SAM: IS IT THE SPECCY OF THE NINETIES? OR IF YOU THINK THE SPECTRUM IS 'HAIR TODAY, GONE TOMORROW', WHY NOT TRY A SAM TOUPE'?
Over two years in the making, MGT's SAM Coupe, probably the most exciting and important development in the Spectrum world, has finally arrived at Castle Rathbone. Without further ado, we put Matt Bielby, David Wilson and Duncan MacDonald, the YS trusty trio, on the case. When the case started showing signs of breaking under the strain of the clots' combined weight we told them to get off and open it up instead! Here's what they found!
Despite how much we all love the humble Speccy it has been around for some seven years now! With fewer games becoming available (this year, for example, we've seen Elite, Palace, Superior/Alligata and CP Software opt out of the 8-bit market), the doubting Thomas's around us were beginning to wonder where the machine's future lay! That was until we first started to hear that the SAM Coupe was shaping up as 'the new Speccy'. The SAM will run most of your existing 48K software (and improvements in compatibility are being worked on as we speak) but, more importantly, it will create a whole new breed of games software on a superior machine, and breath new life into the Speccy world as we know it! Let's take a closer look, shall we?
It's big and colourful, isn't it!? There's eight-channel sound (even the ST has only three channels!), 128 colours and no attribute clash! Although it uses a Z80 processing chip (the same as that in the Speccy) it runs at 6Mhz, almost twice the speed of our rubber-keyed chum! SAM has its own Basic, which although it has much in common with Spectrum Basic (so you won't need to learn a new language) is much more powerful, better even than BBC Basic, and runs at the aforementioned increased speed.
The SAM Coupe has also been designed very much with the future in mind. There are two protective covers situated in the front of the body which simply 'pop' out to allow disk drives to be 'plugged in'. If you already have an MGT+D Disciple disk drive this too can be used with the Coupe via a 'bus' connector (available from MGT at £19.95). Underneath the SAM's body is a panel held in place by two screws, beneath which lies another socket into which the upgrade board 'plugs' to take the Coupe to 512K. In addition, the SAM has expansion ports at the back to accept all manner of peripherals from light pens and light guns to midi, video and hi-fi equipment.
FRONT VIEW
These two cunningly-designed rectangular bits can be removed to form the docking slots (oo-er!) to fit the SAM with MGT's special slim-line disk drives. Should you already possess an +D disk drive then you'll be pleased to hear that you can use this with SAM. You will however need to purchase an adaptor from MGT.
REAR VIEW
1. This is he break button for breaking, escaping and crashing programs.
2 & 3. These are SAM'S MIDI input and output sockets. MIDI, or Musical Instrument Digital Interface to give it its long name, is used to link your SAM to musical instruments coming in, and a network of computers.
4. This is the joystick port. It takes a standard 9-pin Atari-type joystick (ie any except Sinclair joysticks). MGT can also sell you a special dual-joystick adaptor.
5. The mouse interface. This again takes a standard 8-pin DIN 'mouse'. Yep, this is another MGT optional extra.
6. This is SAM's reset button.
7. This is your expansion connector. It's a standard 64-pm Euroconnector. This is where you can bung in things like a printer, scanner, video or video camera baked through a digitiser, or a modem.
8. This is where you plug in the cassette recorder's 3.5mm jack lead. It's a combined in and output socket like the sound socket on the +3.
9. This is a standard 5-pin DIN connector into which you can plug tn a light pen or gun. It also functions as a stereo sound output.
10. This is the SAM's personal on/off switch.
11. This is the special 21-pin SCART socket. It's basically an output for SAM's superb-quality video and full-stereo audio outputs, which gives a much better audio-visual signal than the normal UHF socket to a television acrid input. This is of most benefit if you want to use a monitor, video digitizers or professional audio-visual recording equipment.
12. Last, but not least, this is the 6-pin DIN connector which accepts the SAM's 15-volt DC power supply. This also outputs TV video signals through to your power pack. Why? Because the lead that connects SAM to your TV comes out of the power pack, that's why!
