with just the copyright message at bottom of screen, and with a lovely rainbow effect on the background, press a key and that dissapears. Colin will slap me for this, as he rightly doesn`t think of the SAM as a super Spectrum, and indeed it`s not, but I really do think because of the Basic being more or less Beta Basic V5 that it IS what a next gen Spectrum would have been had Sinclair got to make it. It is so very very powerful too, even in Basic, forget the 24K of screen ram that needs to be moved, when you want to do something useful then that 512K of ram, 16 switchable screens to play with combined with the commands you have then you can do a lot very easily. I often wonder why more of the Basic programmer`s from the Spectrum don`t have a dabble, it`s just the same, but with dozens and dozens of extra commands.
Sorry for jumping in with a ramble, but the only machine comes close to the Speccy for me is the SAM, it`s easy and totally correct for people to hold up the ST as a machine with the same ethos behind it, relatively fast processor, F all hardware anything etc etc, but at no time using a ST do you `feel` the feeling of the ZX, whereas with the SAM, it just feels like a Sinclair machine. :D It`s so friendly !
here`s that page :) Looks like they needed 50 grand.
I would estimate that was just a rough figure, the idea stemed from a chat between Bruce Gordon and Simon Cooke at a computer show, with them just pondering what would be possible and then Simon putting the bit in YS to see the response.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Ah, I see... so just gaging the water, must admit that I never sent the thing in off the page, but then again, I was young, and didn`t hav 50 quid :D
Wouldn`t it have been hilariously funny if Clive Sinclair had changed his mind at the time about wanting to be in the computer industry, funded a new ASIC, and then bought the SAM Coupe, it could have been brilliantly cheap and powerful for under a hundred quid, at in the early 90`s, perhaps he could`ve achieved what he failed to do in the early 80`s and got LOADS of them into schools :) I remember at the time my High School only had one PC in the whole of the school (in classrooms anyways), they were still using PCW`s, a single Archimedes, and BBC`s in computer studies, and B&W Macs in Business studies, lol :)
Cheers for the link CKay. Reading that article and your post has got me all nostalgic over the SAM. It seems obvious in retrospect that forking out for the disc drive and getting the bug free ROM would have greatly altered my SAM experience. :-(
The BASIC was excellent. I remember doing some very impressive things with the Blitz command in combination with screen swapping. The SCROLL command was/is amazing too.
I guess, in reality, the biggest problem for me was the bugs (made worse when you had to reload from tape). Overall I remember feeling that the package was just not as polished as the Sinclair experience had been, and it put me off spending more money, and ultimately time, on the machine/company. That, and I was getting older, with other things beginning to occupy my time (e.g. girls :D).
The BASIC was excellent. I remember doing some very impressive things with the Blitz command in combination with screen swapping. The SCROLL command was/is amazing too.
Have to agree with you - the BASIC is great! That's where I started out - mainly using the GRAB and PUT functions for sprites! Never went near UDG's which was what I was limited to with my BASIC tinkering on the +2 in the years before.
Colin.
Quazar - Celebrating 27 years of Developing for the SAMCoupé Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé Website:www.samcoupe.com Twitter:QuazarSamCoupe
Yes, the Basic is simply amazing... it`s so much faster than Sinclair Basic, even though there`s never been a compiler :( (in fact :( times a million, hehe)... I dare say, that you could shift a `sprite` at 50 fps in Basic (erm, in fact, that`s with Master Basic, which has a 40 % faster grab, and put), that`s without having to update X, and Y variables, just Put, and I know that doesn`t mean much, but writing certain types of games, or scripting bits then it can mean a lot :)
Does beta basic on Spectrum let you place graphics at less than 8 pixel boundaries? I don`t think that UDG`s are that bad really, but the 8 pixel placement is the thing that worries me with games, I know you could have preshifted graphics, but it seems that you might end up having to place 2*2 `character`s` just to move an 8*8 pixel graphics :( doesn`t sound like the code to even handle that could be very fast, although that manic miner written in ZXBasic a couple of years ago really really shocked me.
