Another packed issue of Sam Revival! In this issue is my own feature article entitled 'Sam In A Can'. This has been my own pet project for several months now - this is a where I have taken a Sam motherboard and fitted it into a case along with a lot of extra hardware fitted internally (Quazar Surround soundcard, Serial Mouse Interface, PC Keyboard interface, disk drive and a hard drive!). I don't want to spoil this article so I will say no more - check it out in the magazine!.

Other articles include part 3 of Adrian Brown's coding column. This time round he takes a look at starting the coding structure for a game, such as double buffering screens, keyboard reading and interrupt handling and is complete with source code. The hints and tips section has the first part for a full walkthrough for Manic Miner with all the behind the scenes info and snippets of gossip from when it was being made way back in 1990-91. Another article looks at the improvements in the latest version of B-DOS.

Subscriber's issues have already been sent out, and I look forward to hearing what you think of this latest issue.

Sam Revival is released bi-monthly, and costs £2 per issue (or 3.75 euro for international readers). Subscriptions are available for £5 for three issues. (10 euros internationally). Issue four will be released in February.

This issue weighs in at a hefty 56 pages! Again, its full of Sam goodies including reviews, hints and tips, Sam snippets, and a large handful of feature articles including: an interview with Stephen McGreal of Mungus Software in the new 'What Happened To...' series of articles - which looks at software that was announced but never released. In a similar style, I also take a look through my old disks at projects I started but never finished or even announced. There's some great contributed articles from Adrian Brown, including adding Atom support into Comet Assembler and he also continues his coding column from the first issue - this time looking indepth at file handling in machine code and sprite grabbing.

Subscriber's issues will be sent out over the next few days, so look out for them popping through your letter boxes soon.

Sam Revival is released bi-monthly, and costs £2 per issue (or 3.75 euro for international readers). Subscriptions are available for £5 for three issues. (10 euros internationally). Issue three will be released in early December.

This issue features a big audio and graphical megademo with several parts to celebrate reaching the 3/4's centuary issue.

Also, over the course of the last few weeks, I've had enquiries about RGB Scart leads to work specifically with the Sam - well, yes I can make them and have done so on a few occasions recently. If you are after a high quality RGB Scart lead for the Sam I can make them for £7.50. (2m long, although of course I can make them to any length you require). I've now added them to my product list for easy reference.

I am always happy to help out with any sort of request for the Sam, and some other examples can be found in the Repairs section, and as always any questions or comments then do please feel free to ask.

My new PC Keyboard Interface allows you to use a PC Keyboard with the Sam. Fitted internally with the minimum of fuss, this interface is ideal if your keyboard membrane is damaged, or you just want to use a comfier PC Keyboard or sit away from the Sam. (While this interface is connected, the original Sam Keyboard can still be plugged in and used too)

The PC Keyboard Interface maps all the keys and symbols on the PC keyboard appropriately to the correct keys on the Sam, as well as having extra functions - such as NMI and RESET as keys. The interface does not limit the number of keys that are pressed at a time either, its elegant design maps exactly what you press so there's no problems where you'd need to press many keys at a time - such as games.

To fit the interface, three small connectors are soldered to the Sam motherboard to save having to directly solder wires to it, and only takes a few minutes of time to do. The interface sits on stands by the memory module inside the sam so does not get in the way of either of the disk drive bays and it connects by three cables to the small connectors on the motherboard, which also means it can be disconnected without any desoldering at all. A fourth cable is then fed through the grill on the bottom of the Sam and connects to the external pod box with the PS/2 Connector for the keyboard - this eliminates having to drill any holes in the Sam casing. Click the link below for the images.

If you don't feel up to the soldering of connectors on the Sam motherboard, then please contact me for details of sending your Sam motherboard to me to have the connectors and interface fitted for you.

The PC Keyboard Interface is available now priced £53.99.

With the last Sam paper magazine dying off over a year and a half ago I felt it was time to fill the gap. Sam Revival does just that! This launch issue is 44 pages in size, and is full of articles, programs, news, reviews, tips, hacking and more. (Thanks go out to the contributors who wrote articles and reviews with only a few weeks notice!). Feature articles include the start of a coding series of articles - looking at how Comet assembler stores its files for later use with compiled sprites, and also an in depth look at realistic surround sound.

It's my aim to make Sam Revival the best magazine there has been for the Sam and help bring the community closer together and provide everyone with a place to help each other out.

Sam Revival is released bi-monthly, with issue 2 (which is already in preparation) out at the start of October.

As a special launch price, issue one of Sam Revivial is available for £1.50 for the next month. From issue two onwards Sam Revival will be the normal price of £2 an issue, or £5 for a three issue subscription.

For European customers, I have had to add approx 50p or so to cover the international postage for the magazine, so it works out at 3 Euro for Issue 1 at the special offer price, then 3,75 Euro for Issue 2 onwards, or 10 Euro for a three issue subscription.

This issue is a double disk issue, featuring 'IMPostors' - a full commercial game written by Mungus Software. It's also been improved for its re-release on Soundbyte as I have cleaned up the original samples and improved the sample playing routines which I originally wrote for the game.

Impostors is a challenging arcade game in which you have to guide your Imps initially through fifty or so levels to get back to the Imp Circus. Once there the gameplay changes and you then have to win quite a few circus puzzle games to eventually defeat the infamous baddy and his hoard of imposters.

The feature program on this issue of Soundbyte is another music demo which uses my ADPCM sample compression where the music is stored compressed into memory - 16 bit samples are compressed at a ratio of 8:1, and the samples are decompressed in realtime apon playback.

Also on this issue is another game zone for use with the game 'Super Byke Championship'.

Soundbyte is released monthly, costing £2 per issue, or £5 for 3 issues and £18 for 12 issues (for either subscriptions or back issues.)

My new Mouse Interface allows you to use a standard PC Serial mouse (or PS/2 Combi mouse with ps/2 to serial adaptor) with the Sam! The mouse interface comes complete with a serial mouse (as shown in the photo above) so it's all ready to go as soon as you get it.

The most important feature of the Quazar Mouse Interface is that it is *** FULLY COMPATIBLE *** with all existing Sam software that uses a mouse! Just plug it into the mouse port on the back of the Sam and go!

The Mouse Interface is available now priced £47.00.

The feature program on this issue of Soundbyte is a music demo called 'Two Track Music Demo 2' which is in a similar style to the original music demo on issue 61 of Soundbyte. Using my ADPCM sample compression, two music tracks are compressed into memory - 16 bit samples are compressed at a ratio of 8:1 and decompressed in realtime apon playback.

Also on this issue is a piece of music created with Quazar Sequencer / Quazar Sequencer Pro.