Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome
Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome
Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome
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MI LETTERS<br />
HELP FILE<br />
Chips with<br />
everything<br />
(I WILL soon be getting a memory<br />
expansion for my A500 end<br />
wourd like some Information.<br />
1. Could you please tell me<br />
what is the new "Chipmem<br />
Option" that is being offered on<br />
some of the newer memory<br />
expansions and will there be any<br />
soldering needed to use it.<br />
2. Could you also tell me how<br />
can tell if my 1.3 <strong>Amiga</strong> has the<br />
new fatter Agnuschlp, as I have<br />
read that newer 1.3s have it fitted.<br />
My kickstart version is<br />
34.5. Do I have a fatter Agnus?<br />
K. L. Paulson.<br />
Rusholme,<br />
Manchester.<br />
These two questions are related,<br />
so I'd like to answer them backwards<br />
if you don't mind. First of<br />
all the fatter Agnus is present in<br />
ECS (Enhanced Chip Set)<br />
machines. Run Checkagnus or a<br />
similar program to determine if<br />
you have it. Alternatively lift<br />
the lid and check the version<br />
number (if it is greater than<br />
8371 then you have ECS).<br />
The ECS will give you, among<br />
other things, the ability to use<br />
one meg of chip memory. Chip<br />
memory is the one that can be<br />
directly addressed by the DMA<br />
channels of the custom chips and<br />
is required by sound and graphics<br />
programs.<br />
The chipmem option on expansion<br />
boards will only work if you<br />
have ECS, but you will have to<br />
modify your motherboard. Nasty.<br />
Programming<br />
triangle<br />
am a student studying for A<br />
Level computer science. I need<br />
to learn Pascal for my project<br />
work and I would be grateful if<br />
you could send me a list of any<br />
Pascal compilers available for<br />
the <strong>Amiga</strong> 500. 1 am looking for<br />
a simple to use program (I use<br />
BBCs at college) which is,<br />
preferably, as cheap as possible.<br />
M. Lott,<br />
Student villa<br />
Your luck is in Mr Lott Not<br />
only is one available, but it is<br />
so cheap it was in the PD section<br />
of the August issue.<br />
hits the shops and when it gets<br />
reviewed in the mug_ what normally<br />
happens is the software<br />
house send us the finished.<br />
shrink-wrapped game 0 week or<br />
Iwo before it gets into the shops.<br />
We decide whether or not to<br />
review it, and if so the review is<br />
written in about a week to ten<br />
days. It then goes into the magazine.<br />
A worst case scenario means<br />
that the delay from us getting the<br />
game to it appearing in a review in<br />
a shop is about seven weeks, The<br />
best case is about two weeks.<br />
Software houses all have their<br />
favourite mags, depending on how<br />
they see circulation, readership<br />
and the independence of the editorial<br />
team from advertising<br />
accounts. This is why we<br />
sometimes don't receive a certain<br />
game at all, ever.<br />
Its all very interesting, but<br />
remarkably petty at times.<br />
Virus vandals<br />
THANKS fur the advice on those<br />
naughty Rampage wallies giving us<br />
a virus on their disk magazine. I<br />
checked my copy as soon as I saw<br />
your warning and, yes, it was<br />
infected.<br />
My copy of VirusX4 killed it off<br />
a treat, however when I read Steve<br />
Tibbet's dot files on the various<br />
symptoms of Lamer II it prompted<br />
me to check all disks that I'd used<br />
in the past couple of weeks.<br />
After going through some 50<br />
disks I found another infected one.<br />
Stampede 2 disk 2 (Rampage's previous<br />
name). I definitely hadn't<br />
used this one since I had purchased<br />
Rampage 3, so maybe this<br />
one had originally been the<br />
infected disk and it had infected<br />
the later issue.<br />
I'm telling you so that you can<br />
pass this on to the rest of our readers,<br />
though I'm sure most would<br />
check all their Stampedelampage<br />
disks "just to be sure".<br />
This brings we round to the subject<br />
of virii in general. I've found<br />
three breeds: The irritating, the<br />
awkward and the nasty.<br />
The first kind don't do any damage.<br />
they just need a swift dose of<br />
VirusX to clear them up. The second<br />
kind normally don't do permanent<br />
damage.<br />
They also need VirusX, but vou<br />
will probably have to do a bit of<br />
repair work. The nestles are those<br />
that kill your disk's data perma-<br />
