WBMM*

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.'

An Argus Specialist Publication

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APRIL 1986 1.50

FOR ALL SINCLAIR USERS

HSMM&tMl

Five 128's to be won

series plus
prize software
CTOrtrt

fc/WU

In prizesTest
the Turbo Esori

Graphics - In depth reviews

Art Studio
Mouse Wars

[*' j
X* 1L J

<

/, \ I
JCm

f\l

>-v
M 7

Crack the Formula - Win a Saga keyboard

Our Kempston Mouse is

THE BUSINESS

highly successful OCP A/t Studio

...

THE HARDWARE

WT2
m

M U M H H B I

L t r i g g e r buttons, uses J f
I
an optica) system to
Mouse Interface
decode movements
ot an internal tracker ball These movements are precisely
monitored by the Interlace, a simple port read revealing Ihe exact X and Y
coordinates at any instant.
"
y^/S^ISf/ g f f f i : 'ci - THE SOFTWARE
"
\
T h e O C P A r t s , u d ' , s a Spectrum graphics package
^ ^ B f l H ^ ^
that is fun and easy to use.
It allows you to create an image, shrink it. expand il
|) A T N n J P n move it, rotate it. copy it, spray on a pattern or shade
/ I
t \ n u i i / u w Ma)(e e|as(lC i j r i e s tnangtes. rectangles, circles
stretch and manipulate, add text or characters, up,
em
down, sideways - any size or proportion, zoom in to draw in tine detail, shrink
the whole picture to add background.

X ^ ^ ^ H ^ M M
^
9
H
^M

Just Look at these features!

Pull down menus. Icon driven, keyboard, joystick, mouse control. Dot matrix printer dumps, 5
sizes and grey scale - up to 80 columns. Supports Centronics 'E' Interface and others, 16 pens.
8 sprays and 16 brushes, 32 user-redefinabte texture tills. Wash texture. Undo facility, Snap
lacility. Pixel edit. Cut. paste, turn, enlarge, reduce, Magnify (3 levels) pan and zoom. Text. 9 sizes,
2 directions, bold. Font editor with invert, rotate flip, cfear, capture from window, Elastic line, triangle
rectangle
The protocol utilised in the Kempston Mouse Interface Is destined to come the industry standard to follow the success
of Kempston Joysticks, Kempston Centronics 'E' and Kempston Disc Drive products.

Joystick Tri-State and

Pro Joystick interfaces

ORDER FORM
Fast Mail Order Service. Please send
me the following:
Kempston Mouse System
(Kempston Mouse and Interface +
OCP Art Studio)
69.95
Kempston Disc System
(KDOS Disc Interface + 3.5" Sinclair
Disc Drive)
189.95
Kempston Centronics E Interface
39.95
Competition Pro Joystick
16.95

Lightning Joystick
8.95
Kempston Joystick Interface
9.95
Kempston Tri-state Joystick
Interface
12.95
Kempston Pro Joystick
Interface
16.95
SPECIAL COMBINATION O F F E R S
D

P r JOySl.iCk

^ 1 9

Lightning Joystick and joystick

Interface

9 5
15.95

All prices inc VAT. p&p. (Overseas add C4). Make

cheque'PO to KEMPSTON MICRO SALES.
I enclose a cheque/PO. for
Name
Address
Signature
P'ease charge my ^cess/visa no^ "
I M

I 1 I M

1 M

I I I I I I

Kompston Micro Sales, 1-3 Smgor Way. Kempston. Bedford

MK42 7AW To! 0234 856633 Telex 826078 K E M P M I G

LLLU

REGULARS
News
Sinclair launch the 128.

O r t u n u r * I l i i t t to r t t t f . on Ml t i t
l u i l i iik inn l>n* no buccvfr*.
C l i u d o r lit I v i t tirtonv I t l *
lit l o n v i i i v t >> t t l n d k no u r r o w .
Tift* t>o(i,
LlfrftM a i t u i l i t * ( t n n t Ion
HI U i LOI'RVI I
rnufc I HC.
Runoitono p47

Hardware
A new printer from Citizen.
Mouse Wars: AMX v Kempston.

58

Crosswlres
Your computing problems solved.

85

Crossfire
Stormy controversy trom the letters file

48

10

SOFTWARE REVIEWS
Spectrum
First 128 games plus Movie. Blade Runner, Skytox.
The Core. Turbo Esprit.
QL

Classic adventures, QL Pawn and new utilities.

68

Mindplay
A missive trom the adventurer's dungeon.

96

COMPETITIONS

I k j H
nBf t P B B ^ m !
SplMro 40 p23

The Flying Formula: Saga keyboards tor air aces.

The Great 128 Treasure Hunt.
Cartoon Time.
Experience the Turbo Esprit.
QL Paint and Bounder up for grabs

38
50
57
83
85

PROGRAMMING PROJECTS
Centi: Shoot em up listing.
Light Screen Designer.

66
74

FEATURES

Ratpulln p40

Editor: Bryan Ralph

Assistant Editor Cliff Joseph
Consultant Editor: Ray Elder
Advertising Managers: Mike Segrue
and John McGarry
Design: Argus Design
A.S.P Advertising and Editorial
No. 1 Golden Square, London W1R 3AB
01-437-0626

Son of Tasword.
Communications: Getting "on line"
Icon Graphics.
Programming the 128.
Laser Basic and now the Compiler.
QL Superbaslc: New series.
Quickdraw: Finer points of the Art Studio.
Across the Pond: Sinclair In America.
The 81 Page: Exclusively for ZX 81 users.
Animator: Sottcat's new graphics package.
Random Memory: Hints on snort cut programming.

19
28
32
34
36
54
81
86
93

Argus Specialist Publications Ltd 1986

Enter the world of Awnger. a Nlnja warrior

o unparalleled skins Jhd deadly power?, js
he baffte the forces of ovii in defence of hi?
fflibiund procectlon of the weak
Be calm and
silent as the outstanding
animation and unrivalled combat routines
fake you to levels Of action you d never have
Lm
^
'thought possible.
g

software limited,

Experience the sujrimrig effects of triple

scrolling action as you master the techniques
of Hancfto Hand combat, poi? Flgiv ing and
the skills Of the Samurt S ^ r d
And when you believe youve succeeded In
overcoming all the odds, the next In this
thrilling serws of adventures wilt beckon you
forward to a further challenge of death

reet. Sheffield S1 AfS. Tel 0743*53423

iSlfaiiJa .

Nu Wave
software

CRL have launched a new

games label callod Nu
Wavo. Aimed at people who
havo 'grown tired ot the
traditional arcade and
adventure game', the label
is Intended to ottor tltios
that are a little bit different
from the norm.
The first of these tfliferent'
titles Is iD, by Mel Crouchor
and Colin Jones {and,
hopefully, reviewed
elsewhere in this Issue).

Quaz was Zig

Hewson's planned Spectrum

title Ziggurat has been
renamed Quozatron. Similar in
style to their C64 hit Paradrold.
Quazatron is set in a mechanised underground city, where
you struggle against the battle
drolds that guard the city. The
price has yel to be decided,
but an early screen shot of the
unfinished
game
looks
interesting.

Biggies bites
your. ..

To coincide with the May

release ot the Biggies tilm.
Mirrorsott are planning
wait (or It Biggies The
Computer Game. Mirrorsoft
promise that the game won't
be fyawn) yet another flight
simulator', but will be based
on a number ot sequences
from the tilm. Biggies ETA is
16th May with an estimated
tonnage ot 9.95. Chocks
away!

Holy software Batman!

Leaping lizards! Arch software house Ocean have acquired
the rights to produce a game based on DC Comic's Batman.
Their diabolical plan is to produce a 'state of the art' game
featuring the dynamic duo and based on the comic strip as
it was during the sixties when Adam *super smoothie' West
starred In the high camp TV series.

The tirst joint Ultimate and US

Gold game is Cyberun
which, unfortunately was to
be released lust a bit too late
to get reviewed in this issue.
It Ultimate manage to return
to form then look out tor
the review next month,

Personally l*J have preferred a game based on the

seventies' Neal AdamsyMarshall Rogers strip but there you
go. This heinous plot will como to light around April/May.
Stay tuned for more Bat News. Holy clltf hangers'

A Fair Cop
" 'Ere what's alt this then . . . Gawd btlmey it's a fair cop
guv'nor... Move on my lad". All this and other such cockney
drollery will no doubt come In handy when you get your
hands on a copy of The Force. Roleased on the Argus
Mlndgames label, The Torce is a simulation In which you
have to clear up all the crime In Mlddlotown. Designed in
cooperation with senior police ofllcers, It's meant to be a
realistic and challenging game that will take time to master
as you go bucking lor promotion.
The Force will be with us In March if you're prepared to
cough up 9.95.

A touch of
the thermals

It anyone out there has a ZX,

Tlmex 2040 or Alphacom 32
printer and Is having trouble
getting the thermal paper that
the printers use, then Dean Electronics can help. Dean have
supplies ol the paper with a
minimum order ol 2 tor ten
rolls Further information from
Dean Electronics on 0344
885661.

A quick Plug
It may not look vory
thrilling, but LCR
Components' new mains
tiller callod The Plug might
Just come in handy. It's
designed to prolect home
micros from those
occasional fluctuations in
mains current that can
cause your Spectrum to lock
up tighter than our Editor^
wallet.
The tochnlcal dotalls are a
bit complicated, but If you
contact LCR Components at
Woodtlold Works, Tredegar,
Gwent NP2 4BH, I'm sure
they'll bo happy to explain
it all.

8f
fy

Advanced
S and S

When PSS finally launched

Swords and Sorcery if received
'love-it-or-hate-lf reviews, but
now they're planning to release
an Improved version catled
Advanced Swords and Sorcery.
This will contain 'Improved
graphics and gameplay'. a

second dungeon level and

detailed map an Advanced
Players Guide, Guide To
Monsters. Book ot Objects and
cassette labels tor player characters stored on tape, alt tor
14.95.
AS&S is due at the end ot
March, but owners ot the
original version can upgrade
(or 4.95 by mall order - contact PSS on 0203 667556 lor
details

Domark have gone Into the hardware business and will

be marketing a monitor produced by French company
Eureka. Aimed at Sinclair machines the monitor can
amplify your machine's sound output and also expand
the game screen so that it occupies the whole of the
monitor without the tiead' bordor area being visible.
The Eureka monitor should be available in March,
costing 'under 250' according to Domark (does that
mean 249.95?).

Incentive's adventures
Incentivo Software's Graphic Adventure Creator has
received rave reviews on the Amsfrad version, and now
Incentive are working on a conversion for the Spectrum.
Duo for rolease on 1st May the GAC will Incorporate full
sentence Input, text compression, a flexible graphic
designer. Looks like The Quill has competition at last.
Speaking of which . . .

Despite the queue that had

been waiting outside London's
Horticultural Hall It seemed that
the attendance was down
compared with previous (airs. I
can remember Mlcrofalrs
where It wasn't possible to see
some stands because ot the
crowds around them, but this
time the only stand that consistently pulled in the crowds
was Cheetah's where they were
demonstrating the Spectrum.
Hardware manufacturers
were well represented with
Opus, Technology Research.
Saga and others plying their
wares Kempston were showing
off their Spectrum mouse for the
first time (see the review elsewhere In this Issue).
Sinclair Research were
making a number of special
'once only' otters on both hardware and soltware. With the QL
and Spectrum+ knocked down
to 159.95 and 97.50, business
was brisk.
Mlkrogen were displaying
their latest Waily game. Three
Weeks In Paradise, as well as
Battle of The Planets and Sir
Fred. Realtime Software were
showing a demo of Starstrlke II.
This looked impressive, with
vector graphics which are
shaded and more solid looking
than the simple line graphics
used In games such as Starion
and Elite We just have to wait
until It's finished to see It It's as
good as It looks.
QL software was more tn
evidence than on previous
occasions, though standards
still vary greatly between the
sophisticated business/programming packages that are
available and the much less
Impressive arcade games
At the last couple ot fairs
there has been noticeable
Impatience from people wanting to see some new machines
from Sinclair, and on this
occasion the disappointment
at the non-appearance ol the
Spectrum 128 was quite
apparent. The relative lack of
activity from Sinclair has made
it difficult to maintain the
enthusiasm that has always
marked Mlcrolalrs In the past.
Still, as I sit writing this, the
arrival of the 128 is Imminent so
perhaps the 19th Mlcrofalr will
hove a bit more of the old
sparkle . . .

Infocom
for 128?

Along with Ihe news that

Activlsion hove 'acquired'
American adventure company,
Infocom. comes Ihe possibility
that Actlvislon may be considering Ihe possibility of
converting some of Intocom's
games onto the 128.
Intocom's games have all
got excellent reputations but
have always been too complex
to easily convert for a 48K
machine
Actlvlslon's Andrew Wright
told us that nothing Is definite
yet, but that they are thinking
about converting the games tor
a variety ot machines, so
Spectrum 128 owners may one
day experience the famous
Zork series Hitchhikers's Guide
and other Intocom classics

Starstrike II

Realtime Software are due

to follow up their program
Starstrlke with the
Innovatlvely named
Starstrlke II. A demo of the
game was on show at the
recent Mlcrofair and looked
very promising. It's an Elite
style space snoot 'em u p
but the graphics aro
shaded and appeared to be
more smoothly animated
than In the curront crop of
space zapper* We don't
have a release date yet, but
the chaps on the Realtime
stond were saying about
two weeks (that was a
month ago).

Spectrum Games Top Ten

1

Movie

Queen

Yle Ar Kung Fu

Imagine

Commando

Elite

Rambo

Ocean

Computer Hits 10 Volume 2

Beau Jolly

Daley Thompson's Supor Test

Ocean

Winter Games

US Gold

Mlkte

Imagine

Saboteur

Durell

Hypersports

Imaglno

10

(Chart supplied by W. H. Smiths)

Page Three

Licensing deals reach new

heights with the news that Martech plans to release Samantha
Fox's Strip Poker and International Seven Card Stud, a
twin program cassette due tor
mldMarch release at 8.95 tor
Ihe Spectrum version.
As well as boasting "state ol
the art digitised pictures" Martech also claim to have
developed complex artificial
Intelligence to produce a really
challenging game Not only
thai, but we got to the end of
this item without making a
single "whoppers' Joke!

PSSed again

Falklonds '82 Irom PSS arrived

lust too tale to be reviewed In
this Issue, but it's available now
and priced al 7.95 it you want
to rush out and buy It. Or you
can wait to see our review next
month.

Timex TV

Sinclair Research have

made a deal with Timex
which allows Timex to
handle the world wide
marketing of Sinclair's Flat
Scroen TV. According to
Sinclair, Tlmex's
manufacturing experience
now makes possible a cut In
price from 99.95 to 79.95,
and Timex will bo working
on developing UHF/VHF
models for export.

Software Turkies

After Ultimate's Fllmatlon comos Global* Vege tation. The

first of Global Software's series of games based on the
world's worst films Is on Its way. Attack of the Killer
Tomatoes and Its hero, Wimp Plasbott are duo to arrive
In late March, priced at 7.95.
If you want to save the nation's supply of tomato pureo
then this could bo lust the aamo for vou.

Global adventures

Global Software have announced the rolooso of ono of

the first Adventure compilation tapes. Fourmost
Adventures will contain Out of the Shadows by Mirar
Computing, the graphic Dungoons and Dragons type
game that got such a rough deal from distributors and
which deserved a wider audlenco than It got; Galaxlas,
by Fergus McNeil, author of Bored of tho Rings, plus The
Mural and Tho Micro Man, two advontures from lesser
known authors but which Global assure us have
rocolved t r l l i c a acclaim'.
Fourmost Adventuros should bo available In early March
for 7.95, and may woll bo worth tho price for Out of fho
Shadows alone.

Max Factor

Despite being previewed in Just about overy games mag in tho

country over the last few months, Ouicksilva s Max Headroom
has only recently been completed (and. wouldn't you know it,
lust too laie to be fully reviewed this month). To coincide with
the launch of the game ZXC has orranged a nice little freeble:
the llrst hundred people to send stamped and addressed
envelopes to Solution PR Unit 11. South Block, Riverside Way.
Sawbridgeworth. Herts CM21 9P<3 will all receive Ireo Max
Headroom stickers to plaster onto Ihe surface of your cholco
(windows, budgies, younger brolhors. thai sort ot thing).

Q Comms down
<

tho prlco of Ifs QL

communications package
by 60. The three modules,
Q Connect, Q Mod and Q
Call Is now avallablo as a
package priced 113 plus
VAT, though it is still possible

to buy tho threo lloms

separately.
These modules were
favourably reviewed In a
recent ZXC, and Interested
QL owners can contact
Tandata on 06845 68421.

Gilsoft strike back

Gllsott, creators of the Quill ond Illustrator programs are

currenlly working on The Quillustralor lor Ihe Spectrum 128. As
the name Implies, this will incorporate the combined facilities
of its predecessors. Qulflustrator should be available towards
the end of March for around 25.
In the meantime. for humble 48K owners Gilsoft are providing
a bundled Quill/Illustrator Double Pack for |ust 22.95 (a savin;
of about 7 compared to Ihe cost of buying the two separately

?
7

m
Way of the Tiger
Gromlin Graphics are about to launch tho first In a series of
games basod on tho highly popular 'Way of the Tiger' sorlos
of role playing adventure books. The series follows the
adventures of Avenger the aco Nlnja as he battles against
ovll, and tho first gamo from Gremlin will follow Avenger as
ho trains to bocome a master of the martial arts.
Tho gamo Is In three separate parts which Gromlin say
are all complete games In themselves, and deal with the
skills ot unarmod combat, polo fighting and Samurai sword
tlghllng all this for Just 9.95. The rovlow copy turnod up
Just In time to miss our last deadline, so you'll Just have to
come back noxt month for tho review.

Another
Mouse

will also be iwo Interface available one which will enable the
mouse to be used with loystick
driven software, and another
Afler Ihe arrival cA the Kempston which will incorporate a Centronics Interface and be usable
and AMX mouse units, Nidd
in conjunction with Nldd
Valley have announced that
Valley's own programmable
they too will be producing one
keypad.
lor the Spectrum. Or rather two;
The mice will be priced at
there will be two versions of the
34.95. the Joystick interface at
unit, the Dlgimouse and Ana14.95, and the Professional'
mouse with the latter being
Interface al 34.95
more for professional use There

Lead on

With Ihe launch of the Spectrum

128, Sinclair also revealed their
"new philosophy" a commitment to be a '^consumer led
company". In plain English this
means "giving Ihe punter whal
Ihey want" and Sinclair seem in
no doubt Ihot In pitching the
128 as a superior games
machine with a 179.99 price
tag ihey are doing Just that.
Sinclair ore backing the
bellel lhat the games boom will
continue and to Justify their
strategy they produced market
research figures which showed
lhat In the past two years the
percentage of home computers used predominantly by
games players has risen from 45
per cent to 62 per cent.
Sir Clive sold that 'Sinclair
Research are dedicated to the
Spectrum in the long term and
we believe that by taking technical leaps we can keep It In
Ihe dominant position it now
holds".
"We have taken a big step
by Introducing better sound
and a better picture and want
to emphoslse compatibility as
the 128 will run all the old
software".
As for the future Sir Cllve was
drawn to reveal some details ot
the Pandora, the portable computer that is scheduled lor "late
this year".
"We alone have the technology to produce a lightweight computer that will run
off batteries with a display thai
will work in any light
condilions".
Adding that the new computer's screen would be based
on the Sinclair flat screen
television he said. The Pandora
will not be a compromise and
it will be competitively priced
and aimed at the world
market".

The Spectrum
128 - The
Inside Story
War On Want

The charity compilation lape WOW Games intended to

raise lunds for War On Want Is now due to be released on 21st
April, and tho contents have been finalised.
The lape will sell tor 9.95 (all profits going to War On Want)
and will Include Spectrum Chess II. Pedro Winged Warrior. Mr
Freeze Headbangor's Heaven, Wizard's Warrior. Holllire.
Hunchback II, Horace and the Spiders. Dovior, Rupert and Tho
Ice Palace, Cyber Tanks Dr Franky and Ihe Monster. Which
should total fourteen lilies in all.
All concerned (software houses tope duplicators etc) have
given their services without making any profits so the maximum
amount of money will go directly to the charity.

Processor Z80A running at

3.5MHz
ROM - 32K (EPROM -27256 chip)
RAM - 128K (16x64 Kbit dRAM
Chips)
Ports

As Speclrum+ (cassette. TV output plus sound and expansion

bus)
Added are:
RS232/M1DI-OUT port (soltware
driven)
RGB/Composite video colour
output
Keypad interface (software
driven)

Addod features

AY-3-8912 chip giving three

channel sound via TV. eight
channels via MIDI
Two swltchable hardware
screens
RAM organised as 8x16K pages
Enhanced TV picture quality
and capability to connect top
RGB/composite video colour
monitors
Software

Includes menu driven calculator. lape loader, lape volume

tester ond screen editor
TV tuning tester and screen
dumper
RAM disc file system, usable by
Basic
Spectrum 48 mode
Spectrum Basic converted lo
multiple key entry
128 Add on

Although It came as standard with the Spanish 128, the

Numeric Keypad will be sold
separately in Brlloln at a cost of
19.95.
The keypad has 18 numeric
and cursor keys and gives extra
features for tho built In editor
when using 128 BASIC Depending on your preferences II can
also act as a calculator or give
cursor control during games
Graphics, Music . . .

The software houses have

not only been developing
gomes to play on the 128, thero
are also numerous utilities
graphic packages and music
software on the horizon.
Art Studio 2 takes the WIMP
concept (window. Icon, menu,
pointer) Into new areas of possibility with the 128. Still In the
development stage Art Studio 2
from Rainblrd will cost 24.95.
Melbourne House are packing some extra Whaml Into their
Music Box but the 128 music
making program will be losing
the Whaml from the title and bo
known simply as The Music Box
(9,95).
Hot on the heels of Tasword
3. Tasman have announced
they will be producing Tasman
128 which they say will have 64
characters per line entry and
up to 128 characters per line
text entry.
Audiogenic's Icon Graphlx
program (the 48K version Is
reviewed this issue), is to be
enhonced for use with the
Spectrum 128. The 128 version
will have facilities such as
typing lext onto the screen,
copying areas of the screen
and moving them around, flipping the picture horizontally or
vertically, mouse control and
other features not available on
the original 48K version.
Icon Grophlx 128 Is due for
release in March, and will cost
9.95.

The Spectrum 128*5 that

were ghosted Into software
houses around the country
d u r i n g the past
few
months came out Into the
open at the official 128
launch. Programmers have
been feverishly preparing
games to e n s u r e t h e
machine has credible software s u p p o r t . D e s p i t e
assurances
that
48k
games run on the 128, to
potential buyers this may
seem like fitting a moped
engine into a F e r r a r i .

Compatibility Is of course
an asset but the machine's
v i a b i l i t y r e s t s on the
utilisation of its added
features for games writing.
T h e s o f t w a r e houses
have come up w i t h a
miscellany of revamped
classics using the 128*$
new capabilities to varying
degrees.
Games
written specifically for the
128 are in the pipeline but
the f i r s t o f f e r i n g s are
reviewed below.
M7 7
QUflLirv

irn7ZZ

o n t

ij;5i

Thorrtpion Super-!Tot

Hovorendlng Story

is.
about

" ^ f d ^ o r e * ,
^ i S . t

i o o K

Neverending Story
Ocean
9.95

The first adventure gome to

appear (or the 128 comes
bundled with the machine
when you buy it. The original
48K version had to be loaded In
three sections, bul now with the
128's extro memory the whole

woh

swk^PS

lMtJ-^J^'

game loads in one long chunk.

Set in the land ol fantasia,
which is being threatened by
the menace ofThe Nothing, you
play the part of Ihe young hero
Atreyu, who is the only one lhat
can conquer The Nothing. The
characters thai Atreyu will
come across are all similar to
the characters Irom Ihe film, Ihe
huge Rockbifer. Teenyweeny
and Nlghthob, who will all aid
him In his quest, and others like
Gmork who Is In the service of

The Nothing and will do all he

Daley Thompson
can to stop Atreyu.
Super-Test
The graphics in Neverending Story are cleverly used:
Ocean
as you progress through the
game there are pictures of the
9.95
main locations over which
smaller Illustrations are superTo lorce home the point lhat the
imposed. These show the
128 is intended as a games
objects you are carrying and
machine
Sinclair
have
any characters that you may
included Daley Thompson's
meet, and just for once these
Super Test wiih the machine To
graphics do enhance ihe
add lo Ihe key battering strain
game rather
than just
of fhe original Ocean have
replacing text.
extended Ihe program to
Include four more events. 100m
The lexf inpuf isn't quite as
Sprint. Javelin. Triple Jump and
friendly as It could be (and
Hurdles.
doesn't even seem to accept
As before timing and sus'examine"), but I still found if
tained attacks on the keyboard'
sufficiently flexible to allow me
10 try most things thai I wanted. joystick are Ihe key to success
and with improved graphics
Neverendlng Story may not be
a classic adventure, bul for the and sound effects the 12 eveni
package represents good
128 ownor who's inlo adventures
11 will come as a nice extra with value even though it costs 2
oxtra than the 48K version.
ihe machine

UJ
fIwU
V

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00

cs

Technician Ted
Mega-Mix
Hewson
7.95

Hewson1*

everyday story ol lite ol

a silicon chip laclory has been
overhauled for the 128 to take
lull advantage of the sound
chip and Increased memory
the Mega Mix contains 100
screens, twice the number ol
the original and music plays
throughout, beginning wrih a
Viennese walti to accompany

the loading screen and moving

onto o rousing march to get you
tn the mood for Tod's quest to
complete his dally tasks.
With so many more locations
the gamoplay is different so
lhal technician Ted in the 128
version con be considered
almost as a new game rather
than Just o cosmetic enhancement of the 48K program.
Technician led. harassed by
lethal C5'i Itoating heads and
viciously rotating keys seems set
to persuade a new wave of
converts to clock on to this
addlctivo platform foray

Robin of the Wood

Odin
9.95
"Can you help Robin in his
quest to find the silver arrow?"
asks a voice issuing Irom the
Spectrum Speech on fhe
Spectrum 128 is Impressive
enough but Odin haw gone on
to odd a numbor of deft
touches to Robin ol the Wood
that make it o pure pleasure to
ploy.
A launty medieval tune
plays throughout the game,
only interrupled when you hove
tolled one o( iho Sheriff's men

Three Weeks in
Paradise
Mikro Gen
10.95

Wolly* jungle Jaunt to rescue

Wilma and Herbert from the
cannibals has been expanded
for the 128 lo incorporate some
new sequences, improved
graphics and music.
The graphics themselves are
Impressive with each successive screen more crowded

for the game setting

exactly sel the pulse racmg.
Despite the quibbles Three
Weeks tn Paradise is on enjoyable enough Watly adventure
and contains enough problems
to keep you intent on saving
Wilma and Herbert from
becoming the cannibals' main
course.

Ut

wilh your trusty staff. Your reward

is a quick burst of the traditlonol
Robin ditty (usuolly associated
wilh arrows embedded and
twanging In a tree) before the
iheme music smoothly takes
over again.
Another nice feature Is
revealed when Robin Is being
given a hard time by the
Sheriff's men. "Give mo a
chance." he ploods as another
arrow hits him
With its superior graphic*,
smooth animation and sound
effects Robin of the Wood shows
that Odin aro among the front
runners In using Ihe potential of
the 128

the
MONS
ratings
IP

w l

Nodes of Yesod
Odin
9.95

The main difference between

this and the 48K version ot
Nodes Is not the size of the
gams, but the excellent speech
synthesis that has been made
possible by the 128's new sound
chip. The game begins with
Welcome to The Nodes of
Yesod. from the Odin Computer
Graphics Team' speech as
good as I've heard on any
home computer.
fhe game itself is the same
as the oilginal version, in which
you must help Charlie FotherIngham-Grunes locate ihe
eight keys which will allow him
to enter a cavern beneath the
moon's surface where lurks a
great monolith which Is
sending out signals to potential
alien Invaders But now. In
addition lo Ihe excellent
animation and maze ol
monster infested lunar caverns,
Ihe gome boosts o continuous
and quite atmospheric soundlack. as well as the occasional
spot of speech synthesis such as
*Your energy Is running low' or
Ouch' when you (all Irom a
height.
Like Sweevo's World, this wos
on excellent and addictive
:ome when released for the
X Spectrum, and the addition
ot sound has only improved It,
Mind you, il would have been
good lo see some ol Ihe
memory used lo expand the
number ot playing screens,
which, as far as 1 can letl
remains Ihe same

introducing the Qlobs a

family
of
dedicated
software. reviewers who
will be working day and
night to bring you the
lowdown on the latest
games.
Each
month
software Is airlifted to the
family
seat,
Globule
Towers,
where
It
Is
rigorously tested for entertainment valL
payability
and value for money.

The ZX Monster Hit

The ultimate accolade a

surefire hit that's essential for
vout games collection

Sweevo's Whirled!
Gargoyle Games

9.95

The original version of Sweevo's

World would probably have
gotten a ZX Monster Hit il they
had existed al Ihe lime Ihe
game was released, so Ihe 128
version starts off with a good
pedigree behind it
Tho basic plot ol the game
remains fhe same; you must
guide Sweevo around the
rooms of an asteroid Inhabited
by all sorts ol insane creatures,
eese and brownies, Horrid
idle Girls, deadly fruit and
collapsing weights The humour
and strangeness ot the
obstacles were what made
Sweevo's World stand oul from
the recent spate of Knightlore
clones, and of course with an
extra 80K of memory to play
with it's all sStil there; plus lots
more The game now contains
250 rooms as well as having
enhanced sound.
The number of sections In
the game has been Increased,
so tnot instead of starting in
places like lonesome Pine and
Really Free, you can now add
to that list Nobody Nose (a
group ol rooms Inhablled by
deadly nosesl) and several
others. It would have been nice
lo have continual music rather
than Just the tune at the
beginning, but Sweevo is still
one of ine most enjoyable
games currently available on
the Spectrum (48 or 128K).

Olobolla

A special game with addictive

features Miss it and miss out.

Globert

An average game witn limitea

appeal.

ijCk

A .4 -

^
%

1fkkm
Glob Miner

Snooie soffware strictly for

Insomniacs

Glob Senior

An exasperating game well

below the accepted jtan.aard.

IS...
vailable for
the Commodore 64
Spectrum and
Amstrad at a
recommended
retail price
Of 9.95.

The most powerful

games in the Universe
Quicksilva Ltd.,
Liberty House.
222 Regent Street.
London W 1 R 7 D B .

01-439 0 6 6 6
Chrysalis Visual Programming Ltd.

Blade Runner
CRL
8.95
When I grow up I want to be
Harrison Ford, but In the meantime I'll be happy to pass the
time playing the part of
Deckard (Harrison Ford In Ihe
film) In the computer game
Blade Runner.
Yet another licensing deal
gave birth to this game, but It's
not the game ol the film of the
book, Instead this is Ihe game
ol the soundtrack ot the film of
the book. I Imagine lhat the film
rights were more lhan CRL
could afford, so they got the
soundtrack rights Instead. Not
that il seems to have made
much difference because Ihe
game looks just as il it were
based on Ihe film and only a
tew names have been
changed.
You are cast in the role ol a
bounty hunter who sets out lo
eliminate a group ol 24 replidroids These are superhuman
artificial beings created by
genetic engineering as a form
of slave labour tor work on other
planets Bul these 24 have
returned lo earlh to destroy the
tyberneers" who created them,
and It's up to you to stop Ihem.
Because this is the game ol
Ihe soundtrack you have lo sit
and listen to a chunk of music
before the game starts This
wouldn't be too bad on the 128
which has a decent sound
chip, but on the ordinary 48K

Speclrum listening to Its (eeble

BEEP for more than a few
seconds is a bit of o waste of
time (though CRL don't seem to
have any plans tor a 128 version
with added sound).
The first part of the gameshows you a plan of one sector
ol the city and the location of
any replidroids in Ihe sector.
Other sections of Ihe screen
contain a map ol Ihe whole
city, details ot your eornings
and messages trom police HO.
The main problem on this
first screen Is deciding which
replidroid to go after. The
locations of Ihe cyberneers are
marked wilh blue symbols and
you hove to reach the replidroids before they get to them,
bul il there's more than one
replidroid in a sector and
they're all going after different
targets Ihen you're going lo
have to make some quick
decisions.
Once you've located a replidroid Ihe screen changes to a
view of Ihe city streets Your jet
car hovers down to street level
and you have to get out and
chase the replidroid In a
sequence which is a direct
copy ot one of the chase
scenes from the lilm.
The graphics in this part of
the game are very good, being
similar In style to the shaded
graphics In CRL's Tau Ceti. The
bounty hunter jumps out of his
car, and you Ihen have to gel
him lo run along the crowded
street In pursuit ot a replldroid.
The street and pedestrians scroll
across the screen from right to
left, and Deckard can also
move across Ihe width of Ihe
pavemenl in order to avoid
colliding with pedestrians. I
lound catching a replidroid
almost impossible, since they
seem to run at exactly Ihe same
speed as your own character,
so the only way to kill them is to
at lined up precisely behind
em and shoot.
There are six types ol replidroid. each type deadlier than
Ihe last and harder to pursue as
ihey run faster and dodge in
and out of the crowds more
If you bump into a pedestrian you'll both gel knocked
down and lose valuable time
which may allow Ihe replidroid
lo get away. If that happens it's
back to Ihe lirst screen and
you'll have to track your target
down again.
Like the film Blade Runner.
Ihe game Is visually quite stylish
ana there are some nice
touches such as the heavy raincoat lhat the bounty hunter
wears and which llaps as he
runs along. Perhaps I'm feeling
generous towards this game as
I enjoyed Ihe tilm so much, on
the other hand there are few
games based on films or TV
programs that manage to do
any sort of justice to the original,
and I think lhat Blade Runner is
one ol the lew.

13

...... ^ . . . . P f .

RCKftUlT<g>lN?

Showjumping
Alligata
7.95

Friday The 13th

Domark
8.95

As a spectator sport showjumping has about as much

appeal as a snail race for me.
but I have to confess thai this
simulotion had me hooked and
if you are looking for an
engrossing and enjoyable
mulll-player game this is a real
contender.
A simulation tike this stands
or falls on lis animation and the
horse movement and jumping
in the game are surprisingly
good for the Spectrum. Tne
horse hos 12 angles of movement which means thai subtle
control Is needed even on a
joystick to steer your sleed
round the course within the 100
-econd time limit.
Judging the right approach
angle to the fence Is vital to get
a faultless clearance otherwise
it's lour faults for a fence down
and three faults for a refusal. If
you lorgel to jump at the right
moment the horse and rider
crumple into the fence Just
about the only familiar sight
missing from Ihe simulotion is
the rider spreadeagled over a
fence after his mount has made
an unscheduled emegency
stop.
With six dilferenl courses for
up to eight players Showjumping makes a compelling competitive game, and if there's a
tie the remaining competitors
go on lo a more difficult jumpoff round. Definitely a game
where you'll be itching for your
next turn.

i^VT

14

West Bank
Gremlin Graphics
7.95
As a cashier at West Bank you
ore employed full time to snipe
from behind the counter at
bandits who want to make a
forcible withdrawal.
The difficulty Is deciding
which are the desperados and
which are Ihe depositors From
the three doors that face you
there can emerge anything
from law abiding citizens lo
masked bank robbers. There is
also a midget wearing six hats;
one on top of Ihe other (more
common In the Wild West than
you imagined], and in between
wasting the baddies you can
lake a second to amass a few
points by sharpshootlng his hats
off. Underneath the tost hal is
eilher o bog of money or a
bomb which loses you a life if
detonated.

There are ten doors to scroll

across and when Ihe dollar
signs above all ten start flashing
that shows lhal you've taken In
sufficient money from your
surviving customers and it Is
time to progress to level two. But
first there is a lace-on shoot out
with three mean lookln' dudes
who you have to draw on In the
right order or they send you to
Boot Hill. On successive levels
Ihe doors open and close more
rapidly revealing mote bandits
to pot and fewer customers to
accidentally dispose ot
West Bank is really a
variation on a shooting gallery
game and as such works well,
out unless you wan) to test your
reaction time to the limit your
reaction
might
be
disappointment.

