Commodore_Magazine_Vol-09-N01_1988_Jan

Page 1

SIGGRAPH '87

January 1988

$2.95 U.S. $3.95 Canada

â–Ągazine for Commodore and Commodore Amiga Users


THE MONTHLY SOFTWARE COLLECTION

FOR COMMODORE - ONLY $6.65 Commodore Microcomputers

Lots of Great Software Every Month

Review bxj Steve Levin ". . .1 highly recommend Loadstar. If you can afford only one disk service, make it Loadstar..."

Loadstar" is a collection of exciting new Commodore programs, published monthly on 5Vi-inch diskettes. Disk issues contain quality, ready-to-run Commodore 64 and 128 software: home and business, education, music, graphics, animation, utilities, tutorials, games, and bonus programs from popular software developers.

Loadstar Subscribers Say... "Loadstar contains a variety of programs that are usually not available anywhere else. The format is great!" "Being user-friendly is a big plus for LOADSTAR, and what a value!"

"I have recommended LOADSTAR to my friends and they love it."

Every issue of Loadstar contains ready-to-run software for everyone in the family. For example, Loadstar Issue #40 is contained on two disks and features all of the following

Loadstar provides an endless number of things to do with your Commodore. Subscribers enjoy more than a hundred programs every year for pennies each,

including C-64 and C-128 programs from Commodore Magazine. At only S6.65 per issue, Loadstar is your best software value.

programs:

■ All Smiles • Ohms Law * Farmer's Market ■ Error Aid • Pixel Puzzler • Dugan's Art Depot Print Shop Composite • Beginning Bytes Byte by Byte • Bit by Bit • Lullaby

The Best of Loadstar Yours FREE Loadstar will deliver three months of software

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Matches • Math Help • Window Demo 128 Auto-Answer Disabler • Sound Synthesizer

plus the complete arcade game Pensate from Pen gu in/Pol a rware, and regular monthly features

Satisfaction Guaranteed As a Loadstar subscriber, you will get software variety to make your Commodore investment pay off- plus the convenience of home delivery and our unconditional money-back guarantee. If you are not 100% satisfied with your first issue of Loadstar, you may return it for

a full S19.95 refund. The Best of Loadstar is yours to keep.

Available at Ualdenbooks, B. Daiton Booksellers, and fine bookstores everywhere (caverprice $9,951. Apple mid IBM PC versions also available.

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lhe new Commodore1' Amiga* 500 is

everything you never expected from a home computer. That's because we designed it to excite you. To dazzle your senses with 4096 colors and stereo sound. To unleash your creativity. To allow things you never

It animates.

dreamed possible in a home computer.

Because until now, they really weren't. Like built-in speech synthesis, so you'll always have someone to talk to. Pro-quality 3-D animation that lets even beginners put their ideas in motion. Colorful educational programs that make lessons fun and mem orable. A complete home office with powerful spreadsheet and database programs—even word processing with WordPerfect? And unlike any other home computer, the Commodore Amiga 500 can multi-task, so you can run several programs at the same time. Hook it to your VCR with an optional RF modulator, and the Commodore Amiga 500 becomes a home video production center. Paint graphics over video images. Create moving 3-D titles. Produce your own animated feature. And for pure fun, enter the incredible

It educates. It's a home office. It's a video studio. It's arcade games in stereo. It's the new Commodore Amiga 500 home computer.

world of stereo Amiga video games. With

graphics so good, major video game makers use them in their coin arcade machines. AND NOW YOU CAN SEE IT ALL. FREE.

We captured the excitement, beauty, and power of the Commodore Amiga 500 on a special VHS video cassette called The Amiga 500 Video Test Flight. If you're ready for the ride of your life, call 1-800 -87-AMIGA or contact your Commodore Amiga dealer to find out how you can get your free video demonstration.

