A

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ternary 1984 75p

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ar gaming strategies Developing story-lines

Compressing graphics

LORDS OF TIME

Joins our range of acclaimed pure-text puzzle adventures, at £9.90, for: BBC 32K COMMODORE 64 SPECTRUM 48K LYNX 48K NASCOM 32k ORIC 48K ATARI 32K

ADVENTURE I REVIEWS

"Adventures which have a fast response time, are spectacular in the amount of detail and number of locations, and are available to cassette owners . . I am extremely impressed . . The Level 9 Adventures are superbly designed and programmed, the contents first rate. The implementa- tion of Colossal Cave (Adventure) is nothing short of brilliant; rush out and buy it. While you're at it, buy their others too. Simply smashing!"

-SOFT, Sept 83

"I found Dungeon exceedingly well planned and written, with a fast response. There are well over 200 locations and the descriptions are both lengthy and interesting. The objects number about 100. It could therefore take some months to explore the whole network, giving many hours of enjoyment in the process."

-C&VG, Sept 83

"The descriptions are so good that few players could fail to be ensnared by the realism of the mythical worlds where they are the hero or heroine . . great fun to play."

-Which Micro?, Aug 83

"My appetite has been whetted and I intend to get my own copy (of Snowball) to play."

-What Micro?, Dec 83

MIDDLE EARTH ADVENTURES

1: COLOSSAL ADVENTURE

A complete, full size version of the classic mainframe game "Adventure" with 70 bonus locations added.

2: ADVENTURE QUEST

Centuries have passed since the time of Colossal Adventure and evil armies have invaded The Land. The way is long and dangerous; but with cunning you can overcome all obstacles on the way to the Black Tower, source of their demonic power, and destroy it.

3: DUNGEON ADVENTURE

The trilogy is completed by this superb adventure, set in the Dungeons beneath the shattered Black Tower. A sense of humour is essential!

THE FIRST SILICON DREAM ADVENTURE

1: SNOWBALL

The first of Pete Austin's second trilogy. The giant colony starship, Snowball 9, has been sabotaged and is heading for the sun in this massive game with 7000 locations

ADVENTURE REVIEWS

"This has to be the bargain of the year. If adventures are your game then this (Colossal Adventure) is your adventure."

-HCW,5Sept83

"Colossal Adventure is simply superb. Anyone who wishes to use adventures in an educational setting really must use and see this program as it emulates Crowther and Wood's masterpiece so well. For those who wish to move onto another adventure of similar high quality, Dungeon Adventure is to be recommended. With more than 200 locations, 700 messages and 100 objects it will tease and delight!"

- Educational Computing, Nov 83

Colossal Adventure is included in Practical Computing's Top 10 games choice: "Poetic, moving and tough as hell."

- PC, Dec 83

"To sum up, Adventure Quest is a wonderful program, fast, exciting and challenging. If you like adventures then this one is for you"

-NILUG4t=1.3

"Colossal Adventure . . For once here's a program that lives up to its name . . a masterful feat. Thoroughly recommended" - Computer Choice, Dec 83

"wholly admirable"

- Your Computer, Sept 83

THE LORDS OF TIME SAGA

7: LORDS OF TIME

Our congratulations to Sue Gazzard for her super design for this new time travel adventure through the ages of world history. Chill to the Ice-age, go romin' with Caeser's legions, shed light on the Dark Ages etc. etc We'll be selling this game mail-order from January 1 st.

Price: £9.90 each (inclusive)

Level 9 adventures are available from good computer shops, or mail-order from us at no extra charge Please send order, or SAE for catalogue, to:

LEVEL 9 COMPUTING

Dept V, 229 Hughenden Road, High Wycombe, Bucks HP13 5PG

Please describe your Computer

Editor

Graham Cunningham

Assistant Editor

Carmel Anderson

Software Editor

Graham Taylor

jttaster 3bbenturers

Tony Bridge Mike Grace

Editorial Secretary

Cleo Cherry

Advertisement Manager

David Lake

Advertisement Executive

Simon Langston

Administration

Theresa Lacy

Managing Editor

Brendon Gore

Publishing Director

Jenny Ireland

Telephone number

(all departments) 01-437 4343

UK address Micro Adventurer, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 3LD

US address Micro Adventurer, c/o Business Press International, 205 East 42nd Street, New

York, NY 10017

Subscriptions

UK £10.00 for 12 issues, overseas surface (excluding US and Canada) £16 for 12 issues, US and Canada air-lifted US$33.95

for 12 issues.

Micro Adventurer is published monthly by Sunshine Books, Scot Press Ltd. Typesetting by In-Step Ltd, 77 Farringdon Road, London EC1. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd, Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Distributed by SM Distribution, London SW9 (telephone 01-274 8611, lelex: 261643). ISSN 0265-4156. Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper. © Sunshine Books 1984.

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Letters

4 Two war games examined 28

Your opinions on adventures, a place to turn to for help, and some advice from fellow adventurers

Ron Stewart studies two popular war games and offers advice to the budding general or admiral

News 8

Two educational games from Shards and Hewson's tell how Frazer Hubbard solved their Quest Adventure in record time

Turning a fantasy into code 31

Andrew Pepper explains how an adventure game is converted into code by using a special database which in turn makes the working program relatively easy (front cover illustration by Stuart Hughes)

Your Adventures 34

Readers' programs this month include Castaway, a game for the ZX Spectrum and LEFTS, RIGHTS and MIDS equivalents also for the Spectrum

A world of your own 10

Mike Grace delves into the processes involved in planning a detailed story line when writing your own adventures

A micro learns English 19

Lyman Alpha says that no matter how complicated it may seem, the process by which a computer acquires the skills of English comprehension is really quite simple

Adventure File 41

The most comprehensive list available of war games, life simulations and adventures

Adventure Help/Contact 48

Write to Tony Bridge if you need help or have some to offer — or try our contact column if you want to reach fellow adven- turers

Software Inventory 23

Want to know what the new releases are like? Look no further, here you'll find House of Death for the Oric and The Korth Trilogy from Puffin, which includes a variety of game-styles and tests your logic

Competition Corner 50

Pleased with your past efforts Tisch sets another task for you — to find the ancient Runic rings of her ancestors and for your trouble you could win Alpha Dawn, part one in the Star Frontiers series from TSR

EDITORIAL

THERE'S AN AMERICAN pop song that goes "When I look back at all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all". Now we wouldn't argue that adventures could be useful in school in terms of supplying you with knowledge which might (or might not as the case may be) prove useful later. For example, you're not going to learn the names of all the world's capitals by playing adventures (although you might acquire an intimate knowledge of one seedy part of London), nor will you learn your multiplication tables (although Pimania has a few geometrical pointers). But in terms of encouraging memory, analysis and decision-making there's a lot to be said for adventures. And if Edward de Bono is right and lateral thinking overtakes logic, adventures would make an ideal educational tool.

Tongue-in-cheek, you could even advance an argument in favour of bad adventures — the ones with limited vocabularies would certainly reassure a child at kindergarten ("Look, mummy, I know more words than the computer"). But to take our tongues out of our collective cheeks it does seem odd that teachers are ignoring the educational opportunities provided by adventures.

Exactly why should adventures be excluded from that pat category educational software? (Hands up anybody who answered "Because they're enjoyable".) Admittedly some excellent software has been developed to aid rote-learning for younger children — but why stop there? Good adventures encourage players to discover and explore (at no literal risk to life or limb but facing a wide range of imaginary threats) — clues have to be pondered and puzzles solved — and strategies have to be developed and then adapted. The world of adventures may appear frivolous (who needs Norse Gods when we've got nuclear bombs, why go to Middle Earth when there's Greenham Common to visit instead?), but the thought processes adventures encourage can be useful.

If a group of children were to play an adventure together the results might be even more rewarding. There would obviously be no lack of things to discuss (perhaps discuss is an understatement) — both in deciding what to do next and then in wondering what went wrong. The advantage is that nothing can go irredeemably wrong — you always live to learn your tables on another day. Maybe you did lose your head in the Gorgon's Cavern but at least you're guaranteed a next time when you should do better.

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 3

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Send your hints,

successes, complaints and compliments to Letters Page, Micro Adventurer, 12-13 Little Newport St, London WC2R 3LD

Six of one . . .

AFTER READING the article on The Prisoner in the December issue of Micro Adventurer, would it be possible to provide me with the address of the fan club Six of One please? R. Eperjesi, The Holmes, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, West Midlands.

AFTER reading your article on The Prisoner I would like to know if the appreciation society still exists and, if so, how could I contact it.

I would like to congratulate you on the magazine to which I now subscribe, having paid £10.00 for 13 issues. Keep up the good work. Andrew Lake, A leister St, Stoke, Plymouth.

SIX OF One, the appreciation society for The Prisoner, does still exist. The address is PO Box 61, Cheltenham, Glos.

Why a disk

drive?

WHILE applauding the pro- duction of a magazine devoted to computer adventuring, I am disappointed to see that you are following in the path of most other computer maga- zines by publishing inaccurate, incomplete information and advice.

One item in particular concerns the letter titled Disk drive expense (December). The reply, while true in a limited fashion, is inaccurate and misleadingly limited.

Infocom programs including Zork cannot be released on cassette because random file access is integral to the manner in which they operate. It is not a matter of an extra 15 to 20 minute wait for loading or a preference for disk packaging that mitigates against the cassette but the nature of the material.

Infocom software ranges from 80K to more than 160K of program and data thus making it impossible to load into memory, in its entirety, from cassette. The sequential type of solution adopted for Carnell's Black Crystal cassette will not work either since these large multiple programs are adapted to the sequential nature of tape storage.

Infocom games are suc- cessful because they are not linear and allow the movement

■

within the game to make full use of the disk medium. It is possible to move into an area not currently in memory, wait a few second while the neces- sary information is overlayed into memory and continue then return to the previous area, again with only a few seconds wait as the previous data is restored to the computer's memory.

This technique is eminently acceptable to gamers as it allows the use of large programs and ample data but relies on the ability of disks to support random access files.

While a cruder but similar method of program overlays would be possible to im- plement on cassette, I doubt that even PK Gollin would be prepared for multiple long time lags when moving to and fro in such a game.

The only hope for those who cannot yet afford disk drives is some form of microdrive or the development of large ROM cartridges using some form of internal bank switching to cater for large programs. Laurence Miller, Great Barr, Birmingham.

Critique snowballs

OH DEAR. What a dis- appointment was your (Dec- ember) MW's review on the new adventure from l evel 9, Snowball. In a review I like to be told some idea of the happenings in an adventure. I find it very dreary to hear

that loading takes seven minutes, that Snowball's command analyser allows a great flexibility in command format, or that adventure points are awarded for doing clever things. The reviewer obviously knew little of this adventure and has padded his or her way out of trouble with a load of useless facts. Fully researched my foot. Where, in the Labyrinths of La Coshe?

Now that you have got me going and I'm in this gripey mood, 1 would like to say something about Adventure Contract, on Tony Bridge's page. While 1 think that this is an admirable idea I put out a plea to those in need of help: I have written to quite a number of adventurers giving advice — but I have never ever received a reply. I am afraid that this is starting to put me off writing to people. My best contacts to date have been on the

One goblet of golden elixir, one silver flask of invisibilify potion, and a rare wizards breiv for infinite wisdom — coming up lad$\

telephone. On this point, surely it is better with letters to the editor to just give tele- phone numbers not an address. You can obtain a telephone number from an address via directory inquiries but not an address via a telephone number. David Swain, Beechcroft Rd, Oxford.

SORRY YOU are having no luck with the Contact Column. For the moment we think it better not to publish phone numbers. If you first contact someone via the post they might volunteer their phone number. Perhaps other adventure contacts would like to write to the editor with comments on how they have found the column.

An addict's

advice

ALTHOUGH MY main inter- est in micros lies in the field of business programming, I am a self-confessed adventure addict of many years standing.

My home machine is a Commodore 8032 with 8050 disk drive, and I suppose that this gives me rather an advantage over many readers in having access to larger disk- based games. But I really must express astonishment that in a magazine dedicated to adven- ture games there is no mention of programs that I consider to be the peak of sophistication.

I began in the usual way with games such as Pirate's Cove (1 Vi days to solve) and similar programs, but found them no real challenge. Catacombs and Cornucopia, marketed by Supersoft, were my intro- duction to the realms of true adventure gaming. Weird Wood could possibly have had me stumped had I not become fricndlv with the author.

Currently under develop- ment by the same author and available early this year is a new program possibly to be called Weird Wood 2 (although I prefer the title Adventurer's End). In this he has used every trick in the book to make it undoubtedly the ultimate game to date.

Jim MacBrayne, Pa id my re Crescent, Newton M earns, Glasgow.

4 Micro Adventurer February 1984

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You Ve read the game . . . now play f he book. . .

MY SECRET FILE

Program by Phil Nathans

Based on the best-selling Puffin book by John Astrop

A personal database for your darkest thoughts.

Do you have secrets you wouldn't even confide to your closest friend? Let alone your family?

Do you have secrets about your friends and family you wouldn't confide to anyone but yourself?

At last, you're no longer alone. My Secret File turns your personal computer into a personal confidante. And to

keep your confidences confidential, it's even password protected - because these days, you can't even trust your micro not to blab.

Trust no-one: file your friends before they file you. Available for the : Commodore 64 isbn 946855 30 7 Spectrum 48K isbn 946855 35 8

BBC MiCrO B ISBN 946855 40 4

Book/cassette pack I £9.95

Book/cassette pack £9.95

THE UNORTHODOX ENGINEERS:

THE PEN AND THE DARK

^ Adventure game program by Keith Campbell

Based on the story by Colin Kapp

Colin Kapp created the classic SF stories about the Unorthodox Engineers - and now you can try to solve the mystery of the indestructible pillar of darkness and the riddle of contra-energy in this mind-bending text adventure game.

Reading Colin's story in this pack should help you. But once you and your micro are locked into the problem, not even Colin

could get you out.

By special arrangement with an unspecified alien culture, Mosaic will let you have the story along with the program - so at least you're in with a chance. Please read the story carefully . . . because we'd like to release our Spring SF bookware blockbuster (Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat on micro for the first time!) before you carelessly unleash contra-energy across the universe. Thank you.

Available for the: Spectrum 48K isbn 946855 15 3 BBC Micro B isbn 946855 20 x

Available from good bookshops and computer stores.

Published by Mosaic Publishing Ltd

Marketed by John Wiley & Sons Limited, Baffins Lane, Chichester, Sussex P019 1UD

BOOHUHRE

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 5

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Post to:- LEGEND (UK Mail Order) FREEPOST 1 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1UY

Please send me Copy/copies of

VALHALLA for the 48K Spectrum.

I enclose cheque/P.O. for £

(£14.95 each ind. VAT and P&P). Or I wish to pay by Access/Barclaycard/Visa

Card No

Please print name and address

Name

Address

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Credit Card holder s signature 5

VALHALLA is supplied on a 48K Spectrum program cassette, with VALHALLA player manual and presentation box. As VALHALLA uses the full 48K RAM, microdrives and full-size printers are not supported. ZX printer optional.

VALHALLA is normally available from stock, and orders are despatched by return. If, for any reason we are unable to fulfil your order within 14 days of receipt, we will notify you.

VALHALLA cassettes carry an unconditional lifetime replacement guarantee.

TO ORDER: (UK Orders Only) Simply complete the coupon, and FREEPOST with your cheque/P.O. made payable to LEGEND (UK Mail Order). Credit Card Orders: By phone 9-5.30 Mon to Fri. stating name and address. Card No. and item(s) required.

RETAILERS: Please contact your regular distributor or LEGEND (Trade Distribution) at the address below.

LEGEND (UK Mail Order) FREEPOST 1 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1 UY (0223) 312453

MOVISOFT OPERATING SYSTEM UNDER LICENCE

If you think you've

something newsworthy, call 01 437 4343 and let us know

Spectrum

favourites

converted

ARTIC have released four adventure games for the Commodore 64.

They are Planet of Death, Inca Curse, Ship of Doom and Espionage Island.

They are the first Artie games released for the Commodore. Previously they were available only for the Spectrum.

3 BBC B

games

CASTLE Frankenstein, The Quest for the Holy Grail and The Kingdom of Klein are three adventures recently launched by Epic Software for the BBC B.

They are traditional text adventures written in machine code.

The games include full sentence decoding, colour, fast responses, scoring and game save on tapes.

Each game includes puzzles and about 230 locations.

JERICHO Road, an educa- tional adventure for the Spectrum 48K from Shards is a first in many ways.

It was written by a church minister, Peter Goodland, from Seven Kings in East London. And it aims to teach history through a factual representation of a biblical story.

In the adventure, which is set on two levels, the player must find a way out of Israel along the road to Jericho.

In the difficult version the player must also solve a tricky word puzzle before the game is completed.

An inscribed pot with a

F RAZER Hubbard, the 1 5 year old who cracked Hewson's Quest Adventure, says that he prefers to play adventures rather than arcade games because they are more inter- est ing.

F r a z e r , who surprised Hewson's by taking only six weeks to solve the adventure instead of six months, comes from Goudhurst in Kent where he is studying for his O levels.

A spokesman for Hewson's said Quest Adventure would usually take a long time to -solve because it required lateral thinking.

"Frazer had been in a car accident and had the time to persevere with the game. So he solved it sooner than we would

strange but meaningless word square is found. The player visits people and places to find an escape from Israel. He or she is given clues and gradually works out the solution.

Of course if you are familiar with the biblical story it will be a help in solving the adventure, if not Shards have four pages of crib sheets telling you how the story evolved, the back- ground of its characters and places and clues to the game.

Shards emphasised that the program did not preach but that it was merely educational, based on a biblical story.

The company plans to launch another educational

have expected , ' ' the spokes- man said.

"He's a real computer fanatic. He practically did

program this month called Mystery of the Java Star.

It concerns the raising of an eighteenth century bark from the depths of the South Atlantic.

The program is aimed at the 11 to 16 year-old age group.

It requires a knowledge of geography, the reading of com- passes and grid map references, and the ability to solve jigsaw puzzles.

The four-part program is for the Dragon 32. It begins in England where the player must find a map of the South Atlantic directing him or her to the place where the Java Star sank.

The strategy game Empire, from Shards, which was based on a board game in which the player attempts to conquer the world, has been released for the BBC.

It was previously available only for the Dragon. The BBC version costs £6.95.

nothing else while he was ill.

"He hopes to be a program- mer when he finishes school," the spokesman said.

Teenager completes program in record time

f razer Hubbard, right, and James Hull his cousin

£3,000 contest launched

MELBOURNE HOUSE, the producers of The Hobbit, have launched a competition with £3000 in prizes to accompany the release of a game designer, Hurg.

It was designed to enable Spectrum owners to develop machine language arcade games and graphics at a professional standard.

A series of questions aids the selection of features needed to design a specific game.

If the shape required is a man, monster, spaceship or something more unusual, the shape designer can be instructed to produce it.

Any shape can be fully animated to give on-screen arcade quality.

Variations to the game may be achieved by changing individual features. You can speed the game up, change the scenery or make the monsters more vicious. Dramatic sound effects and score boards can be added.

The games can be saved on to a cassette and played later using the game designer as the

control program next time.

Melbourne House will award a prize for the best-designed game, which used Hurg, that it receives.

Details of the competition are enclosed with each Hurg package, which costs £14.95. The game designer is available from all leading retailers or by mail order.

8 Micro Adventurer February 1984

Quill exceeds ex[

THE SUCCESS story of the ZX micro fair held at the Alexandra Palace was The Quill.

Elated at the success of the Gilsoft product Howard Gilbert said The Quill was selling better than he could have hoped.

The Quill is an interpreter program that can be used to compile your own adventures for the Spectrum 48K.

After writing their own programs, Quill owners are entitled to market their adven- ture if they think someone will buy it.

All Gilsoft ask is that they be acknowledged at the beginning of a progam based on The Quill.

Howard believes that the more adventures on the market, the better the standard of games.

"The Quill could improve the adventure market enor- mously rather than restrict it," Howard said.

One game already written with The Quill is Denis through the Drinking Glass.

Written by Roger Taylor, also at the ZX Fair, the game is in verse. The first location is described as: "A cosy den at

An aid for CBM 64

owners

INTERPOD, an inexpensive interface from Oxford Computer Systems, is designed to relieve the dependence of the user on the Commodore 64's single disk drive.

According to Oxford Computer Systems any software that can be run on a 64 may be used with Interpod.

The Interpod is said to be an aid for businesses that are presently restricted by the capabilities, operating speed and facilities covered by the Commodore range of 64 peripherals.

Interpod is a small black box that will provide users with both RS232 and IEEE inter- faces.

Unlike other interfaces Interpod does not use the cartridge slot of the 64.

Number 10, safe from Maggie's eye, where you can plan your get away and drink the cellar dry."

In the game the hero is Denis Thatcher. His objective is to get to a place called the Grave Digger's Arms at all costs, avoiding the watchful eye of the prime minister.

On his journey, which covers up to 95 locations, Denis meets a variety of people, including Ken Livingstone, Norman Tebbit, Tony Benn and lan Paisley.

He visits Sir Keith Joseph and his monetarist dream world and, carrying a lawn mower and parachute, drops in on the Pope.

It may be added, perhaps unnecessarily, that the game is an unabashed send up of current political figures.