I'm no prude, I don't mind a bit

of senseless violence from time
to time and I wouldn't mind the
tacky, tasteless advertising tor
Friday The 13th if the game itself
had a tew redeeming features.
But it doens't.
The plot of the game Is, of
course, based on the Friday The
13th films In which a psycho
named Jason hacks his way
through a group of young
people staying at a summer
camp. Having worked on an
American summer camp I can
sympathise
with
Jason's
feelings, though the game
based on his exploits doesn't
have a fraction of the exceilment that Ihe films generated in
their own gory little way.
When first loading, the Intro
screen Is accompanied by a
gargled scream lhal sounds
just Tike Snoopy in the Charlie
Brown cartoon series. The
Instructions tell you that you
have to warn all the kids on the
camp and lead Ihem to safety
before Jason creeps up on
Ihem, but that's all they tell you.
There doesn't seem to be a way
of warning them or of getting
Ihem to follow you at all. They
all just wander around,
apparently al random and
there's no way of affecting them
I even tried shoving a chain
saw into a few people's earholes just to see if it would have
any effect, but It dldn'l.
One of these wandering
teenagers Is actually Jason
and every now and then he'll
bump off one of the others, but
as he looks Just like the rest of
them you won't be able to
locate him unless he attacks
you or he attacks someone else
while you're nearby, but that

hasn't happened while I've

been playing and I've only ever
spotted Jason as he kills me
(end ol game). And, as it sometimes takes quite a while (or
Jason to reveal himseK, you can
be laced with long spells o(
wandering from screen to
screen only to die suddenly
when Jason cuts oil your head.
The graphics are very poor
your little stick man seems
able to walk Ihrough tables, he
becomes invisible when walking near certain objects but is
unable to gel close lo lences lor
some reason.
This game has attracted a
tot o( attention due to the criticism that the advertising has
attracted. I just hope lhat that
hasn't led anyone to go out and
buy it.
jfa^SV
^

rO

Gerry the Germ

Firebird
7.95

This has to be one of the mosi

infuriating games I've ever
played. My initial reacllon lo
the packaging was favourable;
as tne instructions come on a
large glossy sheet In cartoon
form, making a small poster.
II was only when I started to
play the game that I discovered
lhat the Instructions, glossy
Ihough they may be. were no
use whatsoever in letting me
know what was going on.
Whal I could glean Irom
Ihem was that Gerry is a bll of
a failure in the germ stakes, and
tils ambition is to prove himself
as a virulent litlle microbe by
causing some poor sod to have

a coronary. This is done in

stages as Gerry progresses from
the lungs Inlo different paits ol
Ihe body, doing his germy
business along Ihe way
Except for one problem I
couldn't work out |usl whal it
wos Gerry was supposed to be
doing. The first screen (the
lungs) requires you to avoid
while and red blood cells and
to collect oxygen cylinders. Fair
enough, bul the blood cells
stick so closely to the oxygen
thai only on one attempl aid I
even manage to collect a
single cylinder. Falling to
colleot enough oxygen causos
you lo be dumped into the
bladder, and this screen had
me complefely baffled.
Here. Gerry Is In a litlle
rowing boat, in a lake wilh an
Island There is also a dripping
tap, a roll of loo paper, and a

cock and bull (ha, ha) which fly

swim around trying lo sink the
boat It took me well over an
hour lo work out how to complete this screen not because
it wos a tough or challenging
task, but because I |ust couTdn i
see Ihe polnl ot il all. If I hadn't
had lo stick with if in order lo
write this review I would have
given up
Once I worked out how to
get through (ho bladder (If you
know whal I mean) il turned out
lhat the solution was a repetitious task Involving rowing the
boat to and fro a tot. Then,
when I goi onio the next screen
it was back to square one on
another screen that was just as
irritating as the first two

~I ~I"T ~I
fkuUiBCl

**

V '

PRUSE

II > -

ya

iifj

Devil's Crown
Mastertronic

apart from avoiding or killing

the fish and ghosts, there isnt
very much required of you other
1.99
than to keep on going from
cabin to cabin looking (or
There's a game by the same objects. This on Its awn simply
name floating around (or Ihe didn't prove challenging or
Amslrad, released by Amsolf addictive enough to make me
and cosllna 7.99. f hope It's not determined to see it through to
an Amstrad version of the same the end, especially since the
game, because while It's a sub can only carry one object
passable budget litte it cer- at a time and constonlly going
tainly isn't worth more lhan back and forth through iho
same scieens time alter time
oboul 2.
Devil's Crown Is an under- eventually became too repetiwater collecl-tho-objects garnet tive to hold my attention.
set on board a sunken pirate
Perhaps though. I'm expectvessel
You
play
on ing loo much from a game that
archaeologist who. In his IHtle costs just 1,99. The loud colours
mini-sub has discovered the and simple cartoony style ol
ship and now seeks lo recover graphics remind me of a
the seven jewels lhat were on children's colouring book, so
board when it sunk. But before perhaps this pocket money
you can locate Ihe jewels you gome Is aimed at a very young
have to find an assortment of and relatively unsophisticated
other objects and reunite them audience who might not yel be
with their flashing' counterparts able to cope with complex
(so H you discover a Hashing key arcade and adventure games.
in one cabin that moans there's
Vis
another key elsewhere that you
hove to collect and bring
together wilh the flashing one).
There are torly screens In all. all
drawn In some (airly garish
colours, and occupied by killer
fish (who drain your oxygen
supply) and the ghosts of long
dead pirates. Your sub is armed
with a limited supply of bullets
and there are oxygon cylinders
lo be found in order to boost
your dwindling supply
The game Itself Isn't
especially challenging since

Yabba Dabbo Doo!

Quicksilva
7.95

It's the Fllntstones, meet the Flintstones. ..' victims ol yel another
TV licensing deal, Fred and
Wilma Flintslone have been
lurned into a nol-terribly good
game which, I am told, is much
better on the C64 version lhan
on Ihe Spectrum. The C64
version has been described as
'diabolical', which gives you
some idea of what we're up
against here.
Fred is attempting to start a
thriving stone-age community,
the town ol Bedrock, and wants
winsome Wllma to set up home
with him to get Ihings started
But as Fred doesn't yet have a
home for them fo get set up in,
his first task is to build one.
The gome begins on o
desolate landscape wilh
mountains in ihe background
and loads ot rocks scattered
around. This screen is where
Fred will build his house There
are two types of rock on the
ground around him, small ones
which have to be collected

and dumped inlo a quarry lo

clear the ground, and larger
ones which are what Fred uses
for building materials. Fred can
only carry one rock at a time,
so clearing ihe site of all the
small stones means carrying
them one after Ihe other to Ihe
quarry, a task lhat isn't at all
exciting or challenging (desplle Ihe pterodactyls, dinosaurs
and turtles that he may bump
into and which drain his
energy), and which quickly
becomes repetitive^
Finding the large rocks isn't
much more tun, but since these
are scattered over a number ol
screens you have to do a bit of
searching in order to find them.
Eventually Fred will have to lind
a car to help him go looking (or
rocks, and also lo try and lind
Wilmo (who likes to hang oui of
the Burger Bar, yet still manages
to keep thai slim figure How
does she do It?)
Controlling Fred's movements is awkward, since he can
move onto different pathways
either closer to or further from
fhe mountains but he can only
do so when he's right at the

edge of the screen. And, as all

the screens look very similar it's
hard to tell which screen Fred's
on until you try and retrace your
steps and realise that you're
lost
There Is also a 'beat the
clock' element In the game, as
Fred's neighbours are also
building their own homes and
there's a large score bonus to
be hod il he beats them to it.
Unfortunately this tailed to add
any excitement to Ihe game as
I lound the rest of the action so

uninspiring that the possibility

of a bonus wasn't enough to get
me worked up about it.
The graphics are the best
part ol Ihe game, smoothly
animated and capturing something ot a cartoon style, but the
game Itsell has none of Ihe
action or fun of the original.
Another licensing deal bites
the dust.

Roboto
Bug Byte

2.95

ri'i'cr

Costa Capers
Firebird
7.95

Costa Capers Is the kind of plalform game that will either rivet
you to Iho screen or drive you
away jabbering hysterically.
Ted Blewitt sets oil on a disastrous holiday lo sunny Spain
and the first thing that happens
Is that he loses his luggage and
money Bui the biggest blow Is
the loss ol his Brownie box
camera wllh 36 holiday snaps
on film.
So Ted has to retrieve all his
possessions but fhe Items and
characters he encounters may
help him alternatively they
may nol.
An Important etemonl in
Ted's jaunt is his alcohol intake
massive consumption of lager
is likely lo render him
incapable ol some tasks, but on
Iho other hand It's essential lo
be semi-plastered for others.

16

Once an item has been collected il can radically effect

Hems In oiher locations Oon'l,
whatever you do lei another
character stumbfe on a collected Item as it will be taken
oul of the game never to be
seen again until a restart.
The changing variables In
the game where Hems can
alternate between hostility and
usefulness can be exlremely
frustrating bul of course to tho
seasoned plallof mer this sort ol
whimsy is a challenge to be
relished.

Bug Byte has released a few

simple but fairly enjoyable
games since its reappearance
as a budget software label,
though none of them have
been in the same league as the
best budget games such as
Spellbound from Mastrertronla
Roboto continues that rather
average track record, being a
51 screen dodge "n zap game
In which you control a group of
robots and must attempt lo
repair a power plant and save
the human race from destruction. The game is set in the year
2086, when the sun has
become a weak, dying star
unable to sustain life on Ihe
earth's surlace. The human
population has dwindled to a
small settlement which relies on
the power station for heat and
energy.
The trouble Is that Ihe
automatic components that
maintain the plant have gone
haywire and are on the rampage As the only technician In
the group it's up to you to lake
control ol Ihe last five drolds
and guide them through the
plant, deactivating each room
by destroying the power orbs'
that you will find.
It's all standard stuff, with
deadly sprites and objects out
fo make tile difficult for you, not

to mention a variety of traps that

have fo be avoided. Your drolds
are very small ligures about
a single characler square In
size and the graphics ol the
game as a whole are small and
not very finely detailed, though
the animation Is smooth and
the overall presentation Is quite
adequate.
Some of the obstacles that
you have lo get past are quite
tricky, and some of the rooms
are challenging enough to
make you keep on Irylng to
solve Ihem, but in other places
the traps and rampaging components are so deadly that Ihey
simply become irritating as you
lose life after life without making
any progress. Many of the gaps
lhat you have to guide your
drolds through are so small that
they require single pixell
accuracy In your manoeuvres,
but since the graphics are ail
so small this accuracy isn't
really possible unless you've got
great eyesighl or are sitting
right on top of your TV screen.
I suppose that 51 screens tor
2.95 Is reasonably good value,
as long as you doirt mind the
game looking a bit dated, and
are prepared to persevere with
some of the really tough
screens.

mlL

M
Zt!
YC
64

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Wins

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SPY

H u n t e r

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Gremlin Graphics Software Ltd., Alpha House, 10, Carver Street, Sheffield, SI 4FS. Tel: (0742) 753423.

Wc thought it was
about time we put you
in the picture.
When we introduced our AMX Mouse to micro-users, the
response was phenomenal.

And no waxier!

Haied by the press as 'probably the best input device that has
arrived recently*, the AMX Mouse brings to Spectrum 48K users, the
same sophisticated, positive control that has, unti new, been the
province of more expensive computers - like the Macintosh.
The fantastic AMX Mouse Package opens up an entirety new and
exciting world to Spectrum users and comes complete with Mouse,
interface, which also includes a Centronics printer interface, and al
these fabulous programs.
^
^
This computer aided, drawing program has to be seen to be
beieved. Making ful use cf on-screen windows, icons, pull-down
menus and ponters, you'l be astonished at the quality of the work you
can produce, save and print using either ZX or Epson compatible
printers. It's a program ideal for both hours of famiy fun or for serious
professional appications.

AMX COLOUR PALETTE

The wonderful pictures you create with AMX ART can be brought
vividly to ife with rich vibrant colours - using AMX COLOUR PALETTE.
And with 8 Foreground and 8 Background colours you won't be short
of inspiration.

' -fv *
t

^ r

h' *
v T- r

,i -y
+

JZ

AMX CONTROL

Now you can create a 'Mouse environment' in your

own programs, AMX Control adds 28 commands to
The software is supplied on cassette and a tape-tonormal Sndaf Basic and contains three programs.
microdrive transfer facity is included. The AMX Mouse
1. The machine code program to extend the Basic interpreter, which
package is compatible with the Spectrum 48Kand
gives you ful use of wndcws, icons, pel down menus, pointers and
Spectrin + .
ateo supports AMX printer interface.
Ordering couldn't be easier,
2. An Icon designer, an individual program for creating and storing icons This superb package is avaiable from al good computer dealers
for use in your own programs. The mnber and variety of icons you or direct using the freepost order form below.
can create is imited only by your needs and imagination.
So what are you waiting for?
Get into the picture nwv!
3. A demonstration program containing on screen calculator and
puzzle.
PLEASE RUSH ME POST FREE.
(Quantity,
This fabulous AMX Mouse Package costs onty 69.95, a price as [pLE
Pami
~ 1
AMX MOUSE SPECTRUM 48K PACKAGED
remarkable as the package itself and it includes a fully lustrated
AT 69.95 EACH INCL. VAT AND P & P.
operating manual.
I ENCLOSE CHEQUE/POSTAL ORDER FOR L
OR DEBIT MY I
1 ACCESS H
I- A M X

fnCKASMfWfWTE)

VISA

CARD NO.
EXPIRY DATE.
SIGNATURE
NAME.

OUO
l tCAHVOIMAStl

ADDRESS

_
POSTCODE

MX MOUSE

IMAGINATION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

SEND TO: ADVANCED MEMORY SYSTEMS LIMITED,
FREEPOST. WARRINGTON WA4 1BR.

SON OF TASWORD
The recent arrival of
The Writer and Word
Manager have
threatened Tasword IPs
reputation as the best
Spectrum word
processor, but now
Tasman are fighting
back with Tasword III.
Tasword III
Tasman Software
16.50

T a s w o r d 2 has long been the

definitive word processor for the
Spectrum, so the arrival of
Tasword 3 Is quite an event.
Tasword 3 is only supplied,
and can only be run, on
Microdrive. The reason is that it
now has many extra features
and In order to accommodate
them the program is stored on
the microdrive cartridge in
sections. When loaded, it goes
straight Into the text entering
mode. When, as with Tasword 2,
you use the STOP key to go to
the main menu, another section
of the program is loaded from
the cartridge. This handles text
lite saving loading and printing,
and program customizing and
saving. When you return to the
text (lie, the other section of the
program is fetched from the
cartridge.

New features
The new Tasword has been
given Its extra features without
sacrificing any of the existing
ones. In text entering mode part
of the 'help' page is displayed
al the top of the screen and the
TRUE VIDEO and INV VIDEO keys
are used to scroll this, so that
the whole of the function key
Index is available to you as you
write your text. If the presence of
this prompt window annoys you
you can switch It off. or the full
help" page can be accessed.
There are now 15 ways of
moving the cursor: one letter or
word in either direction; to the
end of the line; to the start or
end of the paragraph or page;
up or down line by line; to the
start or end of the text; fast or
slow scrolling through the text.
The speed of the cursor
movement, which I found
painfully slow in Tasword 2. has
been speeded up and Is much
better.

In addition to adjustable
margins, Tasword now has full
user-definable tabulation and
you can move to the next tab in
either direction. Deletion options
have been extended, so that
fetter, word, paragraph or block
may be deleted. Spaces and
blank lines may be inserted into
the text, and there is still an
insert mode tor insertions without
over-writing existing text. The
useful search and replace
mode, which allows you to
replace every occurrence of a
word with another word or
phrase remains, but now you
also have the option of stopping
at each occurrence and
indicating whether or not It is to
be replaced. The text formatting
and block handling commands
are the same as those in
Tasword 2.

TOSUORD THREE
T h f u ord P r o c m o r
C T * t * n s o f t m r i L i d 1000
m m >inu
P
P r i n t text f l i c
print
Data a r ga P
Sa va taut /i i t
5
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Load t t i l f t i f
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rut
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cuttoaiti protrta
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aava Tatword
X
Ca la log ,/cnangc d r i v t
B
into B m c
o
Dr i va 1
nordl
Unci
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A useful new feature is the

page switch. When this Is on, a
line is drawn across the screen
at the end of each page, so
that you can see the page
layout as you write the
document. Justification and
word wrap may be turned on
and off as before.
Text capacity is now
measured by the number of
characters used, rather than by

TfliuORD TMRCC
Th* Uord P r o ( < i t o r
T > l * i n Software L t d 1'iOO
atari I U n i l II
( i n n h at 1 i ni I l u l l
nuabi r o l C O P i a a i l l
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la ren c m
r r at pag a b r i o a ini v.-M_
p r i n t K i t d i r iNI Y /N
p r i n t roo tar in i Y 'N. ... ...
p r i n t pag a n u i b i r i <OT 77TJ
a t lop or bo t t o t i t I T / B
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r i n t i n g iNi V ' H _
Praia INTER for d i l i u l t i
to a t a r t again
8E DnT I Tal
any t u e lo p r i n t
to r a t u r n to nanu

the number of pages. You can

produce 1000 pages or more
with only a couple of words on
each, but less than 300 if you fll
up every line. A word and

character count is now

included, and displayed on the
main menu, but it is a pity that
this is not displayed In text
entering mode, since going to
the menu and back, involving
two program loads from the
cartridge, is a chore if all you
want is to check the word count.
Some of the major
Improvements are in the
printing. Multiple copies are
now available, and the program
will number pages, print the
number at the top or bottom. In
the centre or at the side of the
page, and provide a page
header or footer as required.
The printing margin, which is
used to centre the text on the
page, is specified at print time.
There is also a mail merge
facility, with graphics printer
controls entered into the text in
the same way as those which
indicate underlining or type
(ace change, to Indicate where
in a document information from
the data (ile is to be inserted.
Unfortunately the review copy of
Tasword 3 was so hot ofl the
press that the handbooks had
not been printed, so I was
unable to discover how this
feature works or test it. 1 suspect
that, like Tasmerge with Tasword
2, it makes use of Campbell
Masterfile files (actually, a quick
call to Tasman confirmed that
this is the case, buf Tasword 3 Is
also capable of creating its own
free-standing filesEd).
Without the handbook. I
could not customize the
program to run with the
Kempston interface the
method used with Tasword 2 did
not work. Having written this
review with Tasword 3, I tried to
load it into Tasword 2 to print it,
only to find that the two
programs are not compatible,
and all I got was a wrong file
type' error report. Where Tasword
2 saved the text as a block of
code Tasword 3 saves it as a
Microdrive data file.
Being unable to get the
printer to work with Tasword 3
meant that I could not test
another valuable facility, the
alternative character set. These
are a useful set of signs,
symbols, fractions, diphthongs
and foreign letter forms, and
they are re-definable if required.
Tasword 3 can rival any word
processor, and with it the
Spectrum is a serious word
processing machine. It is difficult
to see where further
improvements could be made.
Certainly it now has all the
features that I ever felt were
lacking in Tasword 2. Now all I
want is a Wafadrive version
with a handbook! (the
handbook's on its way.
honest!Ed.)
CAROL BROOKSBANK

19

Thirty Games
Quicksilva
9.95

See Ihe history ot Spectrum

games programming Hash
betore your eyes with this one
score and ten grab bog of
gomes from Quicksilva.
Crammed onto two cassettes and culled from labels
such os Bug Byte, tothlorlen.
New Generation. Argus Press
Software and Ouicksilva. Thirty
Games is a coltection ot
golden otdies and oddities
which will give hours of
nostalgic pleasure
Playing games such as 3-D
Tunnel wilh Its onrushlng bats.
Irogs, rats and tube trains may
not be state of the art programming but they are sllll
great fun whatever Ihe vintage
It doesn't take a maths genius
to work out that even il you hale

Sodov the Sorcerer

Bug Byte
2.95

Your task os Sodov the Sorcerer

Is to delend your castle against
some very cute looking
dragons By aiming your spell in
the appropriate direction you
can convert the dragons into
gold ready currency useful
even to o Sorcerer.
However this frenetic spellbinding saps your energy
which can only be replenished
by a quick sprint up the battlements lo the tower. The gold is
ready and waiting oulside the
fortress but if you hang about
on ostrich will nip in and make
off with If
You also have to avoid
spiders who scuttle around your
ankles Intent on draining your
magic powers II you allow Ihe
dragons into Ihe castle they will
purloin one of your three YOP
apprentices who are looking tor
an opening in the sorcery
Irade

20

hall the games It's still great

value especially if you missed
them first time around.
And no we don't have space
to list them all. Oh all right
then . . . Carpet Capers. Antics.
Planet Fall. Grid Runner.
Bismark. Meteor Storm, Jet Set
Gerry, 3-D Tunnel. Stock Market.
Fridge Frenzy, The Valley.
Dragons Bane. Demon Knight,
Neds Garden, Space Intruder,
Mighty Magus, Fall of Rome.
Draughts. Xadom, Detective. 20
Tons. Chess Player, Micro Mare.
Tube Cube, Invasion. Escape,
Laser Zone, Strontium Dog.
Pyromanla and lastly and with
a title like this probably leastly
Blood and Guts.

Quick thinking is needed to

|udae whether you can nip out
ana grab the loot without losing
a fledgling magician
This game is a conversion of
Gandalf the Magician on the
C64 and is a welcome addition
to the stream of budget software. With Its impressive
graphics and arcade style
action Sodov Is well above
average for a budget range
game wilh enough features
and gaming challenges to
make you feel you've got far
more than your money's worth

ID
Nu Wave

8.95

H you've always believed thai

ihere was someone living inside
your computer this game will
confirm all your hopes or fears
ID the new Inhabitant has
crept Inside your Spectrum
casing and taken up residence
He has a bad case of split
personality, In fact he has seven
of them which you must persuade him to reveal.
Winning ID'S trust is a major
battle and his Impatience lurks
lust under the surface If you lall
to keep his attention he will veer
off Into pages of rambling text.
II you run out ol questions to ask
ID he will come back al you
with some of his own - many ol
them quite personal but as we
are told lhal iD has been
around since the beginning ot
time he's probably heard all the
answers
Your answers lo ID^s questions
are stored and thrown back Inlo
the dialogue in surprising ways
A neal touch

Desert Rats
CCS

8.95

Desert Rats Is for those wargamers who put the game

aspect above the war. More a
version of chess with tanks than
a blood and guts confrontation,
Desert Rats is played out on
smooth scrolling maps with
vivid graphics and detailed
settings.
The game spreads over six
scenarios following accurately
Ihe North Alrlcan Campaign of
1941 to 1942, beginning with
Rommel's arrival In Tripoli and
culminating In the Battle of El
Alameln. Success In this game
Is all down to the careful
deployment of forces and keeping your units fully supplied.

ID s moods are very changeable but he likes compliments

and these are often rewarded
by ID'S revelation that he is
feeling scrungy or dribbty (at
least T think lhat moans he's
pleased).
In order to get anywhere
near one of ID's identities you
have to build up the trust rating
to near 70 per cent which can
be a long process if ID's having
a bad day. Any clues you may
gel may be red herrings. At different points In one game I was
convinced he was Hitler then
Einstein before plumping
wrongly for Mussolini.

This game by Mel Croucher

will either seem like a fascinating mystery or a complete
waste of time. Either way be
warned - ID knows how to
swear back.

My skill as a general did not

ose much of a threat to
ommel in the one player
opllon but a game of this kind
Is perhaps best enjoyed when
pushing a friend's forces back
into Ihe sea.
The game comes with a
comprehensive guide which
contains background detail on
both the game and the real
historical events
11 you are familiar with
Arnhem, author Robert Smith's
previous game lor CCS, then

you'll probobly want to rush out

(with strategic torethought) and
buy It. For the non-wargamer il
will provide a good lirst taste ol
simulated battle

It Is not a realtime wargame

but uses Ihe order/move system
where you plan your moves
and then sit back to take the
consequences

21

FLYING
HIGH

All of a sudden there's

been a burst of aerial
activity on the
Spectrum, so let's go
for a spin in some new
flight simulators.

Skyfox
Ariolasoft
8.95

The Skyfox fighter Is a flying

arsenal that will give hours ol
destructive pleasure as you pit
yoursell against endless waves
ol tanks and aircraft sent by the
mysterious Mothershlps to
destroy your base
To give you some Idea of the
scope of the game there are
seven different training flights
recommended fo prepare you
for the really tough levels. You
can find yourself on the tail of
an enemy plane, or nose to
nose or virtually any situation
you might encounter on a full
scale mission.
But first, a guided tour
around the cockpit where you
llnd not only a continuous laser
cannon at your disposal but
also guided missiles and heat
seeking missiles to bulk up your
firepower. There's also a computer which can be called
upon to give your exact

22

position, score summary, and

fhe locations of the enemy.
A useful feature is an automatic pilot which will fly you to
the nearest concentration of
tanks and aircratt waiting to be
wiped out.
There are enough dials and
displays to swamp you with
Information Including radar
scanners, co-ordinate monitors
and Indicators for fuel, speed,
altitude and shield strength. The
game action proper offers you
eight invasion permutations to
thwart and the complexity Is
Increased by having to defend
your own base which. It destroyed, will rob your computer
of vital data on the enemy's
strength and positions
Even in what Is called Ihe
'small Invasion' you are ludicrously outnumbered but you
can Inflict heavy casualties
belore the shield buckles and
the screen border Hashes red
indicating that the Joyride has
been terminated. Although you
have unlimited laser cannons
your guided and heat seeking

missiles have lo be used wisely.

One unwise use Is tiring a
guided missile Inio a wave of
enemy forces while haphazardly Hying Into Its flight
path. There is enough lo contend with without seeing your
own missiles returning on a
boomerang course.
It lakes dedication lo gain
Ihe strategic sense and flying
technique needed to make a
dent in the Invasion forces on
the higher levels Even getting a
glimpse of the Mothershlps Is
cause for celebration and If
you opt for fhe 'Massive Onslaught' invasion the only thing
you are likely to see Is that by
now familiar flashing red
border.
The graphics themselves are
reasonable Ihough the perspective shllts when attacking
ground lorces are contusing. In
many cases when Hying on a
straight course targets that are
beginning to loom large suddenly loom lett or right for no
apparent reason. Alternatively
this could be battle fatigue
causing the hand to tremble at
Ihe controls
Skyfox is an unashamedly
trigger happy game that contains sufficient levels ol difficulty
to sustain interest past the
novelty stage. If you want an all
out air war game for the Spectrum this Is it.

Flyer Fox
Bug Byte
2.95

In this budget some you are

enlisted to do a bit of Jumbo
minding. The aim is to protect
a commercial flight flying
Ihrough "dangerous skies". Sporadically a voice announces
"fighters approaching" and a
swarm of planes attempts to
inflict damage on the lumbering 747. Quite why the passengers are being subjected to
this unfriendly treatment is
never explained and lends a
certain almlessness to a game
that lacks variation and
purpose.
Successful protection of the
Jumbo is rewarded with an
exact re-run with only a few
more bandits and extra fuel to
add to the game elements.
The combat action is
adequate but the need to protect the airliner restricts any
interesting
clashes.
The
graphics are basic and the
instrument panel merely a
token to give the Impression ot
sophistication. Even the Jumbo
lolls to earth with a measly
phut' rather than an explosion
lo be replaced on the next run
with another load of doomed
passengers.
For those willing to pay 2.95
to escort a Kamikaze airlines Jet
this game could be mildly
diverting but players with flying
hours under their belts from
other aerial combat games
may find It lacking.

Tho jumbo takot omo flak in this oconomy Might gamo.

A bandit I t on your tall. Time tor an evailve move.

Spitfire 40
Mirrorsoft
9.95

Spitfire 40 is an impressive flight

simulator and aerial combat
game that gives you the
chance to join the few' defending South East England against
the onslaught of the Luftwaffe.
Switching between the authentic looking Instrument panel
and the cockpit view it Is possible to recreate how Ihe war
must have looked from an air
ace's point of view.
There are three modes,
practice, combat and combal

practice. If you want to avoid

the complexities of taking off
which takes some time lo
master you can go immediately Into a dogfight training
scenario at 10.000 feet,
Getting the enemy fighter
Into your sights Is challenging
and the dives and turns are
simulated by an artificial
horizon that unnervingly tends
to put the ground above your
head quite frequently. This, it
must be said, is due to this pilot's
Inexperience as in the early
stages of combat becoming
disorientated is unavoidable.
Destroying the enemy while
flying upside down at 5.000 feet
may lack a Utile In style but it

Is effective. Continued practice

shows that the opposition can
be brought down with a little
more panache and less uncontrollable spinning.
The game comes complete
wilh a very thorough manual
thai takes you Ihrough the
principles of lighter flying and
gives lips to Improve your
prowess so that you can progress towards the goal of filling
your mantelpiece with medals
Overall. Spitfire 40 has enough
variety and difficulty to please
'the few' who are dedicated
flight simulator buffs and
perhaps the many who have so
far shunned Ihe lure of Ihe
computer cockpit.

23

TASWi

THE WORD PROCESSOR-A

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TR3UORD
THREE
The Uord
Processor
Tasman S o f t w a r e
Lid
1986
main
menu

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FOR

words
lines

drive

B t i i c
0 chars
20977 chars

Drive
free

TASWORD TWO led the way in setting a standard for word processing on the
ZX Spectrum. TASWORD THREE pioneers the new standard.
TASWORD THREE retains all the features which have made Tasword Two a
household name for the Spectrum. With many additional features and
enhancements, including a built-in mail merge and up to 128
characters per line, TASWORD THREE is the definitive word
processor for the Spectrum and Spectrum-h with microdrive.

TASMERCE
THE MAIL MERCER
TASMERCE for the
ZX48K Spectrum
cassette 10.90

ZXSnxiRi M

TASWORD TWO
THE WORD PROCESSOR

TASWORD TWO for theZX48K Spectmm

cassette 13.90 microdrive cartridge 15.4Q

"Without doubt the best utility I have reviewed for

the Spectrum"
HOME COMPUTING WEEKLY APRIL 1984
"If you have been looking for a word processor, then
look no further"
CRASH JUNE 1984
With 64 characters per line on the screen and a host
of useful features TASWORD TWO is the ideal
cassette based word processing package for the
Spectrum owner.

TASPRINT

THE STYLE WRITER

TA SPRINT for the ZX48K Spectrum

cassette 9.90 microdrive cartridge 11.40

A must for dot matrix printer owners f Pnntyour

program outpu t and listings in a choice of five
impressive print styles. TASPRINT utilises the
graphics capabilities of dot matrix printers to form,
wrthadoubJepassof theprinthead, output ma range
of five fonts varying from the futuristic Data - Run to
the hand wntmg simulation of Palace Script. A
TASPRINT gives your output ongmality and style I
The TASPRINT fonts are shown to the right together
with a list ofcompa tible pnn ters

Transfer data from MASTERFILE to TASWORD

TWOI Letters and forms typedon TASWORD TWO
can be printed with addresses and data taken from
MASTERFILE The mail merge facility allows, for
example, multiple copies of a letter to be printed,
each containing a different name and address taken
from your MASTERFILE data To use TASMERCE
you must have one or more mxrodnves as well as
TASWORD TWO and MASTERFILE by Campbell
Systems (version 9 or later).

TASDIARY

THE ELECTRONIC DIARY

TAS-DIARY for the ZX 48K Spectmm and
mlcrodrives. Cassette 9.90
Keep an electronic day- to-day diary on microdrive!
TAS-DIARY includes a dock, calendar, and a separate
screen display for every day of the year Invaluable
for reminders, appointments, and for keeping a
record ofyour day. The data for each mon th is s tored
as a separate microdrive file so that your daLi for a
year is only constrained by the mkrodrive capacity
TAS-DIARY will work for this year, next year, ana
every year up to 2100! Supplied on cassette for
automatic transfer to microdrive.

TASMAN PRINTER
INTERFACE

TASPRINT PRINTER INTERFACE for the

ZX Spectrum 29.90
RS232 Cable forZX Interface 1 14. SO
Plug into your Spectrum and dnve any printer fitted
with the Centronics standard parallel interface.
Suppliedcomple te with ribbon cable and driving
software. The user changeable interface software
yrinter

machine code high resolution full width SCREEN

COPY SOFTWARE for Epson. Mannesmann Tally,
Shmwa. Star. Tandy Colour Graphic (in colour!)
pnnters TASCOPY shaded screen copy software for
this interface (value 9 90) is INCL UDED in this
package
The TASCOPIESand TASPRINTS dnve all Epson
compatible eight pin dot-matrix pnnters eg.
tsornwm
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flEDIAN
serious business-1 ike script
PfliQtS & W P 7 * a d i i t i ^ t lte

Jsnt
TASPRINT output shown at less than half- size.

THREE

ZY SPECTRUM AND ZX SPECTRUM+ WITH MICRODRIVE

TftSUORD
THREE
The
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Processor
Tasman
s o f t w a r e
L t d
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P r e s s :

Please note that

Mr J M SfctWJ,
17 Hijti Jtrttt,
lockton (iv>
lancashirt. 117 (IK

TASWORD

THREE is only supplied

THREE-

liWilM
Ml (lb U f t
3t t , 3- CltV
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20th January l i K

Otar John,

thank you for your U t t r of tht 15th

January. I haut corrtcttj th< f i r s t Jeaft of tkt
aruclt -nd I kaut jiKorforaitJ your suyjtsttd
chattfts. It i f a 4oo4 thin* that i*S*or has a finJ
*t.j rtHact facility 1 Vti i l l stt frow tk tncustd
KiMout of the crrtct<4 infx tkat I kaut also a<f<
ioit ctktr chamti am I kft tkat you a)f< that
thty art ait mf>fmtxrit.

ENTER
for
d e f a u l t s
OR t o
s t a r t
again
RT
at
any
time
to
p r i n t
E D I T
to
r e t u r n
to
menu

TASWORD

nark Had
Ju itrk
31 iut k M t
31) con Hock
J C J t U U HKli

1 Lmt

on, and will only run on,

'";Y*/J ot'Y"

microdrive.

THE WORD PROCESSOR-Microdrive

One of a famous family: TASWORD

TWO (ZX Spectrum),
TASWORD
MSX (MSX Computers),
TASWORD464
(Amstrad),
464-D (Amstrad),
TASWORD
6128 (Amstrad),
TASWORD
EINSTEIN (Tatung Einstein), TASWORD
64 (Commodore
64)
Available from good software
stockists and direct from Tasman Software,
Springfield
House, Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LN.
Tel: (0532)
438301

TASCOPY

THE SCREEN COPIER

TASWIDE

THE SCREEN S TRETCHER

TASCOPY for the ZX Spectrum with Interface 1

cassette 9.90 microdrive cartridge 11.40

TASWIDE for the ZX 48K Spectrum

cassette 5.50

The Spectrum TASCOPY is for use with the RS232

output on ZX In terface 1. It produces both
monochrome (in a choice of two sizes) and large
copies in which the different screen colours are
punted as different shades. With TASCOPY you can
keep a permanent and impressive record of your
screen pictures and diagrams. A list of printers
supported by TASCOPY is given to the left

With this machine code utility you can write your

own Basic programs that will, with normal PRINT
sta tements, print onto the screen in the compact
lettering used by TASWORD TWO. With TASWIDE
you can double the information shown on the screenI

A vailable from good stockists and direct from:

16.50
TASWORD

Sinclair 01j

QlTTtu^ruTo^ryUirReiei/cnLtd

TASCOPY QL
THE SCREEN COPIER

TASCOPY QL for the Sinclair QL

microdrive cartridge 12.90
TASCOPY QL adds newcommands to QL
Superbasic. Execute these commands to pnnt a
shaded copy of the screen. Prin t the entire screen or
just a specified window TASCOPY QL also produces
large "poster size" screen copies on more than one
sheet of paper which can be cut and joined to make
the poster

TASPMNTQL
THE STYLE WRITER

TASPRINTQL for the Sinclair QL

microdrive cartridge 19.95
TASPRINT QL includes a screen editor used to
modify files crea ted by other programs, such as
QUILL, or by the user from Baste. These modified files
indude TASPRINT control characters and may be
pnnted, using TASPRINT, in one or more of the
unique TASPRINT fonts.

]SOFTWAREC
Springfield House, Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LN. Tel: (0532) 438301

It you do not w.inf lo cut this magazine, simply write out your order.wd post to TASMAN SOFTWARE. DEPT ZX. SPRINGFIELD HOUSE. HYDE TERRACE. LEEDS LS2 9LN
I enclose i cheque/PO made payable to TASMAN Software L td OR charge my ACCESS/VISA number.
ITEM
NAME
ADDRESS

Telephone Accest/Vnaorden Ierdi (0532)438301

Pit jw Hfldme j Fftl rjun.i n brochure deunbm/f your products tor Spectrum^
<,yr r CKWYIArfwl UtorVU CUSBOnjfrw* mCAt/tr, f.WV W i
jKiTrUVD UU
Untied IW.Y

PRICE

Outvde Europe tdd/I 50p*tiltmatrmi4

TOTAL
. Commodore 64_ . TjitungfinUein
. AmitridOl -MSX_

__
_
fixyvrM iih'l'/n W'LMatvw

ZX

_ vCumi-lltr* 0vi iOVKVUmi^Ml AOoilll IrVtJ Ow

KtmlMfOH
r'X. Jt*
A
n ^ v l i f An m V*r M**< .W W A U b l w l l n fOkm

THE
CORE
ZX brings you a sneak
preview of the latest
game from A 'n F.

X V ' n F Software who will be

eternally remembered for their
all time Speccy Classic, Chuckle
Egg (my hi-score is about
750.000, can anyone beat that?),
ran into financial problems a
while back and went out of
business. But before they went
they were working on a new
game called The Core, and now
that the A 'n F name has been
bought by Argus Press Software,
The Core Is about to be
released.