1-800-87-AMIGA

COMMODORE

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Commodore is z registered trademark of Commodore Eletironlcs. Ud. Aung* is * registered trademark. and the Amiga logo a trademaik of Commodoie-Amlga. Inc WordPerfect lsa

registered uadematk oil he WordPerfect Coipowtlon. MiiHe Midnew game screen courtesty of Electronic Ans. MaiiPlan busincssgHphit courtesy ofOxÂťi. Inc. Motorcyck anlniailonKieen courtesy of Aegis Developmenl.


The most precious treasures a fantasy gainer can find. You've looked high and low toi (hat rarest at fantasy games — ones thai

transcend mere playacting, whose spell binding plot superb execution and

playabilitycan ignite yout imagination

and propel you into a world beyond the mundane constraints ol reality.

Congratulations, you ve found them!

■ PHANTAS1E 111: THE WRATH OF

WUS is much more than a sequel to the [jestselling Phanlasie and PJiimtiisir II games from SSI li is the final Confrontation between youi hand ot six heroes and the Dark Lord Nikadenuis You'll traverse across an entire con tinent, explore treacherous dungeons, teleport to the astral Planes of Light and Darkness - all to gat her clues that will lead you to the Dark Lord and to gain the knowledge and power to des troy this evil force. New and improved features have realistic We've also enhanced the screen displays and increased speei play. If you've played Phanlasie or PHantasie if, you can transfer ihe sj set ol characters to this game Judged as cither a sequel to one the most successful fantasy series ever created, or as a complete game in its own right. Vie Wrath of Nikademta prom ises an enchanted odyssey o( endless

■ REALMS OF DARKNESS creates an immense- and foreboding world to serve as your personal exploratorium Recruit up to eight companions and guide them as the travel .moss savage

wildernesses, strange * itie-; and levels of torturous dungeons You fulfill seven different quests, each perilous - and more rewarding -

thirty must more than

the one before You can split up your party into as

many .is eight different subgroups Switch kick and forth among them and remain with any one- (01 .is long as you

wish You can also switch between a menu driven fantasy game or text adventute game In the latter mode, you can "talk" insimj;' with people and u puzzles Ri.mn may conquer the hordes

of monsters, but only brains can unravel the increasingly elaborate puzzles that block your path to ultimate glory, APPLE tl SERIES & C-64 128 \neiudt$ graphic routines from the Graphics Mti.jiiiiiH'* from [\ilitm\irt1'"

Now that you've found these prei ious irejsures. reach for them at your local computer, soil ware or game store today. And rememlvt. lor more of the

best In fantasy adventures, you won't have to search so long and hard any more Simply look K< -ol

where the

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If there are no convenient stores near you. VISA and M/C holders can order these $39 95 games by calling toll-free 800-443-0100. x335 Or send neck to SS! at the address above. (CA residents, add applicable sales tax I Please specify computer format jnd add $2 00 tor shippings handling


Commodore M

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JANUARY 1988, Volume 9, Number 1

FEATURES ADVENTURES AT INFOCOM

74

70

Interactive fiction is the trademark of Cambridge-based Infocom. Their success is based on hard-working people dedicated to making Infocom games as great as they can be. by Russ Ceccoia

SIGGRAPH '87

74

From July 27-31, the Anaheim Convention Center was transformed into a carnival for computer graphics enthusiasts. Here's a look at the products and companies that were included in Commodore's booth. by Tim Jones

COVER STORY NED LERNER AND CHUCK YEAGER:

TAKING COMPUTER FLIGHT TO NEW HEIGHTS

66

Chuck Yeager's latest project is a Commodore 64 flight simulator from Electronic Arts, written by Ned Lerner. How was it developed, and how realistic is it? Find out all the details in this interview with Ned Lerner and Chuck Yeager. by John Jermaine

