Back in May, I had the good fortune to visit the Wakefield RISC OS show with my good lady and a fine time was had. One of the exhibitors was Archive Magazine. Sadly, Gavin (the editor) couldn't make it to the show so Archive contributor Colin Piggot covered for him. Colin also produces SAM Revival magazine, and was doing a sterling business of under the counter SAM-ing (well, certainly to me). With the latest issue of SAM Revival (number 26) just being released at the weekend (which I am looking forward to receiving - I pre-ordered it last year) I thought it timely to have a look at the four issues I walked away with from the RISC OS show and show you how the magazine has changed over the years.
Before I do that, however, I should point out that SAM Revival is published on an ad-hoc basis and you can see from the cover dates that there is a gap between each issue. This is very much a labour of love for Colin and about his passion for the SAM Coupe. Certainly, having spent a good amount of time talking to him at the Wakefield Show, that passion is in no way diminishing and there are plenty of plans for the future. As you'll see below, I also picked up a neat little news leaflet that provided updates to all that Colin has planned.
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| Issue 11 |
To begin with, we have issue 11, cover dated November/December 2004. It's 44 pages long, stapled and mono. This issue came with a cover CD containing 18 audio tracks that show off what the SAM is capable of (ok, 17 tracks, number 18 is a funky little time capsule). There's a report on the ORSAM 2004 show (held in Norwich), an in-depth guide to the various audio interfaces available for the SAM, as well as a trio of SAM snippets, little asides to the main audio piece.
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| Issue 21 |
Issue 21 is dated from March/April 2008, and has 40 pages with some added colour, although the magazine is still stapled. As you can see from the contents page, this is a much more varied issue and I particularly enjoyed the interview with demo coders The Lords and the Developer Diary article. The cover disk contains four games (Bats 'N Balls, Tetris, Soul Magician and Pac-Man) as well as four demos from The Lords.
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| Issue 22 |
The September/October 2008 dated issue 22 has 32 pages although there is even more colour now. There is the usual news section, the developer diary covers further work on 3D graphics for the SAM, whilst the primary article asks the very important question about what happened to the Manic Miner sequel. As for the cover disk, you get platformer Burglar Bob and a 3D Demo from Developer Diary contributor Thomas Harte.
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| Issue 23 |
Just over a year later, issue 23 dropped for November/December 2009. Still at 32 pages but now in full colour, the news section focused on the latest VIC-20 emulator news. The cover disk contains said VIC-20 emulator, Survive the Night (originally written in 1995) and 3D Demo 2 from Thomas Harte. The developer diary has three entires this issue, and a three page SAM snippet covers the first mass storage interface for the SAM. The Trinity Boot ROM gets a multi-page article at the request of users.
As you can see, over the period between 2004 to 2009, SAM Revival developed into a full colour presentation with regular cover disks and news of developments in the hardware. When I looked at issue 25, it had turned into a professionally bound full colour booklet, and issue 26 looks to be following in those footsteps, whilst increasing the page count from 56 to 72 pages.
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| Show leaflet |
As for future developments, the leaflet I picked up at Wakefield mentioned Colin's on-going work with Symbiote, an eZ80 co-processor/sound board and, of particular interest to me, the Pandemonium, a new SAM system using the last of the custom chips originally manufactured for the Coupe back in 1989. The idea of a modern day SAM Coupe computer really does appeal and I look forward to the day Colin announces the new hardware.
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| More show leaflet |
Check out Colin's website here, where you can order the various hardware add-ons he already sells for the Coupe (and for other platforms too). You can also order the latest issue, buy back issues and pre-order the next two (27 and 28). I know once payday rolls around, I'll be putting my order in for the these two. You can follow Colin on Twitter here and keep up with the latest news on all things SAM. If you can, pick up a copy or two and check out one of the funkiest 8-bit systems ever to see a UK release. You can expect a review of issue 26 on this blog within the next couple of weeks.
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