Core blimey
The Core is an arcade
adventure which also
Incorporates a number of icons
that allow you to perform a
variety of actions The game is
set in the future when mankind
has spread out across the stars,
using hollowed out asteroids as
colony ships
In fheir travels the human
colonies have discovered
evidence ol a number of
intelligent races that have been
wiped out by some unknown
alien threat, and the game
begins just after one of the
human colony ships has also
been attacked and its
Inhabitants destroyed. During the
two day battle the ship's
computer recorded everything

26

that occurred and has stored

information that will enable
mankind to defeat the aliens
A last distress signal went out
and was received by the game's
hero. This character had been
named Asteroid Andy during the
development of the game, but
as everyone at APS hated lhat
name it's going to be changed.
Anyway, Andy-as-was arrives on
the asteroid and must locate the
computer's memory bank which
has been split into nine sections
and hidden In various locations
The asteroid is huge, with over
a thousand locations and a
number of teleport stations
linking certain areas, and as
well as locating the memory
banks you'il have to take on a
number of aliens with their robot
guards and solve a number ot
problems in order to reach the
deepest levels ot the asteroid.
Before you can defend yourself
from the aliens you'll have to
find a gun, and also locate a
number ot batteries that will be
needed to power all your
equipment.
Up to this point The Core is a
fairly standard arcade
adventure in a similar style to
ames like Nodes of Yesod and
obot Messiah with large,
smoothly animated graphics (I
particularly liked the way your
figure kneels down to pick up
objects). But the addition of the

Icons allows you to perform

actions other than just moving
left/right and fire
There Is a Help Icon which,
just as in a text adventure, can
be asked for hints in tricky spots
(and just as in adventures hardly
ever tells you what you want to
know), and an 'actions' menu
that allows you to Pick Up, Drop,
Use objects and Fire a gun.
There Is also a Save Game
option (which can only be used
when you've found a cassette
hidden In one of the caves), and
three windows which display the
objects you are carrying, the
number of batteries you have,
and the sections of memory
bank that you have found.
When you first teleport into Ihe
asteroid you arrive in the mining
levels which are relatively simple
to get through, but as you go
deeper the problems become
harder and the aliens deadlier.
In the time that I spent playing I
didn't even manage to find a
gun, so I kept getting killed
before I managed to get
anywhere. I did manage to find
a mysterious scrap of paper and
a box of some sort that I couldn't
find a purpose for, but with over
a thousand locations In the
game I've sill got about seven
hundred and fifty to go, so I'll
just have to wait until we're given
a final production copy of the
game to review.

EW JOYSTICK
from Cheetah
Compatible with Z X Spectrum.48K,l28K.Commodore 64,
Vic 20, Amstrad. Atari, MSX.etc.
At only 8.95 the features on the 125 are second to none
Besides its unique internal structure, built to withstand
immense punishment from even the most vigorous games
player, the |Oystick contains no l e s s than four extremely
sensMive fire buttons. Two are housed in the handgrip
which has been moulded for extra comfort and ease
of operation. The trigger finger fire button provides
ease and comfort for your finger and the top fire
button is contoured to fit your thumb for sure tire
shooting. The base fire buttons are positioned for extra
control and two hand firing whether you are right or left
handed.
A built in auto-fire switch
shooting at the touch ol a
fire button.

provides

continuous

T h e 125 comes complete with a full 12 months

warranty and i s available from fig* it***<*I
wit SMITH High Street stores and alt good
computer shops.

ONLY

8.95
Pncc include VA 7 Postage and Packing
Export orders at no e*tra cost
Send che<jue/PO

Delivery normally

Dealer enquiries

welcome

now to

Cheetah Marketing Ltd.

t, Willowbrook Science Park, Crickhowell Road. St. Mellons, Cardiff
Telephone: (0222) 777337
Telex: 497455

14 day*

w our home computer can

open the door into an electronic
world full of peopfe with similar
interests. A sort ol electronic
'club' over the telephone lines
which requires no programming
skill and a minimum of equipment. A modem and an RS232
interface, plus a program to
control them are Ihe key which
will open the door to many
dilferent computer systems
The modem Is essential as the
computer cannot talk over the
telephone without it, It usually
connecls to the telephone via
one ot those new jack sockets,
so It you haven't already got one
this Is the first thing to get. The
only person able to fit one
legally In the UK Is the
telephone company British
Telecom. Some modems do not
have a socket for the phone, so
that two sockets will be needed.

Modems
To allow you to connect up to
the many diflerent sorts ol
computers a versatile modem is
required, preferably one that
can operate ot PRESTEL (1200,75)
and Bulletin Board (300/300)
speeds. Some also provide autodialing and auto-answer
facilities controlled trom the
computer, which is a definite
advantage Even better are the
modems which also come with
RS232 Interface attached (so that
the modem can be connected
directly to the computer) as this
solves the problems of wiring a
special cable up and any
incompatability between
modem and the computer's
interface.
The VTX5000 is a good
example ot this type of modem
as it fits under the Spectrum
computer and plugs directly into
the expansion port at the back.
The box contains the RS232 and
modem and, although it only
works at PRESTEL speeds, Ihe only
other connection required Is to
plug the cable info the
telephone socket. The modem
gets Its power Irom the computer
thus eliminating a lot of trailing
leads

Software
A terminal program is required
to use any modem. This divides
Ihe computer in half, so that all
your keyboard entries go to the

transmitting part of the modem

while the screen shows what the
receiver in the modem is getting
Irom the telephone line. Most
systems reflect back what you
are typing down the telephone
line, so there Is no need for the
computer to do that as well. It
can also provide extra facilities
such as routines lor transferring
data (pre-recorded programs,
machine code or letters) both
into and out of the computer,
and should also allow you to
send control codes (normally
excluded from Ihe keyboard)
with ASCII codes below 32 so
that you can have complete
control over any special
functions the distant computer
may hove
A list of complete systems
available for Sinclair computers
is given at the end of this article
including some manufacturers of
RS232s. if you want to be able lo
Choose your own modem (which
can be a much cheaper way of
starting out).

Systems to access
Although there are many
different computer systems
available over the telephone
line, PRESTEL is possibly the most
famous with its MICRONET closed
user group running on it.
PRESTEL is a system that runs on
1K colour pages and by typing
in the number of Ihe page that
you want you can look at
farming advice, letters News and
even book your holiday through
an electronic brochure. Pages
on the LAW or. for Instance,
computer swaps are often
charged for, and the price ol
the page is indicated ot the top
of the page. PRESTEL is a large
system with many thousands of
pages and it can lake sometime
to find what you want. Any one
registered on PRESTEL can send
and receive messages via their
own personal (and private)
mailbox, free of charge at
present.
Much more interesting is Ihe
Micronet section (which costs
extra to get Into). There are tree
programs to transfer onto your
computer and you can also buy
some larger commercial
programs just by accessing a
particular page and transferlng
it (the charge is automatically
added fo your bill). There is an
electronic newspaper and live

interviews with celebrities on

CHATLINE.
Bulletin Boards and message
systems mainly operate as
electronic mailboxes in which
people can leave you letters
Indeed. British Telecom Gold
who operate a system for
business users make a lot ol
money doing just this Mind you.
you can access over 30,000
people on this service in 14
different countries! But the
humble user of QL or a
Spectrum is probably more
interested in Bulletin Boards as
these also contain programs,
hints on the latest games and
experts on many different
computers One other
advantage is that they are
mainly FREE, you pay only the
price ol a telephone call. There
Is rarely any subscription to join
the system and no time charge
as on PRESTEL and other
commercial systems.
These also use different
software to PRESTEL systems as
they scroll up Ihe screen when
they reach the last line and use
the normal ASCII character
codes that are used inside the
computer.

Cost?
So, how much does this all cost?
Well, thai depends on what
equipment you buy (PRESTEL-only
modems are cheaper than most,
and only the most expensive
modems give you auto-dial,
auto-answer and more than one
speed) and how much time you
spend on the phone. Telephone
charges can work out very
expensive at 6p a minute it you
spend several hours on Ihe line
several limes a week!
The cheapest start is a secondhand modem such as the
VTX5000 which can be used to
access a few bulletin boards
(only 1200/75 ones) as well as
PRESTEL. I have seen prices tor
these as low as 35, It also
contains the RS232 and a
PRESTEL program on ROM,
though User to User and Bulletin
Board software can be obtained
from Modem House at an extra
cost.
A cheap 300 Baud modem will
cost you 45 from Display
Electronics, though the RS232
and software will have to be
obtained elsewhere (see list).
Modem House and Miracle

COMMUNICAT
28

LWJ
systems do combined systems
(Modem House's 'Voyager' for the
Spectrum cosls about 100).
Other modems can cost up to
500 or more depending on
what facilities you want.
As for charges you must always
add to the cost of the phone
call;
a) the subscription charge to get
a password for the system
{PRESTEL costs 6.50 and MICRONET an additional 12 per
quarter).
b) the cost of any page charge.
c) Prestel and Telecom Gold also
carry a time charge if you use it
during the day or on Saturday
mornings.

Complete systems for

Spectrum
Modem House - VTX5000, 39
(1200/75)
Modem House Voyager,
approx 100 (300, 1200/75, Autodial, Auto-answer)
Miracle Technology - WS2000.
130.75 (300, 1200/75)
Miracie Technology - WS3000.
295 + Interface and software
cost (300, 1200/75, Auto-dial,
Auto-answer under software
control)

Complete systems for QL

Modem House Brightstar,
199,95 (300, 1200/75 Auto-dial,
Auto-answer under software
control)
Tandata QCOM system
approx 200 (300, 1200/75, Autodial, Auto-answer under software
control)

RS232 interfaces for

Spectrum and QL
Eprom Services one and two
porl models for Spectrum
Maplin Spectrum modem
interface kit 24.95
Microsource (Spectrum)
printer, 1200/75 and 300
baud interface + Prestel
software 295 Guilders
Miracle Systems
QL modem adaptor
JMV - 33.50
manually setable
lo 300 or 1200/75 three
wire interface

Other modems sources

Sicon Buzz-Box - 86 300 baud
battery operated portable
modem
Display Electronics EX BT
modems from 45
AnswerCall 300 75
Pace Nightingale 136.85
1200/75 and 300 baud

Addresses
Pace Software Ltd, 92 New Cross
Street, Bradford BD5 8BS.
(0274-729306)
Sicon, Brick Close, Kiln Farm.
Milton Keynes MK11 3EJ.
(0206-729306)
AnswerCall, Kangley Bridge
Road, London SE26 5AH.
(01-659-1133)
JMV, 139 Allington Drive, Strood,
Kent.
Microsource, Ossenmarkt 25,
Postbus 1243, 8001 BE Zwolle,
Netherlands. (010-31-38-223698)

Display Electronics, 32 Biggin

Way. Upper Norwood, London
SE19 3XF. (01-679-4414)
Eprom Services, 3 Wedgewood
Drive, Roundhay. Leeds LS8 1EF.
(0532-667183)
Maplin Electronic Supplies, RO.
Box 3. Rayleigh, Essex SS6 8LR.
Tandata Marketing Ltd, Albert
Road North, Malvern. Worcs
WR14 2TL. (0685-68421)
Miracle Technology (UK) Ltd, St
Peter's Street, Ipswich IP1 1XB.
(0473-216141)
PRESTEL, Telephone House.
Temple Avenue. London EC4Y
0HL. Freephone PRESTEL (during
office hours).
Micronet 800, 8 Herbal Hill.
London EC1 5EJ. (01-278-3143)
British Telecom Gold, 60-68 St
Thomas Street. London SE1 3EQ.
(01-403-6777)
By Fred Mullins

T h e Citizen 120D is a dot matrix

printer with a 6 x 9 character
matrix. It prints at 120 CPS in
normal mode and this
decreases depending on how
many and which of the print
sytles are used. There is a NLQ
print style built in and this
operates at 25 characters per
second.
The printer Is fitted with a
Centronics interface as standard
and RS232 is available as an
optional extra for 28. ASCII
characters are standard In both
normal and italic and eleven
sets of special international
characters plus the Epson and
the IBM graphics sets are
available.
A 4K buffer is fitted and text
can be printed in all the usual
formats, expanded, comprssed.
Elite, proportional, emphasised,
doublestrlke and italics. PUJS
underlining, overscoring, reverse
(inverse), vertically enlarged,
subscript and superscript. Paper
feed Is either by tractor or
friction.
As you may gather, this is a
printer overflowing with options.
The manual takes the approach
that buyers are not computer
literate and may simply want to
use their printer. It is therefore
written in a step by step, easy to
understand manner. Although It
needs some mental alertness, it
is the best printer manual I have
seen so far. There are also
advanced sections for experts
and all the relevant information I
could think of seemed to be
provided.

30

Setting up was reasonably

easy. I set it to operate with a
Spectrum on Centronics, and
then on RS232 with a QL. To use
it with a Spectrum you wilt have
to have either a Centronics or
Sinclair Interface 1 (RS232)
attached.
Using Tasword II the printer
produced text perfectly, no
problems and the NLQ (Near
Letter Quality) mode impressed
me. The normal mode was great,
producing fast checking drafts
first, then switching either by
software or from the printer's front
panel to NLQ for the final
copy.
Listings were also coped with
without nitch, the interface
switching between Bit Image
mode and text mode without
difficulty. Screen dumps were

performed without problem.

Using a QL the printer's
maximum baud rate of 9600 BPS
was slowed by the 120CPS (and
slower when in Double strike plus
Emphasised mode) however It
chuntered away and no
unexpected problems arose.
Quill text has never looked better
and the same system as for the
Spectrum was adopted. No
problems were experienced.
This printer probably has
more features than you'll ever
need, but at a price of 235 It is
worth every penny and you'll
probably never need to buy
another.
The design shows Citizen's
experience and expertise, rear
or bottom paper inlets.
Centronics and RS232 interfaces
on interchangable cartridge like
boards with DIP switches built In
for extremely easy access, front
panel front switching and
software page formatting. Noise
is acceptable and my only
adverse comments are that the
4K buffer is not really useful for
anything other than a single
page, and I wonder why they do
not give an Initial choice
between the Centronics and
RS232 cartridge. All round
though, this Is a superb machine
at a very reasonable price.
Citizen UK can be contacted
on 0895 72621.
Ray Elder

Joining the Elite

For some reason we didn't review
the Saga 3 Elite keyboard when
It tirst came out, but now that the
price has dropped trom 79.95
to 69.95, and Saga are about to
produce a simple add-on which
will allow the keyboard to be
used with the Spectrum 128, we
thought It was high time to have
a look at it.
A first glance reveals it to be
an impressively sleek unit,
constructed of sturdy plastic in a
sort ot oft-white cream shade.
The keys are large and moulded
with a gently sloping surface
that's comfortable to use. The
'action' of the keys as they are
depressed is smooth but solid, so
that you can be sure when you
hit a key that the relevant
character will appear onscreen
(good for those ol us that need
to look at the keyboard a lot
when typing).

Unlike most add-on keyboards

and the Spectrum's own
keyboard, the Elite does not
have all the various keywords
and symbols marked on each
key. This makes the keyboard
look much tidier and less
cluttered than it normally does,
but the unit comes provided
with a prastic strip that has all
the keywords marked on It for
use when entering programs
This might be more inconvenient
for the BASIC programmer, but
for someone like myself who
actually uses the Spectrum for
wordprocessing it's a real asset.
However, at the left hand side
of the main keyboard there are
two rows of keys marked with the
most often used keywords
(Load/Save, List, Run etc), which

really gives the average user the

best of both worlds Back at the
main group of keys there's a
large space bar, additional keys
for the various graphics and
extended modes and two
symbol shift keys, one on either
side of the keyboard.
Further to the right is what you
might call the calculator cluster.
This is like the keyboard of a
calculator, with an extra set of
number keys cursor keys, and
keys for the four main
mathematical functions
(addition, subtraction,
multiplication and division). The
overall impression it gives is not
unlike one of those hi-tech
keyboards on expensive office
computers
If you're only going to use
your Spectrum tor games that
can be played with a joystick,
then I don't suppose you need to
spend much money on a
decent keyboard, but it you do
want to use the machine for
something like wordprocessing
then a good keyboard is
essential and the Saga 3 Elite,
though not the cheapest. Is
almost certainly the best.
Available from Saga Systems,
2 Eve Rd., Woking. Surrey GU21
4JT.

ocfapt
s

Adapting to monitors
Whenever people write in to us
asking about how to connect
their Spectrum to an RGB
monitor the usual answer Is to
tell them to get an interlace,
and one of the more well known
companies producing such an
interface is Adapt Electronics
Now, Adapt have released a
modified version of their RGB

Output Module which still

provides the same monitor
facility, but now incorporates a
through peripherals port at the
back which allows you to
connect the machine to further
peripherals such as printers (and
if you're using it tor wordpro
that's the obvious choice).
The addition ol this port has
raised the price to 36.95,
though the basic module is still

l . c t r o , c

P*ctruiD R G B

0 u t p u f

available for 34.95. I would

however, add a reminder that
you should always check to see
what leads are required when
buying such an interface, as
Sinclair machines have a habit
of using non-standard leads,
and not all monitors use exactly
the same leads anyway. Though
on this point I'm sure that Adapt
will be able to advise you if you
contact them on 01-504 2840.

Ia

et
<
31

I M

I CONCP

A.S.L.

9.95

here have been quite a few

jraphics packages for the
Spectrum released In the last
Jew months, what with The Artist,
The Art Studio and a mouse
each trom Kempston and AMS.
And with all that graphic activity
going on this slightly more
modest utility from Audiogenic
seems to have been overlooked.
Admittedly it's not as
sophisticated as some of its
recent competition but it's the
only one with a price that's not

00

32

in double figures
igu
which makes It
at least worth
rtn some
consideration.

Icon do that
The name Icon Graphlx Is a bit
of a giveaway, since It tells you
straight away that the program
is controlled by a series of icons.
These, along with the patterns
available for the Fill and Spray
options, are very conveniently
arranged around the border of
the screen so that they surround
the drawing area like a frame
Most of the commands that you

would expect are available for

drawing standard shapes such
as lines, boxes, rectangles,
circles and ellipses, although
there Is no quick way ol drawing
triangles other than to join three
straight lines. A 'push page'
command allows you to move
the picture around the screen so
that you can see the areas
normally covered up by the icon
area border.
These operations aren't
performed as quickly as they
are in a program like The Artist,
but that's not necessarily a bad
thing since I've often found both
that and Art Studio getting a bit
out of control before I can figure
out what I've done wrong. On
the other hand, the movement of
the cursor around the screen
can be Irrltatingly slow at times
and It can also be a bit tricky to
control since the choice ot
control keys (Cap Shift, Z, X, C
and V) is a bit odd. Fortunately
there is an option tor Joystick
control and, very sensibly, a
mlcrodrlve compatible version of
the program on side two of the
tape. Not so sensible is the bug
(?) which causes the program to
return to Basic whenever you
press any of the keys on the
bottom row (other than the
control keys). Since these are so
close to the cursor keys I found
myself dropping In and out of
Basic like a yo-yo, though Ihls
doesn't affect what you ve drawn
and can be remedied simply by
typing RUN.
Other features include the
now obligatory Fill and Spray
routines with about thirty predefined patterns and a facility
for defining your own pattern If
desired. The Pen option allows
you to choose trom sixteen types
ot nib and some of these can
also use the standard patterns
for shading effects, which can
be quite useful.
What Is missing is some of the
fancier refinements such as
being able to Cut and Paste
areas of the screen, text
handling and reflections. How
Indispensable you consider
1 these to be Is very much a
matter of opinion, but at least
the lack of frills is reflected in a
price that's only about two thirds
that of most graphic packages. I
think that's about the best way to
sum up Icon Graphlx a nofrills' package that provides all
the basics that you might need
if your pocket can't quite stretch
to 15 for one of the other
programs or If, tike me. you're a
doodler rather than a
dedicated screen designer who
really does need a state-ol-theart utility.
There Is to be an enhanced
version of the program for the
Spectrum 128 though, and that
could be well worth looking out
for.

Where can you find over 100 FREE software programs a year?

Who can you go to for FREE round the clock advice and help?

How can you get instant news, views, gossip and "hands on" reviews

24 hours a day?
4

Who gives you FREE national electronic mail?

Where can you "chat" with 70,000 other micro users?

Who'll help you publish your own database for all to see?

How can you take part in national multi-user strategy games?

How can you book a seat on the 3.15 from Euston-at midnight?

for just 20p a day

To: Micronet 800, 8 Herbal Hill, London HCI

Please send me a brochure on Micronet 800

Name
Address

Micronet 800
8 Herbal Hill, I-ondon ECIH 5EJ
Telephone: 01-278 3143

Telephone No

Age

Micro
ZX April 1<W6

THE 128
h e basic appearance of the
128 Is familiar. No draslic
changes have taken place, the
case is of Spectrum + type, with
a metal heat sink on the right
hand end. However the
increased number of ports
(RS232/midl. RGB, keypad, tape
and TV) Indicate the scope ol
the Internal changes
When Ihe machine is
powered up. we are presented
with a menu, asking us what
option we wish to use, these are:
Tape loader. 128 BASIC,
Calculator, 48 BASIC and Tape
Tester.
The tape option loads a tape
as If you had typed LOAD " "
from basic. This option saves
users' time, and software houses
space on cassette Inserts
explaining how to load a
cassette,
128 BASIC has new elements
but the first thing that struck me
is the loss of single-letter-input,
instead to type PRINT, you
actually have to type P R I N T
More on this later.
The calculator option turns
the Spectrum 128 Into a
calculator a la Apricot.
Personally, I think a calculator Is
easier to use, but tor software
and data entry, this Is a positive
boon.
48 BASIC makes your
Spectrum 128 act like a normal
48k Spectrum, and become
apparently compatible with the
normal Spectrum. However it
seems a proportion ot 48k titles
will not run. More on this in a
moment.
The tape tester allows users to
set their tape recorders at the
proper level to load a program
from cassette, this seems a
slightly odd function, as I found
the Spectrum the most reliable
computer for cassette files

Programming the 128

Graeme Devine looks

at the programming
potential of the new
Spectrum 128.
34

The Spectrum in 128k mode has

32k ol rom mapped Into two 16k
pages which occupy 0-3PPPH ot
the Z80 map. Eight ram pages
can be mapped into
0C000H-0FFFFH, making a total ot
128k.
The really interesting thing
from a programming point ot
view, is that the 128 has two
screens Most games on the
normal Spectrum till up a screen
buffer and then copy it to the
screen at a fairly fast rate. Now
the programmer can, instead ot

copying from one area to

another, just swap screens,
making the programs* graphics
run effectively at twice the rate.
This means that games on the
128 will be vastly superior to
games on the old Spectrum. This
combined with the new sound
chip means that the 128 is a
very good games machine.
Sound is very well covered In
the manual, in fact, it seems to
be the only thing covered In the
manual. Very few technical
details are Included, so budding
programmers will have to wait
for the array of articles and
books that always follow a
computers' release.
Basically, the computer
contains an AY-3-8912 sound
chip, this is the same chip that Is
in the Amstrad and MSX, It has
three sound channels, ten
envelope waveforms, and a
noise generator. Once a note
starts. It won't stop until you tell It
to. so making background tunes
is easy, making good tunes,
however, is much harder, as we
have seen from the evolution ot
the Commodore 64
The sound command is PLAY.
BEEP Is also available, but mostly
for the sake of compatabillty.
The PLAY command takes the
form PLAY AS. B$, C$. For
example, to play an A write LET
a$="a'! PLAY A$.
Within the command string,
you can change the values ot
just about anything, for instance
" $ " flattens the note following It,
conversely, " " flattens the next
note. A number In the string
changes the length of a note.
This is a mosl versatile
command, and It also controls
the MIDI port (for which no main
connections are given) and
allows the user to control the
sound chip very effectively.
The manual makes a nice
mess ot the MIDI configuration
with the note on page fourteen
"see page 3" (for pin
configuration), while on page
three it says "see page 14" (tor
pin configuration)!
Actually, the pin configuration
Is as follows, left side to right
side.
GND 0 volt line
RXD receive data line
TXD transter data line
UTR Data Terminal Ready
(computer saying "Are you ready
yet?")
CTS Clear to Send (computer
saying "I'm readyl'T
5 + 12v live

]
~

screen that you type onto from

the main screen to the old two
line screen at the bottom. Print
lists the current program to the
printer, I could swear LLIST did
the same thing.
Exit takes you back to the
original menu, you can only
recover any data by selecting
128 BASIC again from the first
menu.
Plugging the 128 into an RGB
monitor gives astounding results,
the picture really is rock steady,
using the 128 in this mode is
much better than the normal
television, only the sound
becomes a little tricky to hear.
Putting it through your stereo
may seem to be a little over the
top. but It seems to be the only
reasonable way to resolve the
problem.
The only problem with the
RGB port is that programmers
who use it may forget that
pictures that look great on a
monitor, may look really awful
on a television, thus starting a
whole new wave of software This
will probably only happen at
pre-production level.

Compatibility?

Spot tho dlfforonco? Novombor 85

iow tt launch of th Spanlth 128.
The Brit* had to watt until 86.
(Aniwor: only ono machine h a i
Modo Exttndldo.)

These lines operate at 5 volts.

Built Into the new basic Is also
a ram-disc utility, this allows
users developing programs to do
a last save ol data to
somewhere else in memory, this
is much the same as cassette,
but the speed is much greater,
but as soon as the computer
power downs, all that was saved
In the ram-disc will be lost. Sony
got around this problem with
their computer well, by making
a battery ram cartridge lor their
micra This should be equally
possible on the 128, and I am
sure someone will bring one out.
The ram-dlsc uses an
exclamation mark after the
keyword to activate It. valid
commands are:
SAVEI "name" LINE or CODE or
DATA or.SCREENS - Save a file in
the same way a cassette file Is
saved.

LOAD! "name" CODE or DATA or

SCREENS - Load a title.
MERGE! "name" Merge a
BASIC program.
CAT! Give a directory of the
ram-disk In the same way as a
microdrive.
ERASE! "name" - Erase a file.

Edits
Pressing EDIT brings up another
menu marked:
128 BASIC
Renumber
Screen
Print
Exit
Renumber, will alter all the
line numbers, gotos, gosubs,
restores, and, save "pine, to units
of ten. starting at ten.
Screen, swaps the area of the

Is this computer really

compatible with the old
Spectrum?
There seem to be two
problems, but just a single
cause. The new machine In 48k
mode, has the same rom as the
old machine, except at address
3A00H marked "unused" in the
rom disassembly, there now
resides a routine to read data in
from the keypad. The problem Is
that software developers in the
past used this area to vector
mode 2 interrupts to OFFFFH.
putting 18H at address OFFFFH.
and a JP INTER at address
0FFF4H, thus taking up a whole
lot less room than a page of
memory (a page of memory is
256 bytes).
Other software houses, in an
attempt to stop piracy, did a
check-sum on the rom before
running the program. The
checksum has now changed.
Overall the Zx-Spectrum 128 Is
a nice machine, flawed by its
partial non-compatibility with
the original Spectrum.
If the machine is promoted
and supported by the software
industry and programmed to Its
full potential it could well
become another Sinclair
success story.

35

Lull

THE LASER G E N E R A T I O N
Ocean's utilities label,
Ocean IQ, kicks oft
with the first of their
Laser series of
programs.

!>on't be misled by the titles ot

these programs, Loser Basic will
not give you QL-style BASIC on
your Spectrum, and the
Compiler Is not a rival for BLAST.
Laser Is an advanced games
designing package, for
programming top quality screen
movement in BASIC Although
Laser Basic supplies four 'toolkit'
commands renumber, remkill,
trace and procedure the
other 110 extra new BASIC
commands relate to sprite
handting. animation, screen
window creation, scrolling,
attribute handling and the like.
With so many new
commands, this Is not an easy
program to master. It is essential
to go through the (excellent)
handbook trying out the
examples, and you will still
need the book beside you while
you create your own games. This
has enabled Ocean to use an
ingenious anti-piracy device.
They have produced the
handbook in a form which
cannot be photocopied and
under no circumstances will
they supply new copies. Since it
is useless without the handbook,
they have not built anti-piracy
devices into the program. There
is a menu option for making
Microdrive backups, and I had
no difficulty in breaking Into It to
change the commands to use
Wafadrive.

Zap!
Any doubts about the quality of
BASIC-driven movement were
dispelled by the demonstration
program supplied. One
particularly impressive screen
has cubes, one with a llttte man
jumping up and down on It,
moving across the screen at
varying speeds and passing
behind and in front of pillars,
while at the same time a
spaceship antenna whirls and a
clock pendulum swings. The
movement is smooth and flickerfree The demo program listing
in the handbook shows that all
this activity is generated by a
19-line BASIC subroutine!
Movement can be created by
scrolling all or part of the
screen the user can define as
many windows as required by
moving, animating or scrolling

36

The demonstration program from Later Basic

sprites, or by a combination of
these. You can even define a
window within a sprite Sprites
can be moved about the screen
without affecting the
background, spun, mirrored.
Inverted, enlarged or scrolled.
Scrolling of sprites, screen or
windows may be vertical or
horizontal, with or without wrap,
and the number of pixels to
scroll may be specified. Up to
16 SETS of parameters may be
used to define windows, to hold
sprite numbers and position
information, or to hold key
codes for keyboard scanning.
Using the SETS speeds up the
program running, but
parameters can also be
programmed directly in BASIC
Up to 255 sprites may be held
In memory at once, depending
on their size, and there is a
separate generator program for
designing them. The designer
has two screens. One, an 8 x 8
grid. Is used for designing one
character square of your sprite.
You then place this, using
cursors to specify the position,
on the larger screen which Is
15 x 15 character squares in
normal size. If you need larger
than 15 squares in any direction,
you must design two sprites and
use them side by side in your
game
I found that the 8 x 8 grid
made it difficult to design a
large sprite on screen. One
character square is too small a
window to judge the finished
effect and I found It easier to
design the sprite on graph
paper first. However, this might
not be a problem to someone
with a surer artistic touch than
mine You can also enter
decimal or hex data, which
generates your sprite on the
larger screen. When the sprite is
complete you specify its height,
length and file number and
save it in memory. The sprite file
may be saved on tape or
microdrive In two ways. Option 1
allows reloading to the
enerator for modification, whilst
ption 2 enables you to load In
Laser Basic to design your
game t found that you must
save them twice using both
options. I designed 25 related
sprites to animate a galloping
horse, loaded them into the

Basic, and the horse galloped

across the screen leaving a trail
of disembodied tails ana rear
legs because I had forgotten to
give the sprites a trailing blank
square to wipe out the previous
position. Because I had not
made an option 1 save I
couldn't modify them and had
to start all over again. (You don't
normally use so many sprites In
animation I was
experimenting with hl-res
movement, which the
programme handled
impressively).
Designing related sprites Is
easy. You can rotate, invert,
mirror your sprite, move It across
its background or make
alterations to a small area and
save the altered design as a
new sprite

D.I.Y. games
When your game is complete,
you may wish to market It, In
which case It must run
Independently of Laser Basic.
This is where the Compiler
comes in. You use it to compile
your Laser Basic to machine
code which, when SAVEd with a
running code from the
Compiler, your sprite file and a
loading program, will allow your
game to run without Laser Basic
being present. While the
compiling Is going on. the
program gives an alarming
imitation of a machine code
crash, with colours and lines
flashing on the screen. This is
normaL because the display file
is used as a workspace You can
use the Compiler to compile
ordinary BASIC programs, but
there is little point in it. The time
saving is only a factor of two or
less, and space saved Is lost
again to the running code Also
there are limitations on the
BASIC program structure that the
Compiler can handle
Ocean place no restrictions
on the marketing of programs
produced using Laser, and they
require no royalties. Laser is
expensive, but the games
designer or anyone interested in
graphics and animation will
find It worth every penny.
Ocean place no restrictions
on the marketing of programs
produced using Laser, and they
require no royalties. Laser is
expensive but the games
designer or anyone Interested In
graphics and animation will
find It worth every penny.

Laser Basic 14.95

Laser Compiler 9.95
CAROL BROOKSBANK

SAGA SYSTEMS' HARDWARE

II you want the best for your Spectrum, ensuring it advances with technology,
the Saga Systems' collection ot keyboards and peripherals is essential And they
are all compatible with the 48K. + and 128K Spectrum.

THE SAGA 3 ELITE

'Oevastatmgty smail

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the oppovbon look Mo toys

Ihe best " - Popular Computng Weekly

"It fransAvms tho /tumble Spectrum" ~ Sector User
wil f<*<ase iho ft* potential ot your Speccy

THE HEW SAGA 2001

suoordooper
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At its now low pnee ol tlt.M
(Inc VA T) tho Saga 3, mth
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W*h ts xiharod remote transmission. the Saga 2001 can tm

used wh*} you wa* atiMMtd the room No wnes knk * to the
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wf( rt tree, and t a amply out ol the world
PRICE 119.93 fnc VAT)

SAGA 1 EMPEROR
"
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works remarkably wen
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remarkable
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value kx money
Annual <985
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brought the computer to Me m qute an unetpeded
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" - Primary Teaching and Mc/r

PRICE CM.93 (Inc. VAT)

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THE HEW SAGA 2 +

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SYSTEMS' PERIPHERALS

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Wo botcve The Last Word Ihe most
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Your do or die mission

is to fly across war torn
Europe and rescue a
team of scientists who
hold the key to a lethal
new weapon that could
change the course of
history. Your reward?
Unlimited glory and the
chance to win a Saga
3 Elite Keyboard.
* V s you strap yourself into the
cockpit the fate of Europe is In
your hands- Across the Channel
there are a team of seven
scientists who must be rescued
at all costs.
Each scientist has a segment
of the vital code that on no
account must fall into the hands
of the enemy. Your problem is
that you only have a two seater
fighter and the boffins must be
brought back one by one.
Flying out over the Channel
you are confronted with a
deadly stream of enemy fighters.
Once you have eliminated the
pride ot the Luftwaffe you can
land at the secret rendezvous
and pick up the first of the
precious boffins. Your return trip
will be equally hazardous for the
enemy has regrouped high over
the Channel.
Safely back at home base the
boffin is debriefed and reveals
his secret part of the formula.
The code will be written up on
the blackboard In the ops room
but tor you there is no respite
you must return across the
hostile skies to retrieve the
remaining scientists
As the boffins are brought
back to base the seven part
code will reveal itself but not
until the seventh boffin Is safely
on British soil will the full formula
emerge.
The Flying Formula is a
hazardous gruelling mission
requiring Iron nerves and
determination but at the end
there is a prize in sight.

The competition
For the first three flying aces to
crack the seven part formula
there Is a Saga 3 keyboard to fly
off Into the sunset with. As British
liters have a clear time
advantage there will be three
subscriptions to the new ZX
Computing Monthly for the first
trio of overseas aces to
complete the game.

#/
Firebird
C7.95

Rasputin is one of the first titles

lo be released in Firebird's new
Hot Range and certainly bodes
well (or future releases on the
label.
Mind you. I'm Inclined lo

give a slap on the wrists to

whoever wrote Ihe Incomprehensible waflle that attempts to
pass itself off as Instructions: not
only is it useless In explaining
anvihlng about the game, its
also very badly written. That,
however. Is my only criticism ot
Rasputin as in all other respects
it's a thoroughly classy game

Rasputin Is a cosmic loon

Intent on wreaking havoc on
the universe, but who relies on
the sacred Jewel of the Seven
Planets for his powers. Your task
Is to venture into the netherworld. armed only with your
magic sword and shield, and
to destroy the Jewel. Naturally
this isn't going to be easy, and
as you set out on your quest
you'll be set upon by strange
nelherworldly creatures, and
be faced with a number of tasks
that have to be completed
before you can reach the
Jewel. The main task being to
neutralise the eight spells that
stand between you and the
jewel,
The netherworld is based
around a rather tasteful court-

yard with exits leading olf Into

various dimensions. The courtyard Is patrolled by what seem
to be the souls of dead warriors
who will be reanimated and
seek you out If you hang
around too long. Once you
enter the various dimensions
you are faced with Knlghllorestyle obstacles, presented In
highly detailed 30 graphics. But
rather than simply being rooms*
these dimensions float above
the clouds and any wrong
moves will send you tumbling
down to the clouds below.
Assuming that you manage
not to drop over the edge, the
task that laces you In each
dimension is to locate Ihe
stones that carry the mark of
Rasputin and step on them In
order to absorb their magical
powers. To a d d to your
problems, each dimension Is
occupied by a variety of
deadly creatures just waiting to
sap your tife force; there are
mystical spheres which will
home In on you It they touch
you just once, cyclopean
c r e a t u r e s and a sort of
ectoplasmic frog, all
wandering round and standing
between you and your goal
Getting to Rasputin's stones
requires a combination of
arcade reflexes and strategic
planning lhat could provide a
challenge for weeks or even
months.
Your troubles donl end there
though, lor when you've
stepped on all the stones In a
particular demension Rasputin
will unleash another monster
which will probably zap you
pretty quickly. But. it you do
manage to kill It. the creature
will leave behind a rune that
will counteract one of the eight
spells. To add yet another
complication, the dimensions
and runes are "colour coded'
and II the dimension you are in
doesn't match the colour of the
runes you may not be protected
when you attempt to neutralise
the eight spells.
Yes, it Is as complicated as
It sounds, and I must admit that,
partly due to the gibberish in
the instructions, my initial
reaction to Rasputin was 'nice
graphics but where's the
game?', simply because I
couldn't work out what on earth
It was all about. Fortunately I
persevered and gradually Ihe
game started to reveal itself. In
the end. Rasputin turned out to
be one ot those games lhat
actually becomes more challenging and addictive the
longer you play It. as oil its
Intricate twists become clear.