RAGE HARD!
Following fast on the heels of last month's SAM Coupe review, here come the SAM disk drive and DOS! Sean Kelly gets out his trusty screwdriver and has a good poke.
The SAM disk drive is the first chunk of extra hardware to arrive for the Coupe, and as such helps give the computer a degree of sophistication not usually associated with things like the Speccy. Anyone who's used the drives on Atari STs, Amigas and the like will know what a boon a good, modern internal drive can be, and it should be exactly the same with the SAM. The difference is that these drives aren't actually an integral part of the computer at all, but very clever external fittings that only look as if they've been attached to the Coupe for life! They come separately, which means that you can buy the base computer which loads games and other programs through an external tape deck (as you do with most Speccies) until you're feeling flush enough to splash out on a disk drive or two. Happily, MGT has made the units impressively slim and stuck two purpose-built holes in the front of the computer casing, so these extra add-ons slot in neatly and unobtrusively.
FITTING THE BITS
Much to my surprise, actually attaching the drive is dead easy. Even those with as little computer assembly experience as me (ie zilch) should find it fairly straightforward. All you need to do is remove the little plastic cover on the front of the Coupe and shove the disk drive into the hole until it locks. You then turn the SAM upside down and bung a couple of screws in underneath to hold it in place.
The instructions are more than adequate (it literally took about three minutes) and the end results look surprisingly good. The SAM still seems a bit like a breeze block with a keyboard, but now it's a breeze block with a keyboard and a couple of nifty blue slot things on the front. Infinitely preferable. It adds nothing to the size of the computer, and with two drives fitted is a lot less awkward and space-consuming than either the ST or Amiga with a second drive (which comes as a bulky external unit). Of course, that's not really of much relevance to most people, but it does indicate how well thought-out the project is.
Like the 16-bit computers, the SAM uses the (now pretty common) 3.5 inch disks, which when formatted will give a total of 780K per disk - enough room to back up 16 48K games onto one disk! With the Coupe disk drive you not only get to keep your back collection of Speccy games but you get to load them a lot faster and easier too.
DOSSING ABOUT
Next you need to load in the DOS (Disk Operating System) disk. Unfortunately, at the moment there's a slight prob with the DOS and the ROM of the Coupe, which results in the computer failing to recognise the DOS and throwing up an Error message on the screen. The manuals on the first batch of computers shipped out contain an extra bit of paper explaining the problem and giving simple instructions for fixing it, but later models will come with a slightly rewritten DOS so everything should work properly.
Basically, when the Error screen does show you simply need to call up the DOS by using the basic command CALL 229385. Unfortunately, although no functions are lost, all the pretty front-end intro stuff (like a decent menu display and so forth) seems to have gone missing, so the presentation is a bit basic and functional. In fact, it's much like the PC's MS-DOS in presentation and operation (if anyone's familiar with that). Commands are typed in, so there's no 16-bit-style mouse-driven icon laziness here (although a mouse does come later). The user manual gives an adequate guide to loading, copying and saving with the drive, but it certainly doesn't address itself to the more technical aspects of disk use.
Most of the commands are straightforward enough though, but I do have one quibble. The wildcard function is, if anything, a little too powerful. For example, a command like ERASE "N" will delete all files beginning with the letter N, which makes it a little easy to wipe away vital files without thinking. It could be argued that deleting unnecessary files can be avoided by simply being more specific in the deleting process (for example by typing ERASE 'NORMAN' or whatever) but I'm sure that most computer users, being such lazy oiks, tend to use the shorter (but more dangerous) deleting procedure. I certainly did, until I lost a (luckily non-important) file by mistake.