COVER PHOTO: Steven Unze Software: Advanced Flight Trainerby Electronic Arts

DEPARTMENTS LETTERS

4

NEWS

8

ADVENTURE ROAD

62

Quest for Sequels by Shay Addams

TELECOMMUNICATIONS Inside Q-Link by Robert W. Baker

64

16

GRAPHICS CONTEST ANNOUNCEMENT

77

18

GAME PROGRAMS

TIPS & TRICKS Hints for Fun and Utility Compiled by Louis F. Sander

Amiga Tips & Tricks Compiled by Tim Jones

Castrovia by Joseph M. Schwartz

78

128 USERS ONLY 128 Mode: Fuel Gauge 128 by Mark Jordan

82

64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS Castle Clobber by Jack Emberley

20

Street Sports Baseball by Scott A. May

22

The Graphics Transformer by Gary V. Fields

26

Wargame Construction Set by Scott A. May

28

Aliens by John Jermaine

30 34

Cauldron byMarkCotone

AMIGA SOFTWARE REVIEWS Hardball byJefferyS. Hail

36

Faery Tale Adventure by Graham Kmsey

38

Barbarian by Gary V, Fields

40

Animator: Apprentice by Bob Lindstrom

42

Online 2.0 byGraham Kinsey

46

TECHNICAL TIPS Fastload Switch by Marshall Freedland and Luis Garcia

50

AMIGA UPDATE AmigaBASIC Tutorial by Tim Jones

88

Amiga Public Domain by Graham Kinsey

92

COMPUTER TUTOR Custom Screen Designer by Stephen Rodda

98

HOW TO ENTER PROGRAMS

124

MAGAZINE ENTRY PROGRAMS

126

ADVERTISERS' INDEX

128

Interfacing Commodore's User Port, Part 6 How to Build a Digital Camera by John lovine

56

COMMODORE MAGAZINE

3


LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Greetings: Fd like to welcome all our new readers to Commodore Magazine, and at the same time, thank all of our old friends for helping us to grow to where we are in 1988. Whether you are young or old, a new reader or an old-timer, and whether you own a 64. a 128. an Amiga, or all three. I think that Commodore Magazine will have a lot to offer you in 1988. From news, to reviews, to type-in programs you can use, to feature stories on everything from hard drives to the SID chip, we're trying to provide you with the kind of magazine that you want. Starting with this issue, you'll notice some changes in the magazine. Ail Di

rector, Gwenn Knapp, has been hard at work on fine-tuning the design of the magazine, and this month you see our new masthead and logo on the cover. Another change is that we've expanded the software reviews section of the magazine. We've divided the review section into 64 and 128 Software Reviews and Amiga Software Reviews. This allows us to increase our coverage of the Amiga family of computers, without sacrificing our 64 and 128 coverage. It also will let you more quickly identify the reviews for your particular comput er. Also for Amiga owners, Amiga Tips & Tricks stalled appealing in October 1987, and we will continue our Amiga Public Domain and AmigaBASIC Tuto rial columns. Watch for feature stories on Desktop Publishing. Wordprocessing and Animation. For Commodore 64 and 128 owners, we are continuing our series on Inter facing Commodore's User Port by John Iovine. We've had a lot of positive feed back on this series, so we will keep it running until John runs out of ideas. Be sure to see his digital camera project in this issue. Louis Sanders' Tips & Tricks column is also continuing to be favorably received. So much in fact, that next month we are publishing a feature called "101 Tips & Tricks For Game

Players" with all of the tips coming from reader mail. Other features to watch for include Desktop Publishing on the 64. a Disk Media Buying Guide and sa lutes to Epyx on their tenth anniversary and to Electronic Arts on their fifth. Our type-in programs for the 64 and the 128 will continue to provide an assort ed bag of topics, from fractals to sprite and disk utilities to a variety of games. Last of all, let me introduce you to the new cast of characters here at Com modore Magazine. Our new Publisher, Julie Bauer is a long-time employee of Commodore Business Machines and brings an extensive marketing and ad vertising background to the magazine. Expect to start seeing more advertising in our magazine, as well as a wider distribution as she begins using her skills.

