Thank you for EUG #14. I enclose a cheque for £1.30 for EUG #15 and have followed your format of writing in a View file.
I wish to repeat the good wishes from other readers regarding your success as editor and, of course, acknowledge the work done by Will and all those who assisted him. I rarely use the Electron for games now but, in repsonse to a couple of items in EUG #14, pass on my experiences.
Referring to Christian Weber's plea for help on Exile, the Acorn User January, February and March 1991 published a good 'solution'. Using this and other helpsheets, I was able to get the destinator and the two crew members back to the spaceship, cause the engine to ignite and the spaceship to take off. However, Triax came and took the destinator back and I was left orbiting the planet.
I could never understand why this brilliant game never achieved cult status. Saving and loading from tape was the only bad thing about it and I upgraded to the Master 128 partly because of this. (Unfortunately I've blown some buffers on my Master so all my serious work has to be done on the trusty Electron.)
Referring to Shelia Bridges' letter regarding her setup and love of Repton, with ADT's *XFER utility, and using ADFS E00, I transferred all the files from Repton 3, Around The World, Repton Thru Time, The Life Of Repton and the Editor from tape into one directory on the Electron. (Sufficient entertainment for months but I must admit I only had the patience to complete Repton 3 and I only occasionally return to try the others.)
Regarding my Master, I can run all of my disks but any attempt to write to disk corrupts the first sectors. I found I could get around this by using ADT's *AMOVE utility to transfer my programs and View files to an ABR cartridge, which I then plugged into the Electron and saved to disk there. However, I find that switching off machines to swap cartridges and drive leads over is a bit of a nuisance so I tend to stick to the Electron when I have to write or save to disk a lot.
A small tip (although it's probably been mentioned a hundred times): Using View or BASIC in Modes 6 or 3, I prefer a blue background. Instead of setting up a !BOOT file, or using the VDU19 command (which View won't accept anyway), I just type *BLU to call a piece of machine code saved on most of my disks.
Thought of a bit more re: Christian Weber's Where Have All The Letters Gone?. The number of letters in EUG #13; their length and their content make my effort look like a space filler. I hope I interest someone or at least inspire one of you wizards to share your knowledge.
1st August 1994