Santa Claus thought he was busy over Chrimbles! He ain’t got nuffin’ on SAM Computers (or so they reckon). They’ve been rushing round like blue-arsed flies since the festive season with orders from all over the world for our blue-footed friend. NICK ROBERTS has the word.

ARCADIA ACTION!

This new disk magazine has been inundated with orders since its mention in CRASH, and the next issue is now available, packed with more of the same lovely features. There are solitaire and crossword games, a mega slideshow with a whole disk full of gruesome pictures and reviews of some of the latest SAM and Spectrum releases.

Arcadia’s presentation is well impressive, machine code scrollies everywhere — they scroll even when you BREAK into the program! My only advice to producers of this disk mag is to include a little more. Okay, so the latest issue has two disks, but the main menu only has ten options.

But at only £2 an issue you can hardly go wrong, so send your cheques to Arcadia.

If you’ve created a disk magazine or public domain demo and want a mention in the original and best SAM page, send your disks to the address below. If I get lots of stuff we might even publish a double SAM page!

I NAME THIS SHIP...

Yes folks, there’s a new force in SAM 512K software, Noesis, which, for those of you who didn’t take an English ‘A’ level, means intelligence (how the hell would you know, Nicko?! — Ed). This new company has been set up by ace programmer and tea maker, Chris White, famed for SAM Prince Of Persia.

The first release on this new label is Boing!, a cutesy platform game starring a little green bloke. The team responsible are an impressive bunch: Rob Holman (Futureball, Sphera, Defenders Of The Earth) is on code, Neil Holmes, graphix, and Stuart Leonardi, music. With a line up like that, this promises to be one hell of a game — out soon.

The other big Noesis game is Lemmings. Chris has been working on a version for months but this doesn’t mean the game will definitely emerge — it all depends on funding and the go-ahead from 16-bit giant, Psygnosis.

BALLS!

An interesting new SAM Co disk features demos from a Polish programming team, ESI. Just take a look at these screenshots! When animated ‘balls’ is highly impressive and has a toe-tapping tune that’s driving everyone in the office bonkers. It’s a good laugh, too, with slightly incorrect English scrolling messages.

Let’s hope we see more of this programming team in the future, perhaps a game or two, lads?

That’s all the space used up once more. This is the place to be for the latest SAM news and it’s a regular feature — none of these fly-by-night columns in CRASH. If you have something SAMmy to say or have a disk you’d like me to see, send it to: SAM Page, Nick Roberts, CRASH. Bye till next munf.