Although my position has recently changed (from Technical Editor!. I have been with the magazine for almost five years now-. I am going to try my best to keep the magazine on course with features, reviews and programs that fit your needs. Susan West recently joined us as Assistant Editor. She has a strong writing and editing background, including many years with Commodore Busi ness ^Iachines, and will make sure that quotes are properly placed and that the writing remains fresh and lively. Mike Rivera, our new Assistant Technical Editor, has a solid technical background and is now turning his expertise onto the problem mail that readers send in, as well as the type-in programs in each issue. Though the personnel changes and the magazine evolves, the goal remains

constant—to bring you the best Commodore-specific magazine on the market.

Commodore MAGAZINE

Publisher

Julie Bauer Assistant to the Publisher Amanda K. Wappes

Managing Editor Jim Gracely Assistant Editor Susan R. West Assistant Technical Editor Mike Rivers

Art Director Gwenn Knapp Assistant Art Director Wilson Harp Production Manager

Jo-Ellen Temple

Circulation Kenneth F. Battista Advertising Coordinator Rebecca Cotton

Advertising Representatives SOUTHEAST, SOUTHWEST AND WEST COAST Warren Langer, Spencer 0. Smith Warren Langer Associates

9320 NW 2nd Street

Coral Springs, FL 33071 Advertising Inquiries Only 305/753-4124 MIDWEST, NORTHEAST AND CANADA

Pamela Stockham 700 River Road Fair Haven, NJ 07704 201/741-5784

Commodore Magaiine. Volume 9, Number 1, January 1988. Commodore Magazine is published monthly by Commo dore Magazine Inc., 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester, PA 19380. U.S.A. U.S. subscriber rate is $35.40 per year: Canadian subscriber rale is $45.40 per year: Overseas sub

scriber rate is $65.00 per year. Questions concerning sub scription should be directed to Commodore Magazine Subscnplion Department, Boi 651, Holmes, Pennsylvania

19043. Phone (800) 345-8112. In Pennsylvania (800) 662-2444. Copyright ÂŁ 1987 by Commodore Magazine Inc. All rights reserved. CBM, PET, VIC 20. and Commodore 64 are registered

trademarks o( Commodore Electronics Ltd. Super PET and

Jim Gracely Managing Editor

4

JANUARY 1988

CorrmotJore 128 are trademarks of Commodore Electronics Ltd. Amiga* is s registered trademark of Commodore-Amiga. ABC Membership applied for


PACKED with PROGRAMS EIGHT PROGRAMS AND MORE ON EVERY DISK. What's the opposite of "downtime"? It's UPTIME, of course. fust imagine ... a disk each and every month, delivered right to your door and packed with programs for your Commodore.

We make it easy and inexpensive. You deserve value. At UPTIME we believe in value. That's why each month 30,000 people like you enjoy a disk full of programs and information.

Make your life easier! Get more from your computer. Organize your life and be more productive with

DISCOVER UPTIME. You deserve the best from your Commodore. Have the best and save the most with UPTIME.

Subscribe now and save. You won't believe the low price! Satisfaction guar anteed or your money back. Make the very next disk yours. Fill in the coupon and return it to us, or simply call. We'll start your subscription im mediately, for immediate service/ call toll-free:

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home management programs. Expand your

knowledge with educational programs. Relax and enjoy monthly games or adventures. Make using your Commodore a snap with

anytime, day or night.

helpful tutorials and handy utilities. It's-terrific!

from

Volume 1. No. 1

Flip 'Em ■ Brain Teasers ■ Shopping Lister ■ Video Phile ■ Calendar Creator ■ File Appender ■ Nom de Plume

-v^

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*%x

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^ CM12


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NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS Hard Drive System for Amiga

Central Coast

C entral Coast Software has

Oomspec Communications has

announced the release of a new

Hard Drive System for the Amiga.