Have to agree with you - the BASIC is great! That's where I started out - mainly using the GRAB and PUT functions for sprites!
I'd forgotten all about GRAB and PUT!
Once my Cybernoid editor is done, I may have a little look at the SAM BASIC again - it could surely have sped up a lot of the tile display routines.
Colin: Is it possible to use something to convert a text file into a running SAM BASIC program within Sim Coupe. I currently use TextMate with a Sinclair BASIC plugin which runs in FUSE (see my earlier post). Or I use Pasmo to run assembler.
Comments
Amiga > PS1 > PS2
All 3 machines, like em or not, were the machines of the masses - just like the Speccy.
Let's not forget that the C64 was a machine of the masses too though, so they're just as arguably successors to that if not more so. :-D
It was a bit of a surprise to the software houses, no advance warning. I've heard from a couple of old developers from software houses in 1990, and MGT going under was a big reason why they lost interest. It was quite interesting to hear recently about a couple of potential ports/remakes that were on the cards - putting together a magazine article about them. But before going into receivership, a lot of companies were waiting to see how well the Sam sold - and of course a lot of potential users were waiting to see what software came out for it before they bought a Sam. It was a bit of a vicious circle.
Also what didn't help was a lot of companies only really got to see the Sam just a few weeks before it was launched, and only got their hands on the actual machine when it was launched. If they had got them a few months before there could have been a lot of software ready for the launch but the Sam was already running late so it was pushed out to market with next to no software support.
Colin
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
I didn't get my first Sam until early 1993, after both the MGT and SamCo liquidations.
It still had potential even then, and to this day I still enjoy the Sam :)
Colin.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
I seem to remember that at the time the Sam was released i was 100% certain it would fail because it was released too late.
This may seem odd but I feel that Linux in some ways is the natural extension of the period, as it embodies the idea that anybody can hack (the old school definition) a computer and extend its capabilities in unseen directions, or just have the freedom to muck around with the core of the machine / OS. To me that is what the Sinclair machines and the 8 bit world in general encouraged us to do, and something that has been lacking in the M$ centric computing world.
Imagine if we'd had to sign a draconian license agreement like Vista has to have been able to use the Spectrum... yuck.
Perhaps you are right. But, then we'd had one on preorder at a local computer shop for a few months at least, so we were committed to buying. I seem to remember it missed christmas, correct? In the absence of any real hardware, my parents gave me a card with a real cheque in it written out to me with the sum of "one SAM Coupe computer". :)
Yeah, DRAW TO was bugged with the original ROM, and a disk drive should have been standard from the start but that itself was delayed an extra month or two as well. Although by the end of 1990, 512K memory, one disk drive, and ROM version 3 was the standard.
Heh, nice christmas present!
The first lot did get sent out just before Christmas, around the middle of December '89.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
Would have originally cost you another 35 quid for a 256K upgrade to bring it up to 512K, and 80 quid for a disk drive. A fairly hefty amount to upgrade the original model.
Although... ROM3 would have been free if you registered your Sam ... MGT did send out ROM2's to a hell of a lot of folk, and then ROM3 shortly before they went bust. Once SamCo was set up you had to pay 15 quid to get ROM3.
It's quite surprising the number of 256K / Low ROM revision Sam's out there ... still popular bits of hardware I make to upgrade the old machines!
Let's see.... *digs out a few folders of archived stuff* ... I've found a 1991 Dealer List to go by (during SamCo's time)....
Computer Wize - Sutton Coldfield - that the place?
Colin
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
It could well be - my memory fails me. I remember going to the shop with my Dad - small and packed with stock. It sounds familiar, but then that could just be because I've read the name a few times now :)
It's excellent what you are doing keeping SAM development alive. How is the accelerator coming along? Also, did you ever get to try out the SAMCo graphics accelerator (Kaleidoscope)?