The author of the game, is a politics graduate and amateur dramatist.

Roger believes that there is a market for his game among people with a sense of humour who are tired of zapping several characters before completing their quest.

Following the interest expressed in Denis through the Drinking Glass, with Roger

Howard Gilbert from Gilsoft at the

appearing on television , Gilsoft have released a series of adventures all written using The Quill.

Some available include The Adventures of Barsac the Dwarf, Diamond Trail, Magic Castle and Fairground.

Roger's second game, written also with the use of The Quill, is a puzzle of logic and was named after the mathe- matician Archimedes.

The player is presented with a rhyming riddle in each location of Archimedes'

Screw.

The riddles must be solved so that various objects can be returned to their correct places.

micro fair

Roger said players should find the games amusing and difficult.

'They rely heavily on general knowledge and lateral thinking," he said.

"The structure of the program when mapped looks like an Archimedean screw," Roger said, hence the name.

Both games are available for the Spectrum 48K.

The second ZX Fair success story reflected the growing popularity of the Currah Speech Synthesier.

Priced at £29.95 the Level 9 stand had sold out of their stock of 100 by noon on Sunday.

Cricklewood wakes up

THE Cricklewood Incident is a new Tansoft adventure due out now.

Set in the London suburb of Cricklewood, the player must tackle tardy London buses, nasty youths and Australian tourists who will attack unless

placated with a can of Fosters.

The Cricklewood Incident will be available for the One also.

Your problem-solving abili- ties will be tested in House of Death, Tansoft's follow-up to Zodiac.

Infocom releases detective mystery

INFOCOM have released a new game called Witness, based on a detective mystery.

The Witness package contains a detective's dossier of clues, the National Detective Gazette, a suicide note, telegram, a matchbox and that day's news events.

The game is set in February 1938 and concerns death of a society matron. A con-man is trying to frame the dead woman's husband.

You, as the witness, work

from a clue-ridden police file and against a 12-hour time limit to solve the suspicious society murder.

Clues hint that it is a sordid family affair that may lead everyone from the heiress to the butler in prison.

It's up to the player to sort through the clues, motives and alibis in order to solve the mystery.

The Witness is available for £33.95 for the Apple and IBM + PC.

The £9.95 Oric game is set in an old house where horror films were once made.

The player searches for a treasure among props, vam- pires and a host of other monsters.

The vampires could be a hindrance in the treasure hunt, in which case the player might kill them providing the right implements arc found, or they may be a help. It's up to you to offer them the right incentive.

Latest PSS software

THE US-based software com- pany PSS have released a new adventure called (Crystals of Zong for the Commodore 64.

A spokesman for PSS said the game should prove as popular as the PSS educational games, such as Easy Tutor.

Krystals of Zong retails for £7.95.1 I

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 9

land

your own

Planning a plot first will save you time and heartache when writing the program, says Mike Grace in this extract from

''Commodore 64 adventures'9

MOST OF the books and articles on programming will tell you that writing any type of software should follow certain well- defined paths and adventure games should be no exception.

1 have found that despite the obvious desire to sit down at the keyboard and start programming right away this is one time when the advice — think first — is vital.

1 know this is irksome — in fact the attraction of the hardware is a fatal flaw in my own programming — but unless you do force yourself to work out the bulk of your story on paper first all you'll achieve (besides creating problems for later) is an extra few weeks rewriting your program again and again.

The story (or perhaps a better word would be plot) is critical to both the success of the game and the structure of the program. In many ways the process of creating a suitable adventure is similar to the methods that film-makers use when constructing a film (a concept I will return to later), and I found this was the most exciting stage in my program.

The basic theme

You need to both create the basic theme (write the story in other words) and then visualise it as though viewing it through the eyes of your audience.

Part of the thrill of most adventure games Tve played has been the feel of participation of actually taking part in the scenario, [fit is to be successful this must be due to a combination of features which I will summarise to set your mind to thinking about them now — whilst starting to create the beginnings of your story.

The success and satisfaction of your game will depend on: your ability to use words to create images of your story; the depth and plausibility of your plot; the imagination of the person playing the game.

With regard to the last point you don't have any control over the skill and imagination of potential players, but as it appears that adventure players are often fans of science fiction and fantasy then it seems a reasonable assumption that they will have a well-developed imagination — so I think we can take point three for granted. The other two features now take on a more important role.

Adventure games still tend in many cases to follow the style of the original versions

created for mainframe computers or the well-known Scott Adams games — they have a bias towards the dungeons and dragons, science fiction, fantasy or horror theme.

A quick scan of any magazine will throw up a variety of titles such as Mysterious Castle, Dracula's Lair, Island of Doom, Tale of the Dragon, and many more. Of course you don't have to follow this trend and there are several games with a totally different storyline, (escaping from an asylum, looking for the right husband/ wife, attempting to slip out for a night on the town) which add a welcome touch of originality for the hardened player.

Main characters

I read once there are no original plots for stores — only different variations. Of course it's true, but Star Wars is a perfect demonstration of the ability to take a simple plot and transform it into a smash hit.

In all our stories we need some type of .quest or goal to be achieved (find treasure, rescue a princess, escape from a dangerous situation, discover the meaning of a puzzle). We need a recognisable hero or heroine (in the adventure game the player takes on that role) and usually a villain or some other conflict for our main characters.

When I wrote my own story I used the following steps:

1 . Select the environment (eg fantasy, horror, sf).

2. Choose a quest or goal (eg find treasure, escape from a wizard).

3. Decide on the role of the hero/heroine.

4. Select the main characters (eg wizard, vampire, countess).

5. Write a synopsis of the story.

6. Draw a simplified map with a few basic locations.

7. Storyboard the plot.

Nostalgia of youth

It may sound as though there is a lot of hard work before even touching the keyboard, but many of the steps in writing your story will follow so naturally that it becomes a fascinating and challenging goal in itself. And short-circuiting this step will either produce extra work later or result in an unsatisfactory product in the end.

The traditional type of adventure game,

which borrows heavily on the fantasy world of Tolkien and related writers, abounds with elves, dragons, sorcerors, castles dripping with magic and mystery and similar things.

Perhaps it really is the nostalgia of the fairy-tales of our youth that partly explains this popularity — perhaps a deeper reason, but for the budding adventurer the range of possibilities opened by selecting this environment adds a zest and originality less- likely in the more mundane world. After all — anything is possible in your story.

Immediate ideas

Sword and sorcery is a branch of this type of environment which substitutes the more magical aspects for violence. In this genre (typified by the writings of Robert E Howard and his splendid hero Conan) the world is a dark and savage place where spells and sorcery are real and your prowess with the sword is your only real asset.

There are plenty of other situations you can use as I have mentioned, the detective solving the crime, the innocent caught up in the world of espionage, the castaway on a desert island. You only need to look at the programmes on the television, the books in the fiction section at your library or the films being shown at your local cinema to find immediate ideas for your story. And, of course, there is science fiction .

I've left science fiction until now because this is the environment I chose for my adventure — Nightmare Planet. Purist SF fans would probably argue that Nightmare Planet is more space opera than true SF, but for the sake of simplicity I regard all stories with a background of time and space as science fiction.

Again possibilities are pretty extensive, time travel to rescue the good doctor who has been flung into the far future by his premature tamperings with a time machine, battles against the aliens planning to invade the earth, searching a post-nuclear planet for life after the holocaust. It was into this type of general environment that I decided to place my story.

One goal

The whole idea of adventure is to solve a puzzle, find an answer, achieve a goal — so the main consideration from the start must be to decide what your own goal will be.

When I first began to work out Nightmare Planet I had only one goal — to rescue the Princess Aurora. As the story expanded during the programming stage 1 added a second goal — to find the energy crystal and bring it back to the spaceship.

This added to the difficulty of the game and extended the scope of the adventure quite considerably but was not really an essential part of the original story. Thus, despite the importance of choosing your goal, it is possible to amend it later or as I did — add to it.

Don't be tempted to start to work out fine detail at this stage. For example, suppose you have decided to make your goal FIND THE TREASURE inside the Castle of Doom. As your imagination

10 Micro Adventurer February 1984

LOCATION: By the shores of a lake.

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? Dive

CAN'T DO THAT. . . . . . YET!

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW

Swim

O.K

You bob silently on the top of the water, looking down at the glinting metal object on the bed of the lake. It is another blaster from the spaceship.

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?

Dive

O.K

A giant monster eel attacks you, appearing as if from nowhere WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? Fire blaster.

IMPOSSIBLE — it is too damp WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? Kill monster

I DON'T KNOW WHAT 'MONSTER' IS WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW? Kill eel

Location: Inside your Spaceship.

You awaken with a throbbing head amidst the wreckage of the contents of your cabin. As you stagger to your feet suddenly the memory of your spaceship losing control comes back to you.

Your mission — to deliver the beautiful Princess Aurora to the Planet Thoth, where she is to be married to the ruler Zorn-Ramok, a cruel man who sees the union in terms of its polictical value.

Your problem — you have fallen in love with the Princess and, unknown to her, guided your ship into the lonely outposts of the Galaxy in an attempt to persuade her to forget her promise to marry Zorn-Ramok and escape with you.

But fate has played a hand in your plans, for your ship was damaged by a sudden ion storm and it was all you could do to steer for an uncharted planet in the outer limits of the known Galaxy and attempt a landing

Now you recover amidst the damage of your battered spaceship. Around you lie the contents of your locker, your spacesuit, galaxy charts, your blaster, and the signs of an obvious struggle. But Aurora

has gone.

Your airlock is registering that it has been opened from the outside then resealed. Your only blessing is that Proteus, your personal robot, is undamaged and can aid you in your search for Aurora.

WHAT SHALL WE DO NOW?

begins to work out the story you also start thinking of whether to add a score to the game, adding 10 points for every item of treasure.

While your mind is thinking of this you could become diverted into adding the concept of subtracting points for various problems encountered which your player hasn't solved in a particular time limit.

From this you may decide that you will need a display of the score on the screen all the time — so you sit down in front of your micro and begin to work out the graphics of" your scoreboard . . .

The esscence of good storywriting at this stage is simplicity. The frills will come later once you begin to program.

Fantasy hero

Next you have to decide on the role of the hero. This — quite simply — places the player into the scenario. As involvement in the adventure is the key to good playing you need to make your potential player feel as if he is the hero.

Your player acts as himself thrown into the fantasy world, or your player takes on the role of the fantasy hero.

I don't think it matters too much which you decide — as long as you make it clear right from the start of the game. In my own case I wanted the hero to be the pilot of a battered but reliable spaceship (shades of Han Solo) who made his living as a freight- operator.

Of course the other characters in the plot will depend on the story you are writing, so this stage should really be considered at the same time as creating the actual story itself. But as most of these stages are slightly artificial . . . (what really happens is that as you think of your story you will auto- matically be thinking of the hero, the

location, the villain) it is easier to have some kind of structure which ensures that you don't leave anything out.

The main characters must be accom- plices, people to rescue, villains, and assorted types to add local colour or act as red herrings or clue-givers. Nightmare Planet is fairly lacking in characters because of its location — an alien planet which contains various perils rather than villains — so the only other real character is the Princess Aurora.

While 1 have not done so for the purpose of this book, it would be a simple matter to include a prompt at the beginning of the game asking if the player is male or female. Upon receiving the appropriate response the game would then set various variables so that the princess could become a prince and the player become a female space pilot.

Ideas can occur at the strangest of times, often in the-bath, late at night, or as in may case on the train.

As I rattled down from Manchester to London one dull morning the whole plot came to me quite unexpectedly and quickly, and I scribbled it down there and then.

This formed the synopsis — which remained the same in basic content throughout the creation and programming of the whole game.

Plot thickens

My synopsis was as follows: you are the pilot of a spaceship on a mission to deliver the beautiful Princess Aurora to the planet Zen where she is to be married to the tyrant ruler. You have fallen in love with Aurora but dare not tell her.

A sudden power failure or meteor storm causes you to crash on a strange, uncharted planet. You successfully land your ship but black out during the crash.

When you awaken you discover the ship has been entered from outside the princess has been captured. You have to set out and rescue her.

The atmosphere on the planet is poisonous so you are forced to wear your spacesuit at first, but along the way you chance upon an alien plant with strange fruit which (when eaten) allows you to breath the air safely.

You cross a vast desert to a ruined city in your travels, but all you find there is a giant snake which attacks you.

You eventually come to a huge forest and continue your search. You become lost, and after some time climb a tree to see where you are.

Happy ending

To the south you see smoke curling in the air — life of some sort. On the way to the area you are attacked by a dinosaur, obviously the planet has not developed very far along the evolutionary trail yet, and eventually you find a village of mud huts belonging to the natives who inhabit this part of the land.

You have found Aurora who is con- sidered by the natives to be a goddess. They threaten you when you try to take her away — and it is only when you kiss her and show them you are her intended mate that they will let you both escape.

On the way back to your ship you discover that Aurora really loved you all along (there was obviously magic in your kiss!!) and you fly away together to a blissful future at the edge of the galaxy.

It may not be great literature but the essence of my plot is all there. As I began developing the story I added refinements and improvements along the way but surprisingly little. [>

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 11

<OYou need some idea of the geographical relationship of the various locations in your adventure to help you avoid making mis- takes in your planning later on. I found this was simpler if 1 just drew a very basic map which placed the various locations into 'real space' rather than attempting to fit them into a grid.

The discipline of drawing this map is a great help in developing the story, for as I began to think of the objects and perils I would start to place in specific locations so I found the skeleton of my original plot developing layers of clothing.

Having drawn the initial map and given some thought to the plot the next stage is to start to storyboard your adventure.

Essentially I'm a visual person. 1 love films, I prefer illustrated stories to prose (that means comics) and when it comes to writing I tend to see the finished product in my mind's eye before 1 put finger to keyboard. So it was natural for me to begin to write my adventure by using a technique of story-boarding similar to the process a director will often use when planning out a film in the early stages.

Storyboarding

A storyboard is just a collection of visual images portraying the story on a collection of boards — a strip cartoon of the film in other words. Obviously writing a computer program relying heavily on text is not the same as shooting an epic, but if I was to use a similar principle then what 1 wanted was

to see first what the player would see on his computer screen.

I needed to imagine the layout of text on the screen and to picture some of the possible responses of my potential player so 1 could begin to think about the framework of my plot.

At first this technique may seem a bit of a time-waster — after all who wants to sit around writing imaginary responses to "WHAT SHALL I DO NOW?" on bits of paper when there's a keyboard to play with but in my own case 1 found this part of my construction extremely valuable.

Developing ideas

I suspect it was because I was able to begin to 'thought-launder'. This means that 1 was forced (by the act of writing down various ideas and replies) to think much more deeply about both my plot and also my locations. I began to get ideas which would serve me in good stead later.

A simple example is the personal robot Proteus who has survived the crash and as it says on the screen published with this article, "... can aid you in your search for Aurora."

I first hatched the idea of having a little robot who would be around to come in with a comic comment or quip on this screen — my first storyboard.

This idea would change and develop, to become Victor the robot who drops down from the top of the screen at various moments throughout the game. I wonder if

I'd have thought of Victor if I hadn't spent the time thinking and writing up this first screen back at the beginning?

The two other screens are just further locations, again to show how I was planning out my plot.

The last screen is one of the many I made up as I went through my story — trying to imagine I was keying in the appropriate responses to the messages from the computer. When I came to the actual programming of this sequence I was already fairly certain of what I wanted — and although I changed a few ideas around slightly the essence remains in the final version of Nightmare Planet.

Writing the plot may be the hardest part of writing your own Adventure and perhaps the most frustrating for keen programmers. But I have a feeling that adventurers are imaginative and creative people who will find that once the idea of a plot-line has crept into their mind it'll be hard to shake it. Once this happens then the only way to escape is to write — to transfer the toughts to paper and then to computer.

1 hope my introduction to the actual act of transferring that idea, that concept that will make your adventure unique and workable and will save you time and heartache later.

I have spent some time on it because all the books and articles I had read on pro- gramming adventures concentrate on the technical expertise of programming and tend to skip the hard part — the creation. 1

off to ADVENTURE

Create and solve ADVENTURE programs on your Spectrum, Commodore 64, Dragon, Oric or BBC Micro.

CREATING ADVENTURES ON YOUR ZX SPECTRUM -

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CREATING ADVENTURE PROGRAMS ON YOUR COMPUTER — Andrew Nelson. If your computer uses a version of Microsoft BASIC, then this book is for you. It contains three complete Adventure programs, along with extensive documentation to help you create and solve Adventures. Suitable for use with the Commodore 64, Dragon, Oric, BBC Micro, Sirius, IBM PC and

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12 Micro Adventurer February 1984

Graphics span the "

Tony James looks at a sub-routine that enables the printing of an unlimited number of User Defined Graphics

ON THE SPECTRUM the User Defined Graphics are kept at the top of the memory, above RAMTOP. By POKEing this part of the memory it is possible to define up to 21 characters, which can then be used in PRINT statements in Basic programs.

The following sub-routine will permit any number of UD graphics to be printed. It can be used in any Basic program, but for demonstration purposes assume that an adventure program is being written, that the program requires the graphic representation of 16 monsters, each using four graphic characters, 16 weapons of one character each and an odd nine graphics each requiring a single character. A total of

iO REM ************

20 REM ** LOADER ** 30 REM ************

40 CLEAR 64823

50 LOAD "UBG89" CODE

60 LOAD "TEST"

SAME "UDG TEST" LINE 10

/ isling I: key in the louder

10 REN ************** 20 REH *♦ MOUE UDG ** 30 REH ************** 40 CLEAR 64823 50 LOAD "Ul" 64824*160 60 LOAD "U2" 64984*160 70 LOAD 'U3" 65144,160 80 LOAD "U4" 65304,160 90 LOAD 'U5" 65464,72 100 CLS

110 PRINT "LOADED READY TO SflUE" 120 PAUSE 0 130 CLS

140 SAME 'UDG89' CODE 64824,712 150 PRINT 'ANY KEY TO M€RIFY" 160 PAUSE 0 170 CLS

180 UERIFY "UDG89" CODE 64824,712 190 PRINT"0K'

89 UD graphics in all. Their names are listed below.

Two blank C 15 cassette tapes and the HORIZONS tape will be needed. Mark the blank tapes one and two. Tape one will store the final demonstration program consisting of three chained parts.

The first will be a simple Basic loader, setting RAMTOP to a new value and loading the other two parts. The second part will be the 89 UD graphics in code and the third part will consist of the sub- routine, together with a test routine to demonstrate it works. Tape two will be a working tape to store code temporarily.

Four squares

The first requirement is to key in the program Loader (Listing 1). It is very short and should present no problem. Line 40 sets RAMTOP to 64823, protecting the 89 UD graphics. This should be saved on tape one by (he command SAVE "UDG TEST" LINE 10. It must auto-run. After verification permit the tape to run on for a few seconds then stop it. Do not rewind it. Put tape one to one side.

The 89 UD graphics will occupy the top 172 addresses from 64824 to 65535. For clarity number these graphics Gl to G89. When they have been loaded into the memory, the memory map will look like figure 1 .

The four graphic squares for the monsters will represent a monster's left top, right top, left bottom and right bottom. Together with the weapons they will have to be entered into the memory in a set running order, keeping the odd nine to the end of the run so that Gl will represent the living skeleton's left top G2 the living skeleton's right top G3 the living skeleton's left bottom G4 the living skeleton's right bottom G5 the spade G6 the mummy's left top and so on, running through all the monsters and weapons in turn. The odd nine graphics follow ending with G88.

the table sets out the running order for all the graphics from Gl to G89. The char- acters must now be constructed and defined. Use squared paper to draw the graphics first by filling in the squares on a 16x16 grid in the case of the monsters and an 8 x 8 grid in the case of the weapons and the odd nine.

When satisfied with the result, LOAD the program characters from the HORIZON tape. Using this program and with the help of the drawings, construct graphics Gl to G20 (monsters and weapons 1 to 4), defining them as graphic A to graphic T.

Save these on tape two as 'ul'. Now repeat the process for G21 to G40 (monsters and weapons 5 to 8) saving them on tape two as 'u2', after 'ul'. Repeat the process for G41 to G60 and G61 to G80, saving them as 'u3' and 'u4'. The odd nine, G81 to G89 should be defined as graphic A to graphic I and saved as 'u5'. On tape two should now be five blocks of UD graphics saved as 'ul', 'u2', 'u3', 'u4' and 'u5\ in the correct running order from Gl to G89.

They must now be LOADed into the memory in their proper addresses. Program "MOVE UDG" (Listing 2) will do this. To delete the characters, program switch the computer off and on at the main. Now you can key "MOVE UDG". Line 40 sets t>

/ isling 2; the graphics arc loaded into the memory

THE ODD NINE		LET A=	GRAPHIC
			CHARACTER
WIZARD'S LEFT HAND	G81	16	»F'
WIZARD'S RIGHT HAND	G82	16	'G'
NAP (ENPTY CAVE)	G83	16	' H'
HAP (TREASURE)	G84	16	'I'
HALL	G85	16	'J'
PLAYER	G86	16	' K'
STAIRS	G87	16	'L'
HEALING HELL	G88	16	' M'
FIERY PIT	G89	16	' N'

The odd nine graphics which should he entered into memory in a set running ordei

V

6U832

V

V

V

G1

G2

G3

_

—

A

61*823 ( RAMTOP)

A

6^831

A

6!i»39

A

6U8U7

Figure I shows what the memory map should look like offer the graphics have been loaded

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 13

<] RAMTOP to protect your graphics. RUN the program and having rewound tape two to the beginning, depress the play key on the cassette player.

