PC FumblingsFollowing on from issue 9's expose that we now have a PC in the 'office', I thought it would be interesting (if not amusing) for you humble readers to live our experiences as we try to come to terms with todays technology! The justification for having a PC section in an otherwise 100% Speccy fanzine is simple; we aim to delve into the world of emulation, amoungst other stuff (hopefully this is of interest to some of you). Your experiences on this topic are most welcome.
Firstly, some infos: It's a Compaq 386 with a VGA colour monitor. The hard disk consists of 70MB with a 5.25 floppy A: drive. This isn't adequate enough for WINDOWS so we are running version 5 of MS DOS - at least we were until I decided to delete some stuff off the hard disk! Now look, I havn't even had a go at a +3 Speccy, let alone a +D, so this disk business is all new to me. On top of that, MS DOS is about as familiar as Japanese so as you laugh and call me a tosser just mull those facts around (please?).
I managed to delete the AUTO.EXE and CONFIG.SYS files with the greatest of ease (after being quite pleased with myself at vanquishing a Sensible Soccer demo into oblivion). Don't ask why, I just did ok? As I type, the poor PC is still sitting in the corner, lost and bewildered, it doesn't even know it exsists anymore. Thank-fully help is on its way and I have learnt my first lessons; a) make back-ups of almost everything, and b) don't delete files that just seem to consist of a full stop for a title!
A third lesson has also dawned on me. Don't send any stamps to a firm called SHARE FAYRE in the hope of receiving a PD disk full of yummy catalouges. I'm still waiting since Oct 22nd. Deletion was needed. The only good stuff on it was a Wordstar WP and a Harvard graphics package. It seems like a good idea to actually know what you want a PC for before you start filling it with crap. Not much chance of that anyhow seeing as mags with cover disks all seem to be 3.5 size only. I know I need a database (see FPDS news), a filo-fax type thing (for my dental visits) and maybe a DTP program just in case I ever decide to buy a printer at long last. Games? Well I do own a Speccy so I'm not short of THEM, but maybe a top version of Mah Jong would be nice. I shall take advice from the PC arm of PRISM and order the best Speccy emulator going, but why stop there? Why not have a C64 and a CPC464 too!
Gone are the days when I could fit all my Speccy software lists within the confines of VU-FILE. Separate files are a pain to keep loading in, and of course makes cross referen-cing an impossability. I currently keep track of my software in a large A4 folder and electronically on Tasword files. 70MB would contain an awful lot of Speccy records. Hopefully by the next issue I should have least got the bastard running again... but don't bet money on it. (DAVE)
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