DUMPING GROUND
Like the previous MGT Speccy drives, the Sam Coupe has a function which allows Speccy 48K games to be dumped onto disk in a fairly straightforward manner. Unfortunately. I couldn't get this function to operate on our pre-release version, although I am assured by MGT that the one you buy in the shops will work fine. The Coupe drive can also read disks which were written on the other MGT drives, so those owning a DISCiPLE or Plus D drive will be able to use their disks with the Coupe in the Speccy emulation mode. Unfortunately, these disks can only be read - they can't be written to or altered in any way. Presumably, though, those splashing out on two drives will be able to copy them onto a Coupe format disk.
AND THE VERDICT?
The SAM disk drive will retail at £89.95, which will give the two a combined price of just under £260. Considering you could pick up a basic ST for around the same amount, suddenly the SAM doesn't look such great value anymore. Still, there's no reason why you should have to buy them together. You could quite easily soldier on with your Speccy cassette deck until such time as you're feeling a little more flush (or a birthday comes along, whichever is sooner). It's almost inevitable that once you've got your Coupe you'll want to pick up a drive sooner or later, and we can see no conceivable reason why not - it's a neat, slim unit, with bags of potential, and the speed with which it loads games, compared to the Speccy, is truly a joy to behold. Bravo!
CONTACT BOX
Product: Sam Coupe Disk Drive
Contact: Miles Gordon Technology plc, Lakeside, Phoenix Way, Swansea Enterprise Park, Swansea SA7 9EH
Price: £89.95
THE FUTURE OF SPECTRUM GAMES?
From the amount of mail SU gets on the subject, they're a lot of Spectrum owners out there that are looking to upgrade to a more powerful machine, but are annoyed that if they make the move, they're kissing bye-byes to a lot of hard-earned and well-loved Spectrum software.
Why? Well, pure economics dictate that yo get a hip, trendy and rather expensive 16-Bitter, your faithful Spectrum makes an enforced appearance in Exchange & Mart to try and raise some of the cash.
Well, frustrated upgraders everywhere, help is at hand in the shape of a new Spectrum compatible machine due out this autumn from Miles Gordon Technology - the SAM Coupe.
The long awaited Coupe now exists in a finished form - the SU team have seen it go through its paces completely without the aid of mirrors - and it could well be the machine you'd like Santa to drop down the chimney for you, this Christmas!
First things first - the price! A tape based system will set you back only £150, with disc drives slotting neatly into the unit (up to two) at £180 each. This becomes even more affordable when you consider that your existing Speccy can easily be used to finance your upgrade - as the Coupe near 100% compatibility means you can still play your favourite games without Old Faithful. But what extra goodies do you get for all this lolly? A lot, that's what!
For a start, the Coupe looks stylish and mod - just the kind of thing to fit alongside the racking hi-fi - with proper size typewriter keyboard, complete with 10 function keys (programmable from Basic, of course).
A look around the back shows you that the Coupe was designed to be easily expandable, and hints at the thought behind the design. TV and Video output, Light Pen socket, cassette input, reset button, mouse port, Atari style joystick port and Midi in/Out ports as well as the obligatory expansion bus for any other extra you might want to plug in.
Inside - the whole thing controlled by a X80, running at a nifty 6MHz, custom DMA and 256K of Ram (expandable up to 512K). Sound chip? Has this got a sound chip - a Phillips chip last seen inside a dedicated games with six channels and stereo sound. Interesting? Well, the Coupe is going to be bungled with, amongst other things, a utility written by none other than sound supremo David Whrttaker, that'll allow you to create fab music and sound from the word go.
Graphics? As well as having a Spectrum compatible mode, there are three other modes that will make you jump up and down with excitement. Most interesting for games work is the 256*192 mode which gives you 16 colours (just like the ST!) out of a palette of 64. There's a celebrity involved here too - remember Bo Jangebord, the guy that wrote Artist for the Edge (as well as great game like Fairlight?) MGT have commissioned him to write a graphics program that will fully exploit the capabilities of the Coupe - and that'll bundled with the machine too!
If you're into programming, then the SAM will have a lot to offer you - there's an extended Basic with more features than a 50 mile strip of Norwegian coastline, working up to six times faster than Sinclair Basic.
