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Editorial

SCENE+ is published by:
L. C. D.
Prager Str. 92/11/12
A-1210 Wien
Österreich
Tel: (01) 272 34 63 from Austria, or 0043 1 272 34 63 from abroad (outside Austria)

All classifieds and adverts are free of charge, as long as they are related to the Spectrum or SAM, and can take any form—as text, screen, animation, etc.

Hello SCENE+ readers. Welcome to the somewhat revamped issue of SCENE+, and to all the new readers who now also receive their issue together with the SUC-Session: A warm hello to you as well!

I started producing this issue back in December, specifically on 19.12, just to get it done on time; for this reason, this issue is appearing even before Nos. 22, 23, and 24, which are being finished right now (whoops, I've fallen a bit behind again, but I'll catch up since this mag is now published every two months). Why the delay? Well, I slowly started dipping into assembly language and am gradually beginning to understand the subject. While I still can't write overly complicated programs, I can already code short, simple routines that would run too slowly under Basic. Maybe someone will finally write an assembly course for complete beginners? Don't let me die in ignorance.

The "Legacy" project has been put on ice for the moment until my MC knowledge gets a bit better, because with the current landscaping landscape-rendering method, too little would fit into the Spectrum's memory. Instead, I am currently devoting myself to SCENE+, and once I have caught up on everything again, I will draw lots to see which shelved project will be resumed. And one thing I can say: there are quite a few interesting started projects sitting in my drawer. I even found a very old version of "Legacy" (back then still a text adventure) that I couldn't remember ever programming, and I must say that I really liked some of the ideas in it.

What I could use for the magazine are routines, in Basic or MC, that create interesting effects—for example, despite a long search, I still haven't found a routine for filled polygons, like those in Hard'n Drive. That would be exactly what we need, preferably along with a description in Tasword II format (German version).

Scene+ subscribers who received earlier issues will certainly have noticed what happened to the text viewer. I reprogrammed it so that it is now integrated into the SCENE+ menu program and is 100 to 200% faster than the last version. I achieved this by programming a routine that could never work like that under Basic, but when compiled reaches the highest speed. In case anyone is interested: string handling in all compiled programs is usually very slow, so I had Hisoft Basic show me where the variables are located, and then everything was poked directly into them. It's really a pity I didn't think of it earlier, because reprogramming the routine used previously took all of five minutes, including all tests! Only it took a lot of time until it finally became clear to me how to best set it up so that the text viewer displays the entire page within a second. Time that I could have spent on SCENE+.

The new FADE-OUT routine has also become faster and uses less memory (Thanx to ILLUSION Team!). To save memory space, I removed the hardcopy routine for pictures, because actually anyone can make a snapshot and print it (+D provided), and it is not clear to me who would need this function anyway. Circuit diagrams haven't been published in a long time.

If anyone should need an article as a Tasword II file, simply pressing the Symbol Shift and "Q" keys simultaneously is enough to make the text viewer return to Basic, then just enter:

SAVE "Text" CODE 32:0, number of pages times 1280

and it's done.

In issue 26, an index of all previously released issues will be published; if anyone wants an older issue, these cost DM 4,- each, or 12 issues for DM 25,-.

Before I stop, one quick request: Send me your self-written programs that would fit here; SCENE+ can only survive with your help.

Yours,
L. C. D.

News from the World of the Spectrum

This section is being closed. All news from the scene will now only appear in the SUC-Session.