I have to admit that once again a Julie Boswell program has got the better of me. I spent heart-breaking hours trying to get her Letterhead Designer from Electron User March 1988 to work for my printer and failed, so it was no surprise when I couldn't get her Printer Driver 2 to play either.

That aside, I wonder if Thomas Boustead's instructions were complete? I use a Printer Driver published in EU August 1986 that came with good instructions for loading and using the machine code file that results. If you get a lot of confusion I'll send the assembler and a precis of the instructions.

In reply to what works with Slogger's T2P3, it can make a lot of difference which mode a 64K Elk is in and which sort of Plus 1 is fitted as to whether a transferred game will run. The only complete disappointment I have suffered is Sim City.

Partial failures are Birdstrike, because of the 300 baud data which T2P3 refuses to read, and Aviator (apart from being a Beeb game that requires the Plus 1 to be disabled and/or *KILLed and the sound *FX'd out anyway) seems to transfer in full but does not LOAD in full. This could be my hardware but I suspect the game software causes the '?' file to hang at block 3B on reload. Apart from that Elite, Repton, Arcadians and several others have transferred sweet as a nut.

I don't think copying to T2P3 is half as tedious as repeatedly waiting for a tape to load.

I was a little confused by Derek Walker's comments on the PLUS 2 ROM.

1. I bought mine shortly after release in August 1988 and it calls itself PRES +1 1.19 (Not PLUS 2, note!). Derek refers to 1.17. I don't think there was a previous version so is this a typo on someone's part or a totally different product? Curiously PRES call this the AP2 ROM in their adverts even though just installing it in a basic Acorn Plus 1 is enough to get the "PRES Plus 1" flag at switch on.
2. Version 1.19 has the *KILL command which disables the ROM until switch off, thus overcoming any command clash and has always been an advertised feature.
3. The AP2 ROM is surely indispensable for a Plus 3 owner. It's what it does for non-disk or DFS users that is arguable.

Chris Chadwick
Wilts

In all fairness to Tom Boustead, I think I should point out that both the information he sent as an introduction to using View and the Printer Driver program that appeared in EUG #3, came in the form of personal letters and were never intended to be printed as comprehensive articles. I'm sure that had I requested more detailed instructions, they would have been given. Thanks to Chris Chadwick for sending an "alternative" Printer Driver program which appears in this issue.

On the subject of the ACP/Pres Plus 2 ROM, Derek Walker has this to say:

Will Watts

1. There are two points here:
   
   a) I purchased my Advanced Plus 2 ROM on 5th July 1988. It was first advertised in the May 1988 Electron User and it is version 1.17 (no typing error). Pres must have found errors in my earlier version and corrected them, thus the new version number of Mr Chadwick's ROM.
   
   b) My concept of Plus 1 is of a hardware module that contains the support software (Plus 1 ROM) for its features. Pres, who have the "rights" to the Plus 1, have added ADFS utilities to this ROM and named it "Advanced Plus 2 ROM". This is why I called it Pres Plus 2. When the Advanced Plus 2 ROM is installed in the Plus 1 module, it will obviously sign on as a Pres Plus 1 as it is still essentially the Plus 1 software.
2. Version 1.17 has the *KILL feature but the drawback to preventing command clashes in this way is that it disables the printer port and the analogue to digital converter. Thus you can't print anything while running the programs that clashed with the Advanced Plus 2.
3. I agree with this comment but would like to clarify; The point of the paragraph on the Advanced Plus 2 ROM was to inform Elk users to be wary of this particular version no matter what their system is now, because their system might change in the future and it will give them problems. If you see it advertised (second hand), steer clear of it.

Derek Walker
Glasgow
EUG #4