Emulate! magazine is in no way associated with the University of Birmingham or the School of Computer Science. Address any queries about the content of Emulate! to the editor, Barry Plewa. Any queries about the content of other pages at this site should be addressed to the site maintainer, Damien Burke.
It's the start of a brand new year, so let's have a look at what's been filling the mailbox over the long winter months!
Howdy Eddie of Emulate :)
A very warm greeting in this not yet too cold winter. What a pro! :) I didn't think something great like this mag is possible. It's not only some lame supporting thing for Speccy, but also a great thing to shift us some years back into Sinclair's magic woods. Ok, the time traveling thing is possible just with an emulator, but a mag adds more spirits to long lost atmosphere. Too bad I can't find a word to express all the power the mag has, but I believe dozens of (ex) Speccy fans have done that already. Now lemme get off the ass licking stuff, and proceed with suggestion/question part. :)
1st a suggestion about the design. While the contents are at a high level, there is a total lack of design. I mean reading mag in plain text file is way out of date. Well, I know some people would say the same about Speccy, but reading more than 100Kb file is really pain in the ass. On Amiga scene (yes, i own one) there's a special AmigaGuide format similar to HTML, where the text can get better organised, is easier to read and looks cooler. :) Now, i am not saying write in AmigaGuide format, coz i believe the most readers have a PC. While HTML is cool when using lynx or mosaic, it's still not of much use to people without HTML viewer (i've seen #3 is in HTML also). I was thinking of gathering some programmers who would create magazine's own interface for various systems. Something similar to formats mentioned above, but with nice features like when reading some text, suddenly a fimilar figure starts walking on the screen - why, isn't this Dizzy? Or all of the sudden a cloud comes rolling above, then Magic Knight appears at the bottom, and BANG a lighting strikes knight's helmet - yes, you have just pressed the Stormbringer POKE button. :) The pictures which are now archived with a coming snaps will be used as background and you could hear a music playing from some classic game. And many more cookies. I believe here's the only problem getting the programmers to work it out and of course too many systems to support. Or is this a prob!? I don't think you will have many probs finding a programmer to do this job on a PC and there's no problem for me to do the same thing for Amiga, and if you don't find someone to code interface for other machine, then... those systems will have the same old option - read the plain text file. Another advantage is that a mag will get to the wider public. I guess you have many readers by now, though there are many Speccy fans around the globe who don't know about it simply because they don't follow Sinclair newsgroup, they don't FTP to right speccy site etc. When you get this mag done for various systems, they could also get uploaded to paths such as /pub/msdos, /pub/aminet/ etc. Thus users of these systems could not only get the new issue faster, they would also be aware something is going on with the computer they long ago sold and thought world has forgot about it. I had a few more excuses, erm... advantages on my mind, but I am too tired to mention it now. :)
Now to the begging part. I am delighted to see snap request going on, so i would like to get Tobruk. I am also curious if anyone remembers a great gfx adventure, where some relative of yours die and you have to collect the parts of will, so you could get enough money to cover your beer costs, but at the end you don't get anything. Ok, this about beer was a joke, but i'd like if someone could name it, coz i wanna end it again and i don't know for what should i search. Also some requests for next topics to be written: introduce Seymour the hero & solution for Sceptre of Bagdad. I haven't heard (until I read Emulate) such thing as CeeDee crowded with speccy stuff exists, can you tell me how many of such CDs were released and where to get them (the address of the company).
That's it for now, tell me whatcha think of my idea and thanks in advance for whatever i asked. Keep up the good work!
Boris Donko _alias_ Bulb
Whew! What a letter to start the new year with! Thanks for all the compliments (I can never get too many! ;) )
The design and layout of the magazine is something I would dearly love to improve. The biggest step taken so far in this direction has been to creation of the Emulate Web site which includes great graphics and vastly improved layout (aw shucks - Damien).
The two problems faced when trying to improve the magazine is, as you mention, machine compatibility and finding the necessary programs. I have dabbled a bit with AmigaGuide, but having just flogged my Amiga, I can no longer do that (maybe someone else would like to?)
You've got some great ideas about how to improve the magazine layout....and if you (or anyone else out there) can produce or recommend an appropriate program, I'll get to work!!!
Finally, I was in a kind mood, so I've included the Sceptre of Baghdad solution with this issue and Seymour is lined up to appear in the near future! The CD's you mention are the Speccy Sensations CD's I and II (although most of the games on I are also featured on II) You can obtain these gems from:
EPIC MARKETING, VICTORIA CENTRE, 138 VICTORIA ROAD, SWINDON, WILTS, SN1 3BU, UK
- for the meagre sum of £17.99 (Order Code for SSII is CD119)
-ED-
I enjoyed reading through issues 1-3 of Emulate. It's nice to see an e-zine that isn't concerned with following all the latest frazzle and dazzle fads of today (i.e. "MultiMedia", 32/64bit.)