LINES 50 to LINE 90 will LOAD each of the five blocks into that part of the computer's memory where we wish to store them. The prompt on LINE 110 confirms that all is well. The remainder of the program is a SAVE and VERIFY routine.

Larger program

With tape one in the cassette player set it to record and the depression of any key on the keyboard will SAVE the 89 UD graphics as code. At this stage tape one should contain the Basic Loader SAVEd as "UDG TEST" LINE 10 followed by the

UD graphics SAVEd as "UDG89" CODE. Rewind the tape to the beginning and any key on the keyboard will VERIFY "UDG89" CODE. Again permit the tape to wind on a few seconds before stopping.

The sub-routine, to enable all these graphics to be PRINTed, must now be examined. It is anticipated that the routine would form part of a much larger Basic program. Before the routine is called, a variable called A must be set with a value between one and 16, corresponding to the specified monster or weapon.

The routine is called "SET UDG" and is shown in Listing 3. It would be called in any program by the statement GOSUB 40. In LINES 70 and 80 addresses 23675 and 23676 hold a systems variable called UDG which points to the address holding the first byte of graphic A. To make UDG point to address 64824 (the first byte of Gl) so that graphic A matches up with Gl, it is necessary to POKE 23675,56 and POKE 23676,253. (See page 175 of the Spectrum Manual).

If, after NEWing, you enter these two direct commands, you will find that key graphic A will PRINT the Living Skeleton's left top, graphic B the right top, graphic C the left bottom and graphic D the right bottom.

By using PRINT AT statements you can now display the monster anywhere on the screen. To use the same keys to PRINT the corresponding anatomy of the next monster, the mummy, UDG must point 40 bytes further along the memory. The statement POKE 23675,56 + 40* (a—) will work for the lower values of A. But if

10 REH *************

20 REH ** SET UDG ** 30 REM ************* 40 LET B=56+40*(fl-l) 50 LET C=253 60 IF B>255 THEN LET 70 POKE 23675»B 80 POKE 23676iC SO RETURN

C=C+i:LET B=B-256:G0T0 60

/ town 3: the SET UFXi routine
100 REN **********
110 REN ** TEST **
120 REN **********
130 CLS
140 INPUT 'INPUT ft (1-16)"5 LINE A*
150 IF ftt="" THEN GOTO 140
160 IF fl*="KB OR fl$="L" THEN GOTO 270
170 IF LEN fl$>2 THEN GOTO 140
180 FOR D=l TO LEN HI 190 IF A*<B><"0' OR fl$(B)>"9" THEN GOTO	140
200 NEXT B
210 LET fl=UflL fl*
220 IF ft<l OR fl>16 THEN GOTO 140
230 GOSUB 40
240 PRINP'AfTAB 75"AB'5TAB 215 "E'fTflB	75 "CD"
250 IF A=16 THEN PRINT' 1 TAB 75 "FG H I J	K L H N"
260 GOTO 140
270, LIST
SAUE "TEST" LINE 130

/ istinft 4: key in lines 1(H) to 270 of the routine

the value to be POKEd into 23675 exceeds 255, 1 must be added to the value to be POKEd into 23676 while 256 is subtracted from the value POKEd into 23675.

Various inputs

LINE 60 takes care of this. There is a GOTO statement at the end of this line which returns you to the beginning of the line. For higher values of A the program must run through this line twice. While graphic E will PRINT the 16 weapons by setting the variable A to the corresponding weapon number (see the table), by setting A to equal 16 the odd line (G8I-G89) can be PRINTed using graphic keys F to I.

After entering the sub-routine, key in LINES 100 to 270 of the routine called TEST (Listing 4), so that they follow on.

LINE 140 invites the INPUT of a value for the variable A. At this stage INPUTting k or I will cause the program to jump to LINE270and LIST. LINES 150 and 170 to 220 are error traps and will return the program to LINE 140 for various erroneous inputs.

LINE 230 calls the SET UDG sub- routine and LINES 240 and 250 PRINT the results.

This should now be SAVEd on tape one after 'udg89' CODE by entering as a direct command, SAVE "TEST" LINE 130. The sub-routine can now be tested. To make the test fair RANDOMIZE USR 0 and LOAD tape one in its entirety.

The advantage of this routine lies in the saving of program length and the speed up of operation.

MONSTER

LIVING SKELETON MUMMY DEMON ZOMBIE

FIRE ELEMENTAL

VAMPIRE

MIND VAMPIRE

WRAITH

DRAGON

WEREWOLF

CYCLOPS

SANDMAN

HARPIE

GIANT SERPENT BALROG LICH

LT

Gl G6 Gil GI6 G2I G26 G3I G36 G4I G46 G51 G56 G61 G66 G7I G76

RT

G2 G7 G12 G17 G22 G27 G32 G37 G42 G47 G52 G57 G62 G67 G72 G77

LB

G3 G8 GI3 GI8 G23 G28 G33 G38 G43 G48 G53 G58 G63 G68 G73 G78

RB

G4 G9 GI4 G19 G24 G29 G34 G39 G44 G49 G54 G59 G64 G69 G74 G79

WEAPON

SPADE FIRE WHIP SWORD

SILVER SWORD

SILVER STAFF

SAINTLY STAFF

TALISMAN

CROSS

SHIELD

TORCH

INVISIBLE CLOAK CLUB

HOLY WATER BOW AND ARROWS MAGIC SHIELD EMPTY BOTTLE

LET A

G5	1
GIO	2
GI5	3
G20	4
G25	5
G30	6
G35	7
G40	8
G45	9
G50	10
G55	II
G60	12
G65	13
G70	14
G75	15
G80	16
•E"

14 Micro Adventurer February 1984

OPERATION GREMLIN . . .

A very different game that combines the intrigue of adventure with the real time, machine code speed of arcade action. The player must control not one, but EIGHT different troopers , each with their own character status, in the search for the weapons that will destroy THE GREMLINS

DRAGON TREK

Dragon Trek is a new implementation of a classic game, taking full advantage of the Dragons hi-res graphics and sound capabilities. Your starship's impressive armament is comprised of high energy Photon Torpedoes and Phasers. Both long and short range scanners (in full graphics) enable you to track the Klingons and your onboard computer will give you extra tactical facilities. As commander you will have to use strategy and cunning to outwit the enemy.

THE RING OF DARKNESS

BRITAIN'S No. 1 ADVENTURE GAME FOR THE DRAGON 32 IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR THE 48K SPECTRUM AND ORIC

THE RING OF DARKNESS is a complete role playing adventure in hi-res graphics, featuring a detailed land filled with towns, 3D dungeons, forests and seas, and populated by kings, princesses , evil rangers and other strange creatures. All versions are identical with respect to the adventure. The Oric version is recorded in fast mode only. Many hours of mystery and suspense await you in your quest to find The Ring Of Darkness.

ORDER WITH CONFIDENCE: All titles in stock are dispatched by return of post.

SEND SAE FOR OUR FREE CATALOGUE.

Selected titles are also available from good software outlets and from Boots.

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DRAGON 32

The Ring Of Darkness £9.95

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The Ring Of Darkness £9.95

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□Adventure Quest LEV9 9.50 C lAdventureland ADIN d29 00 14.50 IBIade of Blackpoole SRSS d27.50 GCastle Wolfenstein MUSE d21 .50 DColossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 □Conflict MART 14.75 n Cranston Manor SOL d14.50 □Crush Crumble Chomp EPYX (J21.50 21.50 UCurse of Ra EPYX 13.50 ; Dark Crystal SOL d27.50 QOeadline INFO d34 50 □Dungeon Adventure LEV9 9.50 Empire of the Overmind AHGC d25.00 22.00 I Enchanter INFO d37 95 □Galaxy Conflict MART 14.75 [^Gateway to Apshai EPYX r26 00 IGhost Town ADIN d29 00 14 50 Golden Voyage ADIN d29.00 14.50 ! Gruds in Space SRSS d27 50 llnfidel INFO d37.50 DLords of Darma AHGC 14.50 [ IMission Impossible ADIN d29.00 14 50 Mission Asteroid SOL d14.50 IMystery Fun House ADIN d29.00 14.50 □0'Riley's Mine DSFT d21 .50 21 50 I Pirate's Adventure ADIN d29.00 14.50 I Pyramid of Doom ADIN d29.00 14.50 □Roman Empire MCLO 12.50 TJSavage Island 1, 2 ADIN d29.00 14.50 I Snooper Troops: Casel SPNK d28 00 □Snooper Troops: Case2 SPNK d28.00 [ Snowball LEV9 9.50 Spy Strikes Back PENG d14.30 ! Spy's Demise PENG 15.95 ^Starcross INFO d29.00 Strange Odyssey ADIN d29.00 14.50 ; Suspend INFO d35.00 I Temple of Apshai EPYX d29.00 t The Adventure of Proto EDUC d17.95 17.95 I IThe Count ADIN d29.00 14.50 ; Upper Reaches of Apshai APYX d13 50 13.50 IVoodoo Castle ADIN d29.00 14.50: Witness INFO d35. 00 IWizard of War ROCK r29.95 Zork I, II, III INFO d29 .00

BBC

Adventure Quest LEV9 9.50 Arrow of Death I, II CB 9.95 Battlezone 2000 MCLD 6 95 JCastle of Riddles ACRN 9.95 r Circus DGTL 9.95 I Colossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 Conflict MART 14.75 I Countdown to Doom ACRN 9.95 Dictator DKTR 6.95 Dragonquest BYTE 11 50 Dragon Adventure LEV9 9.50 t lEscape from Pulsar7 DGTL 9.95 □ Feasibility Experiment DGTL 9 95 Galaxy Conflict MART 14.75 ::johnny Reb MCLO 6 95 Kingdom of Hamil ACRN 9.95 Old Father Time BYTE 9 50 I Paras MCLD 6.95 Perseus and Andromeda DGTL 9 95 Pharaoh's Tomb A&FS 7 99 [ Philosapher's Quest ACRN 9 95 Roman Empire MCLD 6.95 I Snowball LEV9 9.50 MSpace Kingdom SFA 7.95 Sphinx Adventure ACRN 9.95 Ten Little Indians DGTL 9.95 I The Hobbit MELH 14 50 The Golden Baton DGTL 9 95 The Time Machine DGTL 9.95 I The Wizard Akyrz DGTL 9.95 I Time Traveller SULI 7.95 □Tower of Altos A&FS 6.90

COMMODORE 64

□Adventure Quest LEV9 9.50 I Alice In Wonderland ADGC d27 50 r JArrow of Death 1, 11 C8 9.95 Aztec Tomb AGTA 7.75 Blade of Blackpoole SRSS (J27.50 [ Circus C8 9.95 Colossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 I Conflict MART 14 75

□ Cosmic Capers SSFT d10 00 7 50 Xrush Crumble Chomp EPYX d21 .50 I ! Curse of Ra EPYX 13.50 ! Deadline INFO d34 50 Dungeon Adventure LEV9 9 50 Enchanter INFO d37 95 Escape from Pulsar7 C8 9 95 I Feasibility Exit C8 9.95 L JFool's Gold ROMK 6.75 Forbidden Forest COSM 11.95 Galaxy Conflict MART 14.75 Gateway to* Apshai EPYX r26 00 : Goblin Towers DDGY d10.50 9.00 □Golden Baton C8 9 95 JGruds in Space SRSS d27 50 □High Flyer CBMS d14 95 nin Search of the Most Amazing Thing SPNK d21.50 ! llnfidel INFO d37 50 r Knights of the Desert STSI d29.00 29.00 I Midway Campaign AHGC 1 1 50 □0'Rileys Mine DSFT <J21 50 21 50 ! Perseus & Adromeda C8 9.95 : Planetfall INFO d35.00 [ Ring of Power 0UIK 9.95 □Ship of the Line SHEP 6 50 i Snooper Troops: Casel SPNK d28.00 I Snooper Troops: Case2 SPNK d28.00

□ Snowball LEV9 9.50 HStarcross INFO d29.00 □Suspended INFO d36 00 I ISword of Fargoal EPYX d20.50 20 50 I ITelengard AHGC 16.50 [JTemple of Apshai EPYX r20 50 20.50 7 Ten Little Indians C8 9.95 I :The Cracks of Fire SSFT dIO.OO 7.50 I IThe Hobbit MELH 14 50 DIN Island SPRB 9.75 I IThe Streets of London SSFT d10.50 9.00 □Time Machine C8 9 95 I Token of Ghall INTM 6.75 □Tombs of Xeiops ROMK 6 75 . Upper Reaches of Apshai EPYX d13 50 13 50 T Witness INFO d35.00 Wizard of Akyrz C8 9 95 Zork I, II, III INFO d29.00

VIC 20

(minimum expansion required: * 3K ** 8K *** 16K or E)

Adventureland CBM d9.99 I Animal Magic ROMK 5 99 ; Curse of the Werewolf (E) TERM 9.95 Dark Dungeons {***) ANRG 5 95 F Dracula + Last in the Dark ANRG 5.95 Dlnto the Labyrinth ABCS 5.99 Magic Mirror (E TERM 9.95 C Mission Impossible CBM 9.99 LNosferatu (**) TERM 9.95 : Pharoah's Tomb ('") ANRG 5.95

Pirate Cove CBM 9 99 HRescue from the Castle Dread (E) TERM 9 95 Strategic Advance (E) CBM 9.99 ( ISword of Hrakel (*) ROMK 5.99 The Count CBM 9 99 The Dungeons (***) ANRG 5.95 I The Golden Apples (**) ROMK 4.99 l The Wizard and Princess MELH 5.95 i Tomb of Drewan (E) ADGC 12.95 DTrader QUIK 14.95 Voodoo Castle CBM 9.99 I IZak s Kingdom (***) ANRG 5.95 □Zorgon's Kingdom (*#) ROMK 6 99

DRAGON

Alien Odyssey BMBY 9.95 I IBIack Sanctum DD 7.95 □Calisto Island DD 7.95 i Castle Adventure VIRG 6.95 Conflict MART 14.75 L Deadwood A&FS 6 90

□ Deadwood A&FS 6.90 I Dragon Mountain DD 7.95 DEI Diablero DD 7.95 [Escape MIDL 8.00 Final Countdown DD 7.95 □ Galaxy Conflict MART 14.75 □Golden Apples BMBY 5 95 Into the Labyrinth ABCS 5 99: Jerusalem Adventure MIDL 8.00 nKeys of Roth CORE 6.95 [ Keys of the Wizard MIDL 8.00 i Madness and the Minotaur DD 7.95 I Mansion of Doom Dd 7.95 DMansion Adventurel MIDL 8.00 ; Pelopannesian War MCLO 6.95 Pettigrews Diary (3-part) SHRD 7.95 I Phantom Slayer MIDL 8.00' Pirate ABCO 8.50

Planetary Trader BMBY 5.95 DPoseidon Adventure DD 7.95 l lQuest DD 7.95 I Roman Empire MCLO 6.95

□ Samurai Warrior MCLO 6 95 I iScanner 13 BMBY 8.45 Space Monopoly MIDL 8.00 I JSTalag/Eno DD 7 95

□Super Spy SHEP 6.50 I Surprise BMBY 8.95 □Translyvanian Tower SHEP 6.50 [ ITyrant of Athens MCLO 6.95 Ultimate Adventure MIDL 8.00 I Warlord MCLO 6 95

□ Williamsburg Boulevard MIDL 8.00

ZX SPECTRUM (48K)

□Airline CCS 6.00 I Auto Chef CCS 6 00 ! Adventure Quest LEV9 9 50 DArrow of Death I, II C8 9.95 Bedlam MCLO 5.95 HBIack Crystal CARN 7.50 L_ Circus DGTL 9.95 □Collossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 Colossal Caves CPS 6.95

□ Conflict Mart 11 .95 □ Confrontation MCLO 7.95 - Corn Cropper CC 6.00 I Dallas CCS 6.00 I Dictator DKTR 5.95

□ Domain ABCS 4.95 nDreadnaughtsn MCLO 5.95

□ Dungeon Adventure LEV9 9.50 ZDungeon Master CRYS 7 50 : Embassy Assault SINC 4 95 I Escape from Pulsar 7 DGTL 9.95 Espionage Island ARTC 6.95 ^Everest Ascent SHEP 6.50 Faust's Folly ABBX 5.95 ; Feasibility Experiment DGTL 9.95 HGalaxy Conflict MART 11.95 □Golden Apple ARTC 6.95 "Halls of Things CRYS 7.50 □Inca Curse ARTC 6.95 ^Invincible Island SHEP 6 50 □Johnny Reb MCLO 5.50 JMad Martha MIGN 5.50

□ Mines of Saturn/Return MIGN 5 50 Perseus and Andromeda DGTL 9.95 aPlanet of Death ARTC 6.95 HPrint Shop CCS 6.00 □Privateer MCLO 4.50 LJRedweed MCLO 5.50 iJRescue CORE 5.95 DRoman Empire MCLO 5.50

□ Ship of the Line SHEP 6.50 Ship of Doom ARTC 6 95 □Snowball LEV9 9.50 L Sorcerer's Castle MIGN 5.50 □Space Island TERM 5.95 □Stargazer s Secrets CORE 5 95

ISuper Spy SHEP 6 50 LlTen Little Indians DGTL 9.95 IThe Castle BYTE 6.95 : IThe Crypt CARN 4.95 I The Golden Baton DGTL 9.95 ! :The Hobbit MELH 14.50 i IThe Incredible Adventure CORE 5.95 : The Korth Trilogy 1: Escape from Arkaron PENG 4 95 QThe Korth Trilogy 2: Beseiged PENG 4.95 :^The Korth Trilogy 3: Into the Empire PENG 4 95 ! The Time Machine DGTL 9.95 DThe Warlock of Firetop Mountain PENG 6.95 I IThe Wizard Akyrz DGTL 9.95 □Time Traveller SULI 7.95 UTrader QUIK 9.95 □Translyvanian Tower SHEP 6.50 CTyrant of Athens MCLO 5.50 □Valhalla LGND 14.95 ! Vampire Village TERM 6.95 □Volcanic Dungeon CARN 5.00 [ Warlord MCLO 5.50 □Woods of Winter CORE 5.95 I Wrath of Magra CARN 12.50

ZX81

□Adventure BYTE 5 95 I IBIack Crystal CARN 7.50 Conflict MART 1 1 95 ( I Damsel and the Beast BYTE 6.50

Dictator BYTE 9 00 □Espionage Island ARTC 5.95 : Galaxy Conflict MART 11.95 ilnca Curse ARTC 5 95 I iMarchant of Venus CRYS 5.50 I Ocean Trader QUIK 3 95 Peloponnesian War MCLO 4.50 I ;Pioneer Trail QUIK 3 95 Planet of Death ARTC 5.95 Privateer MCLO 4 50 : Roman Empire MCLO 4.50 I Samurai Warrior MCLO 4 50 Ship of Doom ARTC 5.95 [ The Island CRYS 7 50 Trader QUIK 9.95 □Tyrant of Athens MCLO 4.50 □Volcanic Dungeon CARN 5.00 I Warlord MCLD 4 50 Wumpus Adventure CARN 5.00

IBM PC

(may require graphics board)

Curse of Ra EPYX 13 50 I Crush Crumble Chop EPYX d21 50 Dark Crystal SOL 627 50 Deadline INFO d34. 50 □Enchanter INFO d37.95 I llnfidel INFO d37 50 I Midway Campaign AHGC 15.00 I ISnooper Troops: Casel SPNK d28 00 I ISnooper Troops: Case2 SPNK d28 00 I Starcross INFO d29.00 Temple of Apshai EPYX d29 00 I Ulysses and the Golden Fleece SOL d25 50 I ;Upper Reaches of Apshai EPYX d13.50 I Witness INFO d35.00 Zork I, II, III INFO d29.00

APPLE II

Adventureland ADIN d29.00 I Blade of Blackpoole SRSS d27.50 I Castle Wolfenstein MUSE d21 .50 Cranston Manor SOL d21 .50 I Crush Crumble Chomp EPYX d21 50 □Deadline INFO d34.50 I Empire of the Overmind AHGC d25.00 22.00 [Enchanter INFO d37 95 Ghost Town ADIN d29.00 Golden Voyage ADIN d29.00 I Gruds in Space SRSS d27.50 Infidel INFO d37 50 ! Knight of Diamonds SIRT d25.00 [ Legacy of Llylgamon SIRT d29.00 !" Lords of Karma AHGC 14.50 I Mission Impossible ADIN d29 00

Mission Asteroid SOL d 1 4 . 50 IMystery Fun House ADIN d29 00 [ IMystery House SOL d14 .50 I Pirate s Adventure Adin d29.00 I Pyramid of Doom ADIN d29 00 i Savage Island 1 and 2 ADIN d29.00 : Spy Strikes Back PENG d14 30 [ Starcross INFO d29 00 Strange Odyssey ADIN d29.00 C Suspended INFO d35.00 I Temple of Apshai EPYX d29.00 IThe Count ADIN d29 00 Time Zone SOL d24 00

Ulysses and the Golden Fleece SOL d24 00 I JUpper Reaches of Apshai EPYX d13.50 I Voodoo Castle AdlN d29.00 [ Witness INFO d35.00 I Wizard and the Princess SOL d21 50 Wizardry SIRT d36.00 IZork I. II. Ill INFO d29 00

TEXAS TI99/ 4a

(* require Adventure & Pirate ROM)

□ Adventure* Pirate TEX r24 95 Adventureland Tex 14 95

□ Chisolm Trail TEX r19 95 I Ghost Town (•) TEX 14.95

□ Mission Impossible (*)TEX 14.95 Pyramid of Doom (*) TEX 14.95 : lavage Island 1, 2 Tex 14.95 Strange Odyssy (*) TEX 14.95 I The Count (*)TEX 14 95 The Golden Voyage (•) TEX 14 95 Tombstone City TEX r14 95

LYNX

□Adventure Quest LEV9 9.50 : .Colossal Adventure LEV9 9 50 Dungeon Adventure LEV9 9 50 Snowball LEV9 9.50

ORIC

□Adventure Quest LEV9 9.50 I Castle BYTE 6 95 □Colossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 Death Satellite A&FS 6.90 Dungeon Adventure LEV9 9 50 Johnny Reb MCLO 6 95 : Snowball LEV9 9.50 : ^The Hobbit MELH 14 50 □Zodiac A&FS 6.90

NASCOM

Adventure Quest LEV9 9 50 Colossal Adventure LEV9 9.50 TDungeon Adventure LEV9 9.50 Snowball LEV9 9.50

TRS 80

(* Model 1. ** Model 2. Model 3)

□ Deadline (* and '*) INFO d34 50 Empire of the Overmind AHGC d25.00 22.00 I Knights of the Desert STSI d29 00 29.00 L Lords of Karma AHGC 14 50 Midway Campaign AHGC 11 50 i Planetfall (***) INFO d35.00

Starcross (* and "*) INFO d29.00 I Witness INFO d35 00

55

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^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The software list shows, in order, the product name, producer and price (prefixed to indicate: r cartridge, d disk and no prefix for cassette). Producers are abbreviated to identify like-named products for price checking and ordering. Please make cheques/PO's payable to The DGH Software Centre. Postage and packing free! Remember to specify choice of cassette, disk or cartridge where choice available. Telephone hot-line for credit card orders only: 0227 266289

X-X-X:

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ware

10 North Street, Ashford, Kent.

A division of T Denne & Sons Ltd

18 Micro Adventurer February 1984

micro

How

computer

develops

skills

English

Lyman Alpha describes how a computer acquires the skill

of English comprehension

INPUT sentences

DOES sentences HAVE A SPACE IN IT?