released two new programs for Amiga users. Precisely, a word

The system is divided into two

processor which supports

parts: the SCSI Host Adaptor,

multitasking, multiple windows,

which provides a Small Computer

keyboard macros, and on-line

Systems Interface port, battery

help, accepts documents

backup clock and autoboot

produced with PaperClip,

circuitry and the Hard Drive

SpeedScript or Pocket Writer

Chassis, which allows for

for the 641128.

physical mounting of up to two hard drives or a hard drive and

Quarterback, a fast hard disk to floppy back-up utility supports backup and restore, with

chain connectors and a fan. Comspec's Hard Drive System is

Commodore Appoints President

CcCommodore Business Machines has appointed Max Toy president

the only hard drive for the Amiga

and chief operating officer. A computer industry veteran, Mr, Toy has

diskette sequence numbering and

capable of automatically booting

held top management positions at ITT, Compaq and IBM. Most

checking. Quarterback is not

Kickstart and Workbench from

recently he was senior vice president of sales and government products of Xtra Business Systems, a division of ITT. At Compaq

copy protected.

tape streamer, SCSI controller board, power supply, SCSI daisy

the hard disk. For further information contact: Comspec

Communications, Inc.. 153 Bridgeland Arc., Unit 5, Toronto,

Ontario M6A2Y6, Canada, Telephone: (416) 785-3553.

Computer. Inc., Mr. Toy was vice president of sales. He also held a variety of sales and marketing positions with IBM Corporation. Mr. Toy's experience in establishing distribution networks and VAR programs is intended to complement the progress already made in the U.S.

Prolific Releases CAD Programs L rolific, Inc. has introduced two

CAD programs, PRO-NET and PRO-BOARD for the Amiga. The programs offer features such as

full/subdirectory/incremental automatic formatting o: diskettes, cataloging of files and

Both products are available from Central Coast Software.

Precisely sells for S79.95, Quarterback for S69.95. For more information contact:

Central Coast Software, 268 Bowie Dr., Los Osos, CA 93402, phone (805) 528-4906.

The 64 Emulator

automatic device number

T -L urn your Amiga into a

assignment and insertion of page

Commodore 64 with The 64

for reference signals. In addition

Emulator from ReadySoft Inc.

to the standard commands such as copy, move, and repeat. PRO-

your Amiga and you have access

NET offers variable template

to thousands of programs

size, selectable grid snap, grid

written for the 64. The 64

show and grid size and intelligent

Emulator supports all Amiga

zoom. The PCB layout program

disk drives and printers, and an

PRO-BOARD supports up to four layer PCB. Each product retails for $475; demo disks are available for S15 each. For more information contact Prolific, Inc.,

Insert the Emulator disk into

optional interface cable allows

you to directly connect any 64 disk drive or printer. All video

modes, color and sound are fully supported. Suggested retail price

1808W.SouthgateAve.,

for The 64 Emulator is S39.95

Fullerton. CA 92633. or call

(S59.95 with interface cable). For

(714)447-8792.

details contact: ReadySoft Inc.. P.O. Box 1222, Lewiston, NY 14092. Or call: (416) 731-4175.


The Timeworks

Desktop Publisher • Kerning: Use PUBLISHER'S kerning capability—adjustable word and letter

spacing—for a professional typeset appearance.

• Automatic Text Flow and Word Wrap: PUBLISHER automatically flows text from column to column on the same page, or carries it over to other pages.

Publisher also includes these Timeworks time-savers! • On Screen Rulers—lets you know

A full-featured desktop publishing powerhouse with word processing, page layout, and graphics. Even if you have no design skills or

your text and columns, and reposition

publishing experience, you can get

your graphics. Change your layout or

results in less than an hour with THE

experiment—almost effortlessly!

TIMEWORKS DESKTOP PUBLISHER. Use our Quick-Start Mini-Manual and go to press. It's that simple.

• Built-in Fonts: Choose from hundreds

headlines and body copy, can be made bold, italic, underlined, or reversed.

on your dot matrix printer.