But does that mean the Coupe will be great for games? Should be. With graphics and sound like this, all that memory to play with, plus a well organised internal structure that'll make the average machine-code programmer drool, it's got a lot going for it. Over to you, software houses!
Designer Bruce Gordon says he's tried to capture the magic of the original Spectrum with the Coupe - plus some more! Looks like MGT have succeeded!
S'AMAZING
THE COUPE ARRIVES AT LAST!
Yes guys: it's alive and kicking and screaming. And well it might! It's going to have to see off a formidable range of competitors from the humble Spectrum through to the would-be 8-bit bashers Amiga and Atari ST and the all-devouring consoles gathering from afar.
Playfield or deadly minefield? Whichever, as Franco Frey shows, the SAM COUPE has got a couple of tricks up its sleeves and is ready to blast into the top-selling charts...
SAM, THE BABY
Right, read the manual, hook up your SAM Coupe, switch on your system and hey, here's what you get! The Boot-up screen in glorious technicolour.
You haven't made up your mind yet? Well, read all about SAM here and now - you'll probably decide to chuck away your Speccy (aaah) and fork out the dosh for the SAM Coupe. That's OK by us, as long as you continue to read CRASH! Better still, keep the old Spectrum and buy the SAM. That way you get the best of both worlds, and make full use of CRASH!
HISTORIANS, READ ON
It's been a long gestation period for the SAM, MGT have spent three long years designing and building a computer which is ingeniously simple yet crosses new frontiers in performance and price. What they're offering is 16-bit type performance for the price of old 8-bit machines.
The brains behind MGT are Bruce Gordon and Alan Miles. Supplying peripherals for the ZX Spectrum over a number of years, they studied the market and formed an opinion that the 16-bit machines are not the way forward in replacing the old faithfuls, the ZX Spectrum and Commodore C64. What was needed was improved performance at the old price.
They set out to achieve just this. Using the latest manufacturing technology they simplified the circuit board and incorporated most peripheral functions into one ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Crate. The result is a low cost board with little assembly work and cheap standard chip (Z80B processor and 8-bit wide memory!).
The performance? - ell, in graphics, sound and speed the SAM Coupe matches or approaches closely the 16-bit competition specs whee it relates to games playing. On a pricing level, only the consoles are able to match SAM's competitiveness. SAM has a further weapon up its sleeve. With a software base built up from the vast range of cassette based Spectrum games the user has the benefit of low-priced games, including budget! The consoles cartridge based software looks distinctly pricey, and for a lot of users, unobtainable. You can argue against this: In this day and age, cassette based storage seems archaic and has certainly proven unpopular in all foreign countries. Ultimately it is you, the user, who will decide the fate of the SAM Coupe by voting through purchase! Time will tell...
GET GOING!
A CONCISE LOOK AT WHAT YOU GET...
SAM's a really cute guy. He'd do anything for his beloved computer. He's obviously proud of it. Who wouldn't be. The Coupe has successfully distanced itself from the drab black pseudo-tech look of the Spectrum and has a snazzy white and light-grey ground-hugging body which incorporates the keyboard, the main printed circuit board and the two disk drive bays, all of which are firmly supported by four sexy-curved blue legs.
If you're not into styling, forget the descriptive tripe and concentrate on the practicalities. The keyboard is miles better than the Spectrum's, despite the fact it uses membrane keyswitches. The old adage convinces: It doesn't matter what you do, but how you do it! (Bananarama). The 72 keys have got just the right rake and the front body provides just the right sort of manual support. As ultra slim 3.5" disk drives have been used, the profile of the unit is surprisingly low. A neat feature are the 10 function keys, which can, same as the rest of the keys, be programmed and customised to deliver any text or command strings.
The connection to the real world takes place at the rear of the unit, which resembles hi-tech Swiss cheese. It is literally loaded with all sorts of connectors and switches and presses you to consult the manual for illumination.
