Talk:SAM Coupé

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Contents 1 SAM Elite 2 Kaleidoscope 3 Disc versus Disk 4 US Gold 5 Name

[edit] SAM Elite

I believe there was another (virtually identical?) version released called the SAM Elite. There seems to be some inconsistency in the article with capitalisation: SAM vs. Sam. I think the screen modes would be better described in the format 256x192 16 colours, rather than 256x192x16. Perhaps mention it was apparently called the "Coupe" because it looked like the boot of a car, and that it had a little cutsie robot mascot called Sam. Personally, I thought the memory paging system was the machine's biggest drawback (I found it a problem for programming).

I believe West Coast Computers annouced the SAM Elite, but did they ever actually produce any?

[edit] Kaleidoscope

I actually have one of these. So it did ship. Morwen - Talk 16:18, 5 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Disc versus Disk

I've quite probably used "disc" in edits I've made to this article numerous times, but with respect to 82.118.116.45's edit "(it's disK as in disKETTE not disC as in a flat circular object (which a compact disc is hence it's a compact "disc"). nothing to do with "american" english language differences.)", original advertising material does indeed talk about disks with a k so that seems to be correct. Although I don't see why they couldn't prima facie be discs given that the bit you see and hold also isn't floppy. ThomasHarte 13:13, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

Further to refute 82.118.116.45's explanation, Image:ElectronMagazineAd.jpg clearly shows reference to "floppy discs" (sic) in a British publication of the early 80s in the top left corner. So I guess the question is how consistent were MGT/SamCo/West Coast in their spelling? ThomasHarte 19:05, 20 November 2005 (UTC)

BOOT with no disk results in the message: "55 Missing Disk, 0:1"... but I think this is the real question: "Is disc currently the British spelling?" - IMO, it's not. StuartBrady 22:02, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

I remember the amstrad allowing both disk and disc fwiw. Secretlondon 20:25, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

Ooh. SAM BASIC did some similar things, e.g. DELETE/ERASE, PEN/INK, etc. but nothing quite like that. BTW, ISTR seeing that both GDOS and G+DOS for the DISCiPLE and PlusD (two of MGT's earlier products) used inconsist spellings for disk/disc in their error and status messages. StuartBrady 20:45, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

If I remember correctly, this was a one-man Bob Brenchley crusade back in the day, although I can't remember what side he was on. Morwen - Talk 00:50, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

I've had a quick dig into my SAM software collection, and Bob Brenchley seems to have been a disc man as I possess "Format's Demo Disc 1", copyright 1991. There does seem to have been variation in the spelling from the MGT/SAMCo folks as my original (MGT) copy of Flash!/etc is titled "Dr. Wright's DEMO. *DOS DISC*" but every issue of The Sam[Co] Newsdisk is spelt with a k. As is the "Blank Disk" provided with The Sound Machine. ThomasHarte 01:48, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

FWIW, in the disk article, it's mentioned that the 'k' spelling dates back to the 19th century for gramophone records, and that yes, there was once a British/American divide over this. StuartBrady 21:34, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] US Gold

We probably need a reference for the US Gold comment[1]. I'm sure I remember hearing something like this, though. --StuartBrady (Talk) 15:52, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

• http://www.mobygames.com/game/strider/trivia
• http://www.old-computers.com/museum/doc.asp?c=545

The mobygames comment certainly predates the wikipedia edit. I'd like to know where the quote was originally printed, though. --StuartBrady (Talk) 16:03, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Oh, it seems to have been taken from the scrapbook: http://www.sadsnail.freeserve.co.uk/Coupe/Info/about.html --StuartBrady (Talk) 16:07, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Name

I was always under the impression that "Spectrum Advanced Machine" was an unofficial name... so should the introduction use this name, or should it just say "SAM"? --StuartBrady (Talk) 19:44, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

I'd say it's a myth. Accoring to [2] the official (backronym ?) was "Some Amazing Machine". However, I'm not sure if it is significant enought to be in the title. --Frodet 23:48, 17 March 2007 (UTC)