SCENE+ is published by:
L. C. D.
Prager Str. 92/11/12
A-1210 Vienna, Austria
Tel: (01) 272 34 63 (within Austria), or +43 1 272 34 63 (outside Austria)
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Hello SCENE+ readers.
Damn! Now I really need to hurry up to finish the upcoming SCENE+ issues on time. After the merger with SUC, the entire magazine will be reprogrammed from scratch. For example, the text viewer will be integrated directly into the menu engine, maybe even more, though we will have to say goodbye to the digital sample. Just let yourselves be surprised!
Issue #19 of SCENE+ was finished at the meeting in Sindelfingen — virtually at the very last second. Naturally, those who were already waiting there got their copies first. Of course, visitors to the meeting enjoyed other perks as well, such as picking up items from the sales table or grabbing one of the free circuit boards being given away.
The new SUC-Session was also completed, and as always, it packed plenty of interesting news — like the Citadel preview (the original Citadel was a Doom clone made in Poland for the Amiga 500). It will be included on the next SCENE+ disk.
Why Wolfgang Haller wasn't there, I unfortunately cannot say, but he surely had his reasons. An opportunity to save on postage (and spend it on leaded super petrol instead) doesn't come around every day.
Thomas showed great dedication and hosted the meeting this time in a completely redecorated SUC dungeon. Nevertheless, X-Terminator didn't show up (who can blame him?), so the SUC team was already looking for new writers for the demo corner — though following the merger, that will likely sort itself out.
Regarding Paul Howard: I can't confirm that Paul is working exclusively on PC now. While he did send me some of his PC games, he also mentioned that he is collaborating with another colleague on a Spectrum game that will later be ported to PC — it's supposed to be an adventure game. In that respect, Alchemist Research was spreading false rumors.
The Spectrum probably has the most clones after the IBM PC, and now, according to Peter Rennefeld, a version has even been developed that consists of just three chips! Naturally, such a thing is only possible far away from Microsoft tyranny, in Russia. The three chips are likely the Z80 CPU plus two custom chips — probably handmade (just kidding!) — containing the ROM and RAM, as well as an enhanced ULA with multiplexer and video chip logic.
I have also been looking into Spectrum hardware improvements and came up with the following idea: one could connect a frequency doubler to the CLK pin of a Z80B. It could be switched off externally via a toggle switch, or dynamically when a signal is asserted on the RD and WR lines. This would give us a Z80B DX2 7MHz system, dropping down to 3.54 MHz only during RAM or I/O access (so that the +D interface keeps working). The speed increase should be anywhere between 10% and 100%, depending on the operation. The real challenge, however, is building a solid frequency doubler that works just as cleanly at 3.54 MHz as it does at 3.5 MHz. If anyone has an idea on how to pull this off, please get in touch with me.
Yours,
L. C. D.
NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SPECTRUM
- Amstrad has been sold. The former buyer and mutilator of the Sinclair Spectrum line was ultimately undone by its venture into the PC market.
- Lemmings 2 is reportedly coming to the Spectrum. This proves once again that there are far more Spectrum users in Russia than expected, and they are definitely not lazy — otherwise, masterpieces like UFO or Doom wouldn't be appearing so quickly. Why can't we Germans and Austrians achieve something like that?
- The Great Giana Sisters by Rainbow Arts was never released on the Spectrum due to a legal dispute over its similarity to Mario. In this case, the court should really have forced Nintendo to make their own version for the Spectrum instead! If anyone knows the addresses of the original coders, please get in touch.
- Zenobi Software, one of the last Spectrum software publishers in the UK specializing in adventures, is throwing in the towel. They have worn down all their teeth fighting software pirates. The Internet is not entirely blameless in this.
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