NO

	[yes
verb$ = LEFT SIDE OF THE sentences
nounS m RIGHT SIDE OF THE sentences
FIND verb code.

verbS =	sentences
nounS = ""

A

DOES THE PROGRAM RECOGNISE THE VERB?

YES

FIND noun code.

NO	PRINT UNKNOWN WORD

A

DOES THE PROGRAM RECOGNISE THE NOUN?

NO

YES

ON verb code GOSUB

Mm

—

I AM SURE you have wondered at least once while playing an adventure game how the devil you would make a micro understand the English commands and that it might be complicated.

Well, it is not all that difficult to program a computer to interpret English, making it more comprehensible to the computer. I will give you several example routines with differing levels of complexity. But I shall not deal with individual sub-routines for commands such as GET and INVENTORY as they can differ widely with one's needs.

Starting from the basic (verb) (noun) format I shall describe how to deal with even the most complex sentence comprising (verb) (article) (adjective) (noun)

(and/then) ( ) (and/then) ...format.

You should then be able to add a rather sophisticated sub-routine, enabling you to input a sentence such as: GET THE RED APPLE AND EAT IT THEN DRINK THE LEMONADE. (The basics (verb) or (verb) (noun) format)

In order to make the computer understand what you have typed in, the program has to replace the sentence with token numbers. It is vital to tokenise all verbs and nouns you want in your adventure program since the computer can handle numbers much more effectively than strings.

To illustrate this point, let us say that we want the program to GET LAMP and we had assigned numbers 2 to the verb GET and 3 to the noun LAMP. Once you have converted the verb to a number you can use it to lead the computer to the right sub- routine using ON GOSUB ...........

The GET subroutine will add item number 3 to your inventory and remove it from that location. Because the program uses token numbers it is more simple and structured.

Take a look at program 1 (written in BBC Basic) and flow chart 1, which deals with replacing simple (verb) (noun) commands with token numbers. The first line after the input of sentences is to see if the command consists of a single verb or (verb) (noun). If it is just a single verb let verbS equal to sentences, or split sentences into verbS and nounS respectively. It then finds the tokens for the verb and the noun and sees if they are the words recognised by the program. If they are not it tells you so and goes back to the beginning of the program. The program then uses ON verb code GOSUB ...... to

call the required sub-routine.

The function FNfindverb compares verbS with words in the dictionary DATA file. If the REPEAT-UNTIL loop gets to the dummy string 12345 then the function returns TRUE. TRUE indicates that the verb was not recognised by the program. The function FNfindnoun does exactly the same for nounS.

Let's add definite and indefinite articles and pronouns so that the commands are grammatically correct and more elegant. Add lines 461 to 464 to program 1. These lines will do everything necessary to cater for the additional format. The line 461 sees if the noun was "IT" then returns the

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 19

IMAGIN

RICHARD SHEPHERD SOFTWARE

Devils off the Deep

Discover the secrets of Atlantis as you wander amongst its ancient columns. Explore the 1 00 deadly sectors of its treacherous seabed ! Beware of giant

eels! £6.50

f ■■■

CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 06286 63531 (24 HOURS)

NS

YtV

SUTSSL SPY

A spine chilling adventure ... efcr via the (Mhgeon ... navigate your way through 500 3-D foclft ...

survive the swooping vampire bats ... reacieie terrifying top ... confront and kill Count Kreepie, ridding the world of this Transylvanian Terror.

Can you survive the Top of The Tower? £6.50

RICHARD SHEPHERD

S

RICHARD SHEPHERD SOFTWARE

■> •

m

■

■

K

All programs are sold subject to the condition that they may not. Dy way of trade or otherwise, De lent, hired out. resold or otherwise circulated without the written permission or Richard Shepherd

t

Selected titles available from

I — ~Z~7 1

■

rORES

3»';t j / y \\ 0£J.»

uesttof,ndThe . Seven Parchments of Xaro and their meaning! Wil they lead you to undreamt of treasures or erernal doom? Explore the mysteries of the stockade and puzzle within the Pagoda! A spectacular split screen graphic and text adventure to braintease^ you for weeks! »

Adventurous graphics for every location.^] Save routine. £6.50

RICHARD SHEPHERD

*

u . V It

SOFTWA

jS^ip oftfu hint

RICHARD SHEPHERD

SOFTWARE

Ship off the Line

Command a sailing ship, juggle your supplies, crew and firepower. Fearlessly battle your way up the admiralty ladder, bribe Sea Lords as necessary until you make First Sea Lord! £6.50

CREDIT CARD HOTLINE 06286 63531 (24 HOURS)

DI^U A DnisCUCDUCnn

SOFTWARE

ELM HOUSE, 23-25 ELMSHOTT LANE, CIPPENHAM, SLOUGH, BERKSHIRE.

All programs are sold subject to the condition that they may not, Dy way of trade or otherwise, he lent, hired out, resold or otherwise circulated without the written permission or Richard Shepherd

SCENT

Everest Ascent

Conquer the world's highest peak in defiance of all the obstacles, man and nature can throw at you. Survive avalanches, cross bottomless crevasses, cope with wayward Sherpas — but don't run out of supplies! £6.50

previous noun code. If there is no previous noun code then it sets it to 0, which is the code for no noun.

Lines 462 to 464 test if the articles come before the noun then gets rid of them. The length of the noun$ is checked because the BBC 0.S has an obscure bug that causes a crush in certain conditions. (See BBC manual under INSTR).

To input a sentence for multiple functions using conjunctions (AND) and (THEN) add procedure PROCandthen and lines 101, 111, and 190 to the original program (see addition 2). The line 101 tests if sentences includes (AND) or (THEN), calls PROCandthen and jumps line 120. The line 111 sets sentences to nothing. The line 190 tests if there are any more commands left in the sentences to deal with and guides the program to the right place.

PROCandthen firstly replaces (THEN) with (AND) if there is any (THEN) in sentences. It then stores the bit to be sorted out first to tempS and put the rest back to sentences to be dealt with later. The variable tempS is split up to verbS and nounS.

Let's add adjectives to make things pretty. I assume that the adjectives are unimportant and are merely cosmetic. Add line 465. This filters out the noun.

Listing 2 is the final version of the sentence interpreter. This should cover most things you are likely to input during an adventure game. It is easy to expand further. What this boils down to is the following: separate the words you have to deal with and replace the words with token code numbers.

The final program is about 2K bytes. But I have used the memory inefficiently to make the program easier to read. You can replace the long variable words, delete the unnecessary lines and use multi-statement lines. It should reduce to about IK. 7D

le

28 38 40 58 68 78 88 98 188 110

REM REM REM REM REM REM REM

SENTENCE INTERPRETER ( 1> <VERB> OR OJERB> <NOUN> FORMAT

, sentence*

") THEN verb*=LEFT*< sentence*, INSTR<sentence*f ■

)> ELSE verb$=sentenc«

130 140 150 160 170 180 198 280 218 228 238 240 250 268 278 288 290 300 310 320 338 348 358 368 378 380 390 400 418 420 430 440 450 460 478 488 498 500 510 520 530 540 550 560 570

INPUT- INPUT COMMAND" IF INSTR< sentence*,- :noun*=RI6HT*< sen tence*,LEN( sentence*) -INSTRC sen tence* , ■ •

*snoun*=" ■

120 verbcode«FN-f i ndverb

IF verbcode=TRUE THEN PRINT" Unknown verb /B ;verb$}B'

nouncode=FN-f i ndnoun

IF nouncode*TRUE THEN PRINT" Unknown noun "jnounij" PRlNT"verb»" ;verb*;TAB< 15) ■ verbcode=" ;verbcode PRINT"noun=" ;noun*;TAB< 15) ■ nouncod©"" ;nouncode ON verbcode 60SUB 240,250,260,270,280,290 GOTO108

)-l)

: GOTO 100

: GOTO 100

REM ADD YOUR SUBROUTINES HERE

RETURN: REM RETURN; REM RETURN: REM RETURN: REM RETURN: REM RETURN: REM

MOVEMENT SUBROUTINE GET SUBROUTINE DROP SUBROUTINE LOOK SUBROUTINE HELP SUBROUTINE INVENTORY

OR word*=verb*

=TRUE

DEFFN-f indverb RESTORE 410 IX=0 REPEAT

READ word*

ix=i/.+ 1

UNTIL word*=" 12345" IF word*=" 12345" THEN

=r/

DATA GO , GET , DROP , LOOK , HELP , I NVENTORY DATA 12345

DEFFN-f i ndnoun IF noun*="" THEN =0 RESTORE 550 IX=0 REPEAT

READ word*

155-I5i* 1

UNTIL word*=" 12345" IF word*=" 12345" THEN = IX

DATA NORTH , SOUTH , EAST , WEST DATA LAMP, GOLD, RING, ARROW, MATCH

DATA 12345

OR word*=noun* =TRUE

> ADDITION 1 (LINES 461-464)

461 IF noun$="IT" THEN =nouncode

462 IF INSTRCnoun*,-A ■> THEN noun*=RIGHT*C noun*, LENC noun*) -2)

463 IF INSTRC noun*, "AN ") THEN noun*=RI GHT*C noun*, LEN< noun*) -3)

464 IF INSTRC noun*, -THE "> THEN noun*=RI GHT*C noun* , LENC noun*) -4)

AND ") OR INSTRC sen tence* ,

> ADDITION 2 181 IF LENCsentence*)>7 THEN IF INSTR< sen tence* , •

THEN °> THEN PROCandthen : GOTO 128 111 sentence*25" "

198 IF sentence*<>"- THEN GOTO 181 ELSE GOTO 188 688 DEFPROCandthen 618 posi t ion=8

628 IF INSTR( sen tence*, " THEN " > THEN sen tence*=LEFT*< sen tence*, INSTR( sen tence *," THEN "))+"AND -+RIGHT*Csentence*,LENCsentence*) -INSTRC sen tence* , " THEN ")-5> 638 posi tion=INSTRC sentence*," AND * ) 648 temp*=LEFT*< sen tence* , posi t i on- 1)

658 sen tence*=R16HT*< sen tence*,LEN< sen tence*) -posi tion-4)

668 IF INSTRC temp*," ") THEN verb*=LEFT*< temp* , INSTRC temp* , " "> -1) :noun*=RIGHT *Ctemp*,LENC temp*) -INSTRC temp*,- ")) ELSE verb*=temp* : noun*=" " 678 ENDPROC

> ADDITION 3

465 IF LENCnoun*)>2 THEN IF INSTRC noun*, » ») THEN noun*=RI 6HT*C noun* , LENC noun* )-INSTRCnoun*," -))

22 Micro Adventurer February 1984

micro

Variety in war game scenarios

Adventure Confrontation

Micro Spectrum 48K Price

£7.95 Format Cassette

Supplier MC Lothlorien, 4

Granby Rd, Cheadle Hulme,

Cheadle, Cheshire.

HAVING already sampled

Lothlorien's wares in the form

of Johnny Reb I jumped at the

chance of trying out one of

their latest offerings, Confrontation.

This is basically a design- your-own-battle package and will do for wargaming what The Quill has done for text adventures.

After loading, the screen displays the seven options available, which include all the necessary routines to enable you to set up and play almost any 20th century battle you can think of.

The final option allows you to load a pre-designed scenario from tape and they have, thoughtfully, included one. Entitled Two Rivers it is a land and air battle revolving around the sovereignty of six cities three of which, initially, are controlled by each side.

Most movement commands can be entered by the cursor keys, which is a welcome simplification.

This is not the type of game where you play against the computer. It is specifically designed for two humans (remember them? They used to live here before we got computers) to sit down and settle their differences on a battlefield.

The two armies are depicted as red and blue forces, along very similar lines to those used by the British Army on man- oeuvres.

Unit types are only shown when typing in orders or when actually engaged in combat. Your opponent might know the position of your forces but cannot know what they are until he meets them in battle. This tends to resemble the secrecy one might find in real warfare, which lends itself to some highly tactical play.

For setting up your scenario the package caters for all types of terrain, dwelling and arms,

©IFF

What's on the way in the adventure world — if you have a new adventure, war game or real-life simulation which you are about to release send a copy and accompanying details to Software Inventory, Micro Adventurer, 12-13 Little Newport St, London WC2R 3LD

except nuclear which is understandable.

The cassette is value for money and comes in a sturdy case with clear instructions. My review copy had a couple of small bugs but I expect these will have been ironed out in the finished version. SC

Gold

diggers'

delight

Adventure Greedy Gulch Micro Spectrum 48K Price £4.95 Format Cassette Supplier Phipps Associates, 99 East Stt Epsom, Surrey. EVER SINCE The Hobbit proved that it could be done on a tape-based system companies have been producing graphical adventure games in ever- increasing numbers.

A common theme is to set your adventure way out west, and although some of the results resemble more the antics of Laurel and Hardy than they do a good adventure, Greedy Gulch happily falls into the latter category.

The idea of the game is to find a gold nugget buried out deep in the desert, retrieve it and bring it back to town.

This, as you might imagine, is not as easy as it sounds. Before you can even con- template going across the desert you'll have to find a map, find the word that the program understands before you can study the map, and then get bored to death while the computer insists on drawing the same picture on the screen about 10 times.

There are plenty of other hazards to overcome in town, and while it's difficult to describe some of them without giving too much away, you will have fun trying to open the safe, read the hotel register, and get some water from the pump.

As the game progresses the problems begin to pile in on you, and if you ever think you've got enough material to contemplate crossing the desert, it's a wise idea to take advantage of the game's LOAD and SAVE features before attempting to go any further.

For each step along the way, after you've reached the mine that hides the precious nugget, you'll have another problem to solve. And you can bet your bottom dollar that the object

needed to solve the problem has been left behind in town.

Since the desert at this point is strictly one way (I think), you'll either have to start all over again, or reload a pre- viously saved game.

The graphics presented on the screen are an uneasy mix of pictures of some of the locations and maps of the town. Although the maps are drawn with commendable speed, the locations take much too long to come up, and the

detail shown is far from staggering.

The cassette inlay card boasts a 'machine coded English command line scan- ner', which is supposed to speed up word recognition. It doesn't, and the vocabulary appears to be fairly limited.

One final gripe. Don't try to speak into the program by pressing the caps shift and break key, since all you'll get is a little copyright message on the screen and the program stops. The only solution is to disconnect your Spectrum and start again.

This is not up to the extremely

high standards set by The Hobbit, but for just £4.95 you'll get your money's worth. PG

Haunting treasure

hunt

Adventure House of Death Micro Oric I, 48K only Price £9.99 Format Cassette Supplier Tansofl Ltd, 3 Club Mews, Market Square, Ely, Cambs.

THIS game is set in an old house that was once used to film horror movies, but which was abandoned after real hauntings took place.

The aim of the game is to find five treasures and exit with your life.

Once the program has loacf- ed a piece of muted music plays, followed by a hi-res drawing of the exterior of the house. After this its back to text only, accompanied by a time display on the top-left of the screen.

There are occasional sound effects thrown in, but some are so quiet that I was left wondering why they took the trouble to include them.

You begin at the front door, which has a bell and a brass knocker.

Strike the knocker and there is a ding-dong sound. Push the bell and you guessed it knock knock. Maybe it's a poltergeist playing tricks.

The house contains ap- proximately 30 rooms — hard- ly the vast game promised by the cassette insert. My biggest complaint however, is that finding four of the treasures required little ingenuity. In [>

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 23

<] fact, I completed this game in just under eight hours.

The program is written in Basic, so the responses are slow. And life is made easier for cheats since neither the CTRL C nor the RESET func- tion are disabled, making it very easy to break into and list the program.

Despite these faults there are some fun moments in this game, and had it been priced around a fiver I would have recommended it as a beginner's game. As it stands though, at £9.99 this game is over-priced. JM

NT

«■■■

^5

ORIC HOTSE OF

ADVENTURE \

Graphics double the fun

Adventure Twin Kingdom Valley Micro BBC B Price £9.95 Format Cassette Supplier Bug-Byte, Mulberry House, Canning Place, Liverpool.

IT SEEMED inevitable that, sooner or later, a graphic adventure would turn up for the BBC machine.

The graphics are the program's main selling marking the 'dawn of a new era in graphic adventures', according to Bug-Byte at least.

There are more than 175 pictures in Twin Kingdom Valley, drawn on the Mode 2 screen. This leaves about 10K for the game (and all the picture information). Even so, this is a perfectly playable adventure.

The setting for the action is a valley ruled by two kings and inhabited by goblins, elves and other standard fantasy creatures. You have a number

of strength points to start with, which tend to vanish alarm- ingly quickly once the game gets going.

There are assorted items of treasure to be collected, which add to your score. At the start there is a list to choose from regarding the format and display of graphics. You can have full graphics, no graphics and long and short descriptions of the locations.

A full list of the program's vocabulary is given both in the game and on the instruction sheet supplied. The sheet also gives a few clues and a general background.

Five command words are given to the graphics. The picture-making capabilities of the computer are exploited excellently in most drawings, which appear very quickly on- screen.

Because, however, the pro- gram uses Mode 2, any picture must vanish for text, which is a great shame but unavoidable. Objects and characters are not displayed in the pictures.

The number of objects you can carry is small. The intention is to have them given to the other characters to keep

Warlock casts his spell

Adventure The Warlock of Firetop Mountain Micro Spectrum 48K Price £6. 95 Format Cassette Supplier Puffin Books, Penguin Books Ltd, Bath Rd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

PENGUIN Books starts with a distinct advantage over most software companies: ex- perience.

This is evident in the excellent packaging of Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It comes in a custom-designed package including the best- selling fighting-fancy game book which inspired it.

The game loads easily and comprehensive instructions are displayed. These are a little for- midable, since it takes no less than 19 keystrokes to control the action. When you think you have them memorized you can proceed to the animated adventure.

Your task is to collect 15 keys with which to unlock the warlock's treasure chest, and to escape alive. To do this you control the swift, smooth actions of a little stick-man as you search a vast maze, which

is different each time you play. Armed with a sword and a bow you combat the spiders, warriors "and slime monsters which try to bar your way. Action is very slick and well animated. The game is com- pulsive and highly enter- taining.

It is also, as some of you may have noticed, rather similar to the popular Halls of the Things. Indeed it is so similar that it would be point- less buvine both games.

The great advantage of Warlock is that you get the book as well. It bears scant resemblance to the game, being a kind of solo Dungeons and Dragons type of adventure.