SAM ABILITY
So what's cooking? Forget the internals, lets concentrate on the important stuff - graphics and sound. If you look at the panel, you'll get all the nitty gritty on the four display modes. In simple terms, the display can be altered from a Spectrum lookalike to simply superb Atari ST like resolution and colour. Problem is, you'll need a monitor connected to the Coupe SCART socket for top picture quality. On the other hand the modulated UHF TV output is one of the best around and picture degradation is minimal. Great stuff.
But what about the sound? Well, no skimping here either. The internal synthesiser can blow your brains out with its 6-channel, 8-octave stereo outbursts and makes the Spectrum sound like a whimper. If you do want to make full use of the orchestral generator, hook it up to your stereo system via the audio socket. You've also got the choice of hooking it up to a monitor with stereo or mono loudspeaker. At worst, content yourself with the UHF TV sound output.
Sound and graphics are fab, but what about some interactive motion? One or two joysticks, of the Atari compatible kind, you bet. One port only demands a joystick splitter (courtesy of MGT) for two player games. If you're into WIMP's, you'll be glad to know you can plug an MGT mouse into its own little port. If you're into pointing at all and sundry, you can always plug your MGT light pen into its socket and make scratch marks on the monitor screen.
SOFTWARE WHERE?
Back to practicalities again. Where does all the software come from? Initially the Spectrum, of course. By use of the cassette interface and a Spectrum Emulator the SAM Coupe achieves instant software flow. The machine's capabilities will awaken as soon as Coupe specific software is introduced, and a number of notoriously famous software houses are quietly preparing the bonanza, in the meantime it's up to the demo cassette and dear SAM to convince you of the potential in the beast. With 256K of RAM expandable up to 512K the potential for brilliant games with superb graphics and sound is round the comer and ready to be exploited. Expanding the system with a disk drive will become a necessity, unless you like drinking several pots of tea before play...
MODES
MODE 1 gives you 24 lines, with each line consisting of 32 cells made up of a pattern of 8x8 dots and spaces. Choice of colour for PEN and PAPER of each cell can be made from 16 paint pots selected from a range of 128 colours Seems familiar? It should be, it's the Spectrum modus opeirandi.
MODE 2 provides 192 lines with 32 cells each, giving a total of 61144 character calls of ext dots with title same colour selection as mode 1.
MODE 3 is the word processsing mode and offers up to 85 columnns of characters. Only four colours are used. The pixel mode gives you 192 lines with each line containing 512 pixels
MODE 4 is the daddy of screen modes. There are 192 lines of 256 pixels each, and you can use 16 colours out of the range of 128 on every line. By changing the palette for every line, you can display all of the 128 available colours.
BASICALLY
BASIC is hardly ever basic these days. Dr Andy Wright, egg-head boffin responsible for SAM BASIC, has incorporated a whole host of extra features specifically suited to the SAM's internals and has thus created a monster, sorry, a fully implemented, version of the interpretive language. Here are the specs:
Programs may be up to 217K long on the standard Coupe. You can write up to 61439 lines containing up to 127 statements if you're a masochist. Strings and names can have names up to 10 characters long so they can be descriptive. This'll stop you guessing what the variable on line 1 was while you're entering line number 61439... Arrays can fill all available memory.
SAM BASIC is fully structured and includes procedures with local variables and parameter passing by value and reference. Long and short IF and ELSE are implemented, as are DO, LOOP, REPEAT, UNTIL, a CASE equivalent, ON, ON ERROR and GO TO label. Programmes can be automatically renumbered and indented to reflect the structure.
Graphics support is excellent with fast DRAW, CIRCLE, PLOT and pattern FILL. A novel feature is RECORD and BLITZ which lets you record a sequence of graphic commands which can be re-executed with the ultra-fast BLITZ command. Any part of the screen can be moved around in any direction with ROL and SCROLL, and sections can be GRABbed and placed with the PUT command elsewhere. All 128 colours can de displayed simultaneously, and PALETTE lets you make instant changes to screen colours. Screens in memory can be instantly flipped into the display area. The character set includes block graphics and a wide range of foreign characters, and character size can be altered to give 32, 64 or 85 columns. Double height characters are also on the menu list. Text and graphics dumps can be output to a suitable printer in a variety of sizes.