nently, This is vandalism in my<br />
view and the culprits should be<br />
punished severely. We have<br />
enough problems with disk's copy<br />
protection causing programs to<br />
crash or hang. •<br />
This can be caused simply by<br />
your drives being dirty, misaligned<br />
or out of tolerance slightly. So<br />
when creeps start spreading<br />
destructive programs around it's no<br />
fun at all.<br />
Botch of Botch of<br />
the Month<br />
YOU were too late with your Botch<br />
of the Month on "How to install a<br />
disk". I just assumed my poor<br />
knowledge of how to use<br />
Workbench was to blame: I've<br />
wiped the disk.<br />
Anyway, it's made me write and<br />
ask about <strong>Amiga</strong> <strong>Computing</strong> doing<br />
some articles for the likes of me<br />
who hasn't got a grasp of CL<strong>Is</strong>.<br />
I would like to have ago at learning<br />
how to program, but all the<br />
books I've looked at and all your<br />
articles seem too advanced, or al<br />
least assume a high degree of<br />
understanding.<br />
I need a beginner's and intermediate<br />
level guide to stand any<br />
chance of grasping what it's all<br />
about.<br />
Because of this "tbickie" level<br />
all the disks you include with the<br />
mag aren't any use to me because<br />
I'm system illiterate and don't<br />
know what possible use any of the<br />
utilities are likely to have.<br />
I've only been reading the mag<br />
for a short while, and it's cost with<br />
disks I'm not using had made me<br />
decide to cancel. But I'll hang<br />
. for a while now I've written to give<br />
on<br />
to a chance to help me. S. Heywood,<br />
Bark,<br />
N. Yorkshire<br />
Hey dude, don't put yourself<br />
down! Anyone can learn to use the<br />
<strong>Amiga</strong>: It's not difficult, it just<br />
takes time.<br />
By not using the cover disks you<br />
are denying yourself the best possible<br />
learning tool - experimenting.<br />
It doesn't matter if you don't know<br />
what is going on, but you'll never<br />
learn if you don't try<br />
If you are really stuck, the<br />
Abacus range of books are a good<br />
place to start, We will be address,<br />
ing the problem of lqing to appeal<br />
a bit more to folks new to the<br />
machine, so stay tuned to this<br />
channel!<br />
I wouldn't hold out much hope<br />
for the "Botch of the Month'<br />
explanation. Some brainless nerd<br />
managed to botch them too. Sigh.<br />
Remove the last INSTALL from the<br />
last line (INSTALL dlO:) and it will<br />
work. Probably.<br />
Coding challenge!<br />
I HAVE a problem which I want to<br />
put as a challenge to your readers.<br />
Basically I am trying to write a<br />
program which will produce a fixture<br />
list for any even number of<br />
players.<br />
For example, for four people<br />
A,B,C and D it will give:<br />
Round I, A vs. B and C vs. D<br />
Round 2, A vs. C and B vs. D<br />
Round 3, A vs. D and B vs. C<br />
Simple you say! However, with<br />
more players it gets exponentially<br />
more complex, For eight players<br />
the solution is relatively simple,<br />
but after that it gets really hairy...<br />
I have written a program in<br />
AMOS that will calculate up to 24<br />
players relative quickly (three<br />
hours!) but it merely tries each<br />
match until it finds one that will<br />
fit.<br />
My challenge is: Can anyone<br />
calculate 26 or more players, or<br />
better still, find a mathematical<br />
formula that will give solutions for<br />
any number of players? It's not as<br />
easy as it looks!<br />
Paul Williams,<br />
Northfield,<br />
Birmingham<br />
I had to physically restrain Aj<br />
from loading his C compiler and<br />
writing a program here and now<br />
He had glazed look in his eyes.<br />
and he kept muttering "binomial<br />
expansion" over and over.<br />
However, I'd rather throw tht•<br />
challenge over to you, the loya:<br />
readership. Can you write a program<br />
which will do the trick?<br />
Pedigree poser<br />
A CRY for help to you and your<br />
readers! A disabled relative of<br />
mine is a keen and successful racing<br />
pigeon breeder. This has been<br />
a life time hobby and since<br />
retirement a lifeline.<br />
However because of his disabil<br />
ity, he now finds writing a frustrating<br />
task, so with me being an avid<br />
<strong>Amiga</strong> user I have offered to log<br />
and record his large and changing<br />
stock of pedigree birds. Here we<br />
hit the problem.<br />
Racing pigeons require a pedigree<br />
to be sent with the birds to<br />
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