I’ve removed CamelCase freelinking (aka StudlyCaps). I don’t think any pages were actually using it, and it caused problems for names like Brian McConnell.

When you click on a free link which doesn’t yet exist, and then select the correct page type from the list, the Title is filled out for you automatically.

Digital Reality were two Z80 programmers, namely Balor Knight and Chris Pile.

They developed several Spectrum games and utilities during the mid-to-late 1980s. When the SAM Coupé was released, and seduced by its faster CPU and 16-colour bitmap, Digital Reality began to turn their efforts into producing titles for this machine.

Published titles known are:

• Astroball and Dyzonium - both programmed by Balor Knight.
• Pro-DOS and Defender - both programmed by Chris Pile.

It is thought other titles were in development. These were either never finished, never released or, simply, never existed. No evidence of any unfinished titles seems to exist.

It looks like Digital Reality have been dormant since 1998. Possibly extinct?

Woody

Balor Knight, one half of Digital Reality, made his name in the Sam world by writing Astroball, a platform game which was picked up by Revelation and Dyzonium for FRED Publishing.

Astroball was also written for the Spectrum, as was a sequel “Turbulence” which appeared on a Your Sinclair cover tape.

A 1998 interview with Balor can be found HERE

Now a successful next-gen console programmer with a string of big-budget PC, PS2 and XBOX titles to his name - often in the multi-player genre of extreme racing simulation.

Has been the lead programmer on several high-end PC racing-game titles: “Re-Volt”, developed whilst Balor was at Acclaim Studios, London; and The Italian Job, developed at Climax Studios, Brighton - to name but two.

Recently (2004) seen as the lead programmer on the PS2 racing-game title “Crash ‘n’ Burn” - developed by Climax Studios, Brighton.

Have no contact information* , but indications suggest he’s still programming high-end titles at Climax Studios, Brighton.

UPDATE 24/01/2013:    Balor and a couple of his ex-Blackrock Studios colleagues now run their own games development company called Mad Atom Games Ltd, based in Brighton.

*UPDATE 08/08/2013:  Balor can be contacted via bay (AT) madatomgames (DOT) com - after making the obvious changes to the address.

Trivia

Howard Price named his band The Balor Knights

Public Domain

David Gommeren

Rob Mies

One of the Sam’s earliest quality PD games, this version of Tetris by David Gommeren (aka Lord Insanity, previously known for writing demos on the ZX Spectrum) was distributed on Fred issue 3. It is largely because of this program that Fred was the first disk magazine to receive rave reviews in the newsstand magazines.

Released: 26 July 1990.

2. Whatto
3. Lockan
4. sweept
5. beehiv
6. clockt
7. goodlu
8. lovean
9. standi
10. billan
11. oneone
12. sixxtw
13. badluc
14. dlucky
15. fififi
16. tensix
17. drivin
18. nexton
19. lastle

2. Kangar
3. Climba
4. Openth
5. Stayal
6. Steals
7. Heaven
8. Garden
9. Redwin
10. Pencil
11. Hellan
12. Divean
13. Shirtc
14. Sevxto
15. Tennfi
16. Forfor
17. sevnte
18. tonine
19. tennin
20. twoten

5. Sanity
10. Zaphod
15.Boing!
20. Splat!
25. Mellow
30. Domain
35. Sentry
40. Mousse
45. Outcry
50. Himmel
55. Duress
60. Carrot
65. Teabag
70. Waffle
75. Lander
80. Haunch
85. Tardis
90. Jarre!

ROM 3.0

• Type: def keycode 192,chr$ 58 then press F0.
  
• Defining DOS command to Keys
  Whilst helping a friend to construct a small program which defines the “F” key to do different things, I came across an unexpected problem. One of the keys was going to be defined as “DIR1”. We used the following line:-

  10 DEF KEYCODE 195: DIR1

  Now according to the manual, this should work, but what we found is that the machine crashed when “Enter” was pressed to insert the line. Try it yourselves and see.

  I got in touch with Bruce Gordon, who said that he knew about this particular problem. It happens when you define a key to do a DOS command of any type. The syntax check doesn’t do it’s job properly and the machine crashes. This doesn’t happen with “LOAD” or “SAVE” as these are not handled by the DOS, but the ROM.
  You can get around it by putting the DOS command in speech marks like so:-

  10 DEF KEYCODE 195,"DIR1"

  This is accepted by the syntax, because it doesn’t check anything within the quotes. It’s only a small problem, but it could wipe out a lot of work if you used it without thinking.

  Since writing the above, I have found out that the “bug” is not present on the very latest DOS. This is the DOS that you get with your ROM upgrade pack. I would still suggest you use the “fix” though, as it is very easy to load in an older DOS from aprevious disc, without realising it. - K. Purcocks, SAM Supplement 2

• Input buffer bug

  The other thing is a fix for the INPUT bug which crops up in many programs. What happens is you get the character from the last key pressed before the input popping into the INPUT so you have to delete it before proceeding! In the case of Flash! this is usually a 0 in my case as I use a joystick and the 0 is the fire button (the last thing pressed before exiting to BASIC to save or load etc.). To cure it add a line…