Try beating our SpecDrum!

Drum

29.95

Digital Drum System

the Spectrum

8 DIGITALLY RECORDED REAL DRUM SOUNDS

S I M P L E TO U S E U P AND RUNNING IN ONLY MINUTES
A T R U E DIGITAL DRUM MACHINE
'REAL TIME' OR ON-SCREEN PROGRAMMING
COMPLETE W I T H SOFTWARE
EXTRA SOUNDS CAN B E LOADED FROM TAPE
CREATIVE, EDUCATIONAL AND FUN
T H E MOST EXCITING P E R I P H E R A L EVER DEVELOPED
DYNAMIC FILING S Y S T E M S T O R E OVER
1000 PROGRAMMED R H Y T H M S
T A P E SYNC FACILITY
SONGS CAN B E SAVED ON T A P E
POLYPHONIC
COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL
J U S T PLUG INTO YOUR HI Fl
AVAILABLE FROM HIGH ST. S T O R E S
AND ALL GOOD COMPUTER SHOPS
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Turn on your computer and take

a look at the screen. What do
you see? Straight after power-up,
Ihe answer is not very much !
But, if you use your imagination,
you could be looking through a
window into an electronic world
where the computer creates
images for you to view. With
many computers you are
looking through one large
window, and see a single large
image. With many modern
computers. Ihe TV screen can be
divided up into smaller rectangular units, so that you are
given two or more windows to

can enhance both the

appearance and user-friendliness of any piece of software.
For example, in a complex
screen display containing a lot
ot information. If a certain type
ot information always appears in
one window, the user will quickly
recognise that he or she will
have to look at a certain part of
the screen for that information.
When the QL Is first switched
on, the user has to select F1' tor
monitor mode or 'F2' for TV. This
Is simply because the QL's
medium resolution display in
monitor mode may not be too
clear on a TV screen, and the
edges of the display in monitor
mode may overflow on the TV
screen. The choice of 'F1' or 'F2'
gives you a selection of two predetermined window formats. With
both you get three windows, as
shown In the User Guide.
Windows are numbered 0. 1 and
2; window 0 is equivalent to the
status window on the Spectrum
and QL. Anything you type will
appear there. In TV mode,
windows 1 and 2 are in exactly
the same place, so Ihe screen
will look just like a Spectrum
display.
Standard BASIC commands
like CLS, PRINT, INPUT, etc will
operate on window number 1.
This is the default window. To get
these commands on any other
window, the window number has
to be specified; e.g. CLS it 2 will
clear window 2. So straight away
you should see an advantage
over the Spectrum; you can

Look closely at the screen and

you'll see that the display is
made up of lots of dots (called
pixels). There are 512 across the
screen, and 256 down. A window
can be defined by its size, in
terms of the number of pixels
across and down which make
up the window, and the position
of the top left corner of the
window, relative to the top left
point of the screen. The top left
of the screen Is considered as
position 0,0 so the bottom
right pixel is 511,255.
So, the command: WINDOW
1,400,200,100,20 will alter the
size and position ot window 1. so
that It is 400 pixels wide, 200
deep, and its top left position is
al pixel 100.20, relative to the top
left of the screen.
To be strictly correct, the QL
display wilt only be 512 pixels
wide in one of its display modes.
The QL offers eight colours (and
flash) in mode 8. but this only
allows a screen resolution of
256x256. Mode 4 gives four
colours with 512x256 resolution.
However, for window definition
both display modes are counted
as 512x256; each pixel In mode
8 has two 'addresses' pixel 0,0
Is the same as 1.0 in that mode
You may re-define all of the
three original windows in this
way. But, if these are still not
enough, you can define more
windows. In fact, within the limits
of the QL's memory, you can
have almost as many as you
want. To understand how this is
done, the concepts of devices

view; each window providing

you with some specific
information.
The ZX81 and Spectrum have
two machine-defined windows.
These are the main window (32
by 22 characters), and the status
and input window (32 by 2
characters) at the bottom of the
screen. Intelligent programming
can provide more windows, but
this cannot be achieved simply.
The QL isn't so limited; the user
can create any number of
windows, in any position, simply
through the use of some
powerful SuperBAStC commands.
Using windows imaginatively

clear any part of the screen

(without affecting the rest) simply
by clearing a window. In fact,
you can clear part of a window
using variations on the CLS command; see CLS in the keyword
section of your User Guide.
If you ask to LIST a program,
this command uses window 2 as
default, but you can direct a
listing to whichever window you
want using LIST # (number). It
you should want a different
arrangement of windows to
those which the QL firmware
provides for you on power-up.
changing them is very simple.
Use the WINDOW command.

and channels need to be

appreciated.

hen Sinclair Research

immodestly named the BASIC
interpreter on the QL 'SuperBASIC", they inevitably attracted
a tot ot criticism from users who
didn't quite agree with their
superlative. But SuperBASIC does
possess many attractive features
which can make it a pleasure to
write programs on the QL. This
series will not be a course in
programming, but should be of
value to beginners as well as
those with some previous
experience of BASIC In each
part of the series we will
examine one aspect of SuperBASIC programming, offering
advice, and providing some
examples for you to type in and
Iry for yourself. And the subject
of this, the first part, will b e . . .
WINDOWS.

Turn on

42

Open channels
The QL thinks of itself as a simple
machine with just a processing
unit, memory, and communication links. To allow the QL to
work as an effective computer, it
must be able to communicate
with 'external' devices, such as
the screen and microdrlves.
Communication between the QL
and Ihe screen is achieved by
means of a channel. This
channel has an identifying

number, and it is created using

the OPEN command. Thus, OPEN
scr wili open channel
number 3 to the screen.
Windows 0,1 and 2 use channels
of the same number; it Is the
channel number which identifies
the window. Nothing can
happen it you decide to use
channel 3 after using the
above OPEN command, as Ihe
window size and position haven't
been defined. You can do that
with Ihe WINDOW command.
Alternatively, you can use a
special form of the OPEN
command, i.e. OPEN f? 4,
scr 2 0 0 x l 0 0 a 2 0 x 3 0 opens a
window {number 4) of size 200
pixels wide by 100 deep, with
the top left corner at position at
20,30.
Instead of opening a channel
to the 'scr' device, a slightly
more powerful variation is to use
the console ('con') device. When
you use the INPUT command, a
flashing cursor appears on the
screen; as you type in a letter it
appears under the cursor before
Ihe cursor moves off to the right.
Like PRINT or CLS. the INPUT
command can be directed to
any window by specifying the
channel number. i.e. INPUT m 0,
a$ or INPUT n 2, v will send fhe
Hashing cursor to window 0 and
2. respectively. This will only work
if Ihe window was defined as a
console device (the QL defines
windows 0.1 and 2 as console
devices on power-up or reset). In
other words, a screen device is
for output only, whereas a

David Nowotnik finds

out what's super about
SuperBASIC.
Part One: Windows

console device does everything

a screen device does, and it
accepts the INPUT command.
When defining a console device,
a similar OPEN command is
used, but an extra parameter
can be added, which sets the
size of the Input buffer (the
largest number of characters
which will be accepted during
the operation of the INPUT
command). For example; OPEN
5, con 300x200a10x20 32.
The final '32' is the input buffer
size.
Once a screen or console
device has been opened, then
the window size and position

F i g l . Window Demonstration

Program

10 REMarl
Window Demonstration
20 REMart:
IX Computing
30 REMarl:
40 REMarl<
Set TV M o d e
50 MODE 8
60 WINDOW 5 1 2 , 2 5 6 , 0 , 0
70 PAPER Ot C L S
00 WINDOW 448,200,32,16
90 WINDOW #2,448,200,32,16
lOO WINDOW H O , 4 4 B , 4 0 , 3 2 , 2 1 6
110 PAPER li PAPER ni,2: PAPER #0,0
120 CL5: C L S HO
130 INt 7: INK #2,7: INK #0,7
140 CSIZE 0,0s CSIZE #0,0,0: CSIZE #2,0,0
ISO REMark Create new Window
160 REMarl
170 OPEN # 5 , c o n _ 4 0 0 1 6 0 a 5 6 x 3 6 _ 3 2
180 PAPER #5,4: INK #5,7
190 C L S #5
2 0 0 GO SUB 2000
210 CSXZE #5,3,1: PRINT #5\V*
Large Print."
220 CSIZE #5,2,1: PRINT 5 W
Medium Print"
230 CSIZE # 5 , 1,0i PRINT #5\\\"
Small Print"
240 CSIZE #5,0,0: PRINT
ttSWV
Smallest Print"
250 GO SUB 2 0 0 0
260 CLS #5
270 BORDER #5,10,200
280 GO SUB 2000
290 BORDER # 5 , 20,18o
300 GO SUB 2000
310 BORDER # 5 , 30,160
320 GO SUB 2000
330 PRINT # 5 , " T h i s demonstrates that w o r d s are printed
with-in the border."
340 GO SUB 2000
350 AT #5,6,4i PRINT #5,"Now to demonstrate
SCROLL."
360 GO SUB 2000
370 SCROLL #5,-60
380 60 SUB 2000
390 AT #5,6,4: PRINT #5,"And now PAN."
400 GO SUB 2000
410 PAN #5,80
420 GO SUB 2000
430 CLS #5
440 PRINT #5\S"CLS #5 cleared this
w i n d o w , but left
the
border intact."
450 GO SUB 2 0 0 0
460 BORDER #5,U: CLS #5
470 PRINT #5\\"Watch what h a p p e n s when window #1 is
c1 eared."
480 GO SUB 2000
490 C L S
500 PRINT \ V
As window #5 was within window # 1 , it w ^
cleared when CLS was used."
510 GO SUB 2000
520 CLS #5
5 3 0 PRINT #5\\\\ "CLS #5 h a s wiped out that, part o<
window #1 underneath it'"
540 GO SUB 2000
550 CLS: CSIZE 3,1: PRINT \\\"
THAT'S ALL"
1990 STOP
2000
INKEY * (-1)
2010 RETurn

can be re-defined as many

times as you like. If you no
longer need a window, then the
channel to it can be closed, i.e.
CLOSE nS disconnects the QL
from a device which was using
channel 5. You could then
connect another device via
channel 5. There is nothing to
stop you closing channels to the
pre-defined windows (0.1 and 2).
If you CLOSE 0, you'll find that
no direct commands will work,
as you have closed the console
device which Ihe QL firmware
has set up to accepl this input.
So you'll have to press RESET and
start againl

Window commands
Each QL window behaves as If it
were an independent screen. To
make use of these individual
'screens', there are a range of
commands you can use. The
listing in fig. 1. will gi*/e you a
demonstration. Type in the
program lines, then RUN the
program. Lines 50 to 140 adjust
the three original windows to
ensure that they are equivalent
to TV mode. It is surprising the
number of programs which are
written for the QL which are
otherwise very good, but the
writer has forgotten to set the

windows. Many authors assume

that the machine is just turned
on (or RESET), and TV mode
selected, before their program Is
loaded and run. Often this is not
the case, and the windows are
all wrong, producing some very
odd effects on the screen. So, if
you are writing your own programs. make sure that you have
a window initialisation routine
like that in Fig. 1. at the start of
the program.
Having set up the 'original'
screen, an extra window is
created as a console device
(line 170). The INK and PAPER for
this window are defined as white
and green respectively (line 180),
and the window cleared (line
190) so that it is visible on the
screen. The program runs
through a series of demonstrations; you can move from one
stage to the next by pressing
any key {GO SUB 2000). You are
shown how to adjust the
character size in the window
with CSIZE (lines 210-240),
different border sizes and
colours/patterns (lines 270-320),
how printing in the window
doesn't overlap the border, and
how the window itself can be
SCROLLed or PANned without
effecting any of part of the
screen. The effect of clearing
window #1 on window 5 is also
shown.
Now the principles of windows
have been mastered, you should
be able to use them to good
effect in your programs. One
example is shown in Fig. 2. It is
simple maths test program for
primary school children, allowing them to practise any multiplication table of their choice.
The screen display is split into
windows, each window having a
specific purpose, so that the
child should quickly know where
to look for any part of the
operation. The main window, on
the left of the screen, provides
the questions, the smaller yellow
window on the right hand side
provides the response (correct or
wrong, or the complete multiplication table, if the child has
real problems in getting the
answer). The blue window at the
bottom of the screen is used for
input of answers.
You will notice when running
the program that the main
window has a 'shadow' to it. This
is a popular effect in many QL
business programs; it gives the
impression that a window is
'standing out" from the rest of the
screen, so highlighting to the
user which window should be
looked at most closely.
If you're not very familiar with
SuperBASIC, there may be
several constructions within the
mathematics program which are
confusing. Don't worry, because
in the next five issues of ZX
Computing most of the QL's
special BASIC commands will be
featured.

44

Fig.2. Multiplication

Test

Proqram

10 REMark M a t h s test
20 REMark ZX C o m p u t i n g
100 init
110 test
120
AT M 3 t 6 , 0 : PRINT *3,"Any m o r e <y/n)?"
130 a * = I N K E Y * ( - 1 )
140 IF at""n" THEN S T O P
150 RUN
1000 D E F i n e P R O C e d u r e init
1010 MODE 8i WINDOW 5 1 2 , 2 3 6 , 0 , 0
1020 PAPER 2: C L S
1030 W I N D O W 2 5 0 , 2 0 0 , 4 5 , 1 5 : P A P E R 255: C L S
1040 W I N O O W 2 3 0 , 2 0 0 , 5 5 , 2 0 : P A P E R 7: C L S
1030 CSIZE 2,1
1060 OPEN # 3 , scr: W I N D O W t3, 1 8 0 , 1 4 0 , 3 2 0 , 3 0
1070 PAPER *3,6: INt M3,2: C L S M3
1080 WINDOW M O , 3 1 2 , 2 0 , 1 0 0 , 2 3 0 : P A P E R HO,3: C L S MO
1090 INK M0,0: s c o r e = 0 : last-O: p r e v 0
1lOO INK 3i P R I N T V '
MULT IPLICAT ION"\\"
TABLES"
1110 INPUT MO;" Which t a b l e (2 - 12)
at
1120 IF NOT check (a*> THEN C L S MO: G O TO 1110
1130 n u m ^ i l ! IF n u m < 2 OR n u m > 1 2 THEN C L S MO: G O TO 1110
1140 C L S WO: C L S
1150 E N D DEFine init
1500 D E F i n e P R O C e d u r e t a b l e s <x)
1510 LOCal 1
1520 C L S M3i PRINT M3
1530 FOR i-l TO 12
1540 IF i<10 THEN PRINT M3," "
1550 PRINT #3," "it;" x " j x ; " - "tx*i
1560 NEXT i
1570 END DEFine tables
1600 D E F i n e F u N c t i o n check <2)
1610 LOCal l
1620 IF
THEN RETurn 0
1630 FOR i-J TO LEN <z)
1640 IF : ( i ) < " 0 " OR z * ( i ) > " 9 " THEN RETurn 0
1650 E N D FOR l
1660 RETurn 1
1670 E N D DEFine check
1700 D E F i n e P R O C e d u r e headinq
1710 CSIZE 2,1
1720 CLSs PRINTS"
":num;" T I M E S TABLE"
1730 END DEFine headinq
1800 D E F i n e P R O C e d u r e teat
1810 LOCal i,j,h
1820 FOR 1 = 1 TO lO
1830
heading
1840
CSIZE 1,1:PRINTS"
What is:-"
1850
hrandom
1860
PRINTW"
; h; " x ";num
1870
F O R j-I TO 3
1880
REPeat loop
1890
INPUT MO,"
Answer = ";x*
1900
IF check <x*> THEN E X I T loop
1910
E N D R E P e a t loop
1920
xx*
1930
IF x - h * n u m THEN
1940
AT M3,6,4: PRINT #3,"CORRECT"
1950
PAUSE 200: s c o r e - s c o r e + 4 - j
1960
C L S M3: EXIT J
1970
ELSE
1980
AT #3,6,4: PRINT M3,"
WRONG'"
1990
IF j<3 THEN PRINT M 3 W "
Try again"
2000
P A U S E 200: C L S #3
2010
NEXT j
2020
t a b l e s <num)
2030
PAUSE 5 0 0
2040
CLS M3
2050
END FOR J
2060
PAUSE lOO: C L S MO
2 0 7 0 E N D FOR i
2 0 8 0 CLS: P R I N T W " You got ";score\" p o i n t s f r o m " V
30"
2100 E N D DEFino test
2 2 0 0 DEFine FuNction random
2210 LOCal rd
2 2 2 0 REPeat c o l l e c t
2230
rd-RNDCl TO 12)
2240
IF r d O I a s t AND r d O p r e v THEN EXIT c o l l e c t
2 2 5 0 END REPeat c o l l e c t
2260 p r c v = l a s t : last=rd
2 2 7 0 RETurn rd
2280 E N D D E F i n e r a n d o m

Centre5oft

presents

With ovor four years experience ol proving practical

software solutions for business and home applications.
Gemini have put together their entire range of famous titles for
the Spectrum and Spectrum Plus in ONE special pack, at a
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merodrrve user, this super vakie pack contains all the senous
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Spectrum, from home accounts and database management
to a complete professional business accounting system.
Gemini's OFFICE MASTER is here-put lhat computer to WORK!

Database
Stock
Control
Final Accounts
Easiledger

Mailist
Cash Book
Home
Accounts
Graph Plot

Each pack contains ALL 8 programs, demonstration

data files, and clear and comprehensive manuals for
EACH program. Gemini '$ pre vious retail price for
all these programs individually was C179.60.
Now they re all together in ONE COMPREHENSIVE
PROGRAM PACK.

OFFICE MASTER

Tape: 15 Microdrive: 17.50

includes P & P and VAT.

Database MM

Use this program for storing al types Of

information |us! the way YOU want lo store it.
You set up a computerised card index' system
and add records and data to tho file in the format
that you choose. Advanced features indude
sorting and searching for specific rocords,
mathematical calculations, pnnter routines, data
summanes, otc II you don't have a database,
you certainly should!

M a i m

This is a specially designed database for storing

names and addresses, and printing out in label
format Special search routinos are rncludod for
selecting only names and addresses that
conform lo your critena. The famous Gemini
Searchkey' facility is included with this program,
and data entry is simplified by an on screen label
painting system Just type in those names and
addresses as though you were using a typewnier!

Stock Control

One of Gomim's speciality programs, this

software will take the drudgery ouf of koeping
stock records Enter details ot part number,
description, unit quantty, cost pnce. selling pnce.
minimum stock level, units in stock, order quantity
and supplier details. Detailed reports include
totals of stock at cost and sale pnce. cost of
bringing stock up to level specified, gross margin,
understocked ilems. etc. Full browsing facilities
tomako inventory management a ptoasuro!

Sole distributors to the trade:

Cash Book

Ths is a fuH and comprehensive cash book

accounts system designed to REPLACE your
manual ledgor entirety, ft will lake you from the
shoebox' situation of sheaves of invoices,
chequo book stubs, petty cash vouchers and
bank statements etc to a properly constituted
tnal balanco. You may then take your FINAL
ACCOUNTS package and produce profit and
toss account and balance sheet ready for audit
A REAL money savor when it comes lo your
accountancy t*n'

Final Accounts

Using the data file on microdnve or cassette

preparod by the cash book program, this softwaro
will produco comprehensive eod-of-year reports
ready for audil by your professional adviser
The Gemra cash book and final accounts system
is now in use by many thousands ol businesses
and as a classic' professional program has been
translated lor a wide variety of micros Cashbook and final accounts alone warrant tho
purchase of this OFFICE MASTER program pack.

Easiledger

Consists of imatuabte routines to alow the

creation of any type of financial ledger system
Its usefulness lies m its ability to produce
account balances instantly for debtors and
creditors together with an audit trail of all entered
transactions, with dales and references.
A year-to-dale summary is included of sales,
purchases, receipts and payments over a
12 month period, and most importantly, a
completely interactive bank account database ts
featured

Graph Plot JUbV^

At last, superb grapns. bar charts and pie charts

on your Spectrum! With a complete data entry
section and I ho ability to load and save files, this
is realty one ol the fun programs to use
Represent numbers and data m clear digrams
with this package, and pnnt them out on your
printer to accompany reports, budgets, etc
Very NgWy recommendedtorthe office, home
and school Also includes capability to provide
mathematical function plotting

Mail
Order to:

Home Accounts

Designed as a complete financial and budgoling

package for home affairs, this program allows the
user lo set up a budgol for items ot household and
lamily expenditure and compare actual
expenditure with budget as often as roqwrod
A running total of surpluses and deficits is
available both numoncalty and in bar graph form
A complete bank account routine is included,
together with suggested expenditure categories
which may bo simply altered as roquirod.

Centre5oft Ltd.
Tel. 021-359-3020

To GefmMarkaVig j

G E m i n i
Please send me

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T t I . ><!
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^

45

COMBAT LYNX {Air-to-ground Battle Simulation)

Spcctrum48k
f 8 95
Commodore 64
8 95
Amstrad 464/6128 f 8 95
BBC/Electron
8 95
"Combat Lynx is both simulation and shoomm up games in ooo Tho 3D
effeci created by using contour lino graphics tends to give it a more
technical feel, so more like a simulation, but on the other hand thoro are
lot* of |ets and enemy helicopters whu/ing around and ground forces
hooting at you which gives tho gamo its instant payability appeal Once
you get the hang of coping with everything, it's posstblo to play a game of
high strategy which involves not only arcade skills but those of forward
planning For people wt>o enjoy stratogy type games. Combat Lynx should
provide hours of fun. while for those who prefer something instant and
fast - choose skill level 4 and hang onto your hats! Gone rally the graphics
are most impressive, with a lew attribute problems when objocis are
about to become hidden, but these are minor in what is otherwise an
ongaging and challenging gamo"

itmmim
rwi!

4 l i tA

/k

T U R B O E S P R I T (30 Simulation Car Chase)

Spectrum 48k
8 95
Commodore 64
8 95
Amstrad 464/6128 8 95
You are a special agent equipped with a Lotus Turbo Esprit. An international ring of drug smugglers are about to make a huge delivery of
heroin, and must be stopped at all costs. The drugs are stored at a
number ot houses in the city, and will be taken by cars to an armoured
van which will be cruising around the centre A raid on the van before
completion of the delivery would leave some of the drugs in circulation.
Similarly a raid on any of ihe houses would alert them to your squad's
activities You must therefore try and pick-off the cars one by one
before they make their drop, and then try to stop the van before it
escapes The delivery cars will be backed- up by 'hit' squads so watch
out!
(Developed with the support of Lotus Cars Ltd)

iif u *

yK

CRITICAL M A S S (Arcade)
Spectrum 48k
C8 95
Commodore 64
C8.95
Amstrad 464/6128 C8 95
An outlying system of the Terra Federation has set up an advanced
anti-matter conversion plant on a centrally positioned asteroid to
supply the local colonists with energy. A surprise attack by alien forces
has successfully overcome the asteroid's defences and the aliens are
now threatening to self-deslruct the power plant unless the colonists
offer an unconditional surrender The self-destruction process would
effectively turn the power plant into a massive black hole that would
wipe out the entire planetary system along with a number of nearby
stars Unconditional surrender offers an equally horrific prospect Your
mission is to infiltrate the enemy position and disable the anii-matter
plant before the aliens achieve CRITICAL MASS.
"Thisisthebu'
The graphics and ptayabilny of this game are superb
making it well worth the money **

1 c

O
%

jjagj

SABOTEUR!
S A B O T E U R (Martial Arts Arcade Adventure)
Spectrum 48k
C8 95
Amsttad 464/6128 C8 95
Commodore 64
C8 95

t -'

You are a highly skilled mercenary trained in the martial arts. You are
employed to infiltratea central security building which is disguised asa
warehouse. You must sieal a disk that contains the names of all the
rebel leaders before its information is sent to the outlying security
stations. You are working against the clock, both in getting to the disk,
and in making your escape. You must enter the building from the sea by
rubber dinghy, and will then only be able to leave by the helicopter on
the roof. You will have to find your way around the warehouse, making
use of the guards' own weapon supplies in your struggle through
overwhelming odds.
"Saboteur is without a doubt oneof the best arcade games I've seen for
a long time and a welcome departure from the plethora of
licenced/endorsed product lhat the industry seems tocurrently favour
Recommended."

^ I
firt

M B

(pyn

1 :1

DURELL sales dept.,

Castle Lodga Castle Green, Taunton, Somerset, TA1 4AB, England

Telephone (0823) 54489 & 54029

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30 great games from leading software houses including Quicksilva, Bug Byte,Mind
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Back to

school

I would like to point out Ihe

lime saving advantages of Ihe

Spectrum In educational use

over the BBC computer BBC programs
always seem lo take so long that I
decided to make a comparison on Ihe
time taken to type In a simple program
on the speed of molecules In a gas
I found the BBC required about 1700
keystrokes to enter the program while
the Spectrum did much Ihe same with
a 12 line program ol 300 keystrokes.
Science teachers lake note!
Having been one myself I know they
are very much pressed for lima There
Is also the advantage that the Spectrum
detects some program errors by not
allowing a line to be entered.
With other computers you may not
detect the error until In the mldle ot running the program. Low cost Is another
strong point in favour of Ihe Spectrum
II enables many more pupils to learn
about computing.
In view ol all this It seems unfortunate
that the BBC seems to dominate the
educational Held.
Don Hlnson, Llanrwst. Gwynned.

CROSSFIRE
Crossfire

is your page

to express

your opinions

current

issues in Sinclair

scene.

We want to hear from you on the

that

bug

computer;
think

about

you

and

the

computing
pleasures

and the

games
problems

of using

And of course we want to know what

our first monthly

on

your
you

issue.

Printer hints
In ihe Feb/March issue Mr R.
Luxton wrote an article concerning Ihe Kempston E

printer interface and the Epson FX80

printer. I have the Kempston E and an
RX80 which Is similar to the FX80 but
without Esc 6 and proportional print.
With the Interface, he said that the
Spectrum should not have read Ihe
information after the REM. What actually
happens Is that when Ihe Spectrum
comes across a COPY command the
interface's EPROM pages In. If It Is just a
plain copy, then the screen Is copied,
In text, graphics or large size graphics,
depending on how Ihe Interface Is set
up If It Is a COPY:REM command, the
characters are read by the interface not
Ihe Spectrum and the RAM on the Interlace changes accordingly.
A similar thing happens with microdive commands which cannot be used
unless Interface 1 or a disc Interface Is
connected.
let's face it computers are supposed to
I hope this clears up the enquiry he
It is a pity that Rotronlcs do not
relieve people of work not create more
had.
publicise their Information sheets more
Matthew Probert. Basingstoke
as they are reasonable In price and
Timothy Hunt. Bedford.
include
advice on
transferring
The Hex versus Dec debate certainly
programs to Wata to enable you to
seems
to bring programmers' passions
Whys and wafa*s
transfer even long programs which use to the surface. Which side are you on?
the WAFA ROM memory area.
Mr Tyedman In a letter In Ihe
I have found Rotronics are quick to
Feb/March Issue mentioned
Clubs
reply
to problems and very helpful.
that when using his Kempston

E interface with a Watadrive there was When I had a faulty wafer they retrieved
From Alexandria to Barnsley
my files and returned them to me on a
no screen dump available.
Spectrum user groups connew water. So full marks tor customer
tinue to flourish and look for
In fact Rotronlcs who manufacture
service
and
I
would
advise
anyone
with
new members, write to the addresses
Waladrive have issued a number of very
below for further details.
useful information sheets, one ot which wata problems to contact them.
Carol Brooksbank, Coventry.
gives Ihe listing to generate machine
Spectrum User Cluh, do K. Fox, 23
code to give a screen dump with Epson
Caxton Street. Barnsley. Slh. Yorks. S702LF
printers, or non-Epson models which
(SAE requested).
Hex v Dec
recognise the ESC A and ESC L control
Club Pen Pal Aparlodo 364-3007
modes
Coimbra Codex-Portugal. A pen pal
Down with Hex and Its
group with 600 members around the
Having used both Kempston and
mechanical
mystlcisml
I
world swapping information and ideas
Waladrive screen dumps, I prefer the
count In tens and If the
about the Spectrum.
Waladrive. because it has two copy Creator (or should that be prosires Another useful feature Is that the
Egypt Spectrum Users, do Waloed M.
grammer?) meant me to count In
Wala copy routine allows you to specify slxteens he/she would have given me
Hasan, 23 Shlty Beck St., Saraya, FO.
the left margin width so that you have
sixteen toes but at the last count I assure Alexandria. Egypt. A growing number
control over where Ihe copy appears
of Spectrum owners who wish to estabyou I had the usual ten. Hex Is lor the
on the page
lish international contacts.
computers' convenience not ours and

49

128
This month we start a
great two-part
competition with five
Spectrum 128s to be
won.

Q.

2
O
O
50

1 - e g e n d has It, so they say, that

many, many moons ago a band
ot seafaring software pirates
were washed up on a mysterious
islond and spent the rest of their
days marooned with only BBC
software to occupy their long
empty days. Not surprisingly
under the circumstances, they
soon lost the will to live and
quickly shuffled off this mortal

coil. But, before they went they

burled their horde of five
Spectrum 128s and threw a map
of the Island Inlo the sea in a
bottle
Luckily the intrepid explorers
at ZXC have managed to locale
the map and a series of clues
leading to the position of the
burled 128s. But Just to make
things a little tricky for you we're

The questions
1) How many Dalmatians were in
the title ot the Walt Disney film?
2) Around The World in how
many days?
3) How many Thunderbirds were
there In the TV puppet series?
4) How many years between
each Olympic Games?
5) How many Dr. Whos have
there been in the television
series?

Now, take the answer to

question 1, subtract the answer
to question 2. and then add
answer to question 3. That will
leave you with a number that
you then multiply by the answer
to question 4, and if you add to
that total the answer to question
5 you get the number that
represents the latitude
co-ordinate of the buried 128s.

mmw.
only going to give you half the
answer this month, and the other
half next month.
What you have to do Is
answer the four questions below:
these answers will leave you with
lour numbers which have to be
added, subtracted and
generally jiggled around to give
you the latitude co-ordinate ot
Ihe 128s (latitude Is the

horizontal axis, marked between

0 and 150 degrees on the map).
Next month we'll give you the
clues that reveal the longtltude
co-ordinate and a tiebreaker.
Next month you'll get the second
co-ordinate that will allow you to
pinpoint them on the map. See
you then.

a.
5
O
O

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Through port lor further expansion.
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The new, revitalised Imagine

are continuing to turn out some
very good games, the latest
being Movie a gome set on the
streets ot New York in which you
play the part ol Jack Marlow, a
Prlvale Eye in search ot a
valuable tape recording.
The style ot the game is
similar to that ot Knight Lore and
the more recent Sweevo's World,
giving a slightly overhead 3D
view ot the streets and rooms
that you travel through. But
instead ol being a cute little
sprite Jack Marlow Is a shady
looking character in a trench
coat and trilby, and as he walks
along there's an effective
crunching sound effecl that
sounds as ft Jack Is walking
along the grUly New York
sidewalks.
The tape that you're looking
for Is In the hideout of the
gangster Bugs Malloy, but
getting there isn't going to be
easy. As you scout the area
you II bump into some of Bug's
henchmen, and there are more
and more of Ihem the closer
you get to the hideout. Some ol
these people may be able to
help you. but most of them will
try to bump you off with a welt
placed bullet or a haymoker to
the chin. Fortunately you can
pock a mean punch as well,
and watching Ihe hoods disintegrate after a s l u g g i n g
match Is very satisfying. Also, if
you can find them there are
jns ond bombs lying around
at will let you shoot your way
out ot tough spots
As well as the Ultimate style
graphics, Movie also leatures
on icon menu thai allows you
to perform a variety ot actions;
you can pick up/drop oblects
which can also be used or
simply thrown, you can punch
or shool other characters or
even talk lo them. This last
option is very novel when you
select the 'talk' icon a speech
bubble appears over Marlow's
head and you can fill Ihe
speech bubble by typing text
on the keyboard. The level of
conversation is fairiy basic, but
it is sufficient to let you get a
password that you will need
later on in the game.
The Icon menu takes Movie
o step further than similar
games as It allows you a wider

variety of actions (it's Interesting

to wonder what a version of the
K 3 m e for the 128 might do with
e extra memory and sound
facilities).
You'll need help to locate
Bug's hideout and this arrives In
the form of the twin sisters Tanya
and Vanya one of these Is on
your side and will lead you
there, though you'll need to do
some quick thinking to follow
her all Ihe way. The other slsler
is a 'plant' and she'll only lead
you Info an ambush so it's up
to you to work out which sister
Is on your side.
My only quibble wilh the
game is that you only have a
single life to play with and it
can be very frustrating to reach
a late stage In the game only
to lose everything by making a
single mistake. Even so. the
quality of the graphics ond Ihe
gangster setting make Movie
stand out Irom The crowd.

. 1 ]

Compufer Graphic

I'M
Drown trom o photo

Two f a c t s merged

tv/monitor. Trace round the

Image using the "Shapes'
commands (ie Elastic on/Cont.
Designer, Neil
Lines).
The reason for doing the
Strudwick explores the
shape large Is so that you have
the option of rescaling It smaller
capabilities of
(smaller images enlarged
become distorted).
Rainbird's Art Studio.
Having completed your
shape, sove It to tape, or
microdrive if you have the
S B o w there's a piece ot software extended Art Studio. Now you
that boosts the graphic potential can begin to experiment on It. If
of the Spectrum and is great fun there is room on the screen
make two copies on It, in case
to use.
you make a mistake, that way
The Art Studio (14.95) is an
exciting new graphics package you won't have to reload your
original.
which uses the WIMP
environment (wlndows lcons'
mouse pulldown menus) to
You can now fill your shape
create professional looking
with various textures, using
graphics, and does It as well as 'Undo' to experiment, or try out
the bigger and more expensive
the drop shadow effect
micros. The WIMP environment is mentioned at the back of the
easy for even a first time
manual.
operator to use. and has no
The drop shadow effect uses
complicated keyboard
the 'Windows' commands quite
sequences to learn. It Is also
extensively, firstly fill your shape
smooth and fast in operation.
in solid, then copy it using "Cut
By now you may be familiar
& paste window'. Immediately
with all the commands
after you have positioned and
available but may not realise
printed the copy, select a wash
that by using a combination of
texture (halftone) and Ihe shape
commands you can create
becomes a halftone. You can
some great effects. So here are
then copy and merge your solid
some suggestions for getting the shape on fop and off centre to
most out of the Art Studio
give the shadow effect.
Start with a simple outline
You can then put a window
shape, such as a letter or
around the whole Image, clear
symbol. If you are not artistic,
it using Clear window' and then
then trace around your image
immediately select a further
from a photograph or something wash texture. You could go on
already drawn, onto a piece ot
selecting wash texture until your
clear acetate. Draw the image
image eventually disappears.
as large as possible, but so that
This technique of clearing a
It fits in the screen of your
shape and washing texture can

be applied to the commands

'Cut, clear & paste' and "Clear
& re-scale', indeed any
command that erases a shape.
Try Clear & re-scale' without
'merge' and print the rescaled
shape over the original, then
apply a wash texture. The
original shape reappears
behind the second shape. Now
if you have 'Over' switched on
trom the 'Attrs' menu, your first
image will blend with the
second if you merge them. If the
Over' switch is of! pixels merged
are unchanged ie black pixel
+ black pixel = black pixel,
but if 'Over' is switched on then
the combination is on an XOR
basis, this would mean black
pixel + black pixel = white
space.
The best use ol Over (other
than a special effect) is when
you would like to turn a solid
shape into an outlined shape. A
simple example would be if you
wanted an outline ot a square
from a solid square. With Merge'
and Over' switched on put a
window around the solid square,
select Re-scale window' and
print the re-scaled window
directly over the solid square
but one pixel smaller all round.

easily is having selected your

appropriate colours, go to the
'Paint' menu selecting Brush'.
Choose a null' brush (ie a
blank brush that changes
attribute colours, not pixels).

Quite simply you then brush

colour onto the relevant areas of
your picture. For large areas
choose a 'null' texture that will
rapidly colour areas of the
screen.

The changing face ol Sir Ciive

If your shape is a solid and

you wish only part of it to be
textured, select a brush, pen, or
airbrush from the 'Paint' menu
with the 'Inverse' switched on.
erase part of your shape that
you wish textured, then
immediately after select a wash
texture. The removed part will
reappear in the chosen texture.
This technique also applies If
you use commands from the
Shapes' menu and 'Text' menu!
Remember that 'Inverse' also
has an effect on the 32 textures,
with 'Inverse' on you have 32
inverse textures giving access to
64 textures. This Inverse' also
applies to the 'Text' menu and
Ihe Paint" menu when using the
'Brush' command. Depending on
wether you have inverse on or
off it will give the elfect of
having a solid or outline brush
shape.
Returning to Windows' I have
quite often used this menu If I
wanted a larger brush. For
example if you wanted to draw
a shape made up ot large
circles, lirst draw a circle Irom
Ihe Shapes' menu, put a
window around it, with 'Merge'
and Multiple' switched on. and
then by repeatedly moving and
pressing the fire button, you can
draw with lhat shape. Try this
technique using the 'Over'
switched on. and see what
happens.
Finally I will mention the use
of colour. I cannot go into great
detail about it because ot the
nature of the Spectrum attribute
screen, but a good way to
reduce colour attribute problems
is to use 'Windows' to reposition
areas of your picture. One way
to colour areas ot the screen

8.

