Acorn Electron Haven

By Dave E

Originally published in EUG #43a44

Where is my EUG #29?! [For any readers who are new to this, the copy of EUG #29 I received at the time of issue didn't work properly so I sent it back for a re-format. It was then over a year before the new copy arrived and to my absolute amazement, it didn't work either. I sent this one back immediately and it's now coming up to six months since that too!] I also requested about a year ago for you to change the format of the disks you send to me from ADFS to DFS format. This wasn't done either!

On a lighter note, it may be of interest to some of your readers that I am setting up "The Acorn Electron Haven" at my home address. The Elk is now one of my main hobbies, and has been for a number of years, and I have accumulated a mass of literature and several tons of software on both tape and disk. I would like to improve the Public Domain section of The Haven as it only consists of a few titles, and I would also like to collect all of the software which exists for the machine which I haven't yet found - in particular, all the disk-based adventures which Pendragon used to rave about in Electron User have evaded me all these years.

"The Haven" only exists at the moment as an idea and a means of support for anyone interested in the Electron. By support, I mean I can:

  • answer basic questions about software,
  • supply disk-based documentation for software which is now unavailable,
  • buy and sell public domain software,
  • buy and sell commercial software.

However, if the University grants me a website allocation, it may be possible to broaden information available through "The Haven". A list of all the "swap" software for sale is included with this letter.

Finally, I'm expecting this letter to make EUG #44 not EUG #43 - although I haven't received EUG #43 as I'm writing it. However, I want to place an order for DFS copies of EUG #30 and EUG #35 so I enclose a cheque for £2.00. I would be very, very happy if you, Gus, would send me DFS copies of EUG #29, EUG #30 and EUG #35, if not with EUG #43, as soon as humanly possible! And please send DFS format disks from now on!

In closing, a final plea to anyone who has any tape or disk-based(!) software they are not using. Sell it on to me or, in the case of disks, let me borrow it (if you want to keep it) ... please.

Additional

I have just got back this disk-based letter and a note with EUG #43 (on ADFS). The note reads "Unfortunately I cannot read HD disks," so this letter's now hasn't been read by Gus, he therefore hasn't sent me the DFS back issue orders or changed my subscription to DFS. He has also taken the cheque enclosed with my earlier disk as a subscription extension. On top of all this confusion, EUG #43 won't even give me a directory and the whole disk is completely unusable! (In fact, I have my suspicions that the whole disk is completely blank!)

I have copied all the file submissions to an MD disk and this new additional has been added to the letter on the old HD one. I have also enclosed the very dodgy EUG #43 ADFS disk. To make it crystal clear what I want, here is a list for Gus.

  1xEUG #29 on DFS (Now nearly 2 years overdue!)
1xEUG #30 on DFS
1xEUG #35 on DFS
1xEUG #43 on DFS
1xBlank disk (in exchange for the MD disk)

And change my order from ADFS disks to DFS disks. Please send these out as quickly as possible (especially #29 and #43)!

Dave E, EUG #44