Just pulled out a MGT price list ... ?169.95 for 256K, no drive, or ?249.90 with one disk drive. Then ?89.95 for a disk drive on it's own, and ?39.95 for the 256K memory expansion.
Changing ROM was pretty straightforward. Open the case up, lever a chip out a socket and plug the new chip in. Jobs done.
Thanks!
The prototype of the Mayhem Accelerator has been running sweet since the middle of last year, boosting the Sam up to 20MHz. I've got one or two glitches to sort out in the final PCB designs for it then it'll be out, just a matter of finding the time to sort it out.
If you've not watched them already - scroll down the main page at www.samcoupe.com and you'll find a few videos i've recorded showing games etc running with the Mayhem at varying speeds.
Kaleidoscope wasn't a graphics accelerator. It was a couple chips, a few transistors and a few resistors to 'pull down' the Red, Green, Blue signals to slightly change the colours.
Released as part of the Hardware Design Kit, and in a standalone version, the Kaleidoscope was utterly useless - I wrote a full article for it (in Sam Revival issue 15 last year) explaining exactly what it did and I didn't let it get off lightly with regards to just how utterly useless it was!
Colin
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
Or maybe it is the same thing - and just I didn't realise it was going to be so crap. Didn't one of the mags run a piece suggesting everyone stump up ?100 in advance to cover development cost? They needed a thousand people to agree or something.
The PC200 could have been the successor to the spectrum if it caught on but it was a massive failure.
Kaleidoscope was the 32768 colour thing, but useless :) (Released briefly by SamCo in 1992)
That was for something different - an idea to have a totally new custom chip designed and manufactured for the Sam. Only got 60-odd replies if I remembered correctly.
Colin.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
I've got 7 or 8 in this room at the moment ;)
Colin.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
So that's where they all are! :D ;)
That's what I remember. So it never got built?
I don't suppose you have any magazine references for this do you? I can't seem to navigate the mags or search them efficiently.
Cool. Is anyone still developing software for it?
Nope, never happened. It was still only just an idea at that stage anyway. It was mentioned in a small bit in YS and that was it. I'll dig out what issue etc later.
What I really think would have been far more benefical back then was more software rather than (possible) hardware upgrades. Have to support what's there instead of having to make users splash out to get another perhaps compulsory upgrade - and even with new hardware that's no guarantee that there will be software to use new features!
A lot of Sam hardware has fallen by the wayside due to zero software support over the years - external memory, speech synth, other sound hardware... . I had to make sure that didn?t happen back with the Quazar Surround soundcard when I started developing back in 1995. I had to make sure the software support was there and with Soundbyte continuing up to 2004 with a lot of original content, and support in other companies games I made sure it wasn't destined to become an expensive paperweight!
It's always a gamble designing new hardware, especially with the costs of development! Hopefully the Mayhem Accelerator won't fall into the paperweight catagory either, it retains full compatiblity and is useful straight away with all past software - giving games extra ooomph with the variable speed settings (very useful with a lot of the slower games), and already there?s a couple of enhanced pieces of software to make use of it and quite a few things in the pipeline.
Colin.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
Yeah, there's still the odd bit of new stuff.
Over the last week or two Simon Owen has released two emulators that run on the Sam - emulating the Galeksiji and Orao computers - the latter being 6502 based and having to have the CPU emulated on the Sam's Z80 (needs the Mayhem Accelerator to really make it run at a decent playable speed!)
I know of a couple games that are on the go, and there's a couple ports of games in the works too - one being Rebelstar.
I've got a few bits and pieces on the go myself, but it's a matter of time and prioritizing what I need to do so i've got a couple of software projects that have been mothballed for umpteen years ... such as Chrome which was going to be a 3D 'doom' style shooter ... one day i'll dig them out and continue!
Colin.