'

-nSlM

HI /

4ftT*lf

W J S .

Mil
Variations

ii^^^JI!
jpK

* A?

. v . v . v . v . v . v . v . v . v . w
. v . v . v . v . v . v . v . v . v . v ,

V . ' . V . ' . V . ' . V . V . V . V

ViV>VYIVVM

ViVr-

An icon-driven multi-screen strategic simulation of what

it's like to take on the most difficult task of all

/MIND J G/1MES
A v a i l a b l e f o r the
Spectrum 48X a n d C B M 6 4

Argus Press Software Ltd., Liberty House,

222 Regent Street, London W1R 7DB A

VlTwiI'ltv.

S/lrr(>fw

There are five copies of

Kipper Williams' new
cartoon collection and
an original cartoon to
be won In this draw it
yourself competition.

ave you ever wondered what

your computer is doing when
your back is turned? Which
computer game do nine out of
ten space invaders prefer? These
and other vital questions are
answered in 'Warning: This
Computer Bytes' a hilarious
selection of cartoons focussing
on the outer limits of obsessive
computing.
Kipper, whose cartoons can
be seen regularly In Time Out,
Smash Hits and Radio Times,
says he has avoided the lure of
the computer so far.
"1 don't have one and must
confess I don't even use one," he
said. "I'm certainly not an
addict. I always look at it from
the point of view of an outsider."
"I think they are fascinating
machines but i'm more
interested in the people who
use them. I find computer users
who hide themselves away
mildly disturbing and I always
get the sense that perhaps it's
the machine rather than the
man that's in control."
To enter the competition
simply dream up and draw a
cartoon on any aspect of
computing. If you are in control
of your computer you might
entice it to give you some help
with the graphics. Send your
entry to Cartoon Competition,
ZX Computing, No 1 Golden
Square, London W1R 3AB Be sure
to Include your name and
address.

Rules
Entries will not be accepted
from employees of Argus
Specialist publications,
Alabaster Passmore and Sons or
Javelin books. The editor's
decision is final and no
correspondence can be
entered into.
All entries must be received
by first post on Friday 16th of
May. The winners will be notified
by post and the results
published In a future edition of
ZX Computing Monthly.

Tho original could bo yours.

1^0143t
AMX MOUSE
Advanced Memory Systems
49.95
First past the post with a mouse
package for Ihe Spectrum are
Advanced Memory Systems,
probably the best known to
Spectrum owners tor the add-on
keyboard that they produced
some time ago, though the
company Is also well known as
a producer ot peripherals lor
the BBC micro and this mouse
Is a version of one originally
produced lor that macnina
I had originally leared thai
In order to produce a low-cost
mouse tor the Spectrum AMS
might have to cut a tew corners
in the construction of the unit,
bul u n p a c k i n g the mouse
revealed it to be a good solid
unit constructed out ol strong
black plastic Mounted on the
mouse's 'head'. Just below
where your lingers would rest
when using it, are three large
red switches which the manual
refers to as 'Execute. Move and
Cancel". These are fairly sell
explanatory, allowing you to
execute a command, move the
control pointer to another part
of the screen, or to cancel a
command in the event of a
mistake
On Its underside is a single
hard plastic ball-bearing'
which allows you to move the
mouse over flat surtaces and to
'track' the control pointer
around the screen in response
to that movement.
The mouse Is connected to
your machine via an Interface
that p l u g s Inlo Ihe rear
peripherals port. The tall' ol the
mouse, a thin cable running out
ol the Iront ol the unit, then
plugs into the Interface. A
Centronics printer port Is also
i n c l u d e d In t h e m o u s e
Interface (which makes the
whole package good value
since Ihls Is worth up to 30 on
its own), and screen dumps lo
a printer can be controlled
directly trom AMX Art. the
graphics utility that comes as
standard with the mouse
The manual is very well produced and illustraied and.
d e s p i t e o n e or two fuzzy
patches, generally very clear.
Where the manual, explaining
the IMPORT command, slates
that il is Impossible to toad a
SCREENS using this command,
it should actually say 'possible'

58

rather than 'impossible' this

confused me for a while since
I couldn't see the point of a
graphics utility that doesn't
allow you to load a screen
picture
The software cassetie that
comes with ihe mouse includes
AMX Art. AMX Palelte, AMX
Control. Icon Designer and a
demonstration program. AMX
Art is an icon and pull-down
menu driven graphics designer
which, although lacking some
of the refinements of The Art
Studio Is still very sophisticated.
The row of Icons down the right
hand side ot the screen which
control most of Ihe drawing,
painting, and shape commands are marginally taster to
use than the Art Studio which
Is totally menu driven, though
slightly less versatile. AMX Art
also allows you to draw a
picture that is four times the size
of the normal screen area.
The screen that you are
p r e s e n t e d w i t h w h e n the

program loads Is a window

allowing you to see the top lefthand quarter of the area that
you can draw onta The rest ot
this area can be seen either by
shrinking Ihe whole thing into
the usual size ol Ihe screen, or
by moving the window around
using the Icon c o m m a n d s
available If you draw s o m e
Ihlng targe enough to fill this
entire area, AMX Art allows you
to dump the whole picture onto
a printer.
The only drawback with this
p r o g r a m is t h a i It c a n n o t
handle colour at all. You draw
pictures in black and white,
save them onlo tape then load
the AMX Palette program. Your
picture then has to be loaded
Inlo the Palette program as a
SCREENS before you can add
colour.
Quite possibly the most

Important and powerful of the

programs provided with Ihis
mouse is the AMX Control
program. This Is a chunk of
machine code thai adds 28
commands to the Spectrum's
BASIC, all c o n c e r n e d with
controlling the mouse. This
means, in eltect, that you can
write your own mouse software
and the Icon Designer program
allows you to create your own
icons for use with that software
Obviously, becoming
lamlllar with these commands
will require a certain amount of
elfort but since they open up
the possibility of writing just
a b o u t any sort of mousecontrolled program that lakes
your lancy 1he potential ot AMX
Control Is enormous The demo
program thai comes on the
casselle gives two examples ot
such programs; a simple sliding
block puzzle and a calculator
that are both mouse controlled.
In addition to this write-yourown-software potential, the
people at AMS tell me that Ihey
hope to produce further mouse
software probably along the
lines of the 3D Graphics, Database, and Page Maker programs that they have already
storied to produce for the BBC
mouse, so that the potential
usefulness of this mouse goes
beyond Just designing screen
pictures.

KEMPSTON
MOUSE
Kempston Micro Electronics
69.95
Kempston step into the ring with
the reputation ot being one ol
the most well established and
s u c c e s s f u l p r o d u c e r s of
peripherals for the Spectrum.
They can rightly claim fo have
produced the closest to a
universal joystick standard that
exists for that machine and so
they're In a good position to
repeat that success wilh Ihelr
mouse system.
Simply handling the Kempston Mouse shows It to be even
more soundly constructed than
Ihe AMX version. It's smaller but
slightly heavier a n d the
tracking ball on Ihe underside
is made of rubber, factors which
may well give the mouse a
firmer grip on your work surface
At the same time, the tracking
ball is surrounded by four steel
ball-bearings that help lo make
it move smoothly. Just two
buttons are mounted on the
mouse's head' almost flush with
the surface and this, along with
the smaller size and whitefinish,
gives It a more stream lined, hitech look.

The interface looks exactly

like a standard Kempston joystick interface, with a D socket
i n t o w h i c h t h e m o u s e is
plugged.
At the moment, the mouse
comes bundled with a copy of
The Art Studio which, as all
good computer magazines will
tell you. is the best thing since
sliced bread. Its ability lo cut
and paste areas of Ihe screen
Is virtually unmatched, except
by the harder to use Artisf from
Softek. It is also very versatile in
its shape handling commands,
and the fill routine is probably
the fastest around.
Art Sludio is already compatible with the AMX Mouse,
but if requires a few POKES to

make it Kempston compatible

( a l t h o u g h the m i c r o d r i v e
version, Extended Art Studio is
already compatible with bolh).
Adding these POKES took a
minute or two, but only needs
to be done once since Art
Studio allows you to make backup copies of itself with these
POKES included.
At the moment ihe documentation for this mouse Isn't
completed, though the Art
Studio obviously carries its own
manual and since Ihere are no
other bundled programs fo
compare with the AMX Conlrol
and Icon Designer programs.

The winner . , .
Well, there Isn't one really;
this Is one of the few occasions
when 1 can't honestly recomm e n d o n e p r o d u c t over
another, 69.96 is quite a lot of
money, but I hove no doubts
about recommending Ihem
both as being well worth the
price Both packages are good
value since they bring to the
Spectrum facilities normally
associated with much more
expensive machines. And in
bolh cases along with the ease
ol use that a mouse brings there
Is also an element of sheer fun.
A mouse gives you much
f i n e r c o n t r o l over p i c t u r e
designing lhan any ol Ihe lightpens. graphics tablets or olher
graphics aids that I've used,
and once doodling on screen
becomes as easy as doodling
on paper it also becomes an
enormously enjoyable pass
time
In terms of the actual mice
themselves, Kempston have a
very slight edge Though 1 would
never call the AMX Mouse
poorly constructed the Kemps-

there's unlikely to be any need

for a large manual. However,
Kempston do intend to produce
their own graphics utility which,
when linished. will replace Art
Sludio in the package, and the
duplicated sheets that came
with our review model had brief
notes about the ports used by
the mouse and the relevant
memory locations as well as a
short test program and it would
be u s e f u l to see t h e s e
expanded on.

ton seens a little sturdier, and

because of the rubber tracking
ball it seems to have a better
grip on Ihe work surface On the
other hand, the AMX mouse
does include that Centronics
port which is bolh useful and
excellent value. And. al the risk
ol hedging my bets. I can't
really criticise Ihe construction
ol the AMX Mouse: they're bolh
very good, it's just that the
Kempslon is a little better.
It's also hard to balance Ihe
merils ol the bundled software.
The Art Studio which (al the
m o m e n t ) c o m e s w i t h the
Kempslon Mouse Is without
doubt better than any olher
Spectrum graphics program.
Including AMX Art. However, the
AMX software also includes the
AMX Control and Icon Designer
programs which open up all
sorts of possibilities, and there
is also the likelihood ol future
software support Irom AMS
themselves
I'm pleased to say that
whichever product you decide
lo buy, this Is one of those rare
occasions when you're unlikely
to regret your choice. Monster
hits all 'round,

59

TROJAN
CAD-MASTER
THE U L T I M A T E IN G R A P H I C S TOOLS

C0

FOURMOST ADVENTURES
Featuring:
OUTOFTHE
SHADOWS

ALL FOUR
GAMES ON
ONETAPE
FOR JUST

A CRASH S M A S H

7.95

GALAXIAS

S P E C T R U M <18K

A new graphic adventure from

the author of B O R E D O F T H E
RINGS.

Available from
all g o o d software
T elailers,or in
cose of difficulty,
please send a
chcquc or
postal order to

T H E MICRO M A N
fmagine yourself a tenth your
height, bul smaller!

THEMURAL
One of Ihe funniest and most
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seen.

SUPERB GRAPHICS SOFTWARE

M
PLUS A TOP QUALITY
,>U
c
64 o R
LIGHT PEN
pe

mm

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D i s c o v e r the e x c i t i n g w o r l d of creating y o u r
own graphics on screen.
F R E E H A N D DRAW 5 pen thicknesses Incl. Quills
PAINT B R U S H - for the artistic touch
F I L L ANY S H A P E use all colours and patterns
GEOMETRIC S H A P E S - circles, boxes, triangles, lines
& banding
DYNAMIC R U B B E R BANDING on all geometric options
PIN POINT FUNCTION for pixel accuracy on all functions
Plus many more too numerous to mention in this ad. All these
features in the Program + a top quality Light Pen and an
Instruction booklet in one reasonably priced package. Easy to
use for creating colourful pictures or technical drawings. Ideal
for use by all ages of micro users. Full back-up
service from manufacturers. Available at good
dealers or direct from Trojan Products.
Please

stale

which

Micro.

Micro Computer Software & Accessories

Send cheque/P.O. to
TROJAN PRODUCTS
166, Derlwyn, Dunvant, Swansea SA2 7PF
Tol: (0792) 205491.

GiOBflt SOFTlJflflE
PO BOX bl.
IONDONSWI1 IBS

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOMED

QUAL-SOFT

Sports simulations

"A real challenge to the thinking football fan

worse than have a crack at this in his preparation

Bobby Robson could do

for the World
Cup".

AMSTRAD ACTION
R E V I E W Jan '86

Q U A L - S O F T C O M M E N T : A t last an I N T E L L I G E N T m a n a g e m e n t game f o r the knowledgeable soccer e n t h u s i a s t !

MEXICO '86*

TAPE 1
QUALIFIERS

TAPE 2
FINALS

A W O R L D CUP M A N A G E M E N T S I M U L A T I O N
Summor 1984 and English International football is at its lowest ebb. W e have failed to qualify for the European Notions Cup. and hod a string of very poor
International results. In a few months wo will set out on the ' 8 6 World Cup qualifying trail. You have boon given the most important job of restoring English
pride in their football. You have a match in Paris, the U S S R at Wembley, and a South Amortcan tour, to assemble a team, first to qualify, and then to boot
tho world's best in Mexico.

T A P E 1 (Qualifiers)
*
*
*
*
*

Current squad of 16 players + 2 0 user defined players.

Friendlies in Paris, at Wembley + South American tour.
ANY toam formation you choose. 2 from S substitutes.
In match tactics: any no. of individual player adjustments.
Your qualification group: full results and table.

T A P E 2 (Finals)
*
*
*
*
*

Choose a 2 0 man squad to take to tho finals.

Group of 4 prelims, 16 to final knockout comp.
Extra Time, P E N A L T Y S H O O T - O U T S , whore relovanl.
Formation and strongth information on opposition.
2 from 9 substitutes (the FA tolls us so).

E N G L A N D ' S G A M E S : F U L L P I T C H , 2 2 M A N , 3 D G R A P H I C S & S O U N D EFFECTS

D U A L - S O F T comments: W i t h 5 levels of play, 12 depths of sophistication, and " f u n " graphics, this game can bo onjoyod by an 8 yoar old youngster as a
"fun" game, and by tho most sophisticated as a tactical/stratogy challenge of tho highest order.
P A C K A G E : Tape 1 plus Tapo 2 plus 20 Pago Manual in "Video
Cassette'' stylo pack. Only 9 . 3 5 90K RAM usage. Some would call
this a MEGAGAME. Y E S IT W I L L R U N ON YOUR 4 8 K S P E C T R U M

Q U A L S O F T G U A R A N T E E : Sont by 1 S T C L A S S P O S T on day ot
the order with P.O.. Choque. Access payment is rocoivod.
Telephone Access orders accoptod.

Th us* of th n*mt MEXICO '86 d o M not imply t r y association with FIFA

Q U A L-SO FT,
Tel: 0438
Dept. ZX
721936
18 Hazelmere Rd.,
Stevenage, H e r t s SG2 8 R X .

N a m e : ..
Address:
A c c e s s No. (if applicable)

FASTLANEMi W

Ray Elder test drives

Durell's Turbo Esprit.

T h e building hadn't changed

from the last time I visited them
two years ago but the
unassuming cars parked outside
were less rusty and had more
wheels.
Inside, Mike Richardson,
programmer of Durell's Spectrum
games and occasionally some
on other machines, was about
to demonstrate the preliminary
version of TURBO ESPRIT to
Richard White, revered head of
the company. I had been
Invited along to witness this
event.
The plot of the game had in
fact undergone slight
modification from the original
concept, and Mike was
explaining this to a critical
Robert when I arrived. The
game is not just another driving
simulation. Both Mike and
Robert share the belief that
simulations tend to become
boring, but Turbo Esprit shares
the same general concept as
Combat Lynx, that of an arcade
strategy game The driving is a
skill In its own right, bul
simplified l a this car is fitted
with automatic gear change!
The purpose of the game is
to foil an International gang of
drug dealers who are about to
smuggle in a shipment of drugs
in an unmarked armoured car.
The drugs will be transferred to
ordinary dealers' distribution
cars where they will be taken to
various secret hideouts. Once
the drugs have been transferred
then It's up to you to stop that
supply by either shooting the
distributor's car or bumping into
it until they surrender. This of
course means a high speed
chose round the city.
When the armoured car has
made four deliveries you can
then try to force it to surrender
(shooting it has no eftect).
The bottom half of the screen
Is a colourful and well designed
area that shows the car's
dashboard, revs, speed, fuel
and temperature Messages are
also flashed up in this area and
you can expect warnings of
lock of fuel and engine
problems among others.

The top half of the screen

can toggle between a 3D solid
perspective view ot the city and
your car rear or side view
and a map. The 3D view is the
main driving screen and shows
the direction you are travelling
in, with the city street scrolling
towards you. Though the
buildings are featureless blocks,
the rest of the detail is superb
Pedestrians, other motorists,
traffic lights and roadworks
complete with little flashing
warning lights are Included. This
Is mainly In black and white
with occasional use of colour
for enemy cars.
The map screen Is for getting
your bearings and tracking the
movements of the gang's cars It
shows the city to be essentially
a 30x30 grid. It also shows a
feature which had been at the
back of my mind while driving
on the 3D screen, the city roads
are laid out in straight lines with

right angled intersections

Certainly not like any city I've
driven In. but perhaps this is the
way it will be in the future?
You gain points for
completing each section of the
task and lose points for Injuring
or destroying innocent
byslanders and their cars Oh,
and the gang has their own
squad of hit cars which roam
the streets trying to destroy you!
Mike told me that the game,
though nearly complete, may
be modified before it reaches
the shops, but as it stands the
graphics are excellent though
sound is minimal. I loved simply
driving around the streets and
got Into some glorious j a m s
Ghasing the gang's cars was
much more difficult. Robert and
I were hopeless, though Mike
did it with ease (but then, he
wrote It). As I left, snatches of
conversation floated down the
stairs;
"Four difficulty levels?"
"OK. could be the speed of
the gang's cars, how about a
choice of black gang cars or
coloured, that'll make It more
difficult?"
'Joystick and user defined
keys of course."
"Of course."
"How about having a
targetting system when shooting
at the enemy cars . . ."

MJ

LOST IN
The Magic Knight from
Spellbound has been
propelled forward into
the 25th Century in
Knight Tyme, a sequel
written specially for the
128K Spectrum.
T h e story so tar our hero, the
Magic Knight has saved Gimbal
the Wizard. Thus Mastertronic
author David Jones left him at
the end of Spellbound but
Instead of retiring the Magic
Knight has been thrown forward
centuries in time to find himself
as an anachronistic stowaway
on the USS Pisces bound on a
trading mission somewhere in a
faraway quadrant of space.
The laws of time are protected
by the "Paradox Police" who are
out to hunt the Magic Knight
down and dispose of him. Under
your guidance the Knight must
find the Tyme Machine before
he meets a grim fate.
As with Spellbound. Knight
Tyme uses the "Windimation"
control system which features
animated graphics commanded
from a series of window menus.
These options depend on where
you find yourself on the ship and
the objects you have managed
to pick up.
Somewhere in sector two is
the Tyme Machine and you
have to find your way to it in the
face of total non co-operation
from the ship's inhabitants. Their
indifference may stem from the
cloak of invisibility which can be
turned on and off at will.
Some aid is given by the
ship's transporter system Derby IV
and you have a blank ID card
for which you need to get a
picture With your identity
established you can set about
controlling the crew members
and eventually pilot the ship
yourself.

Mi

SPACE

s)

Ports of call In the galaxy

include Serendip, Aridia and
Pern and slightly more down to
earth the dreaded planet of
Revenue the collection point for
the universe's tax returns.
The ship's transporter must be
repaired before you progress
and your supply of nutrients
dwindles. But if the worst comes
to the worst even dying in Knight
Tyme is not without
compensations the transporter
disassembles your molecules
and puts them together in deep
space in the shape of a
butterfly. It's a nice way to g a
Littered throughout the Pisces
are objects of different shapes
sizes and uses. And of course on
the Pisces there are many red
herrings to eliminate before you
can find if the objects are a
help in your quest.
One tip; don't pick up the pot
of glue you won't be able to
put it down again and it restricts
the number of objects you can
carry around.
Although Knight Tyme has
been developed especially for
the Spectrum 128 there will be a
"concentrated" 48K version
available soon.
When playing Knight Tyme
you forget that you are
becoming addicted to what is
technically a budget game.
However the only 'budget'
aspect of the game is the price
which will be 2.99 even lor the
128K version. With knockout
graphics and animation, the
windimation control system,
music by Ron Hubbard and an
enthralling story line. Knight
Tyme puts to shame a lot of
games which are three limes the
price.
Spellbound set a new
standard for budget games and
Knight Tyme pushes that
standard up even further and Is
a welcome addition to
Mastertronics already impressive
catalogue ol M.A.D. games
And to cap it all there is a
third Magic Knight game in the
pipeline.

a h

DIOITRL PRECISIOnltd

222 THE AVENUE

LONDON E4 9SE

O
Please note our
new address

DIGITAL PRECISION ANNOUNCES BEST SELLERS FOR THE QL

SUPERCHARGE

Suporcharge is a program that translates slow, interpreted supor BASIC into last,
fkuible 68006 madwo code totally automatically You nood no specialisod
knowledge at at.
Suporchargo supports tho ontxos syntax ol supor BASIC. Compiled programs run
ncfcdfcty last Somo run ovor 100 tanosfastor than in thoorigmal Supor BASIC.
Mtcrodnvo loading timos aro accoloratod by a factor of up lo 30. Multitasking is lulfy
supported, and oasy to uso
ALL Super char god programs multi-task you can run any numbor ol thom on ono
OL. smuRanoousty (RAM permitting)
Suporchargo supports fu( floating point anthmobc, to an accuracy of NINE chgits
(Supor BASIC only cfcsplays seven decimal placos). Arithmetic is breathtakingly last
nlogor handling is ofion 100 times fastor than in interprotod BASIC.
Super charge alows the enure syntax of OL SuperBASlC: filo handling, mullidimonsionai arrays, local vanablos. procedures and functions (with parameters). turtle
graphics, windows, both display modes, a devices (including disk dnvos, modems
etc.). sound, graphics, colour, stmgs, etc. etc.

Suporchargo Includos n sophisticated optlmisor, which Itro usor can diroct to produce
oflhor specially compact or last 66008 machine codo. on a lino by lino basis
Suporchargo is compatible with wtualy al QL add-ons, including disk sysloms,
expansion RAM, and ovon add-on commands which do not lorma standard part ot
Super BASIC' 'Toolkit' utilities work beautifully, so long as they don t try to modify
mtorprotor data structures (which obviously aron't Ihoro}. Very low commands do this,
and Suporchargo gonorates ctoar warnings whore incompatibilities might exist.
Suporch.irgo issues explicit, plain Engiish roport and warnings, showing Iho exact
position oI mistakes Many trivial' onors are automatically corroded!
* Supercharge is last, dovico-tndopondonl. concise and easy to uso it even compiled
Ksetf!
* Suporcharged programs may bo interactrvoty tosted tn slow motion' usng Iho
compaiibio Super BASIC interpreter.
* Suporchargod programs aro protected against unauthorised modification, as they
cannot bo LiSTod. Compiled codo loads incrodibly last - lor instance, a 75K
SupotBASiC program loads 25 times fust or once compiled
Tho 105 page Suporchargo manual is comprehensive and readable, with tutorial and
reference sections, examples, hints and tips, and a full index and glossary
Supercharge costs C59.95; this includes the compiler, code-gene rotor. utility
programs, add-on commands for task control and error-trapping, demonstration
software and over 100 A4 pages of documentation.

Supercharged programs a/o rofcabio on an versions of tho Q L Most bogs and

rost net ions imposed by tho SuperBASlC mtorproter aro corroctod or kftod by tho
compulor. Say goodbyo lo tho mtogor FOR bug, string and intogor S E L E C T bogs, Iho
CALL bog. the too many parameters' bog, tho GOSUB m a loop bog. the R E S P R bug.
Cb on SUPEfirORTH. Cb OH SUPERSPRITE and r ? OH Supei Monitor DoasaomUor when Iheae
etc. etc
programs i t r ordered ,n Hie ajme i m p . S U i f t O lAJint
The amval ot the product is a significant event for tho OL and should help many more people produce quality programs with a fraction of the effort

machine code programming requires, and many times faster than interpreted Basic.

QL SUPER SPRITE GENERATOR

Vorsion 3.5is a compkrto Games Dostgnor system and has boon completely rewritten
The classic program a now available in its ultimate refmod form, with up to 256 sprites
(16 on-screen), up io256 planes ol movement, choice ol2 screens, automatic cofcsion
detecbon/inversiorVrovorsal/freezo framo/backgroun drawing, speed independently
variable lor each sprite - and guaranteed 100% Flicker Froo Operation Ultra high
spood action is possiblo and no machine codo knowtodgo is roqutrod at all'
QL S U P E R S P R I T E GENERATOR Vorsion 3.5 comos in a full colour cassotto library
case with detailed instructions and examples (both on-scroon and on the inlay
card)
E24.9

SUPER FORTH plus Reversi

Sinclai r/QL World March 1966

SUPER ASTROLOGER DELUXE VERSION

gives you (compiotoly automatically) a lull (4 A4 sheets, single-spaced!!) character and
personalty readout/horoscope, for any location, date and bmeol birth! It also gives day-today
peraonafcsod proricbons (not tho ovor-genoroksod horoscopos found m Iho press, buturaquelo
your bme + date -I- place at brth), iho fackty lo compare tho detaded personahbosof any two
persons (w for compatibility lasting for love or businoss) and a full groptvc printout ol the natal
chart and all othor saoens It comos with cvorythng you nood so (or tho porson wtio knows
nothing of tho anciont saenco oI astrology, no oxtm hteratuiD ts loquxed TTiis extromoty fnst
machno code program will also sun tho amatour astronomer (it has hosts of features and
displays ol planetary trajoctonos and ol tho sotar system, al any pomi m timo), the profiwaonal
astrologer (because it can bo customised by the user to rofllect his vwws on astrological
iniorproiniion) as we* as tho man who |ust wants an accurate horoscope for himsolt, his kwod
ones, Inends and famous peopto Demonstration files provide
SUPER ASTROLOGER OCLUXE VERSION comes m a lull colour wallet, with two
microcartndgos and a detailed manual
C24 95

Forth ts a structured, intormodiate-lovel programming languago with a cult tollowtng

Forth is a romarkablo language which combines the spood ol machine-codo with highlevel control constructs and interactive testing lacHitios.
All Digital Pr*vcislon Software is available now. Software la compatible with ALL version*
Gerry Jackson's S U P E R F O R T H ts a comptoto, ultra-last implementation of iho Forth
63 standard In addrtwo to the standard commands S U P E R F O R T H includes a ptoOxxa ol the QL, momory expansion and disk Interlace systems.
of extra features to mako tbe best of tho QL:
Digital Prooston Sofrwn/o o available from TBD, Ughtrwig, Creative Sparks, and other
Altho QL's features aro supportod. including sound windows, graphics, disk systems
distributors ol good softwaro Buyers in Central London can vwt Mtcro-Anvika nt 224
and other ponphorals. Input and Output may bo ro-diroctod al wit
Tottenham Court Road
Full 32 bit intogor arithmetic, allowing bghtning-guicfc calculations lo nine digits ol
Superchargo and Suportorth are avaiabto on 5V, inch 1440 soclor disk at no extra charge
proosion AJI floating-point arithmetic is also support od. including Logarithmic and
DEALERS our discounts aro generous - phone us now on 01 257 5493
Trigonomotric functions
Incrodtte spood much fastor than any other QL Forth A Sieve of Erastothonos (Iho PROGRAMMERS We attend lo dominate tho OL software market, and we pay excelont
royalties for good OL software Send us a disk or cartridge now, for a prompt confidential
Bylo bonchmark) runs n (ust 4 seconds xi SUPERFORTH. compared with 3 minutes 30
evaluation
of
work
in
progress
seconds tn QL SuporBASIC (or 3 mtnutos 10 soconds in IBM PC BASIC).
Multi-tasking (demo suppbod) with full (Ob control for S U P E R F O R T H and machinocodo programs. S U P E R F O R T H rtsofl runs as a task, so other programs may run at tho
same lime
Built ai scroen-odrtor for Forth blocks or names Wes alternatively you may uso Quil to
edit Forth source
The S U P E R F O R T H package also includos an extremely powerful implementation of the
Ptoasorushmo.
classic boardgamo REVERSI. This suporb program demonstrates the spood. flexibility
Al poaa
l ga w*twi ltUK a In* but p < H add CI {+? SO lor SUPEHCHAfC
l a ')pcr ivogrMn In (irilwn 1rwn
and expressive power of SUPERFORTH. REVERSI is written oniiroty in SUPERFORTH.
dhw cogrtTwrs, |q cover numoJ and luclui^ng Cheques te
i m atnd Mvx*l bo drawn on il U K bnnk
and Iho well-written source-code is supplied (or you lo study or adapt.
Eurocheqwr* yoo wo utwUo lo do the. fun add t:5 lo cover cheque ctoarn
i a chH
i gos
REVERS11.5 offers runo lovots ol play, with noar-mstantanoous response on levots I and
I
one
lose
C
SIGNATURE
2 Marry options enable you lo exchange sides, retract moves, set up positions, ask for
twits or wathc the computer Hunk'. Moves can be entered by co-ordnato or simply by
or debit my ACCESS/VISA tux. No.
point r>g at tho roquaod position.
expiry data

JO
10IGITRL PRECISIOritro
O D

The h i m version ol REVERSI - versnn l 5 - o beflwn man ev*i< H *% guaranteedtoboat Santa* Reven
rvwy Irrv. wtw-n iho hiw)arv piryodon sn<jr hivrts 11 t*MlSpodrumctumpion, MCHOlhe*o. 10-0 via
supervised match in tacl we have yettotid any program. lot any personal computer, capabio ot bcatoig
REVERSI on equal tme or any human capable ot bealng it al ItstopsMl level. This is hardly siapnsmg
when you oonsxkx t u t REVERS11.5 uses stale oi lhv an AiUcui InMgence techniques, slptvt-beta tiee
seardsng wnh prunrtg and a Met hewBfce

*fh> quKiatt response I tmw eipenenced Imm Ifm UK. t Hanaan. Harwty

Nome

Address
XenyifcJfcfton on an eganrprograiW. ftonPfdi UalU. TheOaafftwtfiprogram HHauttOartm
Digital Precision SUPERFORTH 4 REVERSI coat C J9.9S. REVERSI 1S i inmtabte separately. wrth Ml
niaa and an Introduction to tha lial>uia at the game. lor 112.96.

C r s d l Card ordart: Tal 01JIS7 54ft]

Pastcodr

Our technical wizard Ray Elder unravels your Sinclair computing problems
Printer Problems 1
I have recently purchased a
Tandy DMP-105 dot matrix
printer. I was assured by Tandy
that I would have no problems In Interfacing the printer to my Spectrum-K
My problem is lhat I can't find an Interlace lhat will drive the printer and I was
wondering if you knew of such an interlace. preferably with the driving software on hardware rather than software,
although this is not essential.
I've been looking tor an interface for
so long I'll accept anything.
Robert Miller, Norlhants.

I do no! know this printer so I

phoned Tandy who were very
helpful and informed me that
this printer has both Centronics and
RS232 Input.
This gives you a wide choice of Interlaces, it you Intend using Microdrives
then your best bet would be Sinclair's
Interface 1. This should be readily available and costs around 50 or 99.95
with a microdrive. but you will have to
buy a RS232 lead which will set you
back another 10.00.
Personally we use a ZX Lprint III Centronics interface from Euroelectronlcs,
26 Clarence Square Cheltenham, Glos.
GL5Q 2UJ and which costs 34.95 and
Includes on board soltware and connecting lead. We have used it for over
18 months and had no problems
whatsoever.
We also tested the Kempston E Interlace and Ihis is very similar although we
have not used It long term as It had to
be returned to them. II costs around
50.00

Printer Problems 2
11 am having problems getting
my Epsom P40 printer to work
with my Spectrum/ZX Interface
1 system. I cannot get COPY, LPRINT or
LLIST. What can I do to make this system
work? There are eight dip switches at
Ihe back, which ones do I use?
M. A. Conway. Israel.
\ am afraid that Ihis tetter Is
r i ^ B rather lacking In details and
I am not sure what you have
already tried, however if you'll excuse
me stating what may appear to be
obvious, I'll have a ga First check your
printer manual and ensure that the dip
switches which relate to the following
are set correctly, all the others are probably OK as set by Ihe factory:
1. Parity On/Off set to OFF
2. Number of bits set to EIGHT
3. Number of Stop bits set lo ONE
4. Aulo line feed set to OFF

5. The baud rate set to the highest rate

possible and this rate Is set on the
Spectrum before printing.
With the RS232 you cannot just use
COPY. LPRINT and LLIST. but you have to
open a special CHANNEL to send the
Information to the printer. There are two
channels set aside for this, the Y
channel for normal text and the 'b'
channel for control codes and text.
Neither will print graphics. Check
pages 35/37 ot your Interface manuat.
Briefly use the following lines, either
as a program or as separale commands, to test if It is working: (N& The
baud rate is Ihe number which is the
rate you found on step 5 on setting the
dip switches.)
FORMAT 'Vlbaud rate
OPEN 3!'t"
LPRINT "Testing 1, 2. 3"
CLOSE 3
To LLIST use the same sequence,
replacing the LPRINT command. COPY
is very complex and we have published
routines to do this In earlier issues
If this does not produce the desired
message then there could be a problem with Ihe connecting lead wiring or
even with Interface 1 (It Is not unknown),
and your best bet would be to take the
whole set up lo your nearest electrical
expert for checking.

axial connector for connecting to the

monitor later.
2. Find the shielded HF output stage
inside the Spectrum, it has two leads.
3. Add the circuitry as shown in the
diagram.
The transistor can be anything cheap
but last such as the 2N3904 which I used
at a cost ol 50p leads being as shown
in the diagram.
You can play around with Ihe 200
ohm resistor until the monitor gets a
high enough signal. Chassis ground is
available almost anywhere inside the
Spectrum which is also connected to
the ground lead of the co-ax connector.
To do this you do not have to be an
expert, just able to use a drill and
soldering iron, the costly part is the coax connector which is bought to suit the
monitor.
I hope this solution can help Amit
Grag and Bob Brown.
Mehmet Erbudak. Greifensee.

HF STAGE

x
2N3904
TRANSISTOR

HF.

5V

ft

Video Output

I use my Spectrum (Issue 2)

with a video recorder for
tilling, creative graphics, etc
Could you please advise me how I
might get a better composite video
output.
I tried Jumping the modulator following the procedure suggested by Peter
Shaw in the DEC 83UAN 84 Issue and by
Ihis means the computer 'monitors'
beautifully to Ihe TV via the VCR but
degrades considerably when recorded, with a tendency for colours to shimmer and text to ghost.
Is it possible to convert a RGB monitor
signal (from say Ihe Ferguson monitor
interface) to a composite video signal?
Your assistance would be appreciated.
David Cotton, Leicester.

t
E

APPROX
20012

W\A-

O U T T O COAX
CONNECTOR

PS

I must admit not to having

time to do this Job myselt so I
can't vouch for it personally,
however I see no reason why it shouldn't
work. I also checked with a friend who
Is an electronics engineer and he said
It appeared a sound modification.
If you have any doubts then get someBy sheer chance we received a letter
one qualified to do this |ob because I
must emphasise that we cannot be
on this sublect which I oiler to you.
held responsible In any way for
damage which may be done to your
I read Amit Grag's question
computer through attempting this
(and your reply) in the OCT/
modification.
NOV 85 issue ol ZX Computing concerning a monitor connection
Meanwhile Adapt Electronics ol 20
to the Spectrum.
Starling Close, Buckhurst Hill, Essex. IG9
This Is how I solved It with a total cost
5TN do an Interface with TTL/Analogue
of 1.00:
and Composite outputs for 34.95 and
1. Open Spectrum cases drill a hole next will offer advice for speclllc needs on
01 504 2840.
to the MIC out and place there a co-

GO

o
cc
CO

O
65

This is a frantic
machine-code version
of the old classic,
Centipede, that also
gives you a chance to
do a bit of Commodore
and Atari bashing! The
game should be
familiar to everyone,
but instructions are
included in the game
anyway. So, off you go
zap that worm!

