Hello again! Hello again! After the tearing success of issue 23's wasitu section I have decided to include a similar item in issue 25. This is it! If you are not of a strong disposition or if you become bored easily, please press BREAK now. A new cheat, for MOON CRESTA this time. *LOAD the main game. Then type ?&16BF=&60 . Then type CALL &26FF . This cheat will stop the aliens descending and crashing into you. Someone's just nicked my bike! Fancy that, I haven't even paid for it yet and if my experience with insurance companies is anything to go by, there is no chance of them paying out. ADFS OR DFS? A bit of a whinge ADFS OR DFS? Once upon a time there was a programmer. He had the use of a BBC model B that his daddy used to lend him from the school he taught at. All of his programs were saved in DFS format. As time passed by the programmer's daddy retired, therefore teminating the use of the model B. Total disaster, withdrawal symptoms started to show. The programmer sold his right leg to medical research and managed to acquire a second hand Master 128. The Master had ADFS. Fantastic, 3 times the capacity of DFS with a virtually unlimited number of file names possible. There were not too many disadvantages with the ADFS, no *FORMAT, no *BACKUP, no *WIPE, no *VERIFY. The programmer only had a single drive and had to swop discs 5 million times to backup. He put these minor disadvantages to one side because of the reduced number of discs required. The programmer joined a user group and started sending his programs off to other people. He had to start changing all his old software so that it would run in DFS format as well as ADFS. He had to spend hours sorting out files from directories which were full of programs that were not needed. He did not have a way to copy from ADFS back to DFS easily. So he stopped using the ADFS to it's full extent. He started to put programs and their related files in directories on their own. He realised that he could get discs for 27 pence each and he found it much simpler to reach into his disc box and read a label rather than have to search through directories on a disc, so capacity no longer mattered. He realised when looking at other people's ADFS discs that it was possible to lose files very easily at the end of a long chain of directories unless he used the program CATALL to hunt through the disc. Finally he started to prefer DFS again, simply because he could go *. to see what was on the disc without having to type *MOUNT *. *. *.. and so on Simply because he didn't need to hunt for the utilities disc to backup or format or verify. Simply because increased capacity didn't really matter any more due to really cheap discs. Simply because when needed, it was more easy to transfer to ADFS from DFS than the other way. He couldn't understand why he had to type *COMPACT 0E 72 umpteen times in ADFS when DFS did it with 1 simple *COMPACT He also thought that ADFS was slower than DFS. Has anyone guessed that the programmer was me? Archived software. Archived software. Who de-archives it? I have included a couple of archives on this disc. How many people bother de-archiving it? It would be interesting to find this out. I know that some people virtually ignore the mag and make a bee line for the software. Do these people ever bother to de-archive? Mind you I suppose we will never know because the people that can answer that question will not be reading this will they? When you are sending your comments why not mention whether you de-archive or not. If you don't, why not, is it because you find it difficult or just cannot be bothered? If it's because you find it difficult I may be able to simplify the task. Miles of text. Miles of text. I hear rumblings about too much text in issues of 8BS. I reckon that if you are getting a user group mag/software disc that there should be a bit for everyone in that user group. The members range from those that need nappies to those that need inco pads and from gardeners to homicidal maniacs no offence meant to anyone here of course. aaaaaaaaaarghhh To create a disc that would suit all of these types 100% would not be possible. Program reaction. Program reaction. I could not help but notice a comment about program reaction by 0E7 in the program reaction column. As I was editing this item into the mag the why and wherefore of the comment was lumbering around between the relatively few active neurones that still sinapse amongst themselves in what passes off to be my cerebrum. The conclusions that they managed to reach are not worth repeating really, but how about tossing one or two ideas into the air and seeing which way up they up they land? I have found that most of the discs sent to me have something on them, or a letter accompanying. This is the best part of editing 8BS actually, being in contact with all of you out there. A great majority of the comments say how good the programs are, in themselves comments like this are nice, but not constructive. Comments with suggestions for alterations or additions to programs help programmers much more. Maybe, as 0E7 says, programmers see a program that needs help and immediately dive in to it's rescue or finish it off humanely and start afresh with a similar idea. I must admit, since Daniel Shimmin hinted that comments on programs were not mandatory I personally have not bothered, something which I shall try to remedy. Top and bottom of it is. Keep the scribblings coming in, anything is welcome, just look at this drivel and say to yourself: "My goodness, I can do better than that" Then do it! wesabin? wesabin? Interpret it either way: Well where have you been? In other words: You took your time. or Where is the dustbin? In other words: This is so bad that I may leave the disc on top of the telly and pretend that I zapped it accidentally. 92,928 bytes to go! 92,928 bytes to go! Pictures. Pictures. Some of you commented on the pikkies being an interesting addition to the text. Unfortunately, there are few new additions to my repertoire this issue. How about some of you using a teletext editor to produce some that could be inserted into the text? Go on! Go for it! I noticed that 20G had a problem with ADFS issue 23 sector &91 onwards an 8BS program: DFS version issue 23 sector &D9 VDU 23,1,0,0,0,0,0,0 Examine them Switches the cursor off on the master but not on the model B which needs VDU 23;8202;0;0;0; The 8202 is a two byte number of course. If you split it up you can make the cursor do all sorts of things. Try VDU23;R,V;0;0;0; Where R could be: 0 = Horizontal timing 1 = Horizontal displayed 2 = Horizontal sync position 3 = Sync width 4 = Vertical total 5 = Vertical total adjust 6 = Vertical displayed 7 = Vertical sync 8 = Interlace and delay 9 = Scan lines 10= Cursor start 11= Cursor end 14 and 15 = Cursor position Where V is the value The cursor rolling program in issue 23 made use of R at values 10 and 11 Try VDU 23;10,1;0;0;0; This makes the cursor start higher up finishing at the bottom of the line. Then try VDU 23;11,3;0;0;0; The cursor is now fatter and higher up. Have a muck about with it and see what devastation you can create! Make sure that you get the ; and , 's correct. Or it will not work.