PC Fumblings. Last time we met my PC was still up a certain creek with paddle amiss. I'm pleased to be able to report that it is now up and running like a West Ham fan from The Den. Once into the hard drive I decided to assault the bastard with a total format; it took about ten months but I now have DOS version 5.00 running about in 69MB of free space. My extended thanks go out to DG Sherwood, Matthew Deeprose and son of DG, little Martyn. Your advice saved me hours of hair pulling. Work on the worlds biggest Spectrum program database is now underway. When finished (will it ever be?) it will be made available to all PC users in both 3.5 and 5.25 formats. What shall we call it? How about Specbase? Nothing like originality is there... and it will cost nish of course. Right, onto business... what are PC's for? that's right, to emulate Spectrums. News reaches us of the latest version of the LUNTER Z80 EMULATOR, reported to be the dogs pods when it comes to this specific area of Speccy-tomfoolery. Why have an emulator you may ask... well, erm, you can play all your faves at different speeds, erm, you can store hundreds of them on your hard disc and erm, because it's a bit of a amazing thing to witness. The list of features on this emulator will amaze. It emulates 48k or 128k machines, Interface 1, Microdrive, Disciple or +D and even a Multiface! All in one... told you you'd be amazed. Sound is output through either the PC'speaker or via Soundblaster for the more complex 128 stuff. Fucking bonkers eh?
It does have some little bugs but I can't be bothered to mention them at the moment as I can't test it out. It will run under DOS or WINDOWS and supports all the normal joysticks (does anyone have a Protek?) and the AMX mouse. If you want a bug free Speccy then you can always get your +3 out... irony, irony, they've all got it irony. The price of this wonderful bit of kit is 3.50 for the unregistered version (with loads of good bits missing), 15 for the version without +D gubbins or the full 20 squiddly diddly for the business. For more information send a SAE to the following: BG SERVICES, 64 Roebuck Rd, Chessington, Surrey KT9 1JX or bell them on 0181 287 4180. Don't tell them we sent you because they probably havn't heard of us. If anyone fancies earning a few cans of beer and Amanda asking them shit questions all night, would you like to come round and whip out the Tape Streamer and bung in a 3.5 drive for us? I understand it is pretty easy to do but after taking a peek inside the case, the thing is built like a German outside bog. Oh alright, 12 cans and 40 Rothmans, we can't say fairer than that. The house at 13 Rodney Close does not only boast Prism PD serving the Speccy, CPC and Amiga, they have a PC arm too, run by V.I. Sherwood. The catalogue oozed onto my hard disk with its own directory and file viewer. Prices are very very cheap compared to other libraries and I'd recommend you take a look. I've just ordered a shitload of gear for well under a fiver and if it all decompresses onto hard disk like the catalogue did I'll be well happy. Write enclosing SAE and formatted disc (3.5 or 5.25) to: V.I Sherwood, 13 Rodney Close, Bilton, Rugby, CV22 7HJ. One of the games I'm certainly going to get hold of is FRONTIER-ELITE 2. The Speccy original is amazing so what this expanded sequel will consist of makes my small mind boggle. Fights are already breaking out at SC Towers in trying to shift Amanda from playing PREMIER MANAGER 2. The daft cow can't even get out of the Vauxhall Conference but refuses to give in. It's bad enough watching her having to manage Gateshead. A final word: Don't spend over a grand on the latest PC going if you are thinking of upgrading. Bullshit rules in the PC world so get yourself a lowspec machine and do a bit of upgrading - you'll save hundreds. If a dumb shit like me can do it I'm bloody sure you can!
Share your thoughts about the article