PROGRAM 2
1
in

CLEAR

L E T add-AOOOO

for

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ro

T R I N T AT
READ

19979:
1-100 to

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ion data
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BCDCAEBDD16O7BB1C06EBDD1609DD3E0
OA-*ED12DA-'AEAI9*

By Callum Gibson f Listing 1

This is Ihe loader program. Type il

in. and save it with; SAVE " C E N T I "
LINE 1

Listing 2

This is the program that produces

the machine code. It has a checksum built In lo check tor errors
when you RUN it. so you should be
able lo correct any mistakes in the
code (but make a back-up copy of
the program just in case). Save the
code onto tape with the command; SAVE " Z X C C O D E " CODE
60000,2688. RANDOMIZE
USR
60000 starts the game.

1
<
ot

lO

ot
I

a.

'

lO CLEAR 39999
20 PRINT AT

9,6|

ZX

CENTI

loading CODE.'

1 t >
u i

3S

aCO
66

i oad

code::

randomize

iisr

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1DDE1C9I027EOO3190 DATA
>63A064000A00OlOOrD213
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06E0DCDEIEDBB20 *
200

DATA

"3094A7TE43CABBEDrE462

00OrD3602G0040CIO36FD33020C04 7OF

E 1 O2O4C061 0 O E 0 0 1 0 4 A 0 4 7 O F E 1020401"

Q3602O0031O390C79FC20200EOOFD340
204 70FE18202906*

2 1 0 DATA
"63671O1023CDE1EBBB201
FFE43CABBEBFE46200O0D04rD3602O01
O0r040DFD340270FEI 02004061OOEIFF
D7 1 0 0 r D 7 0 0 1 D D 7 E 0 0 B 9 2 O 0 7 D D 7 E O 11IOC
ADBEHFD7E031E44-

PROGRAM 1

3
OL

1 6 0 DATA
7492EBBB7300DD7209C37
A E A 2 I O 0 4 O 1 1O1403AOOO t 0 0 I G E D n 0 2 3 I
301O0033642EBB0C9CDEAEB2IEOEEO14
DO I 7 E D ' * O B 2 3 7 0 B 1 2 0 r O C 9 A r B B r E 2 F E 6 1
rrorvcvArDBrErr

60000

I AT

12,21 'PI t u e

wait

2 2 0 DATA * Q 8 8 3 C D A B D F D 2 3 F 0 2 3 F 0 2
3FD23I3C2ADECC9FD213AF2FD7E00D92
00TFD7E0IBO2009FD3A00FFFD3601FFC
9FD23FD23FB23FB231OE1DD4603FB213
AF2FB7E003CC0FB"
2 3 0 DATA * 0 4 0 7 2 3 F B 2 3 F D 2 3 F D 2 3 1 OF
IA7C9E3D3C3DDE3F326006F292929CBD
D21OAEEDDI9EB70CD9E0E0A0009O608D

D36007224DD2310r72424D3C D880EEBD
173FI DDE J C1DIEI
210 DATA -3773C9E378CB2FCB2FCB2
FC6386778E6070F0F0F816F7EE1C9140
2FF0E13A2FF121202FF0AI 102FF13100
2FF0A0F02FF180E02FF1O0D02FFI20C0
2FF110B02FF0B0A*
230 DATA * 440602FF0A09O2FF1B0B0
2FF0D0702FF120602FF110302FF0C040
2FF1 t 0302FF0F0202FF0F0102FF11000
2FF0BI6000073636F726320202020202
02068692D73A36F *
260 DATA '382372632020202020202
06C69766373396F73722073636F72632
07761 733A200F 170<100000900fl000182
466666624180010303A1010127C0O784
104087038760030 *
270 DATA * 434042061C46423C00182
868487E0818007C44407Q044438003C4
44O7C46663C008062020A0CI830003C6
6663C66663CCI03C66663E06063C7E81B
DA3A3BD24247E8I
280 DATA * 792181BDA1 A 1203C7E8 i 8
383B0A3A33C7E8181BDA1B9203C7E818
98I99890B1C7EB181A3BDA324247E818
IA3B3BD2C247E818 I 81BDA3243C7E81B
DA3A3BD28247E81
290 DATA -46938191BD9 II00CF0204
0FI0A040AI 1 I 81818181818181810387
CFEFED610100000000000000000003C7
(T7E7E7E3C00000D0D0D0D0D0D0D00B0B
OB0B0B0B0B0B0D0 *

X I

300 DATA '603498988C8F87000D0D1

9 I 931FIE100000F IF 303030 t F0F00808
07000708080DD4A01DD4E0O1E423EI7C
DABED3E DFDBFE37E60AFE0A280379A72
8010D7AE613FE13*
310 DATA '683628063E1F B92B0I0C3
EFBDBFE2FE6IF28063E10B8280I033EF

DDBFE2FE6IF28063EI7B8280104C DEIE
DFE042007DD4601DD4E00C9DD7100DD7
001FE44C0C3BBEB"
320 DATA -392216010210023A38204
3434E34492E2E2E2E2E2E434I4C4C334
D204 74942334F4EI 60402 I 0074120766
37273696F6E204F66202743434E 54493
0434443272C2074*
330 DATA '478868632061726361646
370666 1 76AF 73726974632E 1 6080O 1 00
3306F69AE 74 732073636F7263643A160
A0310074D737368726F6F6D2E2E 2E2E2
E2E2E2E2E2E2E2E *
340 DATA "43732E2E203233160B033
363676D636E 74206F66206D6I67676F 7
42E2E 2E2E2E203733160C03337069646
372204I746I7269706C6F676F2E2E2E2
E2E203I3030160D330 DATA '424003336E6I696C2O436
F6D6D6F646F726320AC6FA7AF2E2E203
2303021161000 I004436F6E74726F6C7
33A161201333020202D2027313743323
427202020202020*
360 DATA "33394C434A34202D20273
34F27161301444F374E2D20274133444
6472720202020202032494748342D202
739493027161401464932432D20432F3
32D333041434320*
370 DATA "3968202020484F4C44202
D20274O2700000000000000000000000
000000000000203DD7E04A720133E 7ED
BFE2FE61FC8CD16F2DO460IDD4E00180
D1E423E17DD4A04 *
380 DATA "64B9DD4E03CDABED16030
.'132004 DD7004C904CDE I EDFE4220 1 0 1

320EDDD7103DD70043E131E42C3ABEDD
D3607DD3E06DD360400FE44281BFE432
844FE0628382119390 DATA * 78060019EBDD7207DD730
63E171E42CDABEDC9214BOO I9EBDD720
7DD73063E16 IE04CDABEDC D70EDCD93E
DC0E1DD3402DD7E03FE13CA26EBC603D
D7703C326EB2I 64 *
400 DATA * 694 30019EBDD7207DD730
6DD460BDD4E0ADD360B00C 334F321C80
019EBDD7207DD7306DD460EDD4E0D3E1
71E42DD360E00CDABED0CCDABED063C0
E96237EE618D3FE *
410 DATA -3328311320FD0D10F3C90
60AAF16E6EE18D3FE4A0D20FD141410F
4C91302FF0EI402FF12 I302FF0A1202F
F i31102FF0A1002FF180F02FF100E02F
FI20D02FF110B02*
420 DATA -4734FF8B0A02FF0A0902F
F180B02FF0D0702FF120602FF1)0302F
F0C0402FFI 10302FF0F0202FF0F0102F
F1 10002FF0B2100000E3216147ED3FE4
610FE231320F60D'
430 DATA -686420FIC9DD7E0BA7201
9ED3F2FE679C0E D3FF614E6173DDD770
BDD360AIEDD360C00C9DD460BDD4E0AC
D34F379A72003DD360B00C9DD7E0C0DA
7280D043E t 7B820440 DATA *84821203DD360C00180B0
33EI0B8200304DD360CFFDD7I0ADD700
BCDE1EDFE43CABBEB0CCDE1EDFE43CAB
BED04CDE1EDFE43CABBEB0DCDE t EDFE4
3C A B BE B033E191E "
430 DATA * 867 I 43CDABEDOC 3CC DABE
D04 3CCDABE O0D3CC DABE DC91E423E17C
DABE D0CC DABED04C DABED0DCDABED03C
9DD7E0EA72024ED3FE6F9C03A783C3C4
73C878F808F8780*
460 DATA *392432783CF602E60FDD7
70EDD360D00470EFF1827DD460EDD4EO
DDD7E0FA73EI 71E4220033D1E46CDABE
D0CDD7E10A73EI 71E4220033D1E46CDA
BED0C 79FE202003 *
470 DATA -6793OD360E00C9DD710OC
DE1EDDD360FFFFE422803DD340F3E1D1
E0AC DABED0CCDEIEDDD3610FFFE42280
3DD34103E1 EC 3ABED16000033636F 726
33D202020202020*
480 DATA *379920202048692D73636
F72633D2020202020202016020 I I 0043
A38204 3434E3449202D204361AC6C 736
D20476962736F6E20313938332E10071
60303302E203374 *
490 DATA * 30626172742067616D631
60703312E2033636320696E737472736
374696F6E 73 I60903322E70336F736E6
4206F6E2D736C6F776372160B03332E2
0336F736E64206F*
300 DATA '470866662D66617374637
21A0D03342E204869676820737063636
4160F03332E204E6F726D616C2073706
36364161103362E20336C6F772073706
36364 I 6 I4083C30*
310 DATA *332372637373206F70746
96F6E3E87C6034 71120002104381910F
O0F00090I1400E3DI 130877EDB0C90O0
00000000000000000000000000000000
000000000000000'

Hackers' Hints
If you feel like delving into the
code, here's a few tips for infinite
lives and so on.
POKE 61056, number of lives (max
255): POKE 60511, frequency of
mushrooms (the lower the POKE,
the more mushrooms you get):
POKE 62125, frequency of spiders
(as for mushrooms).

67

A round up of all fhats

new for the QL on the
games, graphics and
utilities scene.
T " w o years after the launch of
the QL much of the games
software for the machine is still
getting indifferent reviews. Not
surprisingly, since, with one or
two exceptions, none ot it is
much more sophisticated than
the sort of games that were
available on the Spectrum two
years ago.
Ot course the problem Is that
few companies are likely to
produce megagames for the QL
until the size of the user-base
justifies the development costs.
Even so, there have been a tew
programs emerging just recently
that are worth a second look.

Chips in Space
Cuthbert In Space by
Microdeal doesn't do much to
push back the frontiers of QL
programming, but It Is a fairly
enjoyable zap game in which
you fly a space shuttle around
the screen, collecting treasure
and blasting the Intergalactic
Police Force. It's a pity lhat the
game costs 14.95.
Realtime Software's Knight
Flight is a version ot the arcade
game, Joust. I've always had a
soft spot for Joust ever since I
first played the original arcade
game and this Is a very good
version, with colourful graphics,
smooth animation and a two
player option which is great fun.
Once again though the 14.95
price tag is a bit steep.

Own brand software

The main supporter of the QL
has always been Sinclair
Research themselves and
they've produced a mixed bag
of programs of late. QL Jabber
is a mediocre zap game that's
little improvement on Space
Invaders, whilst QL Quboids is a
colourful version of Digger. Here
you face 20 screens full of
platforms and hostile germs lhat
you have to destroy by first
drilling holes in the platforms for
them to fall into, then you sneak
up on them and drill holes in
their heads It's reasonably
enjoyable for a while, but still
not much more advanced than
many Spectrum budget titles
QL Bounder Is a bit better,
being a Jet Set Willy type game
in which you guide a character
called Quenlin Jump through
nearly 60 screens' worth of all
the usual platform game lunacy.
It's not a brilliant piece of
programming, but a good
platform game Is always good
for a tew weeks' worth of fun,

and the screens are varied

enough to make this possibly
the best of the current crop of
arcade games for the QL. Like
all of the Sinclair programs
mentioned so far QL Bounder
costs 9.95.

QL graphics
The QL is much better served by
its utilities than by its games
software, and in particular there
are a number of good graphics
utilities available. Psion have
produced some of the best QL
software, and their QL Draw
(14.95) is based on the utility
that they used In developing the
graphics for fhelr excellent

Matchpoint games.
which should give you an idea
of what it's capable of. The
program concentrates on colour
handling rather than lots of
shape-drawing options, but
there Is a facility for defining
shapes which can then be
manipulated in a variety of
ways.
Also at 14.95 is Paint Master
Irom Shadow Games. This
program isn't as easy to use as
the Psion package, but It does

have more commands for

drawing shapes and also
includes a short demonstration
program showing how its screen
displays can be incorporated
into graphic adventures. This
feature is particularly useful and
makes me wonder why no one
has yet produced a graphic
adventure for the QL.

Utilities
Two major complaints about the
Sinclair QL soon after its launch
were the slow operating speed
of SuperBASIC (no better than
the 8-bit BBC micro) and the
failure to meet the pre-launch
promise to allow SuperBASIC
programs to multitask (more
lhan one program operating at
one time). A new software
package aptly named
'Supercharge* sets out to rectify
both faulta
Supercharge from Digital
Precision, is a BASIC compiler;
this converts SuperBASIC
programs Into machine code. As
such, the programs run much
faster, they can multitask, and,
In general, they take up less
RAM.
The Supercharge package
contains a 100 page A4 loose
leaf manual, which can be
bound in the User Guide, a
single cartridge containing the
software, and a security device
called the 'Lenslok'. The version
of Supercharge used in this
review was vT.06; at the time of
writing, the most recent version.
Using the compiler is
simplicity itself. First load the
SuperBASIC program to be
compiled then load the
compiler.
Once into Supercharge, the
operator merely has to select a
name for the compiled code,
and whether or not a
compilation listing Is required,
and a compilation report. Then
away II goes. In four passes the
code is generated (stored
temporarily on the display file)
in a matter of minutes, stored on
disc or cartridge. The
compilation report listing can
be viewed on screen, or sent to
a microdrive or printer. One of
the attractions of the system are
the well documented reports.
The type of machine code
produced is called 'threaded'
code. This is not as fast as code
roduced with an assembler,
ut It should be fast enough for
most applications. In tests, the
claimed speed increase over
SuperBASIC of 30 to 1000 times
was substantiated, although Ihis
applied more to loops and
mathematical expressions. The
largest gains are made with
long programs; SuperBASIC slows
down as the program length
Increases but the speed of
Supercharge coded programme
Is independent of length. The
speed Increase of the graphics

commands was far more

modest. Unlike 'pure' machine
code, Supercharge threaded
code has the advantage of
producing error messages if runtime errors are encountered,
rather than crashing!
Supercharge requires 60K of
RAM to operate, leaving only
28K as a maximum for
SuperBASIC programs (about
250-1000 lines) in the
unexpanded QL. However the
code produced is more
compact than SuperBASIC and,
particularly with long programs,
loads far faster with EXEC or
EXEC W.
The price for this product is
rather high (59.95). so is likely to
appeal to the specialist user
only, But the extensive claims for
the product could not be
faulted, and Supercharge will
provide an easier alternative lo
assembly language, or other
compiled languages, for those
wanting extra speed and
multitasking on the Q L
JOSS is a new low-price utility
tor the QL from WD Software
which is aimed at the user who
is all fingers and Ihumbs. If you
get very annoyed at your QL
when, at the slightest mistake,
the machine makes you type
again a 'load" or 'copy'
command line, then help could
be at hand.
JOSS stands for Joystick
Operated Software System'. Using
a joystick connected to CTL1 (or
Ihe cursor keys), the user can
move a cursor around a screen,
pressing fire (or space) to select
a number of options. Unlike
'GEMMike systems, words are
used instead of icons. By going
against the current faslon for
symbols, Ihe author of JOSS has
created a system which is easier
to master.
A six page booklet is
provided which takes you on a
'guided tour' of the available
facilities. By first selecting a
default microdrive, or floppy
disc drive, the user can then
obtain a directory, load or run
any BASIC file (pre-selecting
monitor or TV mode), or copy
the file to another device all
without touching the keyboard.
Other facilities Include setting
the QL's clock, setting the baud
rate to any output device,
sending or listing files on the
printer, and formatting
cartridges the recommended six
times.
Using Mode 4, JOSS has a
colourful screen display, using
colours to highlight commands
which may cause problems. But
in using the QL's 40 column
mode, the screen is rather
overcrowded. Also, the cursor
was slow to respond, which at
times, was frustrating.
At 15 for the microdrive
version, and 17 for JOSS on
disc, this utility is reasonably
priced. The overall conclusion
a poor man's ICE.

IIIIA
v / Adventures
Despite the poor showing of the
QL's arcade games, adventures
on the QL. though few, are
generally of a high standard.
Sinclair research recently
published The Pawn (19.99),
written by a company called
Magnetic Scrolls. Set In the
magical kingdom of Kerovnia,
The Pawn features an incredibly
sophisticated interpreter that
allows very complex commands
to be used as you attempt fo
discover the purpose of the
game, and the significance of
the Roobikyoub Dwarves and
Farlhington Real Ale Company.
The independent characters
and qualify of the interpreter
make The Pawn one of the most
advanced adventures available
on any home computer.
A bit more traditional is
Sinclair's latest release. Classic
Adventures. This Is a 'two-pack'
containing The Adventure, a
version of Colossal Cave, the
original Crowther and Woods
game that started the whole
adventure genre, plus a sequel
to this called Mordon's Quest
(which was originally published
for the Spectrum by Melbourne
House).
Considering its pedigree, The
Adventure needs no
recommendation from me, and
Mordon's Quest is a worthy
(oltow-up, containing some really
infuriating problems (that always
seem obvious once you know
the answer) and good location
descriptions. Both games use
the traditional verb/noun input,
but they don't suffer at all from
this and as the price of this twoin-one package is just 9.95 it's
one of the best bargains
available for the QL.

69

PROGRAMMERS & ARTISTS

SOLVE ALL YOUR ANIMATION PROBLEMS WITH ONE VERY POWERFUL UTILITY

THE ULTIMATE GRAPHICS DEVELOPMENT TOOL FOR

| PROGRAMMERS AND ARTISTS.

3D nr

in is

U S E IT TO PROFESSIONALLY DEVELOP-

ANY SIZE ANIMATED SPRITES

SCENERY & PROP GRAPHICS
TEXT LAYOUTS & FONTS
n

AND I T S GOT EVERY FEATURE YOU EVER WANTED CRAMMED INTO ITU!
RE-DESIGNABLE B R U S H E S / A I R B R U S H E S & HATCHES: F A S T TAG & FIXED
LINE & CIRCLE MODES (all elasltc): AMAZING SHADE PAINT CAPABILITIES
(allows you to painl (and oraso!) with shading (just tho fib for 3D wok!));
F A S T HATCH F I L L W I T H V E R Y F A S T RE-HATCH (and you can re-<Jesign
hatches in mid fill!); INDEPENDENT WALK-OVER COLOUR CONTROL
(allows you to BRIGHTEN up your graphics without affecting tho PAPER/INK
Of F L A S H status etc ). RIDICULOUSLY P O W E R F U L PRINT FACILITY (allows
you to P R I N T any size/any shape/anywhere and at any angle (even
backwards) over and over again with the same string or graphics (certain
companies market less powerful print utilities as a complete package');
S T R E T C H & C O M P R E S S T H E WHOLE S C R E E N (from -100% lo +100%
horizontally and vertically). MAGNIFICATION WINDOW (allows you to see
both real and magnifiod images as you work'); 25 S C R O L L S / R O T A T E S 4
M I R R O R S ( Y E S 25" and they'ro all accessed mstantty on tho cureer keys!);
SAVE/LOAD/CATA.CAT/EFIASE 4 COPY - MlCROORIVE/DISC/TAPE S C R E E N S / S P R I T E S / C H A R A C T E R SETSAJDGs/BRUSHES/AIRBRUSHES &
H A T C H E S (Machine code programmers will bo pleased to know that sprites,
graphics and screens can be saved as L I N E S or CHARACTER SQUARES!); T O
D E V E L O P YOUR S P R I T E S YOU HAVE 15k OF MEMORY (the number ot
sprites depends on their size (up to 255 max). Everything's fully automated you can STORE/RETRIEVE/ANIMATE (any consecutive sprites at any speed
including single stepping)/and CHANGE the size and shape
ANO ITS QUICK & EASY TO USE
ANIMATOR 1 is a completely driven by pop down menus and r>o nonsense on
screen prompts and it's boon coded to be very fast to work with indeed! (AND
I T ' S V E R Y E A S Y T O DRAW W I T H So many packages offor a host of features
and neglect this most mportanl point' IF IT ISN'T EASY T O DRAW WITH. IT
D O E S N T M A T T E R HOW MANY F E A T U R E S IT BOASTS. YOU S T I L L C A N T
DRAW W I T H r p That's why we asked lots ot users thetr opinion and the
result, we think, is tho most controllable free hand draw system around!)

M
E

y
T

1 . 1 . 1

s l i r m i e W &
r . P R i T r iJiiir/ou

W ^ i - l t
Ml! 1 t'.'L i

mm:
sss-l !_ !=. I
*lt I N I 1 N U K
!1
X?
HOH I C H I

I I K

.
M II:M> - H

r h i 3 T " O i l

:i

A N I M A T O R 1 come* complete in it* o w n r i n g binder w i t h l o o t * leaf

d o c u m e n t a t i o n and i s recorded o n long life high quality chrome cassette

Pleno t o n d m e

A N I M A T O R 1 P A C K S at C14 *

each

I e n d o w a cheque/P.O lor L
( U K & E U R O P E add C I ; O V E R S E A S C2I
NAME

AOORESS

WHAT ABOUT THE 128k MACHINES?

ANIMATOR 1 will really come mto it's own when the 128k machines become
popular enough to code exclusively for - just think of ANIMATOR I s GIANT
S P R I T E & LOCATION GRAPH ICS capabilities with all that RAM'

TEL

POST C O D t .

Soft cat Micro*. PO BOX 73, M K t M M d . Chhlr SK10 3HJ

DEALER

ENQUIRIES

WELCOME

AGG
I SS
POND
F e b r u a r y 1986 marks the
second anniversary of the Timex
decision to quit the home
computer market. Many of us
thoughl that it would all end
then, but, happily, we are still
here and stronger than ever.
When Tlmex was still around,
there was very little third party
development going on, but now
it is these independents which
continue to support the
Tlmex/Sinclalr line. For a while
this past summer it seemed as if
that support was about to
dwindle to nothing, but Zebra
Systems has made up for all tost
time with a number of very
exciting new releases. So to
mark this infamous anniversary I
present you with these new
offerings.

MSCRIPT
This package is actually a new,
updated and less expensive
version of MSCRIPT but is not
available for the ZX Spectrum.
As a wordprocessor it is far
superior to Tasword II. In addition
to the many advanced features
not found on Tasword II, It uses
the 64 column display on the T/S
2068, causing every other
character to disappear when
using a Spectrum, as it lacks the
64 column capability. Yes. I
know that Tasword II does claim
a 64 column display, but that is
with a redefined character set
which uses fewer pixels per
character. The 64 column T/S
2068 display is much clearer
since each character has the
same number of pixels as the 32
column display.
The original version was
unable to use any alternate
mass storage services as the
software had its own SAVE to
tape routine, with a nonstandard
header. This had been a
drawback for me since I use the
A&J microdrlve for all other

A stateside view of
Sinclair computing
from our American
correspondent, Mark
Fendrick.

storage. This version, allows you

to return to BASIC (the original is
100% machine code from which
you can not exit) where ZEBRA
has added some new features.
This particular release is (or the
A8U microdrives, and the feature
which creates a backup copy
routes this copy to the drives.
SAVEs are also made from BASIC
and can go to either cassette,
microdrive, or with minor
modification, any other
alternative. This is also done with
a standard header, making the
procedure for transmitting
MSCRIPT files via MTERM (ZXC
December/January) much
simpler.

Greetings Card
Designer
Similar to a very popular
program for that other
computer, you can make use of
a number of different type fonts
and graphics (supplied) to
create your own personalized
greeting cards for any occasion,
using your 80 column printer.
The program comes in three
parts a card designer, a
library of graphics (I received
22), and a graphics designer for
those who want to design their
own additions to Ihe library.
The first thing I did was to
transfer the card designer and
graphics designer to on
microwafer. and the library to
another. This was very simple to
accomplish, and only required
minor modifications to the
original program. As with all of
their software. ZEBRA has
provided a back-up option right
from the menu, making the
transfer simple. (Pressing BREAK
during the nort.ial cassette SAVE
Indicates the line where the
SAVE routine exists.) Righl now I
have 31 graphics on a 35 foot
wafer, with room for some more.

To create a greeting card,

you LOAD the card designer,
and are guided through the
procedure. I suggest that the
very first thing you do is to set
your printer/interface
combination, or else you may
find that you have designed
your card, but are unable to
print it.
Next you will choose to
design either the cover or inside
of your card (the procedure is
identical). In designing your
card you may choose one of
eight borders. For your text you
have a choice of sizes (small
and large), fonts (filled or open),
and justification (right, left or
centered). Which of these
options you choose depends on
the type, size and placement ot
your graphic. You select the
graphic from the menu,
choosing from the graphics in
your library. Once loaded, you
have a choice of two sizes. The
smalt graphic can be placed In
any number of compartments
within a six by six grid, while the
large graphic will fill a three by
three grid.
While the package comes
with a number of predesigned
graphics, you may want to
design your own. The graphic
designer portion ot this software
allows you to do just that. When
you load this portion of the
software you can design your
graphic on a 32 by 56 pixel
grid. As you turn the individual
pixels on or off, you can
immediately see your the result
in an actual size window on the
same screen. You can modify
your graphic (or any of the
existing graphics) at any time to
suit your needs.
If this program proves
popular, look for a poster and
banner designer to follow.
Greeting Card Designer is great
for those of us with limited (or
nonexistent) artistic talents, since
the graphics come with the
software.

ZPRINT-80
The final new offering from ZEBRA
is their new ZPRINT-80 Printer
Support Package. This supports
AERCO, both Tasman, and A&J
interfaces with LPRINT output,
LLIST output. Normal size screen
COPY and full page grey scale
color screen COPY. (Screen copy
routines support the printers
listed above for the Greeting
Card Designer. The tape comes
with four versions of Ihe driver
software; a high memory and
low memory version for both the
T/S 2068 and Spectrum
computers.
For more information and a
copy of their latest catalogue
write to ZEBRA SYSTEMS INC; 78-06
Jamaica Avenue; Woodhaven,
NY 11421; U.S.A.; (718) 296-2385.

71

IT'S 1986 - THE YEAR

OF COMMUNICATIONS
Why buy programmes (or your Spectrum when a world of free
'telesoftware' is open to you. Discover Prestel, Micronet 800.
Viewla*. bulletin boards and open a whole new world Even user to user
Everybody's doing il linking their home computers to giant mainframes
and networking to thousands ol other micro users via the phone and a modem,
A whole new world of mainframe games, electronic mail, free 'telesoftware', electronic"
notice boards, real time conversation, armchair shopping and home-banking will be at
your fingertips' And at local and cheap rate, phone charges are only around 40p for a whole
hour's entertainment.
Spectrum 16k. 48k, Spectrum + The VTX 5000 Modem comes complete with all the software
(in ROM! required lo access the world of electronic communications, networks, telesoftware and databases
(both public and private.)
(User to user software on cassette C3 95 extra!
Terminal Emulation Software Package to link to commercial databases and bulletin boards which use ASCII
format on cassette 6.95
The VTX 5000 requires no external power and Ins under your Spectrum to become part of the machine.
Only one lead links your computer to the outside world
FOR THE SPECTRUM 16K, 48K AND SPECTRUM THE VTX 5000 IS AVAILABLE AT A VERY SPECIAL PRICE
29.95

inclusive of V A T and P & P for a limited period only.

SPECIAL, SPECIAL OFFER
rPlease send to me:
Spectrum Modoms(s)

All modems provide 1200/75 baud, enabling access to

Prestel, Micronet 800, B T Gold, Farmlink, Citiservices,
Homelink, and some free bulletin boards (some
databases and networks require a small subscription).
Fully B T Approved.
Simply clip the coupon and send it with a
APPROVED
cheque (payable to Modem House) to:
(Or conrvod>on to
MODEM

7 0 Longbrook

Street,

Exeter,
Devon E X 4

7AP

Tel: ( 0 3 9 2 )

213355

PSS C o m m s r T o r m l n a l

t enclose

6.95

Name

Address-

tele communication
syslems specified
n the mslruclions
tor use subiect to
iho condition;, sot .
oul tn Ihom

HOUSE,

29.95

User t o user s o f t w a r e 3.95

Telephone.
Please a l l o w 2 8 dBy d e l i v e r y A c c e s s / V i s a

No_

This offer applies o n l y w h i l e s t o c k s last.

yjiMIl The Quill Illustrator

The Qraphic Adventure Writing System
for The Spectrum. Commodore
and Amstrad.
fAvailxttlc on cassette and disc.

The Quill

<B>ty
or

is also available
for the
Oric
l/Atmos
and
shortly
tor
the
Atari
and
BBC
B/Electron
BARCLATURO

l(m it w i i h . U v r v i l

WS/I

C r e d i t C a r d o r d e r line m a n n e d
24 H o u r i 0 2 2 2 - 4 1 3 6 1 e x t . 430

entire Writ;
Systeni^S

frtr Use

ith

The:JQum
"r

li

P l t i t t ruth mt dctuli of The Qui" &

IHuitrator ind other product! in your
rjnge for
(ipcoly

"^'R-Yin*,,, C Midline). hiv tndotcd j S.A.E

Name

The Quill
without
any
| knowledge
ol
programming
will allow
you to
write
|/?><7/j quality
text
adventures
From

1 4 - 9 5

l ^ T h e Illustrator
is a
coml panion
to The Quill
used
to
create
Hi-Resolution
pictures
for
your
adventures.
From

1 4 - 9 5

I
I

Addrcii

GILSOFT, 2 Pirk Crecjent, Birry

| S. Glim. CF6 BHD T t l . 0414-7J274S

Are You Taking Your Spectrum Seriously?

ZX Spectrum

NEW I! ART S T U D I O
(NOT ILLUSTRATED)

128

An exciting graphic* d o t i g n '

program. F o a l u r o t pull d o w n
monut, l e a n t a n d w i n d o w * you
chooio b r u i h , tpray, pon. o t a p l u i
hott ol o t h * r feature*. A l t o d r i v H
most d o l matrix printer* w i t h
t u l l a b l o Inlorfaco.
A i l Sludio - 12.95

All programs compatible

with the NEW 128K
SPECTRUM tn tho 48k modo.
"ART STUDIO 2" the 128K
version will be avlalable
very soon.
Further information
please contact O.C.P.

S t a n d a r d Art S l u d i o - 12.95
Enhanced Art Studio tor
Mlcrodrlvo & Oitk - 23.95
AMX M o u t o Comploto - 59.95
M a u w P l u t Program 75.00

Your Sinclair Spectrum

isa powerful computer,
not just a g a m e s
console. Oxford
Computer Publishing
unleash that power to
make your Spectrum
useful a n d help you
perform important tasks.
The Manager series of
business programs has
thousands of satisfied
customers over the last
three years. Your
Spectrum can do jobs
normally associated
with business computers
many times the price.
The Utilities were written
to create our o w n
application software.
They are offered to you
BUSINESS P R O G R A M S
ADDRESS MANAGER
A professional address, filing and retrieval
system, with full screen editing. Stores up to
350 addresses on cassette and up to 6000
addresses on lloppy disk. (In separate files)
32 column format - 8.95 [ J 80 column
format - 19.95 f NEW K-DOS tape disk
cassette - 29.95 H SP-DOS floppy disk 29 95
FINANCE MANAGER
Stores and reviews practically all business
and domestic accounts. Completely menu
driven for ease of use. Stores up fo 250 names
on cassette and up to 6000 on floppy disk. (In
separate files) 32 column format - 8 95 80
column format - 19.95
NEW K-DOS tape
disk cassette - 29 95 n SP-DOS floppy disk 29.95
STOCK MANAGER
Features full invoicing, sales totals, price
lists and re-order requirements and
comprehensive Master File with full
breakdown of stock and VAT. Stores up to 600
product lines on cassette and up to 6000 on
floppy disk 80 column format - 19.95 f
NEW K-DOS tape disk cassette-29.95 SPDOS floppy disk - 29 95
VAT MANAGER
Will check gross and nett values of a
period's sales plus exempt totals and up to 8
classes of transaction e.g. stondard rate,
Import export etc. Calculates VAT paid and
received and hence the nett lax payable
receivable.
32 column format - 8.95 r J 80 column
lormat-19.95
NEW K-DOS
i s tape disk
cassette - 29.95 ( | SP-DOS floppy disk 2995

as proven reliable
programs that have
stood the test of our own
usage and become
industry standards.
The classical games are
realistic simulations of
proven widely played
"real" games.
See your local dealer
or order direct by
indicating the items
required, by ticking
boxes, complete the
coupon and return the
advertisement.
Alternatively, phone the
OCP Hotline on (0753)
888866, stating your
Access or Barclaycard
Number.
W O R D MANAGER

This word processor has

been designed for
"user friendliness" The following features
should particularly appeal to users ol the
"Tasword II" program, with which it is text
compatible The software includes an
address filing supplement with screen editing.
Extra features include:
* Simple "single keystroke" Insertion
facility.
* The cursor can be moved on to start a
new paragraph by a single keystroke,
TA8 key also available.
* The program works with cassetle tape,
Sinclair Microdrive, Opus and other disk
systems.
* Texts can be printed out on any line
length up to 128 characters.
* Text blocks of any length can be
transposed, copied or deleted.
* The OCP program can print outtext while
another Is being written or edited.
The Word Manager-12.95 j
Disk Versions-19.95

UTILITIES
MASTER TOOL KIT
This versatile program gives you a renumber feature, string - search, a real time
clock, a graphics generator and alarm plus
many other features that'll change your
Spectrum into a 'full spec machine'.
Master Tool Kit - 9.95 n
FULL SCREEN EDITOR ASSEMBLER
An essential tool for writing Machine Code
whether you're a beginner or an expert.
Includes full screen inpuf. comprehensive
documentation, sophisticated expression

evaluator, SNAKE demonstration mode,extra

microdrive facility etc. It also drives 32 and
80 column printer interfaces from the same
cassette.
Full Screen Editor Assembler - 12.95 [ NEW
K-DOS tape disk cassette - 29.95
SP-DOS
floppy disk - 29.95
MACHINE CODE TEST TOOL
Test and Display Machine Code
instructions as they're wntten This versatile
program can co-reside in your Spectrum with
the Full Screen Editor Assembler to provide a
complete Machine Code environment
Features Hex: Decimal conversion routine,
character generator, etc etc
Machine Code Test Tool - 9.95

GAMES

CHESS-THE-TURK
The ultimate chess challenge 6 levels ol
play. Blitz' chess, printer output, plus real time
clock and alarm Chess-the-Turk - 5 . 9 5 ,
CASINO ROYAL
Two way program featuring Roulette and
Pontoon You're allocated money to win - or
lose - a fortune. Plug in Microspeech adds
realism and both games are fully explained
through a comprehensive on-screen menu
Casino R o y a l - 5 . 9 5 ^
VIDEO POOL
All the fun and challenge of pool at y o u
fingertips 1 or 2 people play using |oysticks
or keyboard. Excellent graphics, sound and
colour add lo the game's reality
Video Pool-5 95 (Not Microdrive
compatible)
Please send your order to
Oxford Computer Publishing Limited
77a Packhorse Road
Geaards Cross Buck. SL9 8PQ

If you would like a copy of our full colour detailed catalogue - please tick box.
Nome

Please make cheques postal orders payable to

OCP Lid

AdcXOis

Cheque PO Number
Access Bare lay cord number
(please delete)

Amount payable

Signatuo

Waladrivo, Opui and olher media veralom ot our program* will be availablo In Ihe near future. Contact ut for further Information on 0753 ASM66.

LIGHT SCREEN DESIGNER

Toni Baker brings you
her graphics
mega-program.

T h i s month's article is all about

COLOURING IN. The general
idea is that you should be able
to position the cursor In the
interior ol an outline on the
screen and Ihen, hey presto
a touch ol machine code and
the enlire outline Is filled with
whichever colour you choose.
Having completed the
colouring-in program, I
subsequently discovered a bug
in the earlier LINE DRAWING
routine. It turned out that if you
used Light Screen Designer to
draw a shape composed of
straight lines then the line
drawing routine would leave
'holes' In the outline ot Ihe
corners. Of course no colouringin program can ever fill an
outline with holes in it mine
got confused and coloured-in
parts of the outside as well as
the inside. I realised then that
the only way out of Ihe
dilemma was to cure the linedrawing bug, so that outlines
can be drawn without holes. The
solution was to alter the line
drawing routine so that an extra
point is plotted at the end of a
straight line. This means of
course alterations to the
program. You should amend
your program by overwriting the
old draw line routine by the
new one in figure 1.
Next, It will be necessary to
link the colouring bits and the
various other parts into the main
program. To do this you should
enter the following;
DBC2 98
DEF8 98
DB76 12 EA
DEFW EA12, C U R S O R TYPE
DB7A 7A E8
DEFW E87A.FILL
DB8A 70 E8
DEFW E870,PAINT
OK now everything's sorted
out we can get on with this
month's bit of program.