You play it using pencil, paper and dice, with the book providing all the scenarios and problems. The experience is very similar to playing a traditional text adventure. All in all, Warlock of Firetop Mountain is highly recom- mended. DD

The dragon from Warlock of Firetop Mountain

FORTH! 32K BBC MICRO

temporarily. To get back you have to use ASK or kill whoever is keeping the object. As far as I can see, they either let you have it or make an attempt to kill you — usually successfully.

Once you meet an even mildly belligerent character, the strength points begin to disappear as he and you battle, dungeons and dragons style.

One feature of Twin King- dom Valley occurs at the end of every game and is really inexcusable. After you die, or Quit, the program stops and cannot be restarted. This means a wait of five minutes to reload the program, or, since the SAVE and LOAD position commands still work, a LOAD of position at the start of the game. But the omission of 'Another game (Y/N)' is, to me, a pointless one.

Twin Kingdom Valley is an involved and difficult ad- venture. As the instructions say, 'You are beset by puzzles at every step', which means it will take some time to solve.

The excellent graphics add to the enjoyment, which is only detracted from by the fact that, to stay in the game, you must be extra careful. This ad- venture is sure to become a classic. MW

Aladdin's lamp

goes out

Adventure The Stolen Lamp Micro BBC 32 K Price £6.95 Format Cassette Supplier MC Lothlorien, 56A Park Lane, Poynton, Cheshire. THE GRAND Vizier has just stolen the Emperor's favourite

24 Micro Adventurer February 1984

I

r\ ni*i*cron_

lamp. The lamp is an heirloom passed down through the generations since the days of Aladdin.

So starts the adventure of The Stolen Lamp in old Baghdad. As usual it's up to you find and return the lamp and all you have to aid you is an old coin and a hand grenade;

seems like a friendly object to be carrying about. Luckily the pin is in, but I suspect you'll end up chucking it at some poor Vizier before the night is out, or perhaps at your micro if things get too tough.' But problems in old Baghdad are not what they used to be and seasoned adventurers should not have to burn much midnight oil in their lamps to solve this Arabian tale.

The game is a mixture of Mode 7 text and Mode 5 graphics, which of course restricts the amount of store available for the game.

But the result is a rather short game with occasional locations fairly crudely dis- played.

The game has SAVE and RESTORE commands to allow it to be continued at a later time. Abbreviations of com- mands are accepted although this can lead to unfortunate accidents. In response to

Darkest Africa

beckons

Adventure Jungle Search Micro Dragon 32 Price £6.00 Format Cassette Supplier Omega Software, 38 Hammond Avenue, Bacup, Lanes.

YOU ARE the sole survivor of a plane crash in darkest Africa, and the task before you is to find the legendary elephants' graveyard.

Not a very difficult task in this case as you are already equipped with almost everything you might need, and given a list of the commands available for you to use — two lists actually, one on the cassette inlay and another in the program itself (and no, they aren't the same).

This adventure is written in BASIC, but the response times are quite fast as there are so few options available to you. It is almost, but not quite, text

my command "SMASH PI" (smash pickpocket) this was interpreted as SMASH PIN, and as I was carrying the hand grenade at the time it all got very messy.

I should mention that the pickpocket was quite happy to steal things endlessly from me, even when I didn't have anything to steal. Perhaps they have imported a few Irish pickpockets into the casbah. A small random element has been injected into each new game which changes the effect of some magic words already played. The game has no new surprises.

In some places the game will inform you of the legal commands it will accept, which on occasions tend to give you more clues than you need. My initial response to the game was favourable. At present there are few BBC adventures incorporating graphics.

However, as the graphics are crude I think Teletext graphics would have achieved the same effect, thus releasing more store in which a larger game could have been produced.

The result is a cheap and cheerful adventure with nothing new, which will amuse but not strain the brain cells too much. AM

only. There is one small sequence of graphics, but you could easily overlook it.

There are various hazards on your way, or rather out of your way in most cases. I discovered after completing a map of the game that the shortest route to the graveyard is only around 20 moves long.

Some of the hazards are invariably fatal, some are occasionally fatal and the rest are mostly very easy to overcome. The wild animals generally die when shot or stabbed, but they are resur- rected if you are unwise enough to retrace your steps.

I remember from my school- days that alpha stood for excellent, beta for good. . . . Omega Software would seem, from this game, to be quite appropriately named.

The plot is uninspired, the location descriptions brief and repetitive, the puzzles un- puzzling, and as there are now so many good adventures available for the Dragon this one really doesn't deserve serious consideration. MN

Trilogy scores on strategy and logic

Adventures Escape from Arkaron, Besieged, Into the

Empire Micro Spectrum 16K or 48K Format Cassettes Price £4.95 each Supplier Puffin Books, Penguin Books Ltd, Bath Rd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex.

THIS trilogy is of the zap and strategy variety. The Korth Empire is invading; can you repel it?

The programs contain one or two nice touches, such as

choice of your control keys on the zap games and choice of objective on the strateev same in Escape from Arkaron.

I must say that 4shoot 'em up' games leave me somewhat colder than Skegness on a wet Whit-Monday, but kids seem to like them.

But where the Korth Trilogy really scores is its strategy programs, with at least one on each tape. I'm a great fan of strategy games, and the logic required for kids has got to be educational.

The raid game in part one lets you enter your moves up to six turns in advance, not easy when you don't know what the enemy is doing to do.

I particularly enjoyed Empire, the final program of part three, which is easily the best version I have seen of the Hamurabi genre.

The idea is that the Empire computer has broken down and you have to control production of three essential commodities on 30 individual planets. Full information is available on all 30 planets and overall performance is updated in bar graph form.

I would say that Korth is aimed mainly at the eight to 14 years age group, although there are a couple of programs I shall do again.

The trilogy is presented as a

- -

series of program packs. It was released by Puffin Books for the Spectrum, which easily has the biggest market for young computer addicts.

I ought to add that these packages are not adventures. For £4.95 you get a 50 page paperback book which, as you would expect from Puffin, is of excellent quality. You also get a cassette (surprise, surprise), which contains three

programs, and both these items come inside a nice plastic display wallet.

The idea is that you read the book and then play the three games which are related to it.

It is not essential to buy all three packages, or even to buy them in order, as they are self- contained. The second and third books give a brief resume of what has gone before. Neither is it essential to read the book before doing the game.

By no stretch of my vivid imagination could I class myself in the age group at which Korth is aimed so my views have to be based accordingly.

My conclusions are that you shouldn't buy Korth if you are expecting a true adventure and, that you shouldn't expect the earth for £4.95. However, at this price they do represent good value. PM □

BESIEGE

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 25

A NEW WORLD OF ADVENTURE

i

BLACK CRYSTAL A'CRTP^

BLACK CRYSTAL

A THIRD CONTINENT SERIES ADVENTURE

The Classic, six program adventure game for the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX81 computers No software collection is complete without it. "Black Crystal an excellent graphics adventure and a well thought out package " Sinclair User. April 83 "Black Crystal has impressed me by its sheer quantity and generally high quality of presentation. I am afraid I have become an addict. " Home Computing Weekly April '83 Spectrum 48K 180K of program in six parts only £7.50

ZX81 16K over 100K of program in seven parts only £7.50 WHY PAY MORE FOR LESS OF AN ADVENTURE?

THE CRYPT by Stephen Renton

Prepare yourself for the many challenges that shall confront you when you dare to enter THE CRYPT. You will battle with giant scorpions. Hell spawn, Craners. Pos- - Negs and if you are unlucky enough — the Dark Cyclops in / this arcade style adventure.

w Available for the 48K Spectrum at

£4.95

ADVENTURES

m

I

R FORCE a

THE ADVENTURES OF ST. BERNARD

A classic text style adventure in the realms of fantasy

An exciting, fast moving, machine code, arcade game where you guide your intrepid St Bernard through the perils of the icy wastelands to rescue his Mistress from the clutches of the abominable snowman.

Available for 48K Spectrum £5.95

VOLCANIC DUNGEON

A THIRD CONTINENT SERIES

ADVENTURE

Enter the realm of Myth and Magic in this classic Fantasy Adventure. Battle with Magra and her Evil Allies to rescue the Elfin Princess Imprisoned in a Crystal Coffin Deep within the Volcanic Dungeon. Random Dungeon set ups ensure that you can play this addictive adventure over and over again. Single- key entry cuts out tiresome typing associated with other Text Adventures. Instruction Manual with Map of Dungeon enclosed

"The whole game mechanism makes for a very Addictive Program, and one that remains a firm favourite with many Adventurers."

Popular Computing Weekly, June 1983

For the 48K Spectrum or ZX-81 16K @ £5.00

STARFORCE ONE

Take on the robot guardians of the central computer in a superbly stylised three dimensional battle game. (100°/o machine code arcade action)

Available for 48K Spectrum £5.95

THE DEVIL RIDES IN

I uttered the last incantations as the clock struck thirteen All fell silent except for a faint rustling in the corner. From out of the shadows they came, all Hells fury against me but I was not defenseless until the Angel of Death, astride a winged horse, joined the battle Avoiding his bolts of hell fire. I took careful aim. My chances were slim, but

my luck held

(Fast moving, machine code, all action, Arcade game)

Available for 48K Spectrum £5.95

pgVil Ripes in

The above are available through most good computer stores or direct from:

CARNELL SOFTWARE LTD.,

North Weylands Ind. Est., Molesey Road, Hersham, Surrey KT12 3PL.

DEALERS: Contact us for your nearest wholesaler.

CARNELL SOFTWARE LTD

Beat Nelson or

Napoleon

their

own war games

Ron Stewart studied two popular war games and offers tactical advice to the budding general or admiral

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS ago a company called Avalon Hill published, in the United States, the first board wargame called Tactics.

Since then a whole industry has developed to cater for the budding general admiral or squadron leader. The games produced today are as far removed from Tactics as the valve is from the microprocessor. Rulebooks often run to more than 30 pages and allow for most eventualities.

Lone players

Wargaming gives you the chance to see if you would have made a better general than Napoleon or Rommel. Perhaps if you had been captain the Bismark would not have been sunk or your frigate not outgunned by Nelson's Victory. The choice is endless.

Because of the difficulty of finding people prepared to sit down and play these simulations, many gamers have to play solo, trying to optimise the strategy for both sides. This system is, of course, open to abuse. When the computer came along- many gamers saw their chance to program the computer to play the other side.

Early computers did have limitations and this idea was not totally successful. In the beginning most experienced gamers were able to beat the computer with ease. Things have now changed and, with the advent of more powerful computers, the pro- grammers are catching up and making the computer more and more difficult to beat.

One of the most prolific companies to produce wargames for the computer is Strategic Simulations Incorporated (SSI). Their games are written, in the main, for the Atari, Apple and TRS80 computers. I will compare one of their offerings, Battle for Normandy, a game simulating the D-Day landings, with a new release on the market called Operation Whirlwind, which is published by Broderbund for the Atari.

Battle for Normandy comes in a flat bookshelf-sized box. In the program disk or cassette, player aid cards and a manual.

The first lesson in wargame strategy is read the manual. Don't try to absorb it all in one reading. Just glance over all the rules and gain a rough idea in your mind of what is going on.

Load the game into the computer, set it on its lowest level and get the feel of moving and firing the units available to you. It will be helpful at this stage to look at the forces at your command and get to know their strengths and weaknesses. This also applies to the enemy forces. Look for a weak point, it may be useful later.

Now go back and reread the instructions fully. In a game such as Battle for Normandy you will have to take into account weather and logistics. If the weather is bad you will not get supplies from the ports across the channel, neither will your forces receive air support.

The manual gives you a percentage probability chart covering the period of the invasion. Keep this in mind when ordering supplies.

Six directions

The most important section of the rules to read is the one setting out your victory conditions. In Battle for Normandy you receive victory points for capturing certain towns and pushing the German forces indland.

Identify these points on the map. When playing the game keep them in mind all the time. If you grab extra points here and there do so, it might make all the difference later.

Movement of both forces on the map is controlled by hexagons. This means that from any point on the map a unit can move in any of six directions. Each unit is allocated movement points. While a unit will only expend one point moving through clear terrain it will use up four crossing a swamp hex.

Terrain also effects the way a unit fights. Units defending in the thick bocage hedgerows that proliferate in Normandy will have their fighting ability doubled while

the attackers will have an adverse modifier slapped on them.

Combat in Battle for Normandy is simply executed. Battle is joined when opposite forces come into contact with each other. Every unit on the board has a zone of control. When a unit comes into contact with one of these zones it must stop. The concept is based on the premise that when a force meets another it will be fired upon.

These zones can also effect movement. It will use up more points to disengage a unit from the battle. Each unit has combat points. When battle is commenced the computer looks at all the units taking part and totals their combat points. It then reduces them to a ratio and modifies it for terrain.

A unit's combat effectiveness can be changed if it has not received any supplies either due to the weather or its distance from a supply unit. In Battle for Normandy you can alter the ferociousness of the attack from armed reconnaissance to our all out attack.

Infantry divisions

If all this seems a lot to keep in mind don't worry. After playing the game a couple of times you will soon get the hang of it.

In Battle for Normandy you must capture and hold the towns of Cherbourg, Caen and St Lo. Historically the allies drove east across the Cherbourg peninsula cutting of the city before assaulting it. To do this in Battle for Normandy is wasteful of time and units. The optimum strategy, I have found is to send a couple of strong infantry divisions and an armoured unit around the coast.

The coast hexes are clear terrain and will not modify the German defence points so you will be able to move faster and eliminate the German unit quicker.

In every game I have played so far the computer has only sent one unit north to reinforce the three units defending Cherbourg. Try to take it as early in the game as possible. It gains extra points and we all know what points make don't we?

As well as capturing Cherbourg your forces must clear the Germans out of the coastal zone. To win the game it will also be necessary to capture St. Lo or at least part of Caen.

Other basic strategies can be used to assist you in your fight. Get the four armoured divisions into action as soon as possible, keeping them in the thick of the action as long as possible. Don't waste time in low-odds attacks. All this will do is deplete your units out quickly making them useless in the latter part of the game.

This is a strategy to be kept in mind when playing all wargames. Your units must last the complete game otherwise the enemy

28 Micro Adventurer February 1984

nmicron
SXfYFTnh FT

might be tempted to counter-attack. If a unit gets low on strength remove it from the front line and allow it to build up again.

Battle for Normandy is one of the best wargames for beginners to cut their teeth on. It includes most of the features that are found on board wargames. The graphics are good and it will take a lot of time to find the optimum strategy. The variables, such as weather, make each game different and unpredictable.

Superior weapons

Operation Whirlwind is newly released from Broderbund for Atari's 48K. This game is of a more general nature. In fact it is as different from Battle for Normandy as chalk is from cheese.

The map board is once again displayed on the screen and scrolls very smoothly, with roads, streams and woods shown clearly. The forces involved are not named and neither is the time period. You could be fighting the Russians in Stalingrad or the allies in the Ardennes.

Your object is to capture and hold a town against numerically larger forces. Your forces are equipped with superior weapons and firepower. The game can be split into two separate parts. The first is the rush to capture the town. The second is to set up defences for the counter-attack that is sure to follow.

Your forces consist of heavy and medium armour, infantry, artillery and engineers for building bridges. Each type of unit is identified by a different motif. Movement is regulated by squares and not hexes and the combat system has been simplified. Once again terrain affects the units' movement range but when you are getting near the limit the control cursor turns purple. If you proceed any further, the unit in question might not be able to fire in the combat- phase.

This game is so freewheeling that it is difficult to define any hard and fast strategy. Your main objective must be to take the town before round 10 of the 35 that make up the game. This is quite easy when you are playing on the easy levels. On the harder ones it becomes an exciting race against time.

Unwary enemy

Once installed in the town you will have to form a defensive wall. It is here that you must take into account the range of the units. I have found it easier to place the heavy long-range tanks just on the outskirts of town with a clear field of fire.

The infantry I place three squares apart. Two squares is the infantry range. This means that anything coming into range can be shot at by two units. When forming a defence such as this, always place units

Part of the batik map for Operation Whirlwind with markers depicting points of strategic importance

behind the front line in a chequer-board pattern. Second line units can plug any holes that form or fire at an unwary opponent who strays too close.

Overall, Operation Whirlwind is a wargame suited for the novice and ex- perienced wargamer. It is easy to under- stand and you can start to play the game quickly. The rules booklet is one of the best I have seen and must count now as an

industry standard. Not only is it easy to read but there are no less than eight pages of hints and tips on the strategy to use.

Elusive clues

If, like me, you get fed up zapping aliens or chasing elusive clues around a computer adventure, try a wargame and get the old grey matter working in a different dir- ection.

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 29

novevou B€€n invoLV€D in o

mVST€RIOUS

n

Turning fantasy into code

ADVENTURE PROGRAMS are a special form of database program. This is why it is quite easy to develop generators, which, given a description of an adventure, will produce a working program.

Normally adventure programs have two main tasks: interpreting the commands typed in by the user and moving the user around the map.

Simple operations

The detailed description of how this is achieved is beyond the scope of this article but a brief description is given as follows: at the simplest level a command from a user consists of two parts the verb (VP) and the noun (NP). For example a typical phrase in adventure games is: GET KNIFE. The adventure program would split this into two parts: GET (VP) KNIFE (NP)

The system would then find the verb part in a list of verbs and GOSUB to a

After planning an adventure game you must convert it into a computer program, and Andrew Pepper explains how

subroutine which obeys it. In our example there would be a subroutine which obeys the "GET" command. It would check the noun part "KNIFE" to make sure you were not already carrying it, check that it was in the room, check that you could carry it and, finally, get it, add it to your list of objects and remove it from the room.

I know this sounds complicated but, in fact, it is a series of simple operations (like most computer programs) and providing you keep your head when writing the code it is quite simple to write. But my main concern is with the development of the database.

100

no 120

130 135 140 150 160 170 130 185 190 200 210 220 225 230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 320 330 340 400

REM **********#*#*****#*****###*###***#*#*##****#*♦##*##

REM *** Deio PrwaiB 1 - The Ice Planet REM

PRINT Oeio 1 ***" REM *** Start uo in room i, r = 1 RESTORE

FOR i = 1 TO r

READ n*. d*. r*

NEXT i

PRINT

PRINT n$

PRINT

PRINT d$

PRINT

D$ = "!l

PRINT "Enter direction (N. E. S. W)": INPUT a$

IF a$ = "N" THEN o* = MD$ir*.1.21 "EH THEN o* = MID$(r$.3.2) BSH THEN d* = MIDI(r$.5.2) nW" THEN o$ = MID*(r$.7.2) " THEN 220 ■-" THEN 330 PRINT "Can't ao that wav froi here" GOTO 220

r = VAL(o$) GOTO 150

DATA Transoorter Rooi.You are in orbit around an iced covered olanet,— 02—

IF a$ = IF a* = IF a* = IF o$ = IFo$ <>

410 DATA Planet Surface. You are on an icy plain hi th a blizzard blowing. — 030401

420 DATA Frozen lake. You are bv the edoe of a frozen lake. A sian savs thin ice. --04--02

430 DATA Cave entrance. The cave is dark and forboding. 020506—

435 DATA Inside cave. There is a little light froi the entrance. 0604

440 DATA Back of cave. You are at the rear of the cave. 0507

450 DATA Top of ice mountain. You are on the oeak of an icv (fountain.-- 01— 06

How the database is organised is something you have to think carefully about. For each room the following is required: the name of the room, a description of the room, the routes to other rooms. There may be more information that you wish to store, a short and long description for example, but we will try to keep it simple.

One way you could organize the data is to have three string arrays to hold the three types of information, say N$ for the name, D$ for the description and R$ for the routes. This allows you to display the name of room 10 by typing: PRINT N$(10). The description is produced by typing: PRINT D$(10).

Alternatives

You could have the contents of the three arrays held in data statements in the program. When the program was RUN the data would be READ into the arrays. But this is inefficient. The data, in effect, is stored twice, once in the source code of the program and again in the array. It is far more efficient to store the data on cassette and load the program in two halves, one part loads the main processing part of the program. When this program is run it loads the second half of the program into the arrays. If your machine can arrange for programs to be LOADed and RUN in one go, this could be done without the user knowing. See figure 1 for a diagram showing this.

An alternative method of storing the database is as a series of DATA statements. To read in the data for a particular room the program starts at the first DATA statement and reads through all of them until it reaches the room required. This is slower than storing the information in an array but makes development easier as the adventure is now one file rather than two.

Four paths

This second technique will be used for our program examples. It is less machine dependent, (the listings with this article are written in ANSI standard Basic, as used on the NewBrain). Designing a database is really about rules what form the database must take. For example, if the rule is made that there can be a maximum of four paths leading from one room (going north, east, south or west) then this information could be held for each room as a string showing the room number to which a particular route will take us. Suppose we are currently in room 10, the route string might look like this: "11 — 0912" The system decodes this into the following form: if you go north then you enter room 11. You cannot go east. If you go south then you enter room nine. If you go west then you enter room 12.

