NEWS
Alchemist has moved
Most of you who have been in touch with me
will know that I've moved. I'm now living
in Leigh, which is a small town between
Liverpool and Manchester. I'm not giving
the address just yet because I'm in the
process of buying a much larger house than
the one I'm currently in, but there should
be details in the next issue.
In the meantime, keep writing to the Tithe
Barn Lane address, the post is being
redirected to me.
Why the move? Well, I finally got out of
the insecure engineering industry and back
into computing. I did a stint working for
TIME COMPUTERS in Burnley from November
1999 to February 2000, when I got a job as
IT MANAGER for a large stationery and
office supply company in Bolton. I've got
my own office, workshop, staff, car and
access to loads of new and used computer
gear!
When I got the job at Time, I moved in
with my girlfriend into her two bedroomed
house in Leigh, but we are now looking for
something larger where I can set up the
Alchemist office like in Sheffield,
especially now Mick has cut back his work
on the magazine (see below).
I must say that it's a really nice part of
the world, extremely flat, and close to
many of AlchNews's oldest and longest
readers. We're now in the process of
setting up another show in this part of
the world.
GOODBYE MICK.....
It is with deep sadness and regret that I
annouce than Mick Harrop has said goodbye
to the Spectrum scene. Mick has put in
many long hours converting programs and
files for you readers and it has put a bit
of strain on his marriage and took a lot
of space up in his home! So, he's got rid
of all his Spectrum and PC gear and
bought....... A SEGA DREAMCAST!
CRASHED ON-LINE
The web pages are only at a basic stage at
time of writing but you can now email Dave
Fountain at:
fountainboy_uk@yahoo.com
DISCIPLE AND +D EMULATION INCREASING
First we saw microdrive emulation on the
PC Spectrum emulators. Then it was the
Beta disk. Now, finally, the +D and
Disciple disks are now being converted to
800k images and are accessible with some
of the new emulators. One site dealing
with many images is:
file://retroplay.com/Mecenate/ramsoft/
ALCHNEWS READER TURNS COLUMNIST AND
WEBMASTER
Nick Cheesman, a long time reader, has
set up his own site dedicated to the
Spectrum. Some of his new articles from
the site have been featured in this issue.
His site is at:
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~njc1/index.htm
Nick says: " The site contains a NetZine I
have called MonoCall which will be
multi-format (for maximum hits) but will
be largely Sinclair orientated. Time is
against me at the moment but I hope to
have more material available in the New
Year probably on BASIC programming."
ZXVGS FOR PENTAGON
Yarek Adamski has done it again! He's made
working release of ZXVGS for Pentagon. It
can be found at
"http://nautilus.torch.net.pl/
zxland/ZX021PEN.RAR".
R80 New release
The R80 emulator has seen an update. PC
readers will find a copy with this issue.
DEMOTOPIA
Matt Westcott, another regular, has also
set up a new website. Demotopia deals with
demos - just about every single one ever
written! The site is very comprehensive
and well well designed for easy
navigation. If you want a copy of the
latest demos, or even a classic like NMI,
you can find, download and run it in under
a minute!
http://www.demo.eu.org/
ALCHEMIST ON-LINE HITS 40000 HITS
In well under a year (about nine months),
the Alchemist Research web site has just
got it's 40,000 visitor! Visitor figures
vary, it's usually about six or seven per
day on average, but on Friday 14th April
it got a staggering NINETY NINE hits!
Z88 MAGAZINE TO CLOSE
Has the Z88 bubble burst? After a
wonderful re-birth, the Z88 is starting to
suffer from lack of new programs, material
and feedback. Darren Branagh's Z88 USER
magazine is facing an uncertain future.
Darren no longer wishes to carry on due to
work committments. Bill Richardson has
asked us to take it over but even I can't
keep it going with no material. There is,
however, the possibility of a regular Z88
section in CRASHED magazine - the only
magazine which is doing extremely well in
these dark times. We'll keep you posted on
any developments.
ALL THE BEST BILL
Our best wishes go out to Bill Richardson
who has just undergone open heart surgery
- and not for the first time either!
HACKERS HANGOUT RELEASED
Andy Ryal's magazine, issue no. 9, has hit
the streets. It's a bumper issue, with no
less than 32 A4 pages. It covers news on
new Speccy titles, including SONIC, a
review on the current Spectrum scene,
history of the Beta Dos protection
systems, letters, pokes and the old
favourite - BASIC listings! Just `2.50
will subscribe you to three issues. For
more details, see Trading Post.
CRASHED 29 RELEASED
By the way Dave is running the magazine,
you'd think it was 1986 again - the heyday
of the Spectrum. While I'm struggling to
prepare AlchNews, an issue of CRASHED pops
on my doormat and I think "Ah, I'll review
that". So I do. What seems like only
weeks later and yet another issue pops on
my doormat. The April issue is only days
away and will probably be out before this
is!
February's (29) contains quick reviews of
the latest magazines, a sneak preview of
Pokemon for the Spectrum 128, tons of
letters, the best software and PD reviews
and peviews and a tutorial to typeliner,
even a SAM section! Price is `1.50,
quality and quantity is excellent and
address is:
11 CAMEL ROAD
SILVERTOWN
LONDON
E16 2DE
NEW Z88 PROGRAMS
LEMMINGS has made it to yet another
platform. The Z88 conversion is not only
true to the original, but actually plays
well on the unique screen!
EPMANAGER and KONUNDRUM by Richard Boam
have made a re-appearance after many years
in the wilderness.
CRASHED PD CLOSES
Dave regrets that he has cancelled plans
to start up Crashed PD. The time and
resources it would take to professionally
run the library just wouldn't be worth it
for the small customers it would receive.
However, I have put forward an idea with
Dave to put the latest titles in the hands
of our readers - watch this space!