For all its ability, PUBLISHER is incredibly simple to learn—refreshingly so.

PUBLISHER combines the common

sense WYSIWYG (What-You-See-lsWhat-You-Get) Display, an abundance of Help! Screens, and our Quick-Start Mini-Manual™—all designed to get

elements within l/l20th of an inch of your desired position

• Built-in Quick Keys—converts multikey commands to one keystroke

• "Undo" Capability—press a key to "undo" what you just did. Experiment without trepidation!

Serif & sans serif formats, for both

exactly how your finished documents will look. Use the program's built-in elements on each page. Once it's perfect, just press a key and print out

• Precision Placement—places

of possible typestyie combinations!

Your computer display shows you

layout tools to reposition and resize

exactly where you are on the page

Type sizes range from 9 to 36 point.

Titneworks Desktop

PUBLISHER

■ Premium Quality Printouts: PUBLISHER uses a special high density (72 x 120) printout format that gives you superior quality printouts on your

dot matrix printer. Very professional!

• Built-in Word Processor: All the features needed for standard word processing, plus most of the sophisti

vgr\

cated ones found only in more expen sive programs.

you publishing in no time! Design

• Text Importing: Import documents

Start publishing in less than an hour-

newsletters, term papers, ads, reports,

from WORDWRITER 3. WORDWRITER

at a price you can afford. The

128. PAPERCLIP WORD PRO* or any

TIMEWORKS DESKTOP PUBLISHER retails for just $49.95.

business forms, brochures, and more!

ASCII file, into columns and copy

SPECIAL FEATURES: • WYSIWYG Display: Designing and editing is a breeze with true pull-down menus, icons, and dialog boxes. And, your display screen shows you exactly what your final product will look like

when you print—What-You-See-ls-

blocks you're working with.

• Built-in Graphic Toolbox: Create lines, boxes, ovals, rules, and more; choose from 8 built-in patterns and brushes. Plus, create your own original illustra

Call 312/948-9202.

hand" feature.

• Graphics Importing: Utilize graphics

• Flexible Page Layout: With your

and illustrations from other drawing programs, including PRINT SHOP PRINT

mouse or joystick, and keyboard, you

Find it at your local dealer. Or order directly from Timeworks.

tions and designs by using the "free

What-You-Get!

can reposition, resize, and reshape

For C64 & 128 Computers (64K).

MASTER, and GEOWRITE* Then, crop and size to fit your layout. * Registered trademarks of their respective companies.

444 Lake Cook Rd., Deerfieid, IL 60015 312/948-9200 ©1987 Timeworks, Inc. Ail rights reserved.


NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS ■ NEWS • NEWS courses featuring 3D scrolling

allows two players to race each

graphics. The level of difficulty

other and view the race on side-

increases as the player

by-side windows, or a single

progresses through the courses.

player can race a computer-

released a new version of the

The Commodore 64 version

controlled biker. On-screen

TAXAID series of income tax

retails for S29.95, the Amiga

indicators include speed, RPM,

preparation programs for the

version for S39.95. For details

lap times, race position and

Commodore 64,128 and Plus/4

contact: Activision, 2350

course layout. Suggested retail

designed for home use. The new

Bayshore Pkwy., Mountain View,

price is S19.95. For details

edition includes all current

CA 94043. Or call: (415) 9600410.

contact: Broderbund Software, 17

Taxaid axaid Software, Inc. has

changes in the tax laws for tax year 1987. TAXATT) prepares IRS

Paul Dr., San Rafael, CA 949032101. Or call: (415) 492-3200.

Form 1040, Schedules A, B, C, D, E and Form 2441 (Child Care).

SATCOMM-

Calculations are automatic and tax tables are built in. The menu-

64

driven program is available for

$44.95 from Taxaid Software, Inc., 606 Second Ave., Two Harbors, MN 55616. Phone: (218)834-5012.

