Hi Folks,
It's finally out! SAM Revival issue 25!
56 pages packed with SAM goodies for the 25th Anniversary of the computer.
What's in the magazine? Well, let's take a look at the cover first. I
commissioned a new drawing by Robin Evans - the original artist for the SAM
robot, you'll be familiar with all his doodles in the SAM Coupe User Guide
and the early MGT adverts from 1989/1990. Well he dusted off his memory of
drawing the robot and has came up trumps with the drawing for the cover. As
part of the commission I've also got a couple of prints of the cover artwork
which Robin has hand signed - the first of which will be auctioned on eBay
on 20th October 2015 - I'll post up some photos over the next few days on my
website and twitter and a link to the auction once it's started. Although I
paid for the comission of the artwork from my own pocket all proceeds from
the auction will be used towards my ongoing work developing new products for
the SAM Coupe. Stay tuned for more details of that nearer the time...
Inside the magazine, a mammoth news section kicks off after the editorial,
covering news from around the SAM scene, with all the details of new
hardware, software and demos for the SAM Coupe as well as previews of
projects that are being worked on.
Feature articles shows off all the work undertaken by Phil Wilson with the
customising of his SAM, plus shorter articles about several other
customisation projects. The Developer Diary section looks at the new game
that's Warren Lee is preparing, and a quick look at TRINload from Simon Owen
which is a utility to transfer data from a PC to the SAM via the Trinity
Ethernet Interface.
Smaller articles look at patching some demos to make them compatible on mass
storage devices. I also take a look at some of the rarer and more unique
items I've collected over the years for the SAM Coupe.
Throw in the usual SAM Snippets, SAM Correspondence and SAM Comment sections
and that wraps up this gigantic 56 page issue of the magazine.
SAM Revival issue 25 comes with not just one, but two cover disks. On the
first is the classic SAM Coupe game 'Vegetable Vacation' from Fissionsoft,
which was originally released in 1992 by Revelation/SAMCO. Next up is
'MobyDX' from Black Jet - a new release especially for SAM's anniversary -
thanks guys!
The first coverdisk also features plenty of software for the Trinity
Ethernet Interface - starting off with a new version of B-DOS. This version
(1.5t beta 6) allows the Trinity to use SD/SDHC cards up to a whopping 64GB
in size. An installer is also included on the disk to store the new DOS on
the Trinity Ethernet Interface's EEPROM if you use the optional BOOT ROM.
Plus, there are the first few TCP/IP demo programs for the Trinity Ethernet
Interface. The first demo downloads a screen/music from the internet, the
second demo downloads the full game 'XOR' from the net directly to your SAM.
This all really shows what's on the horizon for the SAM now it's connected
to the internet. My thanks to all those involved with pushing the Trinity
forward - Adrian Brown, Simon Owen, Chris Pile, and content for the
downloadable demos from Warren Lee, David Sanders and Howard Price.
The second coverdisk is dedicated entirely to mind blowing megademo from
MNEMOtech's Andrew Collier - 'Stars and Sprites'. Andrew has done some
really impressive coding for the fantastic graphical effects and great
music! Plus one of the scrollers does mention something about a hidden
part... Hmmmm!
SAM Revival 25 costs £4.99 with UK postage, £7.99 with EU Airmail postage
and £8.99 with Airmail postage for the rest of the world.
To order by PayPal or debit/credit card please see my website at:
www.samcoupe.com
Other recent releases from myself include:
** SID Soundchip Interface - 2014 Edition
Originally released back in 2003, my SID Interface allowed the SAM to use
the soundchip from a Commodore 64. This all stemmed from my own small pet
project exploring old forms of computer sound - with it's unique sound the
SID soundchip remains very popular with computer audiophiles to this day.
The new 2014 edition features an onboard DC to DC convertor to generate the
supply voltage for the SID soundchip so an external PSU is no longer
required.
Bundled with the interface is a software disk, featuring Simon Owen's
marvellous .sid playback code. Using a software emulator to run 6510
machine code (the Commodore 64's processor) the SAM is able to run .sid
music files in real time (that's essentially partial C64 emulation on the
SAM!) so there's now the ability to listen to thousands of C64 music files.
The new 2014 edition of the SID Soundchip Interface is priced at £44.99
** Trinity Mass Storage Interface
If you don't want the full Ethernet functions and onboard EEPROM and just
want to add some simple mass storage on your SAM then that's what the cut
down "Trinity Mass Storage" interface offers. SD/SDHC card support up to
64GB. Price: £44.99
** 2 Way Expansion Card - 2013 Edition
This card is always handy if you need to plug two peripherals into the rear
euroconnector on your SAM Coupe! Having run out of PCBs for my earlier
version I decided to update the expansion card with thicker tracks as well
as try out a new PCB supplier. For the same costs I was able to have the
card made in a stunning red colour, and I've gone with a text style matching
the Trinity Ethernet Interface to keep a consistent style to my hardware.
£26.99
Photos / more information about these SAM Coupe products, see
www.samcoupe.com as usual!
All the best,
Colin
=====
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs> for the SAM Coupé
1995-2015 - Celebrating 21 Years of developing for the SAM Coupé
Website: www.samcoupe.com Twitter: @QuazarSamCoupe