With this in mind look at the simple adventure in program 1. It prints up a description of each location and asks for a direction. It takes the direction you enter

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 31

i 00 REM t*#*t*»** + *t*t******#*»** **************

110 REM Deao oroaraa 2. Data deconoression

120 REM

130 PRINT "#« Deao 2

140 DIM c$(10)

150 c$(0) 152 c$(i) 154 c*(2) 156 ct(3) 158 c$(4) 160 c*(5) 162 c*(6)

"You are in"

"the air is"

"It is dark"

"saall"

"laroe"

Vooi"

"corridor"

240 REM

250 REM **** take in D$ and disolav. decoioressino as we ao. 260 REM

263 PRINT .

265 PRINT "Enter strino to decoapress": 270 LINPUT d* 280 FOR i = 1 TO LENidl) 290 IF HIDKdl.i.l) <> "\" 300 c$ = MID$(d*.i+l.l) 310 c = VAL(cl) 320 PRINT c$(c): 330 i = i + 1 400 NEXT i 410 60T0 260

THEN PRINT MID$(d$.i .1): : GOTO 400

and displays the new room you are in.

This is the type of low level program I used when developing a database. It lets me check that the routes make sense and gives me some idea of what the program will be like to use.

One hint when developing this program if you start the DATA statements on a conveniently numbered line-number (say 1001) then it will be easy to find the data statement for a particular room. Room one's data is on line 1001, room two's on 1002 and so on.

If you look at the descriptions of rooms in the example program you will notice that the same phrases crop up several times. It is possible to make use of this fact to compress the data. Commonly occuring phrases are not typed into the data base over and over again. They are stored in a separate array. If we are using C$() to hold the phrases then we could set up the array like this:

C$(0) = "Your are" C$(l) = "the air is" C$(2) = "It is dark" and so on.

We now have to arrange that these phrases can simply be inserted into the descriptions before printing. A simple way is to use a special character as an escape character, which would be treated specially by the system. Suppose we choose the backslash character "/".

The string: "/0 in a small room. /2 and /l damp." should expand to: You are in a small room. It is dark and the air is damp.

This gives a saving of about 30% over the

original . The code that converts the form is very simple and is shown in program 2. When this program is run you will be asked for a string to decompress. Try entering the following: Enter string to decompress? /0 a /3 /5. /2 and /l cold. The system will produce: You are in a small room. It is dark and the air is cold.

This gives a better than two-to-one compression.

If your machine has an INSTR instruction then it is possible to speed up the search for the escape character. One obvious point. This program assumes that the character following the backslash is a number. If you feed it with a string which has a backslash without a number after it then it will produce a BASIC error.

Planning

If you want more than 10 built-in phrases (/0 to /9) then you could use the letters (/A to /Z). Line 310 in the program will have to be changed to read: 310 c = ASC(c$) — 65 This converts a letter between A and Z to a number between 0 and 25.

There are some improvements that could be made to the example programs. The description should be split into 30-40 character chunks before being printed, and the coding could be performed in a more compact form. But the programs were designed as examples of the techniques used.

Remember to plan ahead when writing any program. Decide what the program should do before writing it. That way you can tell if it is working or not. From the

LOAD Main Prograa.

Progru Starts RUNning.

Data it load ad into array.

examples I have given try building up towards a full adventure. Hopefully, it will seem easy, several simple elements linked together.

There are refinements you could add. In role playing games players are given random characteristics: LUCK, STRENGTH, COMBAT and HEALTH for example. These could be used in an adventure game to decide whether a particular task is possible or not. This adds a random factor to the game that should make it interesting to play even when the game is completely mapped out.

Remember that an adventure can be any dream you want to have, writing the game can be an adventure in itself. The user is only a puppet controlled by the program. You are playing God and defining a whole universe.

To obtain a copy of the first part of this article, How to write your own adventure, send a stamped addressed envelope to, Micro Adventurer, 12-13 Little Newport St, London WC2R 3LD.D

32 Micro Adventurer February 1984

I Doric Computer Services

Present

AN AMAZING NEW ADVENTURE GAME WITH ANIMATED f GRAPHICS FEATURING:-

• A completely new cave layout, monster position and event sequence generated lor every game.

A time limit 01 5 'days* on every adventure.

• Continuously displayed high resolution graphics and text.

• All monsters, articles and locations depicted to a level of detail that pushes SPECTRUM graphics to the limit.

"The closest yet to a true animated graphic adventure... ...excellent value tor money." POPULAR COMPUTING WEEKLY.

FOR THE

48K SPECTRUM

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Programs from readers this month include the second part of Castaway, a game for the ZX Spectrum by Keith Parrock. After a shipwreck you find yourself on a tropical island. While wandering around looking for materials that could be used to repair your boat you stumble across an Inca temple and other indications that the

island might be inhabited. Roger Thomas in Sussex has written a program that provides

LEFTS, RIGHTS and MID$ equivalents for the Spectrum.

Send us your adventure listings — modules which readers can

incorporate into their own games, short adventures and useful programming routines are all welcome. Please send us a printout and cassette along with a general description of the program and details of how it is constructed and can be used. If you want

us to return your program, enclose a stamped, addressed

envelope. If you have any queries on the listings, write to the appropriate author, Your Adventures, Micro Adventurer, 12-13 Little Newport St, London

WC2R 3LD

Survival in the South Pacific

A ZX Spectrum game from Keith Parrock in Middlesex

IN THE second part of Castaway you begin to explore the island on which your boat has been shipwrecked. While looking for

some life necessities you find an Incan temple.

If you would like a copy of the first part of Castaway send a stamped address envelope to Castaway, 12-13 Little Newport St, London WC2R 3LD.

8052		"battery "
3053	DfiTR	" lizard"
5054	DRTR	"spear "
S055	DRTR	"P t e ranodon **
8056	DRTm	"i»ai rsai i "
8057 S50D 3501	DRTfi REM DRTR	"crow ba r " ■ I ■ HH —
3502	DRTR	2 . Z f Z
3503	DhTR	10 ,z,z
3504-	DRTR	Z jZ ,z
3505	DRTR	10 . z . s
3506	DRTR	10^2.2
3507	DRTR	Z j Z j 2
OD08	Dm i R	10 , Z , 10
3509	DRTR	10,2,2
55 10	DRTR	-1,57,2
3311	DRTR	-1 , 14.0 . 2
3512	DRTR	-1 . 200 . 2
S513	DRTR	-1 , 200, 2
3514-	DRTR	10,2, 2
3515	DfiTR
3513	DRTR	^ ^ ? ^
5517	DRTR	2,2,2
5518	DRTR	2,2,2	Zi = t.	DRTR	10,2	, 3
3513	DRTR	2 , Z , f 3 -CS	3534	DRTR	10 , 2	, 2
3520	DRTR	Z , Z , f 3 - CS	3333	DRTR	-1 , 150 , 2
	DRTR	z , z , fa -cs	3536	DRTR	2,2,	f a -cs
3522	DRTR	2 .2, f a -cs	3537	DRTR	10, 2	2
3523	DRTR	2,2, f 3 - CS	3533	DRTR	2 , 65	2
3524	DRTR	2 , 4-5 , 2	3533	DRTR	2,2,	F a -cs
3525	DRTR	-1 . 115,1	354-0	DRTR	10 , 2	, 6
3526	DRTR	-1 , 1S5 , 2	354-1	DRTR	10 . 2	, 2
3 527	DRTR	2 , 4- 9 , 2	3542	DRTR	10 . 2
3323	DhTR	10,2 , 11	SS4.3	DRTR	10, 2	', 2
3523	DRTR	-1 , 130 , 2	3544	DRTR	10,2	, 2
3330	DRTR	2 , 50 , 2	3545	DRTR	10 . 2
3531	DRTR	10 . 60, 5	3546	DRTR	2,2,	f a - cs
3532	DRTR	10 ,2,7	S547 ■	DRTR	2,2,	fa-cs

An option for string slicing

LEFTS, RIGHTS and MIDS equivalents for the Spectrum, from Roger Thomas in Sussex.

ALTHOUGH THE Spectrum's system of Fortunately this listing solves the string slicing is very neat and logical it is problem by giving you equivalents for quite different from the usual format. LEFTS RIGHTS and MIDS.

1 DEF FN S = ( ffl<=LEN (A>1_EN R$y *LEN r$:>

=H$ I T O F N f

I 1 V

R $ i ; ~ * ... j-i > { i_ N ft 4s - F

N S fj?$.,AJ *1 TO LtN H$*l.R<=LEN fl$ i 1

4- DEF FN M* f H, B\ ss f " >; FN S f ^ Rj j ■+- iUEN < > 3.3 + {« =s®3 TO fFN o < =LEN Rj$} * { F.N 3 IF

LET N* = "

FN FN FN

IS

H0

PRINT PRZNT STOP

.HIE>$RieHT$"

fN*, Si fN*, & y 4- j

34 Micro Adventurer February 1984

r~\

nmicroi

354-3 3549

DfiTfi 10,2 ,2 DfiTfi 10,2 ,2 DRTfi lB^Z.Z DfiTfi 10,2,2 DfiTfi 10 , Z , 15 -1, 165, Z 80, Z

DfiTfi DfiTfi

8557

DfiTfi -i,67,Z DfiTfi 10,Z,14. DfiTfi Z,Z, Z

9000 REM

9001 DfiTfi "amid the totalwreckag e of your boat which has been wa shed ashore. The beach £cr* SI retches north and south. Ahead t here is a p I a t eau . . . " , 2 , 10 , z , z .. l

J5^ Jj£

9002 DfiTfi "some distance from th e wreckage. fi small groupof palm

trees lies to the east. To the^ west lies a small cove...",z,l,w

9003 ' DfiTfi "among a group of palm trees swaying in what breeze

there is. Coconuts hang down by the hundreds...", 4., z,z, 2, z,z,z

3004- DfiTfi e$,5,3,6,7,I,Z,I

9005 DfiTfi "at a small cove. T

here are signs of life here, w ith the presence of marKsin the sand in the shape of fooiprz nts. . . ",z,4-,2,z,z,z,z 9005 DfiTfi e $ , z , 4- , 8 , z , z , z , z 9007 DfiTfi e*,4-,9,Z,8,Z,Z,Z 3008 DfiTfi e*, 6, 72, 7, Z fZ Z fZ

9009 DfiTfi e*,7,Z,Z,Z,Z,Z,Z

9010 DfiTfi "overlooking a reef of f the shore. The ♦a tar isso Clea r that the bottom of the ocean i s visible. . . " , 1 , 11 , z , Z , Z , Z , z

9011 DfiTfi "standing atongthe sho re. Facing you the surf rolls i n constantly. Tropical birds f l y overhead. . . " , 10 , 4- 1 .. 12 , z z z , z

3012 DfiTfi e$,Z , 14-, 13 ., 11, Z ,Z ,Z 9013 DfiTfi "outside a tiny bam boo hut. There is a door madeof cane facing you. . . " , 57 , z , z , 1 2 ., z , z , z

3014 DfiTfi £$,2,2,2,12,2,2,2

9015 DfiTfi "standing atop a plate

a u . Below your wreckage is clea

riy visible. From this vantage

point the ocean files the vie

w to the horizon. Tiny round m

arks can be seen in the sand...

" ,2,17,16,2,2,1,1

3018 DfiTfi "on the other side of the plateau. The beach is no i

o n g e r in sight. . . " , z , IS , z , z , 15 , z

7 Z

9017 DfiTfi "siowiy sink ins in to dr U sand- inch by inch you are be a ng buried alive by the sliding

sand...",z,z,z,z,z.. z,z

9018 DfiTfi "at the edge ofa dense Jungle. The sunlight is only

st visible through the thick g rowth of vegetation. . .",16,2,19,

■2" 2T -Z 2T

3019 DfiTfi p $ , 20, 26 , 24 , IS, Z , Z Z

3020 DfiTfi p$,21, 19,23,2 ,Z ,Z,Z

302 1 DfiTfi P * , z , Z , 22 , 20 , Z , Z , Z

3022 DfiTfi p$, Z , 21,53, 23, Z ,Z , Z

3023 DfiTfi p $ , 20 , Z , 22 ,24,2,2,2

3024 DfiTfi p$,19,23,Z,

302S DfiTfi "outside an

inca te

isple. By chance you have found » t, hidden deep in the jungle.

It's walls are made of white s tone, sloping towards thesky..." Z, Z,Z, 2,24., 27, Z

Q026 DfiTfi "at a clearing in the jungle, fi huge tree f a cesyou, i t s leaves reaching to the g»ound.

Its top is out of sight far a bo ve . . . " , 19, z ,z ,z ,z , z , z 9027 DfiTfi "inside the temple.

Torches burn from wait bracket s to provide light to seeby. sev erai piles of various weapons

are scattered over the granite

floor. From the east endcold ai

% t

,z,z.

, z

r roeets your face.. *"> z 16

9023 DfiTfi "in a narrow corrida r. sloping downwards. Theiight i s failing here, making ..each st ep slow and ponde r o us... ,z,z,z,

SS^I'Dfiffi k$,Z,Z,31,33,Z,30,Z

9030 DfiTfi k*, Z,Z,Z,Z, 29, X,Z

9031 DfiTfi k*,29,38,Z , 32, 3*, Z , Z

9032 DfiTfi "in an inner chamber , deep inside the temple. There x s a sign upon the temple wall...

" , 105 , 10S , 31 , 105 , 105 , 105 , 2

9033 DfiTfi k$,Z ,37,29,z ,Z ,Z,Z 9034. DfiTfi k Z,Z, 2,39,^5, 31, Z 9035 DfiTfi "in the centre of what

must once have been the Inca s sacrifice chamber, one block of white granite **a"2s^ before you. . . " , z , 4.0 , 37 , z , 36 , 34- , z 3036 DfiTfi "at a clearing in the jungle. Several trees areiying a round, chopped down very recenti

u . . .",23,2,95,2,2,2,2 9037 DfiTfi K*,Z,35,33,Z,Z,Z,Z fi038 DfiTfi "in a side roomo f f the main chambers. There is a stron g smell of dead meat and a pile of droppings reaching up the wa «, i in the far corner...", 31, z,z,z

9039'DfiTfi "sinking in a sea o f sand. Unless you have with yo

u something to clear the sand 1.

would seem only a matter of time . . . " , 2 , z , z , z , 6 1 , z , z 904-0 DfiTfi "sinking m a sef,_0' sand, unless you have with u something to clear the sand it

would seem only a matter of tame

, , .'■ ,Z 2,2,2,61,2,2

304-1 DfiTfi "by a targe cS*f " ~

urf laps against the rockedge, a nd there is an engraving cut 1 n t o the rock. . .",11, 62, 42, 2,2, z,z 904-2 DfiTfi "at the opemngto the caves. Uater flows down into th e entrance, which is -^twade %n ough to en t e r . . . " , 2 , 2 , 43 , 41 , z , z

3043 DfiTfi C*,Z , 42, 4-4, 54-, z ,Z ,Z

3044 DfiTfi c* , 4.3, 4.9, 4-7, 4.=., z , z , z 304-5 DfiTfi C$,55,44. 4-6 , Z , Z , Z , Z 3046 DfiTfi C$,2,47,5fc,45,2,2,2 304-7 DfiTfi C$,44 , 4-8 , 4-6 , 2 , 2 , 2 , 2 9048 DfiTfi "at the north edge oj

a wide chasm. Rcross t heoth er s ide is a small ledge wideenough to travel along. ..",z, 50 , z , 4. 7 , z ,

904-9 DfiTfi C$,2,2,U,2,2,Z,2

3050 DfiTfi "at the south edge

a wide chais

R

; adder

of rope

forms a Kind of bridge ov&.r i c h you may cross. . .",4S,2,5i,

,2 .2 3

S85 1 '' DRTR "in a side cavewith si iiiiu walls. It is quite damp an here ..." ,52,2 ,2 ,50,2 ,z , z

9052 DfiTfi "facing so 12= ' c' K • ' he only exit is the way you <-a&r e in . . . " ,z ,51,2 ,2 ,2 ,2 ,2

Q053 DfiTfi "facing SOtia i u u k .

he only exit is the way you cau

e in..."/2.,2,50,2,2..2.,2

9054 DfiTfi "facmg solid ioa« { he only exit is the way you cam e in. . .",z,z, 43, z,z,z,z

9055 DfiTfi "facing solid rock, he only exit is the way you ca* e i n . . . " z , 45 , z z , z , z , z

3056 DfiTfi "facing solid ioa. i he only exit is the way you can

e in. . .",2,2,2,46,2,2,2

9057 DfiTfi "inside the bamboo hut. in a corner you see the rem ains of a burned meat. Sand l nes the f loo r . . . , z , 1j 2 , z,z , z , *

9058 DfiTfi "diving around the ree f. fi shark swims by .not n****1" g you in the clear, blue ouean ^ ur f . . . " z ,z ,z , z , z , z , 4.

9059 DfiTfi "in a deep man made Px t. The sides are made of ha»d e*p>

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 35

CHfinflEL

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WHAT IS THE SECRET OF THE STRANGE MACHINE IN THE DESERTED HOUSE ON THE MOORS

YOU ARE CHOSEN BY A RACE OF SUPER INTELLI- GENT BEINGS TO SAVE THEIR DYING RACE

LEFT ALONE ON A SPACE FREIGHTER WITH ONLY AN ESCAPED MONSTER FOR COMPANY

OUT OF PETROL ON A LONELY ROAD YOU SEEK HELP FROM THE NEARBY CIRCUS BUT THIS IS NO ORDINARY CIRCUS.

IF YOU CAN RESCUE THE KINGS DAUGHTER FROM THE EVIL WIZARD, FORTUNE WILL BE YOURS... FAIL AND YOU DIE

BATTLE WITH MONSTERS AND SUPERNATURAL POWERS IN THIS CLASSIC ADVENTURE

A TRAIN JOURNEY TO A STRANGE MANSION. WHAT SECRETS DO THE TEN IDOLS HOLD IF YOU LIVE LONG ENOUGH YOU MAY FIND OUT

FAST ACTION 3D MACHINE CODE SPACE SHOOT-OUT WITH SCROLLING IN ALL DIRECTIONS TRY TO SURVIVE THE WAVES OF ALIENS ZOOMING IN FROM THE DISTANT MOUNTAINS

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36 Micro Adventurer February 1984

<]rth and the top is four feet a k ove your head . Facing youis a s ? gn carved into the mud. . .">z,z,z , z , 60 , z z

9060 DfiTfi p 6 , Z , Z , Z Z .. Z ., 12

9061 DRTfi "in an escape hatch, after using the bucket tobai I ou t most of the sand.k."..35,i..z,z;

2 ,Z, 13

9062 DATA "following the shore l ine, as it bends first one way , then the other. . .",41,z,63,z,z

9063 DRTfi "finally at theend of the shore. To the east isa large

fail of rocks. Mist is spreadi ng across the g round ..." , z , z , 64- ,

62 , Z , Z , Z 4

9064 DRTfi "facing a largerocK fa il. The way f roi» here is narrow and littered with j»any fallen boulders. . .",2,66, &5 ,b3,91,Z,Z

9065 DfiTfi "the other sideof the fallen rocks. Host exits are bto eked and dan9erous...",64,z,z,z,

2 , z , z

9066 DfiTfi "in what must be some sort of burial grounds. You are in the north corner and high sc

a f fold constructions riseabove y ou all around. . .",64,69,6?,z,z,z

9067 DfiTfi "in the east corner of the burial grounds. Here an d there you can see a funeral

eyre . . . " , z , &B , 105 , 66 , z , z , z 3058 DfiTfi "in the west corner nf the burial q rounds. The gro und here has been wade flat by trapping feet, and the movemen : or heavy objects. . 67 .. 105 , ie

V £• Eg " SfiT fi" " i n the south corner of the burial grounds. Stroke d -ift_ across towards you -The fliis is once again rising here. . .

'■ 66,71.,65,70,Z,Z,Z

5070 DfiTfi "on the very per 2 met er of the burial grounds .You beg in to h ear the sound of the s u r f. The ocean must be nearat hand , . . " , 105,2, 69 , 63 , Z , Z , Z 90 7 1 DfiTfi "at the high altar.

Pldii! blocK of granite stands before you. steps lead u p t o w a r d s the huge stone. To the south t e re is o p e n 3 round. . . " , 69 , 92 , z ,

Z , 105 , z , z

9073 DfiTfi "on the far side 0/

the island. Dust rises in the distance and is blown high by

the wind. .." .2,73,6 , 76 , z , z , z 9073 DfiTfi "on the north end of 3 s fti a L l a i r s trip. Z t i s o we r g r« i«n with vegetation but no doubt s t i l I useable. . . ",72,74,2,z,z,z,z 9074. DfiTfi "at the south end of the air strip. uorK has been u n d e r taken along this side to prep are the landing strip foruse at s o me time...", 73 , z , z , 75 , z , z , z ^975 DfiTR "right in the centre ■ f the on I y r u n w a y . The wracKag S of a small private jet is off to one side...", 76 , z , 74. , z f z z , z 9076 DfiTfi "at the east end of a small air strip, in thedistanc s you see the wreckage o f a small

a i r c r a f t . . . z j 75 , 72 , 77 , z , z , z 9D77 DfiTfi "at the west end of a small air strip. Fietdsare to the left, where the air strip e nds . . . " , Z , 76 f 76 , Z , Z , z , Z

ground . ground

9078 DfiTfi "on unsteady Beneath your feet the

seems to move and nowhereis safe

mm.", 77 , 79 ,6S,Z,Z,Z,Z

9079 DfiTfi "at the edge ofa very Urge swamp. Movement is slow an d precarious. . . ",78,z,81,z,z,z,z

9080 DfiTfi "once more on apateh o unsteady ground, fill around

5 area the earth undaryour fe is as a giant sponge. .",z,Bl,

£6/75,2,2,2

th i

e t

9081 DfiTfi "in the heart of the swamp. Your shoes vanish briefly With each Step. . .",80,82,65,79,

3© Be"" DfiTfi "on a patch of ground with beaten down grass. The rem a ins of small animals liescatter sd nearby. . .",8l,z,63,84,z,z,z

•3083 DfiTfi "sinking into the swa np . The more you struggle the qui cker your movement to the bo tto».

