MODE 1:32x24 character cells per screen, each cell with 2 colour capability.
MODE 2:32x192 cells, each cell 2 colour capability.
MODE 3:512x192 pixels (85 column mode), reduced colour capability per line.
MODE 4:256x192 graphics screen.

The Coupé’s palette is 128 colours of which 16 can be chosen (MODE1,2&4) or 4 in MODE3 - see Screen Modes.

The palette can be altered on a per-line basis using the line interrupts in MODEs 2-4 to give multiple colours on screen or to produce effects in the border, see Fred 41 menu for a good example.

Originally the machine was to have 64 colours due to a shortage of pins on the ASIC, see Hardware Bugs and Limitations but intervention by Bo Jangeborg whilst writing Flash! upped it to 128:

“I convinced them to do away with the hardware flash in the high colour modes. That allowed for a significantly larger pallet. I think it went from 64 to 128 colours. That also allowed me to transfer some pictures from the Atari without too big a degradation.”

RJV Graphics

Artist and animé fan.

BG Services

Wayne Weedon

A self-contained stereo amplifier that plugged into the Audio Out/Lightpen port, taking power from there to drive headphones or small speakers.

Owned and run by Brian Gaff.

Sold the Samplifier and Pro-Dos and other CP/M related products.

Owner of BG Services providing hardware and software for the Coupé.

Revelation, later Persona

Paul Angel

(Cover art: Darrren Blackburn)

The first sound package for the Coupé, was superceded by E-Tracker and ProTracker 2.

Aquired by Persona and released with Blitz magazine.

Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

How many times have you heard a tune on a PD program, and said to yourself…”I want to write a tune like that!”. Unfortunately, you had no utilities to write music…Until now! We have a copy of The Sound Machine, uncaged and dangerous, for this is an excellent piece of software! In the actual Sound Machine pack, you get 2 disks and a hefty instruction booklet, neatly put into a huge box with a bad colour photocopy inlay…! The booklet itself is a rather good read, as it tells you how to write and compose music, how to transfer sheet music to the program and how to write your own waveforms!

Enough of the booklet! As soon as the first part of the program loads, you are treated to a piccy of SAM with a keyboard, and a little arrow (well not little, it’s flippin’ huge!). You can control this arrow by mouse or keys, but BE WARNED! It is possible to use the Sound Machine with keys, but the cursor is very slow, so watch out! From this screen you can choose to load the actual Sound Machine or the rather spiffy Waveform Generator so we’ll review the latter first…

The Waveform Generator allows you to save your own waveforms, for use on the Sound Machine. This is the actual “nerve centre” of the Sound Machine, as you can define up to 10 waveforms for instruments….drum beat, bass guitar, tamborine, you name it - it can be simulated on this! Actually, you may need to combine 2 waveforms to produce one instrument. The Generator is well presented, and very easy to use. You can select noise or tone, the frequency of the waveform, and so on! If you are a little confused over the business of waves, there are several wave files on the disk, which you can load, examine and modify!

Author of Flash! and products for the ZX Spectrum including Fairlight, ‘The Artist’ and ‘The Artist 2’.

Interview published in issue 6 of The ZX Files in 1998

Runs software company Softwave in Sweden.

MGT

Bo Jangeborg

The Art Package bundled with the Coupé for which Bo gave up his summer of 1989 to produce for MGT.

Based on this high-quality packages The Artist One/Two for the ZX Spectrum it was the first major application for the platform.

The split-screen editing to keep the menu bar on screen was different from the now more normal ‘screen swapping’ method used by Atari ST and Amiga packages.

Flash! gets a lot of bad press when compared to other art packages such as Sam Paint and ones on other platforms but remember that this application was written not so much in the Coupé’s infancy more like when it was embryonic.

Available on the SamDOS disc.

PDF manual scan at http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk

Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

Owner of Sam PD and the commercial arm F9 Software.