Hardware, Software, Magazines and more for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com
Twitter: QuazarSamCoupe
The funny thing is that it did catch on in a certain sense... because there was a low amount of commercial software, a quite massive little ? scene built up with what seemed like everyone who owned one learning or continuing (from speccy) to program for it... there was most of the time a few paper mags, and upwards of 10 different disk mags coming out every month. Apart from the bigger companies ignoring it, it never once felt to me at least, that it was ill supported for software, or for people owning one, you might not have lived near anyone else owning one, lol, but the scene was so brilliant and well known that it was a machine where you`d make a lot of good friends through the machine :)
As far as whether it could/or was the same as the Spectrum (in feeling I presume you mean) then it feels to me just like the 48K, what with just the copyright message at bottom of screen, and with a lovely rainbow effect on the background, press a key and that dissapears. Colin will slap me for this, as he rightly doesn`t think of the SAM as a super Spectrum, and indeed it`s not, but I really do think because of the Basic being more or less Beta Basic V5 that it IS what a next gen Spectrum would have been had Sinclair got to make it. It is so very very powerful too, even in Basic, forget the 24K of screen ram that needs to be moved, when you want to do something useful then that 512K of ram, 16 switchable screens to play with combined with the commands you have then you can do a lot very easily. I often wonder why more of the Basic programmer`s from the Spectrum don`t have a dabble, it`s just the same, but with dozens and dozens of extra commands.
Sorry for jumping in with a ramble, but the only machine comes close to the Speccy for me is the SAM, it`s easy and totally correct for people to hold up the ST as a machine with the same ethos behind it, relatively fast processor, F all hardware anything etc etc, but at no time using a ST do you `feel` the feeling of the ZX, whereas with the SAM, it just feels like a Sinclair machine. :D It`s so friendly !
here`s that page :) Looks like they needed 50 grand.
I would estimate that was just a rough figure, the idea stemed from a chat between Bruce Gordon and Simon Cooke at a computer show, with them just pondering what would be possible and then Simon putting the bit in YS to see the response.
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Wouldn`t it have been hilariously funny if Clive Sinclair had changed his mind at the time about wanting to be in the computer industry, funded a new ASIC, and then bought the SAM Coupe, it could have been brilliantly cheap and powerful for under a hundred quid, at in the early 90`s, perhaps he could`ve achieved what he failed to do in the early 80`s and got LOADS of them into schools :) I remember at the time my High School only had one PC in the whole of the school (in classrooms anyways), they were still using PCW`s, a single Archimedes, and BBC`s in computer studies, and B&W Macs in Business studies, lol :)
The BASIC was excellent. I remember doing some very impressive things with the Blitz command in combination with screen swapping. The SCROLL command was/is amazing too.
I guess, in reality, the biggest problem for me was the bugs (made worse when you had to reload from tape). Overall I remember feeling that the package was just not as polished as the Sinclair experience had been, and it put me off spending more money, and ultimately time, on the machine/company. That, and I was getting older, with other things beginning to occupy my time (e.g. girls :D).
Have to agree with you - the BASIC is great! That's where I started out - mainly using the GRAB and PUT functions for sprites! Never went near UDG's which was what I was limited to with my BASIC tinkering on the +2 in the years before.
Colin.
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Does beta basic on Spectrum let you place graphics at less than 8 pixel boundaries? I don`t think that UDG`s are that bad really, but the 8 pixel placement is the thing that worries me with games, I know you could have preshifted graphics, but it seems that you might end up having to place 2*2 `character`s` just to move an 8*8 pixel graphics :( doesn`t sound like the code to even handle that could be very fast, although that manic miner written in ZXBasic a couple of years ago really really shocked me.
sorry for ramble, drunk, eek :)
Once my Cybernoid editor is done, I may have a little look at the SAM BASIC again - it could surely have sped up a lot of the tile display routines.
Colin: Is it possible to use something to convert a text file into a running SAM BASIC program within Sim Coupe. I currently use TextMate with a Sinclair BASIC plugin which runs in FUSE (see my earlier post). Or I use Pasmo to run assembler.
MM in BASIC?!?!? Must search for this for inspiration.