It is obvious there is no (*ay to escape from here. . ,",z,z,z,z,

90siZDflTfi "at the edge o f the sva mpm It is as much as you can do to put one foot in front of the other...",85,z,82,z,z,z,r

3085 DfiTR "at the centre of the swamp area. You see siokedri f tin g up from somewhere c lose by . . . " ,

36 ,84- ,90, 81, Z,Z,Z

3086 DfiTfi "in a camp siteby a cl earing in the swamp, fi fire st ill smoulders, and two tin mug s of coffee rest on the top of

a nearby log . . . " , 67 , 85 , z , 80 , z , z ,

9087 DfiTfi "at the edge of the swa »p area. The camp fire issaoulde ring still close by . . . " , z , 86 , 88 ,

i^3 , z , z , z

3088 DfiTfi "in a clearing by the swamp. The ground is more firm he re . . . " ,z , z , z , 87, z , z , z

3089 DfiTfi "sinking in theswamp. There is no escape. The more yo u struggle against it the faster you sink down . , , " , z , z , z , z , x , z , z

3030 DfiTfi "sinking into the swa »P . You grab for any handhold, fc ut there are none. The end is close now...",z,z,z,z,z,z,z

3031 DfiTfi "buried under a pale of rocks. Suffocation is slow, t here is no way out from under h are) " z ,z,z,z,z,z,z

3032 DRTfi "looking at a een valley ahead, which

out before you. The grass

S waist h i gh . . . " , 97 , Z , 93 , 98 , Z , 71

3093 DRTfi "standing on the out er limits of the valley. The gra ss appears flattened by somethi ng with round . very heavyfeet. . .

" , Z , 96 , 34- , 32 , Z , Z , Z

9034- DfiTfi "following the edge of the valley. Bones lie onthe grc und, and the smell of death I

ingers in the a i r . . . " , z , 35 , z , 9

lush gr

z

9035 DfiTfi "facing the largest nest you have ever seen. 1 he occ upants, although stilt obvious ly chicks, are e x t r e m e t y large a nd bat-like...", 34 , z , 36, z , z , z , z 9®96 DfiTfi "moving deeper into tr> e valley. The grass is a little shorter now, making it easier to find your bearings. . .",93,101

Z 97 Z Z ■ Z

3097* DfiTfi "deep into the valley.

fi large bird flies over and rou

r»d marks appear on the ground. , , " , 100 , 32 , 36 , 96 , z , z , z

9098 DfiTfi "at the edge ofthe t us h valley. It is st r an geiysi lent here , as though time did not e ;< i st or had stood S t i t t . . . " , 92 , 99 ,

2 2 2 2

3®ss' DRTR "now having reached the far side of 1 1.^ u*i h-v alt*«. fi large bird flies over your he

ad and disappears over a distant hill..-"/ 98 , z , 100, z ,z , z , z

3100 DfiTfi "in a place which h as been forgotten by timealtoget her. Broken vegetation can be seen all around, fi deep mist sp reads across the ground towards

you. . . " , 104- , 37 , 10 1 , 99 , z , z , z

3101 DfiTfi "in a strange part of the valley. The ground has era

eked open, leaving a crater \>

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 37

SCR ADVENTURES present

CASTLE BLACKSTAR

A medieval fantasy for the Spectrum 48 K. The first of the ARTEMIS quests.

SCR Adventures has been set up to supply high quality adven- ture programs to the personal computer market. Written by dedicated adventure playersthey aim to provide a real challenge to the expert whilst still rewarding the efforts of the novice

CASTLE BLACKSTAR FEATURES

-fast machine code based program -save game and restart facilities -large vocabulary -over 200 seperate locations -sophisticated data compression to make full use of the Spectrum memory

-full of tricks, traps and puzzles WILL YOU BE ABLE TO -steal from the witch? -cross the lake?

-leave the chapel alive? -fly?

PERHAPS YOU MAY LIVE TO ATTAIN YOUR GOAL

YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED BY THE ARTEMIS

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME!

CASTLE BLACKSTAR

Please send me copies of Castle

Blackstar at £8.95 each

Make cheques/P.O's payable to SCR Adventures.

NAME.... ADDRESS

Send this coupon to: Dept MA2, SCR Adventures, 190, Shelbourne Rd., Tottenham,

London, N17 9YB.

O

\

The Ultimate Concept in Role-Playing Adventures * Graphical & Text Games * Customised Characters can be used again & again

* Game-Save facilities * Battle-Magic * Wandering Monsters * Hidden Treasures

The Runelord Masterpack (Character Generation Module plus

sample game) is now available for the ORIC-1 Each game can be played on its own or built into a massive 10 part quest! - new modules will be released over the next few months. Each game becomes increasingly more complex and will build into not just a game but a way of life!

RUNELORD Masterpack

7.50 incl

TOP QUALITY HARDWARE FROM MCP FOR

THE ORIC-1

GAMES CONSOLE - Speech synthesiser/joystick interface (Atari compatible) ORIC approved 79.35

PROGRAMMABLE JOYSTICK INTERFACE

23.70

RS232-C SWITCH - Allows switching between

two peripherals 37.00

ALL hardware, except RS232-C switch is modular and will plug into expansion port. Fully compatible with ORIC-1 peripherals

ALL PRICES INCLUDE VAT & P + P

E3

DEALER ENQUIRIES WELCOME.

MODULAR CONCEPT

PERIPHERALS

FREEPOST

SWANSEA SA8 4ZZ

38 Micro Adventurer February 1984

n rirUcrOn

< Just

" ,96.. 9102

of a ly w i ,z z ,

9103

fter wh i ch 9S. . . 9104- the d

the t hav z ,z , z

9105

narr

103, DfiTfi

larg der

z ,z

DflTfi a fa has

ow e 102.. "dy

e Cf than

nough to 100 *z ..z ,z in? at the ater. It w, i t seemed .

Jump . . .

hO ttOM ObVi OUS

z , z z

I ■

I ■

DPITfl

i nos expe e to , z

DRTR

lid

bro z ,z ,

"be aufs ri en

su f

eeding to death a own into thecrater ken both your le

z fz fz ,z

ing eaten byone of - How ever painful ce is, you will no fer long. . .",z,z,z,

z . z

;Z/

XF res >3 THE

me to

res = res +1 : N GO TO 9730

9710 PRIhtT - "DO you Wish

esurrect you?": PRUSE 0

9715 IF INKEY$="y" THEN GO TO 28

9720 IF INKEY$="n" THEN GO TO 90

9725 GO TO 9715

9728 LET 1=1: LET S C =s C -5 : IF <0 THEN LET S C =0

GO TO 50 I'm sorry, but I left to resurrect This ti»e l*« afr •the e^d

r

97

9729 PRINT

9730 PRINT ve no power ou rurthe.ru d it really R d=l TO 1©0

9800 REM

s c

ha

y

a i

NEXT d : SO TO

INK 1: PRPER 7: BORDER 7: C

LS

9810 PRINT

9820 PRINT '"IN THIS RDUENTURE V OU HRUE BEEN SHIPWRECKED OFF R 5 OUTH PACIFIC ISLRND. THE URECKRC- E FROM YOUR BORT IS URSHED UP O N SHORE . SOMEOF THE ITEMS MRY BE

USEFUL AND IT MRY BE POSSIBLE TO REPRIR THE BORT IF YOU CRN LOC RTE THE STOCKOF EQUIPMENT NECESS RRY TO DO SO. "

9830 PRINT "SCATTERED RROUND THE ISLRND YOU UILL FIND RLL THE RE

TO ENRBLE YOU TO SET

"GRTHEIR THIS EOUIPME WRECK RND UORK ON T UHEN YOU HRUE FOUND CRN CRST OFF. BUT Y OU UILL HRUE TO ESCRPE THE CHR5I NG NATIVES . "

9850 PRINT INK S ' "NOU PRESS R KE Y TO BEGIN YOUR LONG RND HOPEF SEARCH

9860 PRUSE 0: CLS : PRINT "DO YC U UISH TO RESTORE R PREUI OUSLY 5AUED RDUENTURE?" 9870 INPUT r$: IF r$="y" THEN PP. INT AT 2,0; "PRESS ENTER RND STAF TAPE": PAUSE 0: CLS : LOAD "C" IF r*="n" THEN CLS :

OU

SAIL . " 984.0 PRINT NT AT YOUR HE REFIT.

IT ALL YOU

9890 GO TO 9870 9900 REM

IF I > =72 RND t v

uatch your east-west passage

GO TO 1000

IF l>=92 AND U102 THEN PRI

NT '"Long ag^o strange creatures livedin such places as this": GO

TO 1000

9909 IF I =83 OR I =89 OR I =90 OR 1=102 OR 1=103 THEN PRINT '"YOU

are passed help now*": go to 10c 0

9910 print '"Sorry, but I'm a st ranger here myself"

9915 GO TO 1000 9920 REM

9925 IF S*="pull" THEN PRINT "If

you do, you'll split it"

9930 IF S*="run" THEN PRINT "YOU

coward "

9935 IF S*="ShOUt" THEN PRINT "i

would not do that if I were y

ou. You may awafcen soa>e thing r as ty "

994.0 IF S* = 'Search" THEN PRINT "

That is not the way to find out about things"

994-5 IF S$ = "hit" THEN PRINT "UiC

tence is the tss i resort of re a son"

9950 IF S*="Cli»b" THEN PRINT "£

verest isn't in this adventure"

9955 GO TO 1200

9980 REM II

9981 CLS ;

ve coliecte 3 1 to una b 1 recked boa t moves . "

PRINT AT IS, S; "Sou ha d enough u s e f u l a» a t e r 2

1 t

ou to r e p a i r y o u r

It took y o u

; mov

9982 PRUSE 220: POKE 53692 ,

"Sf to

forner c o t for homeus

PRINT

o»e w thing on , y he ch

9983 PRINT Off, i S 13

o m e t catc n a n o if a f s e l y & . "

9964- PRINT

ears far o

Fi

t an

ee ks .

like ou set art an

PAUSE

bo a t

its

sai d co

4-00 :

res to re of»e r

for ho pass . "

POKE 23

i * f * t I

r 9 W *

t akin nd whi hese p h sigh the r r t e r y o f o l low

9

one c h h a as t f t of unnin u e Th ed by

la

s

e w one

es«

592 ,

y o u s t 100 k a en y nths t i v e to t o a r v era

ifcO

na in

tw se

ter

SO»

ndi t ing

*

255 :

cas t th ou r

.. yo

, t h

he s

e el

l >">> o

1T5

V

PAUSE

r r

r 9 * # / *

are t h

u t now

750 : POKE 23692 255 : ' ' iih e i > 3

but yot/are too cau g h t by t h e at ,

r o w n , to be

they give up t h e h u

na I ly ,

d return to the sandy beac'

PAU5E

PRINT

at last, y o

9986* PRUSE PRINT

e as ant trip

4-00: POKE 23592.255:

........ f€

sail on ., bound f o r

* 'TAB 16.; "S " 'TRB 20; ' goodbye . *

9987 GO TO 998"?

9988 REM

1 IF 1>=1 RND 1<1B THEN

'"The grass is always gr n the other side of the hi l OO TO 1000

9902 IF 1>=1B RND I -.27 THEN

T "Tarzan use to swing on t

: GO TO 100©

9903 IF I > =2? RND lv39 THEN

'"Beware of Inca Spirits": TO 1000

9904- IF 1=39 OR 1=4.0 THEN PR "You need something to hold sand": GO TO 1000

IF 1>=4-1 RND 1:57 THEN

'"Rladdin worked wonders w one of .these": GO TO 1000 9905 IF 1>=B4- RND I (72 THEN

T„ ' "y?ly _P ?:§c?s require holy

INT

r o

l " : PR IN

has"

PR IN GO

INT

the

i th

act

9990 t o f

£5":

aga 9991

N GO 9993

5

9994-

PRINT "You scored ";sc;

-in rt;aov;

Qi:

ft> O *

print "Do you wish to star*

LET ffl$ = INKEY$: IF »>*=*" THE

TO 9991 r-. - -

IF m$( TO l)s"y" THEN GO f-

IF m$f. TO l>="n" THEN GO TC GO TO 9991 REM 2335*3

5RUE CLS SRUED

1 1

OP TRPE

% 1

b" LINE 50 PRINT RT 9

" ; RT 11,13;

d = I TO

I I

. IS. "RDUENT l; "ST NEXT d

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 39

m=CCMI= A SI-CRIST AGI : NT

Mission Software's complete package on Project Volcano, is probably the most advanced Adventure Computer Game Package you have considered this year. It is not just for the dedicated game player but for those that want to get involved in Secret Codes - Messages, and the seamy-side of DI6 (British Intelligence) and the K G B.

IT IS A MUST FOR THE SINCLAIR SPECTRUM 48K AND DRAGON 32 HOME COMPUTER OWNERS.

When you receive your Adventure Game from Mission Software Limited, included in the package is your Passport to the international workings of the Secret Agents. Your personalised Passport will assist you in negotiating the K.G.B. network in the Soviet Block Countries and vital to the success of your mission.

Command Headquarters will give you information that other Agents have recorded, together with their Communication Log. Mission Instructions, Secret Memos, Classified Diagram, Full Briefing Instructions and other Secret Data

ITS UP TO YOU TO BREAK THE CODE AND BECOME A SUCCESSFUL SECRET AGENT We rely upon our Agents to feed back information to make further projects interesting and complex, to tax your ability and to guarantee many hours of enjoyment. We believe Mission Software Limited is the only company that supports its Field Agents with a mass of Secret Information to make the Mission exciting and enjoyable which makes it a must in Computer Games.

We know your friends will want to become Secret Agents and use your game, we will be quite happy to supply them with their Passport and Documents for £295 per kit. This way you always retain your personal Passport and Secret Information.

The moment you tell us you have completed your current assignment we will advise by Secret Data details of how to penetrate one of the World's most secret establishments.

. To obtain your Game and personal Passport with all its Secret Documents send a Cheque or Postal Order for £6.95 (inc. P.P. & VAT.) with the Coupon at the foot of this advertisement.

ORDER MISSION 1 TODAY AND JOIN THE GROWING NUMBER OF SECRET AGENTS OPERATING FROM COMMAND HEADQUARTERS.

1

M I

S

S

I

FTWAME UMI7ISD

COMMAND HEADQUARTERS 1st FLOOR

49 GRANGE ROAD DARLINGTON Co. DURHAM

DL1 5NB TELEPHONE (0325) 483344

NAME

ADDRESS

PLEASE SEND ME MISSION 1 FOR MY (TICK AS APPLICABLE)

DRAGON 32 □ SINCLAIR SPECTRUM 48K □

EXTRA PASSPORT CODE-BREAKER £2.95 □

I ENCLOSE MY TOTAL REMITTANCE OF £

CHEQUES AND POSTAL ORDERS MADE PAYABLE MISSION SOFTWARE LIMITED

2

>

TO

MISSION SOFTWARE LIMITED ■ COMMAND HEADQUARTERS 1st FLOOR 49 GRANGE ROAD DARLINGTON DURHAM • DL1 5NB ■ TEL (0325) 483344

I i

J

BRITAIN S BEST-SELLING WEEKLY COMPUTER MAGAZINE

»

POPULAR

Still only 35p

best value for money

Each copy of PCW contains all the latest software and hardware news and reviews, programming hints, adventure corner and pages and pages of programs for the Spectrum, Dragon, BBC, Vic20 and Commodore 64 and other popular home computers.

Other features include:

□ Charts of all the top selling software and books

□ Full listing of all the new software releases each week

□ Free computer swap service

□ Pages and pages of classified ^-L—^ Or take out advertisements for £19.95 a year's subscription

(51 issues) (or £9.98 for six months).

r Please send me a year's subscription to Popular Computing Weekly. I enclose a cheque/postal order for 12 months (5 issues) for £19.95 or £9.98 (26 issues) for 6 months, made payable to Popular Computing Weekly, 12-13 Little Newport Street, London WC2R 3LD. Or order through Access/Mastercard on 01-437 4343.

| NAME

| ADDRESS

I

I

1

L

J

40 Micro Adventurer February 1984

nmlcron

The most complete listing available of adventures, war games and real-life simulations - new entries are printed in italic and should be sent to Adventure File, Micro Adventurer,

	CI
Abacus	Into the Labyrinth	£5.99	Dragon 32,
716 Llangyfelech Rd			Vic 20
Treboech	Domain	£4.95	Spectrum
Swansea
Abbex	Faust's Folly	£5.95	Spectrum
Tavistock House
34-36 Bromham Rd
ViaAfr\rA Deaiora
Aoersott	» 1 1 1 \ T \ Til ■ ^ Adventure 1	f < Q<.	7VOI LAO 1
7 Maes Aiallen	Adventure 1		Speurum 4«K
Bow St
Dyled
Abrasco	r irate	CQ <0	uragon m
The Grange Barn
III' r~ _i Pike s hnd
Eastcote
Midux
Acornsott	rnilosopner s yuest		nor' n
a a \inri, ... ui;ii 4A Market Hill	castle oi Kiduies	CQ QS L7.7J	any. »
Cambridge	bpninx Adventure	CQ Q<	DDL D
	L.ouniQOwn 10 ivoom	CQ (K 1.7. 7 J	ODV.. D
	Kingdom oi Hamil	CQ QZ	nor D DDI D
Addictive Games	rootoall Manager	£5.95	/-AO 1
Albert House	IT i 1 > 1 1 \ 1 rootoall Manager	c/i nc Lb. y j	Spectrum 4oK
AlK<»rt VA /MDcri rvU
Dournemouin
/xaveniure iniernauonai	ocoii /\uams	C t A QO L 1 O . 77	/a i an n luniy nit
l/o \_ausio computers	/\uveniures.	Ldcii on	1 inl In' /"a 1 II M I WVJ
1 19 lohn Rripht Si 1 17 .'Willi 1)111-111 Jl	AH vent nrplanH Pi rati1		Miivpn! nrt*s iiro UU YVI II III (IIV
Rirminpham it 11 II III l CI lul II	Ad vpnt u ro Mission i\ »J • vl 1 1 Ul v ^ l»II.5.?IV'll Imnossihlp Voodoo Castle The Count Stranpp Odvssev Mvstprv Fun House ItI J Jllvl J 1 Ull 11 V I 1 'V. > Pvramiri of Doom Chosl Town ^avupf Island Parts I and II, Golden Voyage	sent £28 95 on disk	on disk)
	Galactic Empire	£14.95	Atari E
	Galactic Trader	£14.50	Atari E
	Treasure Quest	£10.95	Atari E
	Triad	£25.49	Atari E
	Curse of Crowley	£17.95	Atari E
	Manor
A&F Software	Death Satellite	£6.90	Atom, Oric
830 Hyde Road	Zodiac	£6.90	Atom, Oric
Manchester	Pharaoh's Tomb	£7.99	BBC
	Tower of Altos	£6.90	BBC 1
	Deadwood	£6.90	Dragon 32
Algray Software	Fortress of Evil	£7.95	Colour Genie	.
Ahed House	• Labyrinth of Fear	£8.95	Colour Genie
Dewsbury Rd	Double Agent	£12.95	Colour Genie
Ossett
Wakefield
Amazing Games	The Last Jedi	£4.00	Spectrum 48K
39 Maple Drive	Dragon	£4.00	Spectrum 48K
Burgess Hill	Kane	£4.00	Spectrum 48K
West Sussex
Analog Software	Analog Adventure	£16.95	Atari E + drives
c/o Mapsoft
Unit A
Oak Rd South
Hadleigh
Ben fleet
Essex
Anirog Computers	Dracula	£5.95	Vic 20 E	/
8 The High St	Pharaoh's Tomb	£5.95	Vic 20 E

Anirog (contd)	Zok s Kingdom	15. v5	Vic 2U h
Horley Surrey	The Dungeon	pf Off £5.95	Vic 20 h
Artie	Planet of Death	£5.95	ZX8I
	Planet of Death	£6.95	Spectrum 48K
	Inca Curse	£5.95	ZX81
Main St	Inca Curse	£6.95	Spectrum 48K
Brandesburton	Ship of Doom	£5.95	ZX81
Driffield	Ship or Doom	£6.95	Spectrum 48K
Yorks	Espionage Island	£5.95	/AO 1
	espionage island		opecirum
	Golden Apple	£6.95	bpcLtrum 4«K
Assassin Software	Usurper	£o.0()	bpectrum
10 Ash Rd	Krago Castle	£6.00	Spectrum
Leeds 6
Atari	Energy Czar	. i j /Art £14.99	A f— Atari E
Atari House	Kingdom	£14.99	Atari E
Railway Terrace	ET	£29.99	Atari
Slough
Berks
Audiogenic	Tomb of Drewan	£12.95	Vic 20 E
PO Box 88	Boss	£* I A QZ £14.95	Vic 20 h
T l I * Reading	Grand Master	r i i oc £17.95	V IC 20 h,
Berks			PUN /I A/1 L DM 04
Automata	rimania	f in no	rjptCirUlii *4^N,
27 Highland Rd			ZX81, BBC B
Portsmouth			Dragon 32
Hants	Groucho	£10.00	Spectrum 48K
Avalon Hill	Bl Bomber	£11.95	Atari, TRS80
650 High Rd			and III, CBM
London N12			Pet
	Legionnaire	£25.95	Atari, Apple 1
	VC	£14.95	Atari E, Appl<

Bamby Software

Leverburgh Isle of Harris

Nukewar

North Atlantic Convoy Raider

Midway Campaign

Tanktics

Dnieper River Line

Close Assault

Paris in Danager Telengard

£11.95

£11.95

£11.95

£17.45

£18.95

£21.95

£25.95 £17.45

GFS Sorceress

£21.95

Empire of Overmind £21.95

Lords of Karma

Fredericksburg

Tactical Armour

Command Galaxy Voyager I

£14.95

£25.95 £28.95

£14.95 £14.95

4 drives, TRS80 I and II

Atari, Apple II, TRS80 I and III, CBM 64, Pet Atari, Apple II, TRS80 I and III, CBM 64 Atari E, Apple

II, TRS80 1 and

III, CBM 64, Pet Atari E, Apple

II, TRS80 I and

III, Pet

Atari E, Apple

II, TRS80 I and

III, Pet

Atari E, Apple II, TRS80 I and III

Atari + drives Atari E, Apple II + drives, TRS80 I and III, CBM 64, Pel

Atari E, Apple II, TRS80 I and III

Atari E, Apple II, TRS80 I and III

Atari E, Apple II, TRS80 I and III

TRS80 I and 111 + drives Apple II + drives Atari E Atari E,

Commodore Pet, IBM PC

Bug-Byte Software

Mulberry House

Andromeda Conquest	£13.45	Atari
Controller	£18.95	Atari
Planet Miners	£11.96	Atari E
Scram	£19.99	Atari
Golden Apples	£5.95	Dragon 32
Planetary Trader	£5.95	Dragon 32
Surprise	£8.95	Dragon 32
Alien Odyssey	£9.95	Dragon 32
Scanner 13	£8.45	Dragon 32
Mystery Manor	£6.50	Spectrum 48K
Alone at Sea	£6.50	TI99/4A
Nodrug's Quest	£8.45	TI99/4A
Underground	£8.45	TI99/4A
Adventure
The Castle -	£6.95	Spectrum, Oric
Dictator	£9.00	ZX8I [>

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 41

^48K SPECTRUM -

MOUNTAINS OFKET

ADVENTURE

A MONSTER OF AN ADVENTURE PROGRAM1 COMBAT, INTER- ACTIVE BEINGS, MONETARY SYSTEM, MAGIC, EDGAR, SAVE/ LOAD FACILITY PLUS MANY OTHER FEATURES.