Sound commands include the BEEP and SOUND plus a range of special effects such as ZAP, POW, ZOOM and BOOM(!).
The 56 built-in commands include all usual sets of mathematical and string-handling functions as well as support functions for peripherals such as mouse and light pen. Disk drives are supported via a DOS which has to be loaded into memory and provides BOOT, FORMAT, DIR, MOVE and ERASE with the DEVICE command directing the activity to disk, cassette or network. The Coupe supports cassette loading and saving at various speeds set with the DEVICE parameter. The tape system can handle program, data, binary and screen flies.
The keyboard can be completely reprogrammed and keys can contain predefined strings.
Compatibility with ZX BASIC is achieved by way of a utility programme BTRANS on the SAM utility cassette, which translates the Spectrum BASIC programme into SAM BASIC. So if you've got a massive library of Spectrum BASIC programmes. all is not lost! (Phew!)
FLASH IN THE SAM!
CRASH, SAM and FLASH! Not quite... Loading FLASH! unfortunately takes quite a while (and while you wait, you can't help thinking that maybe a disk drive would have been a good investment after all), but hey, it's worth the long wait!
FLASH! is the equivalent of the Spectrum's The Mist, but with the added benefit and splendour of the SAM's superior display modes. This shouldn't come as a surprise, as the software wizard in both cases is none other than Bo Jangeborg. Mode 4 is the favourite, and therefore default, display option with a resolution of 256 by 192 pixels, with any pixel being able to take on any 16 of SAM's 128 possible palette colours. Try that with your Spectrum if you can! If all these colours make your head dizzy (whoever heard of hog foot or damp squid as a colour shade?), then switch to Mode 1, and you'll feel right at home in Spectrum screen land.
Centre of operations is located in the upper third of the screen similar to a fighter pilot's headup weapons display system and dazzles with an array of special 'weapons' icons. Access to this strategic arsenal is via keyboard, joystick or mouse, sorry - no telepathic controls yet. Lurking at the screen edges are a row of pop down menus with even more action commands, the SCREEN one actually contains VIEW which eliminates the control area and provides full view of your creation. When working however, a vertical indicator bar allows you to scroll the art screen up and down so you can gain access to the hidden third of the screen.
Well, what's on the menu then? if you've already dabbled with art packages before, you'll instantly recognise most of the icons. Spraycan, Paint Brush, Undo, Text, Font, Fill and Cut are self explanatory, and so are the various shape icons such as Circle, Rectangle and Oval, both in normal and filled version. Lines is another trusted friend, both in concatenated (continuous) and radiating form. So what's left? Plenty! For one, there's the whole colour control panel, which gives you access to the full 128 possible screen colours (remember hog foot and damp squid?) and allows you to fill the 16 active paint pots in a variety of ways by picking up the colour choice off the display matrix, setting RGB values or auto cycling the colours through your neat row of paint pots. Three further icons allow you to select Fill Patterns, Spray Nozzle and Paint Brush Shapes The OK tick icon saves the current state of your screen to memory just in case you're going to get it all wrong with your next action. BLOK lets you set screen windows for manipulation whereas CUT defines irregular shapes for block transformations, Which leaves only the minor point of the Animation icon, which opens up the fantastic world of sprite animation to anyone who hasn't got the faintest idea of programming and will provide guaranteed results within minutes!
Hidden away in the various pop down menus are even more powerful tools such as Block Transformations, which will flip, mirror, twist and recolourise your selected block area Apart from the usual File accessing and Print functions, you'll find the screen mode selectors and a host of useful function and screen options such as the grey screen (mono) or Spectrum colour emulator, grid set and... and...
Definitely not a mere Flash! in the pan!
All information in this page is provided by ZXSR instead of ZXDB