I've never actually owned a Speccy, but did own a Timex (in North America) Sinclair ZX81, which was my first computer, so I still get a bit of nostalgia from reading your articles. Those really were good times; generally happy memories of typing out little programs on my ZX81 with its 16K RAM expansion, or waiting for what seemed like eternity for my favourite game to load from tape. (Sometimes it didn't load properly at all...)
Anyway, the real reason I'm typing is that I wanted to respond to David Crick's Dizzy article from issue 1. He was interested in hearing about Dizzy games for other computer platforms. I have included here a review of the Amiga game pack, "The Dizzy Collection", from the Nov.1993 issue of the now defunct Amiga World magazine. Personally I have not played any of these games before, but have seen a picture of Crystal Kingdom Dizzy in Amiga Format magazine; it generally looks like Dizzy on the Speccy, yet obviously with more colour and a bigger screen.
Thanks for the review. You can find it in the next section. I also have a review of Fantastic Dizzy for the Amiga (not released on the Speccy) lurking in one of my magazines, and I'll reproduce it in Emulate in the near future...
-ED-
Congratulations for your magazine "Emulate!".
It's been a real pleasure to read about other people who still love their spectrums around the globe. I got my first Spectrum (Plus 48K) as a Christmas gift in 1985. Since then I developed a lot of work with my spectrum, from school homework to playing many games (my favourite is still CRL Formula 1 Manager). Then I switched to Amstrad's Spectrum Plus 2, which gave me the feeling of a real machine.
Years after (1994) when I bought my PC, the first thing I did was to get a Spectrum Emulator and look for my favourite games.
In two local BBSs (Compuservice and Network BBS) there are forums devoted to spectrum users and fans, where almost every spectrum game and emulator may be found (that's actually where I found "Emulate!").
My good old Spectrum +2 is nowadays standing below the telescope at the Albert Einstein Observatory belonging to the Amateur Astronomers Association of Montevideo, conditioned to work as driver for the robotization of the telescope. In your article regarding the history of the spectrum you missed to mention the Brazilian clone of the Speccy, the TK95X, and the argentinian version, the CZ Spectrum, Both launched ca. 1985. I'd very much like to know how can I subscribe to your magazine in order to receive it monthly.
Congratulations for your work!
Best Regards
Santiago de Tezanos
URUGUAY
It is interesting to look at the amount of places where the humble Speccy is still put to a good and important use. Many people have claimed to have spotted Spectrums handling important tasks in several places (although I doubt the story about a 128k running a Nuclear Power Station - what if someone wobbled the power pack? ;) )
The article on the History of the Spectrum is taken from various issues of Crash Magazine, so they are to blame for missing out the Argentinian clone! Thanks for pointing it out though.
Finally, you can subscribe by mailing me a small E-Mail note with Subscribe in the header. If any of you have subscribed but are not receiving the magazine, just write to me again and I'll sort it out. (Some names were lost when my mail program crashed!!)
-ED-
I think Emulate! is a great idea, I owned the infamous Spectrum +2A when I was younger and the games are still better than a lot produced today. If you know of any way of converting .tap files to .z80 or .sna files please let me know! Otherwise could you try and keep these files to a minimum in your games packs, as a lot of people can't use them which spoils enjoyment of the magazine somewhat.
Cheers, and thanks in advanace for your help.
Jonathan George
I like to include rare or new games in the gamespack which are not generally available on the FTP sites or the BBS's. A lot of games I have come across on the net have been incomplete, requiring the loading of additional levels which can only be done by a TAP file. For example, the Journey's End game included this month has three parts, which needs to be in TAP form. I have seen the three parts as seperate snapshots, but this is pointless as you cannot continue with your own game, but instead play from where someone else has left off.
To be honest, I can't see much problem with TAP files....they can be used on PC's (Using Z80), Amigas (Using ZXAM and a simple Macro) and also MACS (Using Spectacle I think). As the majority of users have one of these machines, I shall probably continue using them. (Although I will ensure that there are always SNA files in the pack!) The only way to convert TAPs to SNA is by loading the tap into an Emulator and saving the snapshot.
-ED-
Just wanted to thank you for the amazing work you've done with the 3-and-a- half issues so far (I've just discovered your mag at the NVG site). Hope it never turns into a HTML-only thing (text files are so much better...).
Cheers,
Paul David Doherty
The HTML version of the magazine is the only way (as yet - see above) of improving the layout and appearance of the magazine. I am thinking of other ways to improve the rather dull layout of the mag, but don't worry - there will always be a normal text mag available!
-ED-
Thanks for all your letters - I do try to reply to them all, either personally or through the mag. Send them all to my E-Mail address, shown at the start of the magazine.