As well as being a fast ingenious compelling adventure in itself the Mountains of Ket is the first of a 3 part series that builds into a mammoth adventurers challenge.

Incentive: It could be adventageous if you achieve 100%!!

N002 £5.50

1984

A GAME OF GOVERNMENT MANAGEMENT

SPLAT!

ARCADE

ONE OF THE MOST ORIGINAL AND COMPELLING ARCADE GAMES EVER PRODUCED! STARRING ZIPPY!!

"SPLAT! is one of the most addictive games I have ever played on the 48K SPECTRUM, It is certainly the most original"

Computer & Video Games

NOW AVAILABLE FROM WH SMITH AND BOOTS.

N001 £5.50

1984

THE GAME OF ECONCTMIC SURVIVAL

THE BRITISH ECONOMY WITH YOU AT THE CONTROLS! WHAT SORT OF CHANCELLOR WOULD YOU MAKE WITH SEVERAL BILLION POUNDS TO SPENDS FIVE YEARS TO THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION? GRAPHIC DISPLAYS, HISTOGRAMS & AN ANNUAL PERFORMANCE RATING ARE ALL INCLUDED TO SHOW HOW YOU' ARE DOING. HOW MANY YEARS WILL YOU LAST?

FREE INSIDE: Pocket Guide to Running Britain"!

N003 £5.50

All programs run in the 48K ZX SPECTRUM and are available from all good computer shops. In case of difficulty please order direct using the coupon below.

Please send me (tick box(es) required) SPLAT □ MOUNTAINS OF KET □ 1984 □

All at £5.50 each (inclusive of VAT and 1st class postage) I enclose cheque/P.O. for £ or debit my Access Account No

Name

Address__

cqg-v INCENTIVE SOFTWARE LTD., 54 London Street ^-<^ Reading RG1 4SQ. Tel: Reading (0734) 591678

1 V 1

FootbaUGame

Football Mc

Designed by Kevin Toms

Some of the features of the game:

★ Matches in 3D graphics

★ Transfer market ★ Promotion and relegation ★ F.A. Cup matches ★ Injury problems ★ Full league tables ★ Four Divisions

★ Pick your own team for each match. ★ As many seasons as you like ★ Managerial rating ★ 7 skill levels

★ Save game facility.

ddictire

* ZX81 Chart

Home Computing Weekly 1.8.83 andl 11 83

Comments about the game from press and our customers FOOTBALL MANAGER is the best game I have yet seen on the Spectrum and my personal favourite of all the games on any micro To the ordinary person it is an excellent view of what can be done m tne field of computer games The crowning glory of this game is the short set pieces of match highlights which show little stick men running around a pitch, shooting defending and scoring it is a compulsive game but people who cannot take game sessions of 9 hours or so which happened on one nappy Sunday will be grateful to know that there is a save to tape option FOOTBALL MANAGER has everything it could . The originator Addictive Games certainly deserve the name " Rating 19 20 (Practical Computing- Auqustt983l

From software stockists nationwide, inc WHSMH Hifr

Prices Spectrum 48K £6 95 ZX8116K £5 95

N6 3D GRAPHICS ARt NOHNCLUDiC IN 1HE ZX8- ViRSlON!

Overseas woe's aaa V 50

o ofoer ov mo't fp&p fteei sena cr>eques o* pos'o' oraets 'o

XddtcfiH! Gomes

Albert House. Albert Poad Bournemouth BH1 1BZ

Dealers! For urgent stocks send your headed notepaper direct to our address

JS. Hurler at the Mutwt

Death comes to a quiet country village when the Lord of the Manor is savaqely murdered.

The police are baffled with no obvious dues to help them.

Your skills as an ace investigator are required to identify and apprehend the murderer. This w.ll involve searching for clues (which could be dangerous requ.ring ingenious deductions), examining the scene of the crime and asking questions of the right people.

What is the mystery of the Gravediggers Hut? What secret does the safe hold? What lurks at the bottom of the brook?

These may be some of the questions you will ask yourself during your investigation into the murder at the manor.

The game is based on a fixed map. comprising the Manor House, the Garden the Town, the Graveyard and many other fully described locations, inhabited by a variety of individual characters whom you are likely to meet.

t 11* YOU! t0 t0 S°IVe mUrder' the '0ca,S may know the answer ~ but will they

This original adventure fills your 48K Spectrum with over 1 20 locations, all of which are depicted in full colour machine-coded graphics.

Add sound effects, a full score and save game facility plus a comprehensive and easy to use command analyser (incorporating abbreviations and multi-command lines) and you are sure of many exciting and frustrating hours.

WARNING - this is a 4D adventure where night brings added difficulties.

Cassette and instruction booklet costs £6.95 inc. GEMTIME, 16 Ben Ledi Road, Kirkcaldy, Fife

Dealer enquires welcome

42 Micro Adventurer February 1984

Bug-Byte (Contd) Canning Place Liverpool

Runtasofl

149 Monks Walk

Buntingford

Herts

Carnell Software

North Weylands

Industrial Estate Mosley Rd Hersham Surrey CCS

14 Langton Way London SE3

Chalksoft

37 Willowslea Rd

Northwick

Worcester

Chameleon Software

c/o Calisto Computers

119 John Bright St

Birmingham

Channel 8

51 Fishergate

Preston

Lancashire

Commodore

675 Ajax Avenue

Slough

Berks

Compusense

286D Green Lanes PO Box 1 69 Palmers Green London N13 Computer Rentals 140 Whitechapel Rd London El

Cosmi

c/o CentreSoft House Unit 16 Bloomfield Rd Tipton

West Midlands CP Software

17 Orchard Lane

Prestwood

Bucks

Crystal Computing

2 Ashton Way

Dragonquest	£11.50	BBC
Damsel and the Beast	£6.50	ZX81
Adventure	£5 95	7X81
Old Father Time	£9.50	BBC B
Kraal s Kingdom	£4.95	Vic 20 E
Volcanic Dungeon	£5.00	ZX81. Sneclrum
		Dragon 12
Black Crystal	£7.50	ZX8I, Spectrum
Wumpus Adventure	£5 00	7X81
The Crypt	£4 95	'sneclrum J^k OJ'tLU UIII *4olS.
Corn Cropper	£5 00 ■Mar • \f\r	7X81 Srw*rlrum
Corn Cropper	£6 00	Snei't rum dSk'
		BBC
Auto Chef	£6.00	Sneetrum 48k' "I'vvii Kill ~il l\
Print Shop	£6.00	Spectrum 48K
Airline	£6.00	Laser. Spectrum
		48 K
Airline	£6.95	Oric
Dallas	£5.00	Laser, Spectrum,
		BBC
Dallas	£6.95	Oric
Cameloi	£5.00	Snectrum 7X81
		Laser
Smuggler	£5 00 Am m.' • V7V/	Sneetmm 7VXI
		I aser
Plunder	£5 00	Sped rum 7VKI
		Laser
British Lowland	£5 (X)	Sruvtrum 7X81
		Laser
Byte	£5.00	Spectrum, ZX8I,
		Laser
Gangsters	£5.00	Spectrum, ZX8I,
		Laser
Abyss	£5.00	Spectrum, ZX8I,
		Laser
Inkosi	£6.95	BBC, Spectrum,
		Vic 20

Slone of Sisyphus

£27.99 Atari plus drives

The Golden Baton The Time Machine Arrow of Dealh 1 Arrow of Death 2 Escape from Pulsar 7 Circus

Feasibility Experiment The Wizard Akyrz Perseus and

Andromeda Ten Little Indians Adventureland The Count Mission Impossible Pirate Cove Voodoo Castle Strategic Advance High Flyer

Pirates Ahoy

£9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95 £9.95

£9.95 £9.99 £9.99 £9.99 £9.99 £9.99 £4.99 £14.95

£7.95

Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E, Atari E,

CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64 CBM 64

Atari E, CBM 64 Vic 20 Vic 20 Vic 20 Vic 20 Vic 20 Vic 20 E CBM 64 + drives Dragon 32

■

Rescue	£5.95	Spectrum 48K
Keys of Roth	£6.95	Dragon 32
Stargazer's Secrets	£5.95	Spectrum 48K
Woods of Winter	£5.95	Spectrum 48K
The Incredible	£5.95	Spectrum 48K
Adventure
Forbidden Forest	£9.95	CBM 64

Colossal Caves Golfing World

Dungeon Master Halls of the Things

£6.95 Spectrum 48K £5.95 Spectrum 48K

£7.50 Spectrum 48K £7.50 Spectrum 48K

Crystal Computing (Contd) East Hcrrington Sunderland Crystal Computing

c/o Soft Machine Station Crescent Blackheath London Datasofl

c/o CentreSoft House Bloomfield Rd Tipton

West Midlands Digital Fantasia

24 Norbreck Rd Blackpool Lanes

Merchant of Venus £5.50

The Island £7.50

Invasion of the Body £7.50 Snatchers

ZX8I ZX8I

l)K I ronies

Unit 6 Shire Hill Industrial Estate Saffron Walden

Essex

Doric Computer Services

3 The Oasis Glenfield

Leicester LE3 8Q5 Dragon Data

Kcnfig Industrial

Estate Margam Pt Talbot West Glamorgan

O'Riley's Mine	£21.95	Atari
The Wizard of Akyr/	£9.95	BBC B,
		Spectrum 48 K
Perseus and	£9.95	BBC B,
Andromeda		Spectrum 48K
Ten Little Indians	19.95	BBC B,
		Spectrum 48K
Arrow of Death 1	£9.95	BBC, Spectrum
		48K
Arrow of Death 2	£9.95	BBC, Spectrum
		48 K
The Golden Baton	£9.95	BBC, Spectrum
		48K
Time Machine	£9.95	BBC, Spectrum
		48K
Circus	£9.95	BBC B,
		Spectrum 48K
Feasibility Experiment	£9.95	BBC B,
		Spectrum 48K
Escape from Pulsar 7	£9.95	BBC Bf
		Spectrum 48 K
Dictator	£5.95	Spectrum 48 K
Dictator	£6 95	BBC B

Oracles Cave

£7.95 Spectrum 48K

Dungeon Software

Milton House St John St Ashbourne Derbyshire

Educational Software

c/o Mapsoft Unit A

Oak Rd South Hadlcigh Ben fleet

Essex

Eighth Day Software

18 Flaxhill

Morel on

Wirral

Merseyside

English Software

c/o CentreSoft House

Unit 16

Bloomfield Rd

Tipton

West Midlands Epyx

c/o CentreSoft House Unit 16 Bloomfield Rd Tipton

West Midlands

Epyx

c/o Mapsoft Unit A

Oak Rd South Hadleigh

Calisto Island Dragon Mountain Madness and the

Minotaur Quest

Black Sanctum El Diablero Mansion of Doom Poseidon Adventure Final Countdown Stalag/Fno

The Crystal Chalice of

Quorum The Temple of Zoren Treasure Tom be Giant's Castle The Adventures of

Proto

£7.95 £7.95 £7.95

£7.95 £" 95 i"i 95 £7.95 C7 95 £" 95 £7.95 £7/>S

i7.95 £7 95

r 95

1.7.95

Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32

Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32

Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Dragon 32 Atari i drives

Dark Lore

I'

Spectrum 48K, ZX81

Escape from Perilous £14.95 Atari

Temple of Apshai Upper Reaches of

Apshai Curse of Ra Crush Crumble Chomp Gateway to Apshai

Sword of Fargoal Datestones of Ryn Invasion Orion Rescue at Rigel Star Warrior Crush, Crumble and

£27.95 CBM 64, Atari

£15.95 CBM 64, Atari

£15.95 CBM 64. Atari

£21.95 CBM 64, Atari

£27.95 ( BM64, TI99/4A

£21.95 CBM 64

£13.80 Atari E, Vic 20

£17.25 Atari E, Vic 20

£20.75 Atari E

£27.45 Atari E

£20.75 Atari E >

February 1984 Micro Adventurer 43

ntey

our own mat

e cot

'ventures

Without any knowledge of machine code whatsoever

THE QUILL „ a major new utility written in macnine code wkick allows even tne novice programmer to produce nign-speed macnine code adventures of superior quality to many available at tne moment witliout any knowledge of macnine code whatsoever.

Using a menu selection system you may create well over 200 locations, describe tkem and connect routes between tkem. You may tken fill tkem witk objects and problems of your ckoice. Having tested your adventure you may alter and experi- ment witk any section witk tke greatest of ease . A part formed adventure may be saved to tape for later completion. Wken you kave done soTHE QUILL will allow you to produce a copy of your adventure wkick will run independently of tke main QUEL editor, so tkat you may give copies away to your friends. THE QUILL is provided witk a detailed tutorial manual wkick covers every aspect of its use in writing adventures. It is impossible to describe all tke features of tkis amazing program in suck a small space so we kave produced a demonstration cassette wkick gives furtker information and an example of its use. ~ is available at £2,00. and THE QUILL itself at £14.95.

FOR THE 48K SPECTRUM AT £14.95

Our Software is now available from many computer shops nationwide, or direct from us by post or telephone.

SA E for full details of our range. Dealer enquires welcome.

GILSOFT

30 Hawthorn Road Barry

South Glamorgan CF6 8LE

®(0222) 41361 X 430

TELEPHONE YOUR ORDER

WITH

-<j

SOFTWARE AT BETTER PRICES

MAIL

ORDER

ONLY

Dept. MA) P.O. Box 107, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB10 ORG

DRAGON 32

CHANNEL 8

GOLDEN BATON TIME MACHINE ARROW OF DEATH PULSAR 7 WIZARD OF AKYRZ FEASIBILITY EXP CIRCUS

RRP E9.95 Our Price £8.95 PEAKSOFT

DEATHS HEAD HOLE LIONHEART

R R P f5.45 Our Price £4.95 ALL MICRODEAL TITLES R RP £8.00 Our Price £7.75

COMMODORE 64

BUG BYTE

TWIN KINGDOM VALLEY RRP £9.50 Our Price £8.50 MELBOURNE HOUSE THE HOBBIT

RRP £14.95 Our Price £12.95 DURRELL

QUEST OF MERRAVID R R P £7.95 Our Price f7.25 ALL CHANNEL 8 MYSTERIOUS ADDVENTURES R R P £9 95 Our Price £8 95

SPECTRUM

MIKRO GEN

INHERITANCE GREAT BRITAIN LTD.

MAD MARTHA II

MAD MARTHA II

RRP £6.95 Our Price £6.25

LEGEND

VALHALLA

R R P. £14.95 Our Price £12.95

GILSOFT

THE QUILL

R R P £14.95 Our Price £12.95 MELBOURNE HOUSE

THE HOBBIT

R R P. £14.95 Our Price £12.95 CRL

WOODS OF WINTER

R R P. £6 95 Our Price £6 95

VIC 20

DURRELL

QUEST OF MERRAVID

R R P £7 95 Our Price £7.25

QUICKSILVA

TRADER TRILOGY

R R P. £14 95 Our Price £12.95

TERMINAL

RESCUE FROM CASTLE DREAD

MAGIC MIRROR

R R P. £9 95 Our Price £8.75

CHANNEL 8

BLACK SQUID

R R P £9.95 Our Price £8.95

ANIROG

DUNGEONS

DARK DUNGEONS

R R P £5.95 Our Price £5.50

ATARI OWNERS - The full range of Adventure International products are available at Our Prices. Send SAE for full lisl

OR SEND SAE FOR OUR CATALOGUE STATING MACHINE

EPIC ADVENTURES

FULL SCALE MACHINE CODE ADVENTURES FOR THE BBC AND ELECTRON

OUR EPIC BBC ADVENTURES ARE NOW ALSO AVAILABLE FOR THE ELECTRON. EACH GAME CONTAINS ALL THE DETAILS OF THE ORIGINALS. WITH ONLY MINOR CHANGES TO THE TEXT

"APPROX. 230 FULLY DESCRIBED LOCATIONS * COLOUR * ULTRA-FAST RESPONSE " SCORING " FAST GAME SAVE ON TAPE * FULL SENTENCE COMMANDS ACCEPTED " EACH GAME INCLUDES INTRODUCTION AND PLAYING INSTRUCTIONS *

CASTLE FRANKENSTEIN: The Frankenstein Monster was thought to have been killed in a fire at the Castle 20 years ago; but a series of unsolved murders has taken place and the people fear that the Monster is on the loose again. Explore the graveyard and Castle ruins, with its secret passages, sulphur pits, etc. to find and destroy the Monster.

THE QUEST FOR THE HOLY GRAIL: To become a knight of the round table you must find the Holy Grail and return with it to Camelot. Your search will take you through forest, swamp, castle, dungeons and rivers, and on the way you will meet many characters, some friendly some hostile. Can you outwit them all and solve the many puzzles to successfully complete your quest?

THE KINGDOM OF KLEIN: The Wicked Witch has stolen the Magic Klein Bottle from its pedestal in the palace. She swore that she would put a hideous curse on anybody who was foolish enough to try to recover it. Your task is to defy the Witch's curse and solve the mystical properties of the 5 solids, in order to kill the Witch and return the Bottle to the Klein Kingdom.

EACH GAME COSTS ONLY £7.95 inc VAT. (state BBC or Electron) P&P FREE if ordering 2 or more, otherwise add 50p

44 Micro Adventurer February 1984

EPIC SOFTWARE

10 GLADSTONE STREET. KIBWORTH BEAUCHAMP

LEICESTER LE8 0HL

Please make cheques payable to EPIC SOFTWARE

Epyx (Contd) Ben fleet

Essex

I AO (Ills

Penrice Drive Tividale Warley

West Midlands Felix Software 19 Leighlon Ave Pinner Middlesex Gebelli c/o Mapsoft Oak Rd South Hadleigh Ben (leer Essex Gemtime 16 Ben Ledi Rd Kirkcaldy Gikofl

30 Hawthorn Rd Barry

South Glamorgan

Wales

Golem

77 Qualitas

Bracknell

Berks

Hewson Consultants

60A Si Mary's St

Wallingford

Oxon

Impact Software

70 Redford Avenue Edinburgh

Infocom

c/o Softsel Central Way Feltham Middx

Infocom

c/o CentreSoft House Unit 16

Bloomfield Rd Tipton

West Midlands JRS Software

19 Wayside Ave Worthing

Sussex

J V Software

c/o Mapsoft Unit A

Oak Rd South Hadleigh Ben fleet