Paint away!
The program gives you two new
procedures for Light Screen
Designer. PAINT, on key 1, and
FILL on key 2. Although they
perform essentially the same
task {IB. they both effectively

74

colour-in an area) the two are

subtly different.
PAINT is Intended for creating
colour designs. When an area is
filled In this Is largely done by
altering the attribute bylea Only
at the outline itself is any
additional plotting required. This
means that It is possible to paint

two adjacent areas In two

different colours. Provided that
you never try to paint three
different colours on the same
character square you should be
alright. The program will set or
reset pixels and adjust attribute
bytes automatically.
FILL, on the other hand, Is

Becomes

The Inside

Case ( a )
k.
0)
"S
0
CO

The
Inside

a>
O
w
0
CO

Becomes

The
Outside

Exterior
Case ( b )
Figure 1.

CDEFDE
CDE6DE
C5
LB
227D5C

ORG DF04
Hove origin cursor to new position.
DRAW_tINE C'LL DEEF,MOVE_X
CALL DEE6,ADJUST_BD Adjust B and D to ROM convention.
Stack cursor coordinates.
PUSH BC
HL:*i previous coordinates.
EX DE,HL
Store as " l a s t point p l o t t e d " .
LD {COORDS),HL
LD DE,0101
LD A,B
SUB H
JR NC,DL_1
CPL
LD D,FF

1T0101
78
94
J003
2F
16FF
47
79

DL_1

95
3003
2F
1EFF
4F
CDBA24
C1
18D9

LD B,A
LD A,C
SUB L
JR NC,DL_2
CPL
LD E,FF

DL_1

LD C,A
CALL 24BA,DRAW_3
POP BC
JR J PLOT

A:=y coord of cursor.

A: v e r t i c a l DRAW parameter.
Jump if positive or zero.
A:=ABS(vertICE1
parameter).
D: indicntes that v e r t i c a l parameter
is negative,
At= x coord of cursor.
A h o r i z o n t a l DRAW parameter.
Jump i f positive or zero.
A: APS(horizontal parameter),
E: Indicates that horizontal
parameter Is negative.
Draw the l i n o .
BC:= cursor coordinates.
Jump to plot l a s t point.

Intended (or working In black

and white. Unlike PAINT it will fill
an area by INKING every point
In the Interior with the current
Ink colour. This means that it Is
not possible to fill an area
adjacent to another FILLed or
PAINTed area (PAINT does not
suffer from this disadvantage).
FILL has an advantage, however,
which PAINT does not have if
areas are FILLED Ihen every
interior point will be SET, so that
you can COPY a picture from
the screen to the ZX Printer.
The program works by first of
all determining which pixels
Flguro 3.
7C
OF

ATTR_ADDR

OF
OF
60}

P658
67
C9

OA
IF
1F
1F
B607
DDBEC6
OA
2B0A
E607
DDHE08
2011
57
9F
C9
E607
DDBB06
2805

OR 58
LD H,A

C9

A:= high part of pixel address.

As- 00, 01 or 02, according to which

third of the screen tho pixel
lies in.
HLs- Attribute address.

RET

C0L_TEST

ORG E778
LD A,(BC)

A:= a t t r i b u t e byto from screon.

RHA
RRA
RRA
AMD 07
A:* paper colour.
CP (0LD_C0L"XJR)
LD A,(BC)
A: a t t r i b u t e byte from screen.
JR Z,C0LT_PAPER Jump if paper colour matches search
colour.
AND 07
A: ink colour.
CP (0LD_C0L0UR)
JR NZ,COLTJIO
Jump i f neither paper nor ink colour
matches search.
SCF
Carry flag s e t . (One match found).
SBC A,A
Zero flag reset} At> FF. (Ink).
RET
COLTJV. PER AND 07
A: Ink colour.
CP (OLD_COLOUR)
JR Z,C0LT_B0TH Jump i f both paper and ink match
search.

AF
57
C9
JEFF
A7
C9
AF

ORG E76E
LD A,H
RRCA
RRCA
RRCA
AUD OJ

constitute the Interior, and then

by changing the colour of these
points. The Interior is determined
as follows:
(1) The pixel at the cursor
position is an Interior point.
(2) Any pixel which is adjacent
to, and the same colour as, an
interior point is also an Interior
point.
Thus the 'border' of an outline
Is not needed In the definition
of the interior. To a human It
might seem obvious thai if you
draw a black circle on a white
background then the circle itself
Is a border separating the

COLTJiOTH

COLTJiO

X0R A
SCF
RET
LD A, FF
AND A
RET
X0R A
RET

Zero f l a g s e t ; A: 00. (Paper).

Carry flag s e t . (One match found).

Carry and r.ero flags

indicating paper and
Zero flag a o t j Carry
A:-00, indicating no

both r e s e t .
ink both mntch.
flag r e s e t ;
match found.

'inside* from the 'outside! but to

the computer such glaring
obviousness is not glaringly
obvious. Its own system
methodically works each pixel
on at a time (actually eight at a
time, but that's a minor point).
Since the cursor pixel (Inside the
circle) will be white, then the
border (which is NOT white) will
be considered by the program
to be exterior. It is true that
pixels outside the circle will also
be white, but none of these are
adjacent to true Interior points,
and so will always remain
exterior.
When the program comes to
the actual colourlng-ln-process,
it has to do even more thinking
(for PAINT anyway). For within an
individual character square, the
concept of a 'border' may have
to be considered anyway. Take
a look at Figure 2. In case (a)
the so called "border' is at the
edge of a character square. In
this case it is relatively easy to
colour-In the Interior without
making any changes to the
border. In case (b) however, the
'border' runs down the middle
ot the character square. Since it
is impossible lo have three
colours on a character square
then an alternative solution Is
necessary In this program both
the Inside and the border are
recoloured, while the outside Is
left unchanged.
The program uses the area ot
memory normally used by Light
Screen Designer as the back-up
screen memory to store the
interior pixels. This is the area of
memory called SCR2. which
runs from address COOO to
D7FF inclusive. I shall now go
through each ol the subroutines
in the program one at a time,
and explain them as I come to
them:

Subroutines
ATTR ADDR at address E76E is
very short and very simple It
converts the address of a pixel
on the screen (in HL) Into the
address ol Ihe corresponding
attribute byte.
COL TEST at address E778 tests
the attribute byte at address
(BC) against the known (old)
interior colour. It returns
Carry reset/Zero reset il paper
and ink are both the required
colour.
Carry reset/Zero set If neither
paper nor Ink Is the required
colour.
Carry set/Zero reset if ink
colour is the required colour.
Carry set/Zero set II paper
colour Is the required colour.
It also returns either OO or FF In
the A register. This value will

75

E5
CD6KK7

SRPTRS

44
4D
El

LD C,L
POP HL
LD D,H
LD E,L
SET 7 f D
RET

54
5D
CBFA
C9
olways match that of the zero
(lag ( l a 0 0 if zero, FF if non
zero).
At E79E Is another short, sweet
and simple routine. Given the
address of a pixel In HL, It will
return the address ot the
corresponding attribute byte in
BQ and the address of the
corresponding byte from SCR2
in DE. HL will remain
unchanged.
SCAN ROW is where all the
tricky bits start, This subroutine
lies at address E7AA, and its
purpose Is lo scan one row of
the screen either from left to
right, or Irom right to left. It
declares as 'Internal' any pixel
which is to the right of (or to the
left of] a known Interior pixel,
and Is also the same colour. In
this way the interior 'Meld* Is
extended from a single, or
collection of, points, as far as
the right (or left) hand Interior
edge
TM POP (E81D) doesn't make a
lot of sense on Its own. It
basically POPs SCR2 from the
calculator stack, but see also
TEST MEM (below).
TEST MEM is at E82E. On entry,
BC must contain the maximum
number of bytes of memory
used by a routine. This must
include bytes used on the
machine stack, the calculator
stack, and the workspace. It
doesn't matter If BC Is too great,
but it must never be too small.
Calling TESt MEM will (a) test
the memory, and return
immediately If there is not
enough room to store an extra
copy of SCR2. otherwise (b) PUSH
a copy of SCR2 onto the
machine stack, and (c)
manipulate the machine stack
so that TM POP will be called
before returning to the main
loop. Control will then be
passed to the byte Immediately
after the CALL TEST MEM
Instruction (i.a like a normal
RETurn).
The principal routines, PAINT and
FILL begin here. PAINT at E874,
and FILL at E87E. The first
difference between the two is
apparent immediately. PAINT
uses the MESSAGE subroutine
(listed earlier) to request the
required paint colour from the

ORG E79E
PUSH HL
CALL E76E,ATTR_ADDR
LD B,H

Stuck screen byte address.

HLm a t t r i b u t e byte atVreas.
P C a t t r i b u t e byte Address.
HLi* screen byte ddreB3.

DK: 5CR2 byte address.

ORG E7AA
A7

SCAN_R0W

AND A

06

SR_L00F_1

1A

EX AF,AF'
LD A,(DE)

A7
2850

AND A
JR Z,SRJJEXT

37
284 A

CP FF
SCF
JR Z,SR_NEXT_1

CE78CT

CALL E778,OOL_TEST

J804

JR C,SR_1 HATCH
JR NZ,SR_ALL_BITS
JR SR_NEXT_1
CP (HL)
JR NZ,SR_SCAN

FEFF

2005
1841
BE
2004
57
9F
182A
C5
0606
AE
4F

SR_LOOP_2

SR_1MATCH

SR_ALL_BITS SCF
SBC A,A
JR SRESTORE
PUSH BC
SR_SCAN
LD B,08
Z0R (HL)
LD C,A

06

EX AF,AF*

1A
0DCB006E
200F

LD A,(DE)
BIT 5> (J_FLAGS)
JR NZ,SR_SCAK_B

5006

SR_SCAN_A

JR NC,SR_NBIT_A
BIT 7,C
JR HZ,SRJ!BI?_A

CB79
2002
F680

OR BO

07

RLC C
RLCA

10F5
1800
5006

DJKZ SR_SCAN_A
JR SRJ1EW
JR NC,SR_NBIT_B

C90l

SR_NBIT_A

SR_SCAN_B

Reset cnrry -signals "Not a known

I n t e r i o r point".
Store in F ' .
A:- byte from SCR2.
Jump if there are no known i n t e r i o r
points within t h i s byte.

Jump i f r.ll eight pixels are already

known to be i n t e r i o r .
Search a t t r i b u t e byte for i n t e r i o r
colour.
Jump i f one match found.
Jump i f paper and ink both match.
Otherwise jump with no match.
Jump unless a l l eight b i t a are the
required colour.
Carry indicates "Known i n t e r i o r point".
At- FF ( l e . a l l b i t s s e t ) .
Jump to store FF.
Stack a t t r i b u t e byte p o i n t e r .
Bi numbor of b i t a in a byte.
Ci- byte from screen, with
r e s e t for a known i n t e r i o r
s e t otherwise.
Carry indicates whether or
pixel was a known intorior
At* byto from SCR2.

each b i t
point, and
not l a s t
point.

Jump i f scanning from r i g h t to l e f t .

Jump unless l a s t pixel was a
known i n t e r i o r p o i n t .
Jump unless pixel is rnquirod colour.
Set current pixel to show that i t
is a kno*n i n t e r i o r point.
Get next b i t into b i t 7 .
Hove new b i t into b i t 0 , and
re-assign carry f l a g accordingly.
Repent for a l l eight b i t a .
Jump unless l a s t pixel waa a
known i n t e r i o r point.

76

CB41
2002
F601
CB09
OF
10F5
CI
F5

BIT 0,C
JR NZjSR_NBIT_B
OR 01
SR_NBIT_B RRC C
RRCA

SR_NEW
SRJ5T0RE

Cb

4F
U
2F
At

CPL
AND C
JR Z,SR_0LD

2804
D DC B00K6
79
12
CI
F1
08
7D
E61F
DDCB006E

SET 6,(J_HA0S)
SR_0LD
LD A,C
LD (DE),A
POP BC
POP AF
SR_NEXT_1 EX AF,AF'
SR_NEXT
LD A,L
AND 1F

FF.ir
C8
03
13
23
1805
A7
C8
0B
1B
SRJX5NT

3092
08

Stack carry f l a g .
Stack a t t r i b u t e pointer.
C: new value to store in SCR?.
Aib old value from SCR2.

Jump unless a t l e a s t one pixel Is a

newly discovered Interior point.
Signal "Not finished yet".
Store new value in SCR2.
Restore a t t r i b u t e s pointer.
Restore carry f l a g .
Store carry f l a g .
A: column number of character aq.
Jump i f scanning from r i g h t to l e f t .

RET Z
INC BC
INC DE
INC HL
JR SR_C0NT
AND A
RET Z
DEC BC
DEC DE
DEC HL
EX AF,AF
JR NC,SH_LOOP_1

Return if a t r i g h t hand edpr of row.

1893

01800D
2100DB

TH_POP

ORG E81D
LD BC.0DB0
LD HLjDBOO

D1
2B

THP_IJOOP

1A

B1
20P6

POP DE
DEC HL
LD (HL),D
DEC HL
LD (HL),E
DEC BC
LD A
OR C
JR N?. ,THP_LOOP

C9

RET

73
0B
78

Oet next b i t into b i t zero.

Move next b i t into b i t 7, and
re-assign carry f l a g accordingly.
Repent for a l l eight b i t s .
Restore a t t r i b u t e pointer.

JR NZ,SR_DEC
CP 1F

EX AF.AF'
LD A,(DE)
JR SR_L00P_2

72
2B

Set current pixel to show that i t

is a known i n t e r i o r point.

BIT 5(J_FLA1S)

2006

2B
06

DJNZ SR_SCAN_B
POP BC
PUSH AF
PUSH BC
LD C, A
ID A,(DE)

Jimp unless pixel Is required colour.

Increment a t t r i b u t e pointer.
Increment SCR? pointer.
Increment scrorn pointer.

Return If a t l e f t h^nd ed^e of row.

Decrement a t t r i b u t e pointer.
Decrement SCR? pointer.
Decrement screen - o i n t e r .
Retrieve carry f l " g .
Jump unless l a s t point wns known
to be i n t e r i o r .
Store crrry flop again.
A:> next byte from SCR2,

BCi- half number of bytes in SCR?.

HLi points to the f i r s t byte beyond
t h i s area.
Oet next two bytes from s t a c k .

Store next 2 bytes in SCR?.

user, whereas FILL automatically

selects the current Ink colour. A
(lag Is assigned so that the
program knows whether PAINT or
FILL is being carried out, and
then the two routines merge into
one. SCR2 Is used to store
Interior pixels, so this area ot
memory Is cleared, and one
pixel set at the cursor position.
The primary loop begins at the
label PF BEGIN. The current row
Is scanned first trom left to
right, a n d then trom right to left.
At PF CONT the address of the
row below (or above) Is
calculated and any pixels
which are directly below (or
above) known interior pixels,
a n d which are the same colour,
are themselves declared
internal.
The process repeats over and
over again alternately up
and down the screen until all
interior points have been
discovered. From PF SQ LOOP
the colouring-ln process begins
The screen Is scanned one
character square at a time and
any required pixels are set or
reset as needed whilst the
attribute bytes are adjusted.
When the whole screen has
been scanned In this manner
the process Is complete and
control will return to the main
loop (possibly via TM POP)
Finally the old CURSOR TYPE
routine has been moved to
address EA12. since its previous
home (DF24) has now been
overwritten with the new
DRAW LINE routine.
The light Screen Designer
program. In Its BASIC form, is
now complete I have spent this
article, and Indeed every
previous article in this series,
concentrating on Just one tiny
segment of the program. My
next article will be a special
Light Screen Designer Extra In
which I will talk at great length
about the whole program (and
with no machine code to worry
about I'll have more room to
waffle!). I'll also be talking about
ways to Improve or extend the
program. See you then.

Repent for a l l bytes.

77

uw
ORG 8B2E
2A655C

TESTJtEM

LD HL, (STK&'D)

09

ADD HL.BC

58 OA

JR C,TO_NOT

01501B

LD BC,1B50

09

ADD HL,BC

Jump If not enough memory.

Allow 1B50 bytes for SCR? nnd
machine s t a c k .

5604

JR C,TO_N0T

Junp If not enough memory.

ED72

SBC HL,SP

Allow f o r p o s i t i o n of vachlne s t a c k .

581E

JR C,TO_PUSH

Jump If enough memory in a v a i l a b l e .

DDCBO166 TM_NOT

BIT 4,(J_F1AGS h i )

2615

JR Z,TH_

Jump i f screen memory not being used.

2151BB

LD HL,TO_ESC

Lond HL with "ESCAPE" a d d r e s s .

E5

PUSH HL

CDCCDC

CALL DCCC,MESSAGE

05

DEFB 05

P r i n t message "WARNING Screen Memory

Wipe" and await i n p u t .
Delete ESCAPE Address.

El

POP HL

FE59

CP "T"

2802

JR Z,TO_WIPE

Jump i f reply was "Y".

F1

POP AF

Delete return address i n t o s u b r t .

C9

RET

Return to main loop.

DDCB01A6 TO_WIPE

RES 4,(JJ0AGS h i )

Signal "Screen memory not in use".

DDCB01 EE

SET 5(J_FLAQS h i )

Signal "SCR2 has been c o r r u p t e d " .

C9
El

RET

Return to carry out proceedure.

POP HL

HL:* r e t u r n a d d r e s s ,

D9

EXX

HL'return

01800D

LD BC,0D60

BC: hnlf number of bytes in SCR?,

210000

LD HL.COOO

HL: points to f i r s t byte of SCR?.

5E

TO_ESC

TO PUSH

TOP LOOP2

address.

LD E,(HL)

25

INC HL

56

LD D,(HL)

25

INC HL

D5

PUSH DE

OB

DEC BC

78

LD A,B

B1

OR C

20 F6

JR NZ,TOP_LOOP2

211DB8

LD HL,E8lD,TO_P0P

E5

PUSH HL

Force f u t u r e r e t u r n i n t o TO_F0P.

D9

EXX

HL:* t r u e r e t u r n address.

E9

JP (HL)

Return to carry out proceedure,

Get next two bytes from SCP?,

Store on machine s t a c k .

continued next month

78

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""here is something oboul this

machine which makes us users
resist the Spectrum's lure of
sound and colour or the QL's
memory and microdrives.
It doesn't take long before the
limitalions of Basic cause us to
give up or progress inlo
machine code. What I hope to
do is give a series of machine
code routines which can be
used by expert and novice alike
lo improve the 81's speed and
performance
What I have is a loader
program with a massive REM at
the start, this Rem contains a
suite ol programs which perform
such essential tasks as a variety
ol Imputs, Prints. Pauses, Scrolls
and screen effects By keeping
careful notes of register values I
then use those which apply lo
whatever program I am writing.
I hope to give you a similar
utility which perhaps other
readers may like to contribute to,
so building into a program
which even QLers will envyl
To simplify for new 81ers,
Machine code is operating the
computer processor directly by
giving it instructions in its own
language numbers
We have to store these
numbers somewhere and the
mosl convenient place is in the
first line of Ihe program which is
made a REM line. This means
that because It is a REM the
computer Ignores all the
characlers which follow it until
directed there by a specific USR
instructions
The USR lunction needs lo be
followed by the memory address
where the processor will find the
lirsl machine code instruction
and this will be an address In
Ihe REM.
We know Irom Ihe manual that
the first address that follows Ihe
line number and REM code is
16514 and this is oflen the
address at which we begin our
machine code.
Unless you have an assembler
you have to input the numbers
which are usually given in HEX,

Ray Elder presents a

forum of news, hints,
tips and advice
exclusively for ZX81
users.

a system ol counting in groups

of 16. and get them into the
memory locations in the REM
For this we use a LOADER
program, a very simple one
which I use as the basis of my
master program is given in FIG 1,
type it and save it.
FIG 1
9000 PRINT "ADDRESS TO START ?";
9010 INPUT A
9020 PRINT A
9030 LET A $ = " "
9040 LET X = 0
9050 IF A $ = " " THEN INPUT A$
9060 IF A $ = " S " THEN STOP
9070 IF X = 0 THEN SCROLL
9080 IF X = 0 THEN PRINT A;":
9090 PRINT A$( TO 2);"
9100 POKE A.16 * CODE
A$+CODE A$(2)-476
9110 LET A = A + 1
9120 LET A$=A$(3 TO )
9130 LET X = X + 1
9140 IF X = 6 THEN GOTO 9040
9150 GOTO 9050

Before we can put numbers

into the REM memory we have to
claim that memory lor our use.
and we do that by following the
1 REM by as many characters as
we need. Problems arise when
you need around 1000
characters as I am about to
suggest! One heck of a lot of
time, especially as the 81"s entry
speed slows as the line length
increases
As computers are supposed to
make life easy, our first program
might as well create our REM for
us. We still have to type in a few
characters, but typing 1 REM
followed by 96 dots is a lot
easier than 1000 dots! Add Ihe
REM to Ihe loader prog.
Now we can RUN our loader
program and it will ask us to
enter the start address This I s
surprise, surprise, 16514
The program is now waiting lor
our numbers type in each line
of FIG 2 one line at a time,
pressing ENTER at the end of
each line. Note each line
consists of 12 characters with no
spaces between them.
Finally add the lines in FIG 3
to the loader program and SAVE
it. This should become your
Initial program and will be
useful for entering other
machine code programs which
you may find in these pages or
elsewhere.

FIG 2
D60BCD230F01
06002A8240E5
09444D2A2940
09222940210C
403E095E2356
D5EB09EB722B
7323233D2803
D118EEE1E501
E240A7ED4244
4DE1EDB821E3
403600233602
23C103037123
702336EA0B0B
23110100EB19
EB361BEDB036
7534CD2B0FC9
FIG 3
2 REM
4 PRINT
5 INPUT
6 POKE
7 POKE
8 RAND
9 STOP

"REM LENGTH ?"

N
16514,N-256 * INT (N/256)
16515,INT (N/256)
USR 16516

Note 2 REM. This is a safety line

and MUST be Included even
though it has no apparent
purpose.
Having Saved the program
several times (jus! in case!) we
will now RUN it, and the
message REM LENGTH? pops up.
We want an all purpose REM
and 1000 characters seems
plenty, so enter 1000.
II all Is well, a flicker and on
listing, a massive line of dots..
Delete the lines, one at a time
by entering their line numbers 4.
5, 6. 7. 8 and 9. SAVE this on yet
another tape for this will
become our master utility
program with the first 'real"
routine next time.

Hints

Mark Baldwin ol Barnsley has

been squeezing beeping sound:
out ol his 81. Turn the TV volume
up. put the 81 into FAST mode
and type In:
FAST
RAND USR 821 ( t o 829)
The result says Mark is a whole
range of different notes.
New Game
Pooler Games have just
brought out Pooter Puzzler No 2
a collection ot seven teasing
puzzles which sells lor 2.95.
Information from: Pooler Games
24 Parsloes Avenue. Dagenham,
RM9 5NX.

f\

81

spectrum
REPLACEMENT or*>WER S U P P L i E o ^ ' E A R A P O " E R S O C K F T
KEYBOARD - Rpp,
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39.95
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SODOV THE SORCEREI

3D arcade action with
magical animation.

Spectrum 48K

TENNIS

OLLO

Its 3D arcade centre court

action with speech
against 5 ol the world's
best.

Cartoon animation with

26 screens ot slippery
arcade lun, with Mick and
several leaping foreigners

BBC/Electron

MSX

'First Mission' and 'The

Final Assault on Olio' Ace
action, stunning graphics
and sonics straight from
the arcades.
CBM64

SOLO
The Di-Planium Wars rage
on. 16 alien craft to defeat
with fantastics sounds
and speed.
C16

A great arcade adventure,

45 screens of action
BBC/Electron

Argus Press Software Group Liberty House 222 Regent Street LONDON W1R 7 0 8 0 1 - 4 3 9 0666

QLCOMPETITION
Why should Spectrum
owners get all the good
software competitions?
Here's a chance for QL
owners to win copies of
the excellent QL Paint
and QL Bounder from
Sinclair Research.

hat with all the attention that

the Spectrum 128 has been
getling lately, it occurred to the
generous souls here at ZX that
perhaps QL owners might be
feeling left out, so we leapt Into
action and arranged a
competition for all the software
starved QL people.
Two of the best programs
released for the QL recently
have been the QL Paint graphics
utility, and the arcade game QL
Bounder. These are both
reviewed elsewhere in this issue,
and we thought it would be a
good Idea to combine the
serious' utility with a bit of old
fashioned arcade fun, so In
conjunction with Sinclair
Research we have ten little
bundles to win containing both
programs. QL Paint alone is
worth 25 so there's a tidy little
sum to be given away here.

The tricky bit

All you have to do to enter the

competition Is to look at the two
lists further down the page. One
is a list ot famous artists and the
other Is a list of paintings: Just
match the painter to the
painting and then complete the
tiebreaker and send the coupon
in to us here at ZX (it must be
the original coupon, not a
photocopy), by April 30th 1986.
Painters
1) Constable
2) Da Vinci
3) Van Gogh
4) Hals
Paintings
1) Mona Lisa
2) Laughing Cavalier
3) Sunflowers
4) The Haywain

Painter

Painting

Name
Address
Tiebreaker: What would you draw using QL Paint (25 words or less)?

Complete this coupon and send it to: OL Competition. ZX Computing

^ M o n t h l y , 1 Golden Square. London W1R 3Aa

85

Softcat Micros
14.95

While wandering around at the

last ZX Microfair I came across
a stand where a software house
that I'd never heard of before
was demonstrating an Interesting looking graphics utility
called Animator 1. One quick
chat and an impressive demo
later, and we'd arranged for a
review copy to be sent in.
Unlike The Artist, Arl Studio
Animator 1 Is not intended
primarily as a tool lor drawing
screen pictures with; Insleac'
one of Its main functions Is for

A screen dump of tho Camelot

picture supplied on the
Animator tape, plus a dump of
one quarter of that p i c t u r e
expanded by using the Enlarge

facility.

developing sprites and animating them to show how they will

look when Incorporated into
other programs.

Sprite time
When the program first loads
you are presented with a predefined screen wilh pictures of
a kung fu fighter and the
Animator logo In the lop lefthand corner of the screen Is the
sprite window in which, not sur_ y, you draw your sprites,
iext to this In Ihe middle of the
s c r e e n is the m a g n i f y i n g
window which gives a magnified view of the area Immediately surrounding Ihe drawing
cursor. Having both Ihe magnified and real-size versions of the
sprite on view at the same time
is a useful idea as It saves
s w i t c h i n g back a n d forth
between different magnification modes as many utilities
require you to do.
The size ot the sprite window
can be defined according to
your requirements, up lo Ihe full
size of the screen though the

. ..ft:

86

!W
larger Ihe sprite, the lewer the
number that can be held In
memory. When the program
loads Ihe sprite window is set al
sixty four pixells wide by ninety
six high and up to seventeen of
these can be stored in memory.
The magnify window can be
moved around Ihe screen or
switched olf all together If you
want to draw on a part of the
screen that It normally occupies. If you wish, the sprite
window can be done away
with, allowing you to draw
screen pictures as other ulillltes
da
The program shares many
features that are now standard
in such utilities; elastic and
fixed line drawing, circles, and

attributes you just select the

relevent numbered key and
press the attributes key (X), or
the key relating lo whatever
part of your picture that needs
to be scrolled.
The circle command is also
well implemented. Instead of
choosing the centre point and
then moving the cursor to the
radius. Animator 1 places a set
of cross hairs on the screen
which Indicate the position and
size of the circle before it is
drawn. The cross hairs can be
moved around the screen and
adjusted to change the size of
the circle a better method
than I've seen used by any
other graphics program.
Once you've designed your
sprites you can FETCH them one
al a time to the screen, or there
Is an ANIMATE option that allows
you lo animate any combination of sprites at varying
speed. The magnifying window
remains functioning while this
happens so you can have a
close look at individual sprites,
and there Is a frame counter
that gives a constant readout of
what point in Ihe animation
sequence you have reached.
This allows you to inspect each
sequence in detail and make
any changes necessary before
SAVING the sprites lor future use.

Print Mode

a variety ot pen sizes and brush

patterns.
It's a mistake lo compare
Animator 1 to programs like The
Art Studio because as an allround screen designer it's not In
Ihe same league Much of the
memory that could be used by
drawing routines is given aver to
sprite storage and animation so
there are no lancy Cut and
Paste routines and only a lew
simple shape drawing routines.
But, as a dedicated sprite
designer It's very good indeed,
and there are a number ol
commands which allow you to
manipulate areas ot the screen
that would be unnecessary In a
conventional graphics program. but which could be very
useful for Instance, tor someone
attempting to design a series ot
sprites tor an animation
sequence in a game.
These commands allow you
lo rotate, reflect and scroll either
Ihe whole screen, the attributes
alone, pixells alone or to
expand and contract the
screen (this turned out to be a
surprisingly useful laclllty which
produced some Interesting
ellects,
especially
when
making dumps to a printer and
there's an example of this using
screen dumps of Ihe Camelot
design supplied on Ihe Animator tape).
The control of these commands Is cleverly done: Ihe
scroll and rotate keys are along
Ihe top (numbered) row, and
Ihe choice of attributes, pixells
and so on Is controlled by the
bottom row, so to scroll the

Animator 1 has some excellent commands for handling

text. You can enler a string ot up
to eighty characters, and using
the top row ot keys this can be
moved around the screen (keys
5-8) or distorted by expanding,
contracting or altering the
spacing between letter (keys

w. .
\

SPRijc
UINDOU

ir

K t t IK

tttlTC

ii>h is j f l Ti

Tnt

11 Htfr M

ANIMATOR!
1-1 ' . U - U
iC i

*' M f ( i 1' >:! T< .

r~ i " t = 4 ~ r

f i r r : p n =.

1-3). When these commands

are used together they allow
you an enormous number of
ways of manipulating text.
My only real criticisms of
Animator 1 concern certain
aspects of its ease of use The
manual, in its present lorm, is
simply not very well written. It
seems to have been written by
someone who already knows
iusl what the program is
capable of and doesn't really
3 down to the most basic level
at the first time user starts from.
It took me a long time ol hitand-miss experimentation with
the controls and Ihe various pull
down menus to achieve any
sort of familiarity with the
program's capabilities (though
once 1 had done lhat I lound
myself enjoying using the
program).
One or two ol the menus
also get a bit tedious to use, as

they lead you on through a

series of sub menus that quite
often may not be needed,
though you still have to plough
through them before getting
back Into drawing mode. The
menu for loading SCREENSs into
the program only allows you to
do so If you enler Ihe name ol
the screen you can't tell il to
just toad the tirst screen that it
comes to on a tape (ie LOAD""
SCREENSs), which is Inconvenient though not a major
drawback.
Still, with one or two reservations about the manual. I
nonetheless found Animator 1 a
uselut and quite enjoyable
utility. As 1 said. It's not the worlds
greatest all-round graphics
program, but with its animation,
rotation/reflection and other
(unctions, it is one of the best
programs specifically for
designing animated graphics

l*

THE SPRITE "THE

MAGNIFY
U I N D O U
UINDOU

THE

ULTIHFiTE QRHPHrC
FOR PROGRAMMERS

DEUELuPHEUT
riNO
ARTISTS

TOOL

87

a AVOID THE MONSTER RUSH FOR

THE NEW
GEcniny

\ W
%%

V \

\
V \
%

\ *
\ ,
%^

V>J

\ \\ \\ \ \ "

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

15.00 for 12 Issues U.K.

18.00 for 12 issues Overseas Surface Mail
61.20 for 12 issues Overseas Airmail
Send this form w i t h your remittance to:
INF0NET LTD., Times House. 179 The Marlou es,
HemeI Hempstead. Herts. HPI IHH.

ARENA

Folfowing the recent death in

combat pf the previous champion
you have been selected to
represent England in the Arena,
the 21st Century's warground.
Have you the skill and application
to prove yourself a champion?

Available for:
SPECTRUM 48K
AMSTRAD

9.95

i t cw

i ..

Please send me Arena (9.95 inc P&P) for ihe

Spectrum
Amstrad
I enclose a cheque/postal order (or

made payable to Argus Press Software.

Name
Address

Post to:
Argus Press Soltware. Units 1 & 2. Conton Developments, Watory Lane. Darwen, Lanes BB3 2ET
L O T H L O H I E N , L I B E R T Y H O U S E . 222 R E G E N T S T R E E T . L O N D O N W l f l 7 D B .

CRL

9.95
'How\d you do, I
See you've met my
Faithful handyman.
He's just a little brought
down because
When you knocked
He thought you were the
candyman'
Actually II was just Brad and
Janet Ihe all-Amerlcan bores,
who dropped by to play The
Rocky Horror Show computer
game Based on the stage play
r a t h e r t h a n the l i l m a n d
approved by Richard O'Brien,
the show's creator, this version
ot the game Irom CRL was the
very first game lor the Spectrum
128 to arrive In our offices. It's
very similar to the original 48K
version In which either Brad or
Janet is turned to stone by Frank
N. Furter's Medusa machine
and the other half of this happy
couple has to seek out all the
pieces of the De-Medusa
machine which are scattered
around the house.
You can choose to play
either Brad or Janet and as you
wander around the house you
can collect keys to all sorts of
unwholesome and strange
rooms, not to mention weird
c h a r a c t e r s like R i f f - R a f f ,
Magenta. Fast Eddie and Rocky
himsell. Magenta has the rather
disturbing habit of ripping your
clothes off when she bumps Into

you. and this prevents you from

colleding any pieces ol the DeMedusa until you've found Ihem
again. Rift-Raff Is a litlle more
conventional he just raps you
with his pitchfork, while Eddie
will try and run you down with
his motorbike
The Inside of Frank's home Is
rather chic, with long staircases*
old-fashioned cage lifts, four
poster beds and so on, all
drawn In fine detail. The game
Itself Is more or less Identical to
the 48K version and the number
of screens Is the same, though
a couple of bugs that were
resent in the original seem to
ave been cleared up. The
addlllons are the special effects
screen at the end. In which the
house takes off. and (drum roll
please) the muslcl Al long last
Sir Cllve has put a decent
sound chip Into the Spectrum
and rather than the usual
feeble BEEPs this game is
accompanied by a threechannel rendition of The Time
Warp'. This Is a 'funked up'
version of the song, also
approved by Richard O'Brien,
and hearing sounds like thai
coming Irom a Spectrum was
quite an eye opener (ear
opener?) and we've had the
game running In the office Just
lo provide a bit of background
music Obviously It's early days
for the 128, but If this Is an
example of the sort of sounds it
can create then we've got lots
to look forward to

a n n m j j

90

We'll take you beyond

theS
QUICKS HOT II AUTO RAPID-FIRE

SPECTRUM

JOYSTICK

INTERFACE

Four great new addons from Ram, Number One in everything for the
Spectrum...

Please send me

Spectrum Turbo interfaces} at 22.95.

TURBO INTERFACE

Quickshot II Joysticks) at 9.95.

Outperforms any other Spectrum interface. Supports Kempston,

Protek, Interface 2 and ROM cartridge software, with a full expansion bus at
the rear. The Turbo works with two standard joysticks, making the most of the
Quickshot ll's rapid-fire action. Features a unique built-in power safety
device. Amazing value at 22.95.

Spectrum Interfaces) at 9.95.

+1 per order P+P(3 Overseas) TOTAL

QUICKSHOT II AUTO RAPID-FIRE

I enclose cheque/postal order charge my Access/Visa

JOYSTICK

The top games joystick with its sleek trigger fire but ton and an auto-fire
switch for continuous shooting - a snip at only 9.95.

SPECTRUM INTERFACE
This Kempston-compatible interface adds real games power to your
Spectrum. Costs just 9.95.

SPECTRUM UPGRADE KIT

Boost your 16K Spectrum to a full 48K. allowing you to run all the latest
and greatest software. Only 21.95
Where can you get your hands on Ram's amazing Spectrum add ons?
You can see them at branches of Boots, Menzies, Greens, Spectrum Group
computer centres, and good computer stores everywhere.

Spectrum Upgrade Krt(s) at 21.95.

(Please itate asoe 2 or 3 O)

Kim i i i

Expiry Date

r m
/

Name
Address

Postcode
Telephone
24 Hour despatch tor cred* cards and postal orders (7 daystorcheques)
Al products are tuly compatible with the Spectrum, Spectrum +
and Sncta* Mcrodrives

Ram Electronics (Fleet) Ltd

(Dopt ZX). 106 Fleet Road,
Ram Electronics (Fleet) Ltd (Dept ZX). 106 Fleet Road, Fleet. Hampshire GU138PA Fleet. Hampshire GU13 SPA
Credit Card hoi line: 02514 25252. (Access A Visa).
tade and Export enqunes wefcome

DYNAMITE!
r

* . ' ^ V

V-.
>

1
o

// / *
/ / M i l l

/h /

HOf

Ivan the Crusader's

epic quest to end
Rasputin's evil reign
puts this isometric
multi room arcade
adventure m a world of
its Own.

rureoow)

km

I F

The evil Ores ravage

the land of Belom-yc
control t n l only
characters who tan
save It Stunning
landscapes plus
intngiilngadventuroli
*Ventufftscope!.

grry the garm

Crazy multi-screen
adventure-failed
Germ Gerry proves his
worth by laying waste
tohis victim's bodyuntilhe reaches the
heart...

Ted's Great Summer

Blow-Out- over 40
whacky screens as he
tries toavold
sunstroke, drinks like a
fish and blows all his
hard-earned money!'

