Over two years in the making, MGT's SAM Coupe, probably the most exciting and important development in the Spectrum world, has finally arrived at Castle Rathbone. Without further ado, we put Matt Bielby, David Wilson and Duncan MacDonald, the YS trusty trio, on the case. When the case started showing signs of breaking under the strain of the clots' combined weight we told them to get off and open it up instead! Here's what they found!
Despite how much we all love the humble Speccy it has been around for some seven years now! With fewer games becoming available (this year, for example, we've seen Elite, Palace, Superior/Alligata and CP Software opt out of the 8-bit market), the doubting Thomas's around us were beginning to wonder where the machine's future lay! That was until we first started to hear that the SAM Coupe was shaping up as 'the new Speccy'. The SAM will run most of your existing 48K software (and improvements in compatability are being worked on as we speak) but, more importantly, it will create a whole new breed of games software on a superior machine, and breath new life into the Speccy world as we know it! Let's take a closer look, shall we?
It's big and colourful, isn't it!? There's eight-channel sound (even the ST has only three channels!), 128 colours and no attribute clash! Although it uses a Z80 processing chip (the same as that in the Speccy) it runs at 6Mhz, almost twice the speed of our rubber-keyed chum! SAM has its own Basic, which although it has much in common with Spectrum Basic (so you won't need to learn a new language) is much more powerful, better even than BBC Basic, and runs at the aforementioned increased speed.
The SAM Coupe has also been designed very much with the future in mind. There are two protective covers situated in the front of the body which simply 'pop' out to allow disk drives to be 'plugged in'. If you already have an MGT +D Disciple disk drive this too can be used with the Coupe via a 'bus' connector (available from MGT at £19.95). Underneath the SAM's body is a panel held in place by two screws, beneath which lies another socket into which the upgrade board 'plugs' to take the Coupe to 512K. In addition, the SAM has expansion ports at the back to accept all manner of peripherals from light pens and light guns to midi, video and hi-fi equipment.
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