Four great, sizzling games from Firebird - the all-new Hot

Range. Available forthe Spectrum, Commodore 64 and
Amstrad - see them at all good computer stores now!

f t
Fillisinosof T
niiisinosof
TW
MA
UP
)E
E
fVj i m i i n o r , t w a w g c t * B K t M i i : E C 7 / v

,CA''A*.n

wELUtaTONHOUSf

u P Kl *f tSS IT WAHTM
WAMTM S LLAJN E LONDON W H tOL
U

Clyde Bish explores the

limits of streamlined
memory use in the first
part of a new series
lands up those who remember
the 1K ZX 81? "Only 1K!?" I hear
those new to the computer
fraternity exclaim. "What on
earth could you do with only 1K
of memory?". The answer is quite
a lot If you know how to make
the most of the bytes available.
(Someone even managed to
write a chess program in only
1K!)
The 48K Spectrum has about
41K of available RAM for your
use, but even this gets used up
more quickly than you might
think in adventures, databases
and elaborate games programs.
The purpose of this series is to
demonstrate various ways of
saving memory to enable you to
pack the computer equivalent of
a quart into a pint pot.

Numbers
Let's make a start with those
great byte-wasters, numbers You
might think that to hold the
number .134 in memory would
lake up just three bytes, one for
each digit, but it doesn't. Type in
this short program then press
ENTER:
10 LET a = .134 : LET p = PEEK
23635 + 256 x PEEK 23636 :
FOR f = p TO p + 17 : PRINT f,
PEEK f : NEXT f
Now RUN and you'll see
displayed two columns of
numbers. The left hand one
shows the memory spaces you
have used. Opposite each of
these Is a number which Is the
code of the character held in
each ol these bytes. The lirst
eleven ol these are the line
number and codes for the
beginning ol your program (LET
a = 134). You'll see that six other
numbers loltow the code lor 4
(52) before you come to the 58,
which is the code for the colon
you typed In. The first of these is
14. This is the code for the
number character see
Appendix A in your manual
and is followed by five other
numbers. These represent your
number 134 in binary. This is the
number system your computer
actually uses when it runs your
program. (If only displays
number in decimal for Ihe sake
of us 10-dlgil humans!)
What this means is that storing
numbers In a program takes up
six more memory spaces than
would first appear.

A few tricks
So, numbers are great bytewasters. Bul who needs then any-

way? Here are some tricks which

avoid the use of numbers. Each
example is followed by a
bracket showing; (number of
bytes used/number that would
be used if an actual number
had been included).
The numbers 0, 1 and 3 can
be replaced by functions. So,
zero can be replaced by; NOT
PI (2/7) because NOT with any
value equals zero (and the value
ol PI. 3.142 etc is built into the
machine's ROM). In a similar way
the value 1 can be replaced by
SGN PI (2/7) as Ihe SIGN ol any
positive value equals 1. and 3
can be replaced by INT PI (2/7)
as the INTeger of a number
removes any digits after the
decimal point.
Other numbers can be produced in a variety ol ways. II
you have already declared a
variable, lor example by having
a statement such as 10 LET L =
SGN PI you can use this value,
and subsequent ones to declare
others. For example:
20 LET z = L + L
30 LET f = 2 + 2 (22)
in place of
20 LET 2 = 2
30 LET f = 4 (30)
VAL, the function which
eVALuates a string, can also be
used. For example, 10 LET 2 =
VAL " 2 " (12/15) again makes z
equal to 2. The VAL trick can be
used for any number but there
are other tricks which can be
used for certain numbers which
save even more bytes. For
numbers Irom 32 lo 255 the
CODE function can be used. For
example, 10 LET s = CODE " "
makes s equal to 32, the CODE
of the character space. Similarly,
20 LET x = CODE " COPY "
makes x equal to 255. but there's
a problem; COPY is a keyword,
but the quotes after CODE leave
an L cursor, and you need a K.
This is how you need to enter
that line (ignore the I signs
they are just there as spacers);
2ZO/LET/x/=/CODE (in E
Mode)/"/THEN/COPY/"
Now cursor lelt. delete the THEN,
and there you are!

Big numbers
One linal trick for large numbers
is to use VAL but with the E-form
of the number. So, 10 LET t =
VAL ' 1 E 6 " makes t equal to
1,000,000 (ie. 1 Extended by six
zeros) and take up six bytes less
than VAL "1000000" (and seven
bytes less than simply using the
number value 1000000).

It might not seem that you're

saving much memory, after all,
what's a few bytes out of 41K? But
it is a lot, when you add them
all up. Remember, "Look alter
the bytes, and the K's will look
alter themselves". A Iriend.
writing a number crunching
spread sheet-type program used
these tricks and saved 2 ' M on a
12K listing!
But this isn't the end of the
story. You can save even more
space with numbers (and other
types of variables) if you don't
intend to change them while the
program is running (or don't
mind if they are changed).
When you RUN a program, any
variables you set are added to
what is known as 'Ihe variables
area". This makes them immediately available for the program
to use. This means that you hove
them stored twice, once in the
program area, and again in the
variables. Why not just store them
in the variables area (known as
VARS for short.)? Try this. Type in
LET a = 10 with no line number,
and press ENTER. "O.K." says the
computer. Now type in PRINT a
and press ENTER, the number 10
appears on screen. Although
you don't hold II within your
program you haven't got a
program! the machine knows
the value of a because it's held
in VARS.
You can prove this by typing in
a program similar to the one
given earlier, replacing Ihe PEEK
values with 23627/8 and missing
out the LET a =.134 - the
machine already knows whal a
is! Start your program with GOTO
1. not RUN I'll explain why in a
moment. You should be able to
lind the code lor a. followed by
fhe representation ot 10 in five
digits.
You must not use RUN wilh
programs where the variables
are only held in VARS because
RUN clears the VARS area, and
so goodbye to your information!
The golden rule is SAVE such a
program with a line number so
that if autostarts (and remember
to use GOTO il you BREAK!).
Finally for this month, declare
a variable lor a number if you
intend to use that number more
than once in a program, and
remember that single letters are
much less wasteful than variable
names.

Next mpnth I'll turn my alienlion to the more literary and

colourful side of program
writing Happy savings!

93

TO ADVERTISE YOUR REPAIRS AND

SPARES SERVICE PHONE STUART TAYLOR
01-437 0699
REPAIRS
SPECTRUM REPAIRS

Spectrum ropairt C1B 95 inc

parts, insurance and p p

OL repairs - phone (or details

Send your computer with cheque or
P O tor E t 8 9S and description ol fault

SUREDATA (ZX).

Computer Service
45 Wychwood Avenue, Edgcware,
Middi. Tel: 01-951 0124
PL53

SINCLAIR
COMPUTER REPAIRS
All machines despatched within 72
hours ol recoipt
Spectrum 17.00 ZX-81 12.50
Spectrum IB to 46K upgrade 25.00
(inc. parts. VAT and return poslngo)
For a fast and reliable service, send
machine, brict description ot fault and
choque or postal order lo the experts.

Capital Computer Services,

Unit K2. CardiM Workshops. Lewis Rd,

East Moors. Cardiff C F 1 5EO.
Tel: (0222) 461001

INTERCONTINENTAL
SPECTRUM REPAIRS

Spectrum. Plus
Spectrum keyboard fault
Ram U pgr odes
Spectrum dust covers
OL dust covers
interlace t
inter loco 2
Upgrade
to 48k

CI 9 95
CI200
C2500
CI 95
E2 96
CI 7 50
CI200
C3000

Price including parts, p&p.

pend unit A cheque PO to:

P.E.A.K. E L E C T R O N I C S ,

32 Clilton Avenue. Hartlepool.

Cleveland T S 2 6 SON. Tel (0429) 272739

Overseas please add C3 50 p&p

POOLS

FREEPOST
SPECTRUM REPAIRS

SINCLAIR R E P A I R S
Now low fixed prices Just look at these
Spectrum/Plus
17.00
Mocrodrive
18.00
interface 1
18.00
Interface 2
12.00
ZX Printer
15.00
Special winter orter 16-48K only 24.00.
Please enclose brief description ol fault
and 1 80 p i p lor each item sent lo Micro-Mend. Main St. Farcet.
Peterborough P E 7 3 0 B
Tel: (0733) 24171B.

Guaranteed Six Months

We have been maintaining alt types of computer systems from
mainframes to micros for over 15 years and offer you:
Full overhaul and update with each repair
Six months warranty on whole computer
not only the
repair done
24hr turnaround on most faults - including soak test
Returned to you by first class post fully insured
Freepost - we pay the postage both ways
All inclusive price for any fault 20
MP E L E C T R O N I C S , F R E E P O S T ,

SINCLAIR SERVICE
CENTRE

D E R E H A M , N O R F O L K NR19 2BR Z

Fast repair service lor Spcctrui'

Interface 1 and microdrivc Ai' units
repaired to original standarj by our
H N C qualilied staff Avorage repair
COSl 15 but tor freo cstimalesendyour
machine with 1 95 (return postage)
with a briel description ot fault T u r n around appro* 24hrs
Established
international Service Our work i$ fully
guaranteed Personal callers welcome

Tel: 036287 327

TO F I L L
THIS
SPACE
RING
STUART
TAYLOR

QUANTUM

33 City Arcade, Coventry CV1 3HX

or phone (0203) 24632or (0203) 714080

S C O T L A N D ' S No 1
For home and personal computer repairs
Specially last Spectrum service!
Samo (Jay for moif fauffs
I hour 11 Mn/omd
ptttonilly
Open 6 days a week
free esfimafos
UpgridPf Uvnbitnm
and P.S.U i
j m f f i . warranty on work done
Also 8BCiCBM/ORIC and P E R I P H E R A L S

SPECTRUM

REPAIRS

We expertly repair Spectrums

for 17 inclusive of parts and
labour and return postage.
Spectrums upgraded to 48K for
34 inc. P&P. All keyboard
faults cost only CI2

MICRO-SERV
95 Deerdykes View
Westrield Industrial Area.
Cumbernauld G68 9HN
Scotland
Tel; Cumbernauld (02367) 37110
Trade, schools and club discount given

R. A. Electronic*,
133 London Road South,
Lowestoft, Suffolk.
Tot: (0502) 66289.

POOLS PREDICTION

Perfected over 6 seasons OutPuls boat

draws, homos & aways Holds form
comparison graph) Analyses & graphs
results T*kes tult account ot mid woek
amos & "Cup" matches between main
jague teams Promotion' regulation
option (can be used from season to
season.) Easy to use oven tor beginners
57 wins (356 dividends) received by author
so fat.
"The best and most scientific ol any
program I have seen' - Mr R A P Secretary
Orpington Computer Dub Once again,
ihank you tor one of the best investments I
hve made
M r D L B F c i i h a m I would
tike to congratulate you On your (ncellcnt
service It is a rare thing these days" - Mr
L O P Shrewsbury "I found your program
very professional and user Inendly. I am
very satutiod with it" - Mr B O Spalding
Ask for British Pools
C11.95
Australian Poots
11.95
Allow 7 days lor delivery Cheques. POs
payable lo R O M B E S T or quote ACCESS
card number

Available for 48K SPECTRUM 6

COMMODORE 64 Add 2 tor Sinclair
microdrive or 1541 disk

FOR S A L E
SPECTRUM 48K and ZX-01 16K
Morse R T T Y and SSTV, RX, TX.
PGM's Output radio into earsocket
Spectrum or ZX-81 tnlo. Jerry
Hollhaus. Imstraat 73. 4542 ED
Hoek. Netherlands. Phone: 01154
1591

COMPUTER REPAIRS

We at Ihe ecptrb. bating serviced Smbr anpufcrt

sncel*rtreOuctwtil tV ZX80
Dor! m&St money cn tUnuta - wt repw Snow
anttfers al pin quoW itaclfl[kirts. Ubour,
potto*. VAT, ntspocb* & taut NofwMmtturjKi
Repairs guaranteed lor 3 months.
l875nc parts
Spectun
ZX81
[1150 inc parts
iSWLm
S99SmC(arts
Mx/odriw
1J9Jrc ports
Herfmi-ll.
CIS 75 mc parts
ate
BSC
C2C0 + parts
WKn
E139S t parts
WUenwyEjjJMratfct
[15%
Covpvtrrflrtnkrjpleas? phone
taSpxu/rmitftKt
CM v send wltdwme or 9 0
T.V. Sottas of Cantlimigm
French's Road. 0>~t"irfet3W
let OC7Z3 311371

ACCESSORIES

ROMEST OEPT ZX
2 Wetland Croft, Biccsler. Oion
OXS SCO Tel: (0869) 248007

SPECTRUM REPAIRS
14,95 inclusive ol labour parts ,ind pftp.
Fast, roliablo service by qualified en g..
avorage repair 24hr 3months guarantee For holp or advice ring
H. S. Computer Services. Unit 2.
T h e Orchard. Warton, Praslon,
Lancashire PR 4 I BE. Tel: (0772) 832686.

SPECTRUM

RGB

OUTPUT
MODULE
adopt electronic/

BOOKS

T r u o T T L / A n a l o g u o o u t p u t s * camp s y n c s
M o n i t o r q u a l i t y p l c t u r o s - n o dot c r a w l .
Sulto R O B monitors & monitor/ T V s
Simply plugs Into o x p a n s l o n port.
No s e p a r a t e p o w e r s u p p l y r o q u l r o d .
Now through porl v a r s f o n . A l l o w s connocllon
ol modoms. J o y - s t i c k lalerlacea olc.
P r l c o C 3 4 . 9 6 or C 3 6 . 9 5 ( t h r o u g h p o r t ) C I P 8 P
many a d d o n s p a r l s & a o l t w a r o S A E l o r d u t o l l s
20 S T A R L I N G C L O S E , B U C K H U R S T H I L L ,
E S S E X . 109 6 1 1
Tol. 0 1 - 5 0 4 - 2 8 4 0

ZX COMPUTING
MONTHLY
WELCOMES I T S
CLASSIFIED
ADVERTISERS TO
T H E NEW S T Y L E
ISSUE

GAMES

h^dJ^oml
r

,
ii I 1 Ini'
w
' POOTERPUZZLER 1-C295
ton I M - Swfl i

. flWMWi tCC NO
S 30-381-7909

24 PARSLOES
AVENUE
DAGENHAM
RM9 5NX

EmKein

We use only
10% of our
mental
potentials

Theee aie Ihe wydi o* Albert Dntfein.

th* grealret ety not! or recent limn
L Ben Hubbsrd diteoverlet In the
IM ol Vie mind prove loday thai Tintieln
n right.
m his book "OtAhETICS: Tike WoOern
Soence ot MerUI HeearT L Hon Hubbrd uhei one more giant Kep in rN
direcOon.
He itvu'f no>" enrwie cen uie his discoveries to Hotel* me eiect barriers mat
h K lr pi Mined people from using
Iheir menul cotantuli ro Ihe lut.
Mof* end yi people from *H lii>
ot we use DU/MUCS itennotogy looey.
The mtir/ wrinfi report! on rrwi uc! l ire tie beat prool Ol the quC.ty ol
Bui book.

Find our for vourteH Oder your copy

of thu remi'hebie booh toOey.
Price C3 95 pepefbetk C17.50 hitriJbeck kUh< cneouei end POi pejebie 10
3 H F. Send lo Crwrth ol Sctruboy
Sum HSI Foundation. FHEEPOST riYC 1)
tti Qi'iitHd. Sus< RHt
(no
a<np required)

ZX COMPUTING
Lineage:

40p per word.

01 - 437 0699

f \ ^

S e m i d i s p l a y : 9 . 0 0 per single column cenlimelre. Ring

for information on s e r i e s bookings/discounts.

Send your requirements to:

STUART TAYLOR
ASP Ltd., 1 Golden Square,
London W1

All advertisements in this section must be prepaid.

Advertisements are accepted subject to the terms and conditions
printed on the advertisement rate card (available on request).

UTILITIES

SPECTRUM TAPE AND DRIVE

TRANSFER UTILITIES
A L L S P E C T R U M owners nood T C 7 our specialist tapo utility. Send S A E lor F U L L
D E T A I L S of Ihis amazing and widely used program

SOFTWARE

Integral header render

* includes B A U D R A T E (spood) monsursr

can save high spood/|orky parts in "normal" form (or D R I V E Ironsfer
* so many oxtru features wo can't possibly list them here Just try it and soo. As the
market loador we can't attord to let you down
C O S T only 6.50 (or 9.99 on cartridge with M T 6 a special m/drtve program
7.SO wllh M T 6 on tape)

TAPE TO DRIVE TRANSFER OF RECENT

PROGRAMS
Yos S P E C T R U M ownors now havoa L O W C O S T way ol Iranlorring many ot oven
Ihe L A T E S T high speed/Jerky programs to tholr drives Vou will be n n w o d ' Other
methods are cpensive or very limited
Firslly you need our MD1b(for m-dnvo) or WD16 (for Watft/or Disc drive They give
you Iho loots to convert programs so mat they will run on your drive. Includos
ability lo cope with v.long programs, can spilt/chop bytos in ono go."VAL' creator.
REMkill, make Visiblo, etc otc F U L L manual (highly rated by C R A S H ) with
ox.implo transfers (also rtood T C 7 tor latest programs) M D 1 b o r W D 1 b c o s t 6 . 9 9
"Manages more programs" Your Spoctrum. ( T C 7 also needed for latest
programs)

WD Software
F O R T H E QL:

JOSS

base 13

Forget that tedious, time-consuming syn laii Jusl move Ihe cursor and press 5PACE lor all
your lile commands Cursor keys or your joystick al low you to access mcrodrrvea (up to 8)
and floppy discs (as many a* our micrlace allow*) with up lo 150 Meson each' Scroll and
print directories. COPY. D E L E T E ot P R I N T any hie. street TV of Monitor mode before
LOADing or RUNnmg any program You only uso the keyooard to set Iho DATE or label a
device When FORMA Tung Easy la u w w>lh PSMXI and oMHf software No ully icon* lo
learn - J O S S will T E L L you what it * going to do' Programmer'* toolkit and mass copying/
printing utilities also supplied Specify microdrive-only. Microperiphoral o CSTcompalible disc versions

Ret Q L 7

bate 7

1300 useful OL references with ARCHIVE 7 tearch/prinl program Too long for ju*t one
cartridge so it you have RelOLS lust pay 2 and extra media cost lo update

Mdv Extension Cable

5.50

Eight inches long. allow* addit ion ot enlra microdnves to your QL Twist it to put their slots
lacing you

F O R T H E OL: S P E C T R U M ; B B C ; E L E C T R O N
W D Morse T u t o r

base 4

FOR T H E SPECTRUM:
WorDlinder (Microdrive/disc only)

base 8

Written io teach amateurs, now used by professionals too' Absolute beginner, or

slretching your speed to IB wpm. you won't tmd anything with more helpful features What
else can offer 100 random sentences as well as all the banc**' D>*c version unsuitable for
BBC B -

For CHEATING at crossword* Find* m-ts-ng letter*, solves, anagrms 13.000 word
vocabulary, to loo long 10 lttaie a cartridge 10-letlor word ending m A T E 7 No problem

Tradewfnd

base 3

Jersey Quest

base 3

Sailing,Trading strategy game with graphic surpnset

T o i l adventure in time Background ol Jersey folklore Irom Stone Age lo Bergerac

LERM INFORMATION SHEETS

Each sheet gives you the D E T A I L E D instructions required to transfer 8 of the more
P O P U L A R programs todnvousinooursoflware Thoycosl1 e a c h plus SAE. Up to
sfieot S available
T R A N S F E R PACK - T C 7 - M T 6 - M 0 1 b on C A R T R I O G E Information sheet* 1-3
alt for 15.30 (other drive owner* gel program* on tape sheet* for tame price with
Wo 1 b replacing MOIb).

For export:

OL hardware and software Irom many sources Ask for list/quotation

O R D E R I N G ADD C O S T OF MEDIUM. P O S T A G E 1 O U T S I D E E U R O P E .
Mdv or 5.25" floppy 2 3.5" floppy 4 Cassette 0

Payment
By ACCESS/Eurocard. MasterCard or S T E R L I N G (UK bank cheques. Eurocheques, drain
or International GIRO) To

WO Soffwaro (ZX), Hilltop. SI. Mary, Jorsery, C.l. tel: (0534) 81392

U P D A T E S E R V I C E : tor latest version on your L E R M product send old tape * large

S A E to get a C2 R E D U C T I O N O V E R S E A S : add 1 Europe, C2 others lor each
product S A E lor enquiries
A L L P R O G R A M S C A R R Y O U R MONEY B A C K G U A R A N T E E (not update*)
L E R M . D E P T ZX, 10 B R U N S W I C K G D N S , C O R B Y . N O R T H A N T S . NN1B 9 E R .

MAKE RACING PAY!

W I T H T H E BRIMARDON FORMULA.

SOFTWARE

FIVEDICE (48K S P E C T R U M ) - a
great version ol a popular dice
game, using well known playing
card hands Only C4 99 + 50p p/p
Send Cheque/PO to; Replay Software, Dept Z,8 Stevenage Rd. East
Ham, London E6 2AX.

SENSATIONAL postal software

bargains lor Amstrad, Atari, BBC,
Commodore (all formats),
Electron, Spectrum For (ree list
send a SAE or phone Telelex
Cleckheaton 0274 875299 28
Brooklyn Court. Bradford Road.
Cleckheaton, W Vorks.

ADVENTURES UNITE TO SAVE

T H E WORLD! The Time of the
End" is here, an expertly written
science lantasy adventure lor the
48K Spectrum Imaginative plot,
realistic atmosphere, humour and
intriguing problems. Acclaimed as
excellent value by top adventurers
C380 from Mandarin Adventures.
14 Langlon Close. Woking, Surrey
GU21 3QJ.

ZX81 1K/16K quality software'

B A S I C course, and AZU.C
ZX81 users club. For details, send
SAE to ACV. I Fox well Sq Northampton NN3 5AT, England.

A R E T U R N OF 180
Mr. J.G. (Prutwlck)

A T L A S T , a top class and profitable programme for anyone interested

in racing Much specialised racing knowledge incorporated giving
maximum winning potential. T h i s easy to use programme is suitablo lor
computer expert & novice alike and no racing knowledge is necessary
to uso it 1985 flat season yielded a 40% prolit (after tax) Winnors at
20-1,12-1,11-2 etc. Excellent
Value for money.

g u n Enquiries for this and other

P ^ ^ b racing software to;

t.

RACING L E A G U E

If you think mat computer games are

moslfy variations on the same old
I Hemes then join ihe tamous personalities
in ino RACING LEAGUE 1 Thi* relrvshmg
simulation game is for one to four
player* Feature* include buying and
selling ol horses, betting, tockeys. loan*,
racing sequence etc A* in real hie you
will need skill and luck lo succeed Can
you become Top Owner? A Save Ophon
keeps Ihe game going as long as you
like For *6K Speclrum and ^wctrum
Plus and only C3 50 post free (rom
fl.L Software. " Z X " 22 Llndale Carth,
Klrkhamgal*. Wakefield. West Yorkshire.
I
WF2 0HW.

BRIMARDON COMPUTER
RACING S E R V I C E
48 P I E R R E M O N T R O A D
* DARLINGTON DL3 6DH

DATABASE tOf ZX81 with Memopak 64 new structure Compact,

last. Ilexible. stores vast amounts
of data C5. Johs Lmd, Kirkegade
116. 6700 Esbierg. Denmark

TERROR. A GAME to give you

nightmares
Pure graphical
brilliance. Homfingly original 48K
Spectrum 4 Henderson. Kinnear.
Wormil. File. Scotland

By Peter Sweasey

Greetings trom Ihe dark dungeons! Step with me Into the

mysterious,, murky but always
exciting world ot adventuring.
I am kept down here In the
gloomy, damp and dripping
dungeons* al the bollom of Ihe
hideously evil Argus Press towers
with only a Spectrum and a few
lorge rats to keep me company
(thatS no rat. the Ed.-Asst. Ed.)
solely to tell you informed of
what s new in adventures. Some
loyal readers may remember
this was exactly my task for Ihe
late, and much lamented.
Home C o m p u t i n g Weekly.
When that publication met its
untimely demise, I looked
forward to being released Into
the sunlight after many years of
silicon slavery But was freedom
forthcoming? No way! A mysterious f i g u r e c a l l e d Bryan
brandishes a whip at me and
tells me to keep wrttlng lor this
new magazine More years of
cruel III treatment to come I
fear, and this editor is even
more savage . . . (shut up and
get on with It or it's back In Ihe
cold custard tor you-Ed,).
More on what Mindplay
offers. Each month, along with
full reviews of the latest adventures. there will be a helpline
service offered to readers. Just
fill in the form at the end of this
column II you need aid. I also
tike to join in the celebrations
when you complete a game
so if you feel particularly
chuffed having solved a tricky
adventure tell me about lit I like
to receive your solutions too
unfortunately I just don't have
the lime to complete every
adventure available! At the end
ol each column I will be listing
some ol the games a solution
would be particularly welcome
for, a n d I a m s u r e y o u
amazingly Intelligent readers
will be able to provide them.
Sq ever onwards The reviews
are all a bit old this month
there seems lo be a lack of
adventure software at the
moment, due to Ihe post Christmas lull, but before those a little
thought.

128 Implications
You will probably have read
elsewhere In this illustrious
journal lull details of Uncle Sir
Clive's newflsh) baby, but I felt
Ihe need to add something on
its exciting implications for
adventuring. No longer will we
have to endure excuses about
b r i e f text or d u l l / a b s e n t
graphics "because of memory

problems". Now we can have

our cake and eat It! All the
features the adventurer ever
dreamed about: Imagine
Adventure International style
graphics with Level 9 quality texf
now It's possible And large
vocabularies* with a fully understanding interpreter. The pure
text adventure tor the 128 could
approach the standard set by
Infocom on other machines*
At Ihe launch, some 128
versions ol 48K titles were promised: these Include Never
Ending Story, Secret of St. Brides,
Adrian Mole Return To Eden
(perhaps with decent
graphics?) and Robin Ol Sherlock to name but a few. There's
also talk ot an Improved Lord Of
The Rings, but not lor some time
But the most exciting new
product comes Irom Gilsoft.
and Is provisionally called The
Qulllusfrator. As the more Intel-

lectual omong you might have

guessed, this combines the ever
popular Quill and Illustrator,
and odds some other very Interesting facilities. Built-in will be
speedier graphics, a shape
function, RAM sove/load and,
best ol all, four word Input
recognition at last we can ail
put TIE ROPE TO TREE In our
adventures) With the extra
memory, Gilsoft reckon you
should bo able to have 250
locations with lull text and a
picture at each. And while
we're on the subloct of the Quill,
good news lor 48K owners a
text compressor is on the way,
sometime this year.
So, e x h l l e r a t l n g t i m e s
ahead. I hope to look at some
128 adventures, II. lhat Is. I
manage to gel my hands on
one of the machines. Maybe
the editor will throw one
through the dungeon grating?

Firebird 7.95
I first saw this last May, when
Games Workshop were marketing It. When they pulled out of
the soltware Industry, Firebird
bought the rights to the game,
and at last here It Is.
The first thing you notice Is lis
similarity to the classic Lords Of
Midnight. This Is largely due to
a technique called "Venture
scope", which produces a
similar slaggerlng number of
views to the system used in Midnight. But Runestone actually
improves on Midnight, which Is
one of the reasons it's so good.
The once beautilul land ol
Belorn is being destroyed:
hordes ol ores* controlled by
Kordomlr, the Dark One, have
been roaming around and
generally being rather nasty.
Your quesi Is to find the Runestone, which will give you the
power to destroy Kordomlr and
return Belorn to its nice old sell.
You control three different characters: Morval the warrior.
Ellador the elf and Greymarel
the wizard: there are also
various amiable folk ol the land
to help you. The game has over
2000 locations* 40 different char-

acters and Is played In real

time Within the quest are many
problems to be solved, plus
some wargomlng to defeat the
ores, and plenty ol treasure to
hunt.
The top half ot Ihe screen
contains the graphics, which
are generally very attractive
S i n c e the g a m e was first
released, these have been
Improved with more detail, and
like Ihe rest of the game they
are sllghlly faster. There are 8000
different views, all quite similar,
made ol trees, mountains,
various buildings, lakes and so
on. They all look rather cold
looking, since they are almost
entirety In blue.
Where Runestone differs from
the Midnight series Is In the
stylish, lengthy text which
appears: location descriptions
battles, conversations and
actions. The characters interact
wlfh each other, and wilh you,
in sllghlly random Hobblt style
Plus, your c o m m a n d s are
typed. The Interpreter Is good
a fairly large vocabulary, with
fast response and complex sentences allowed.

LlnJ

/rs^

TIME OF
THE END
C11udor t r t i v e
|>r r d i

trlt

c u n u o r

nri'ou.

north-

Mandarin Adventures
3.95

e r r u i " <>"

a n a

"

tOoi'Vu I

nerval
.

Wfl JHft|< l ,
r r

A tew flaws remain. There is

the daft character called
Skrlmnal who will appear from
time to time, steal what you are
carrying and grin. Getting If
bock is laborious. Also if The
computer does not understand
you, It prints '(your character)

W M

tf

scratches his head and

wonders what to do next', ralher
than say what it does not understand. But these are minor
points. Runestone Is simply
excellent: a high closs, polished
piece of software It comes in a
well designed square package

In contrast to Mlndshadaw's professionalism comes what can

only be called an amateur
adventure, not from America
but from my home town.
Woking. A series of cataclysmic
events Indicates the end of the
world but Ihey are in fact
being caused by evil aliens,
playing a demented game to
relieve the boredom of their
eternal lives. Taken to their
planet, you must save earth
from destruction.
Time Ol The End is an
imaginative hotch-potch of
ideas. Inspiration ranges from
Monty Python and Bob Dylan to
the ubiquitous HltchHiker's
G u i d e . At one p o i n t you
become a bird and fiy about:
at another you lose your body
and need to engage in deep
philosophy. There is also a
kindly alien called Kilroy. He
tried to warn earth of its destruction with his grafllti. but it was
misinterpreted!

complete with story book, map

and other information. It will
keep you going for some time,
and all for a very reasonable
ricel Congratulations to FlreIrd and The author, Alan
Davles. lor the very first Mindplay Monster Hltl

Description is atmospheric,
sometimes lengthy and above
average. There is a peculiar
offbeal wit laughs from ideas
rather than words. Where the
game falls down is in its limited
vocabulary; any game which
requires USE needs Improving.
This restrictive vocabulary
makes play feel linear, more an
etlort to find the right word than
solve puzzles. Sound is really
naff, particularly the death
march. The game presentation
I found rather unprofessional: a
redesigned font, and less long
pauses, garish colour and
beeping would have Improved
this.
Generally then, a cheap
(four pounds) and cheerful
adventure: not bad if you like
the idea and don't mind word
matching, but hardly competition lor Level 9.

i m
}

< V

<

urn
MINDSHADOW
Actlvlslon
9.95
I though) up an amazingly witty
comment about amnesia tor
this review, but I've torgotten
what II was! Tho reason tor lhat
(attempted) witticism Is that you
start this game not knowing
who or whore you are. or why
you are there The object ot the
game is to tlnd this Information,
which makes a change trom
searching tor tost princesses.
Mlndsnadow Is of American
origins. Indicated not only by
tho Idiosyncratic spelling (like
"marvelous") but In the extreme
professionalism and good
design. Whilst British adventures
are often Innovative they are
lust as often flawed, and forget
the needs ol the player. But. like
many American games, what
Mlndshadow lacks In Innovation. it makes up lor in quality.
For example on Ihe fape is a
short tutorial and this is by lar
the best introduction fo adventuring 1 have EVER seen. It even
guides the player through a

mpiete with
Its awn illustrations describing
almost every command you
could think of. The game
p r o p e r is e x t r e m e l y user
friendly, with on unusually wide
variety ot responses.
The graphics ore In an
unusual style, as you can see
Irom our screenshots. but are
above average and varied.
They can be slow to build up
but this is offset by the facility to
lump straight to a location
using a string of movement
commands. The puz2fes are
intelligent and logical, and
though Mlndshadow Is nothing
stunning it is entertaining and
worth looking at; it's good to see
some American software on Ihe
Spectrum, even at Ihis slightly
expensive price

v o l * : t ; i h d l-t i i u <
i
t> A d I V d t t i I i o r I t u l
. 6U
M V t
a
i h e i (
p i e c e
of

v i n e

L
This being my first issue no pleas
lor h e l p h a v e yel b e e n
dropped into my dungeon. So
I've picked some problems
which seem lo occur quite
frequently, in the hope thai they
may be of use fo any struggling
adventurers.
First, help tor the popular
game of the fun tilm Gremlins.
Keep getting snow ploughed?
You need equlpmenl Irom Ihe
petrol station pit. The gremlin in

M I N D P l ^

P L

the bedroom can be killed by

emptying the kitchen drawer,
but ll's a remote possibility.
Gremlins reproduce in water, so
a full swimming pool makes
little sense.
Even t h o u g h it's rather
ancient now. Fantasia Diamond
still proves popular. To go down
the trapdoor. HIT or BREAK It
several limes. Knock on the
brown door it helps. The sheet
ol music Is In a book In a chest
Take it to the violinist and ask
him lo play. Tell Ihe robot to
open the manhole, but make
sure It's fully powered first. Stuck

s t e e l

In the dark cellar? RUB GLASSI

One feature of Ventures,
HCW's adventure column, was
maze corner. I have never liked
mazes; they don't lesf ability, just
slow the player down, frustrate
or totally slop him. Once you
can solve one you can solve
Ihem all, so e x p e r i e n c e d
adventurers often don't like
them either. Maze comer simply
gave full solutions to mazes. To
those people who don't agree
with ihis idea, 1 would suggest
not reading the next two paragraphs. Maze Corner is hereby
reinstated!

Title:
I

Company:
Problem:

I can help solve:

Name:.
Address:.

98

Ml t .

Piinlnl m En]li(lliv Aljl) t .lri Pi'dmxt ft Son-. ltd Lcnki ,ut MflHu>r*>

N
Slarting then with Wllch's
Cauldron. From the workshop:
OPEN DOOR. S, S, E, E. S. W. W.
S, E. N. where you will tlnd the
large key. then W. N. E. N to the
east door. In Ihe more recent
Mlndshadow. go north trom the
Quicksand sign, then E. N. E. E,
E, S, S, E, lo find another beach.
In Colossal Adventure you
might find your lamp dimming.
In which case you need to go
and drop the coins by tne
vending machine to hove your
b a t t e r i e s r e c h a r g e d The
machine Is In the maze ot twisty
funnels, all different; from the
entrance go S. CLIMB, E, and E.
To return, go N then up In Ihe
same game to find the orange
column In the maze ot alike
passages, go S, E, S, S, S, N, E,
Then, providing you have been
robbed, go E and NW lo the
pirate's chest.
Some Hulk hints. If you have
fatal ant attacks, block their
entrances plug your ears with
wax, close your eyes and hold
your nose. You'll need to be rid
ol the bees before you can take
the wax so wave the fan at
the holes you'll llnd outside the
s e c o n d dome, on c l o s e r
examination,
Remember, help is at hand
tor your adventure problems
just till in Ihe form, I usually give
a personal reply unless a vast
amount ol mall is received. Next
time expect to see a much
longer helpline In Mlndplay.
dealing with all the sticky situations Tarn sure you will send
Inl Finally. I'd like lo hear from
you If you have completed any
of the following: Motdon's Quest,
Lord Of The Rings, Worm In Paradise or any of the Mysterious
Adventures series.

 f ^ f .

5TARSTRIKLII

SPECTRUM
Cheques,

/ AMSTRAD

7.95

M a i l o r d e r o r A c c e s s t e l e p h o n e orders

P.O.s payable

to:

Tel: 0 5 3 2 4 5 8 9 4 8

Realtime Games Software Ltd., Prospect House, 32 Sovereign Street, Leeds LSI 4BJ

Send for product

list for:

Spectrum

C64

Amstrad

QL

THE OFFICIAL

For the first time the Football Association has fully endorsed a computer
football game. It is a realistic football simulation which lets you take
10 teams through the competition from the First Round.
Tony Williams, celebrated author of "League Club Directory" and "F.A. Non-League
Club Directory" has provided authentic up-to-date home and away form for a total
of 124 League and Non-League teams.
You must decide which tactics your teams use throughout the various matches and
you must make managerial decisions which may well effect the morale of your team
and subsequently the score! You may represent a local team, and if you are
lucky enough to receive the benefit of a "giant-killer" your team may even experience
^ dream cup run!
Above all, The Official F.A. Cup Football game comes up with realistic results
that's why the Football Association have given it their full approval!

Available for Spectrum 48K, Commodore 64 128 and Amstrad CPC 464 664 6128
Name....
Address
Spectrum 48K

Commodore 64/128
Amstrad CPC 464/664/6128
Tick appropriate Box
AD versions of F.A. Cup Football cost 7.95. Please make cheques and postal orders
to Virgin Games Limited and post to the address on this advertisement
Please do not post money.
Virgin Games Ltd, 2-4 Vernon Yard, 119 Portobello Road, London WU 2DX