DatCOMM-64, a satellite tracking program for the

Commodore 64, is now available

Halls of Montezuma Ullectronic Arts has released

Halls of Montezuma, a battle history of the U.S. Marine Corp designed by SSG, for the

Commodore 64. Halls of Montezuma simulates USMC historical conflicts from the

Mexican War to Iwo Jima to Vietnam in eight pre programmed scenarios or in

scenarios that you design. Halls

of Montezuma retails for $39.95. For details contact: Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404. Or call: (415)571-7171.

from Strategic Marketing

Postcards XiCttivision has introduced a

wacky new program called Postcards with which you can combine backgrounds, clip art and captions to produce goofy postcards on your Commodore

64. Clip art creatures include insects, dinosaurs, alligators,

flamingos and wart hogs which you can transport via flying saucer, dog sled or parachute against a backdrop on the beach,

desert or moonscape. Over 100 scenes, people, animals, structures, objects and modes of transportation are included along with a built-in paint program so you can design your

own bizarre scenarios. Postcards retails for $24.95. For more information contact: Activision, 2350 Bayshore Pkwy.,

Mountain View, CA 94043. Or call: (415) 960-0410.

GeeBee Air Rally VXeeBee Air Rally, an arcadestyle air race, has been released

for the Commodore 64 and Amiga from Activision. The program offers 16 different in-air race 10

JANUARY 1988

Thunder Chopper X hunderChopp er from ActionSoft puts you at the controls of the Hughes 530MG Defender, a high-performance, scout/rescue/attack helicopter. The advanced helicopter simulation includes an on-board flight computer which provides

Resources. Inc. The program will

indicate the location of up to 15 different satellites for amateur radio operators who need to know when each is accessible and where to aim their antennas for successful communication.

SATCOMM-64 is available for $15.95 from Strategic Marketing Resources, P.O. Box 2183,

Effisville, MO 63011. For more information call: (314) 2567814.

Infiltrator II JVJLi Lindscape has released

Infiltrator H a sequel to their popular combat helicopter simulation. The successor pits recovered Captain Johnny

McGibbits against the Mad Leader in a fight-to-the-finish rematch. Infiltrator II

incorporates three land-based graphic adventures in addition to

the airborne combat mission. Suggested retail price is $34.95.

mission instructions and pilot

performance feedback. The "Heads Up Display" provides

For further details contact: Mindscape, 3444 Dundee Rd.,

automatic enemy target

Northbrook, IL 60062. Or call: (312)480-7667.

tracking/locking systems. ThunderChopper retails for

S29.95. For more information contact: ActionSoft, 201W.

Hot & Cool

Springfield Ave.. Suite 711, Champaign, IL 61820. Or call: (217)398-8388.

Superbike Challenge

Mini-Putt Xiccolade has released Mini-

E lectronic Arts has released its

second Music Creativity Library

Putt, an animated miniature golf

Disk, titled Hot & Cool Jazz for

game for the Commodore 64. Up

use with Instant Music,

to four people can play on different courses representing

DeluxeVideo and Deluxe Music Construction Set on the

latest offering from Broderbund

themes such as famous movies,

Amiga. The program contains

for the Commodore 64. The fast-

sports and countries around the

over 40 tunes in various styles

world. Mini-Putt lists for $29.95.

including Ragtime, Swing, Bebop,

For more information contact:

Latin and Fusion Jazz. Hot &

Accolade, 20813 Stevens Creek

Cool Jazz retails for S29.95. For

butuperbike Challenge is the

action arcade game lets players Face at speeds of up to 200 mph

on 12 challenging Grand Prix courses. Superbike Challenge

Blvd., Cupertino, CA 95014. Phone:(408)446-5757.

Continued on page 12


SWIFTAX... ONE GOOD REASON FOR PREPARING YOUR OWN TAXES You don't have to know much about accounting or computers to prepare your

own taxes. With Swiftax, Timeworks1 easyto-operate, menu-driven program, you'll complete your 1987 Federal income tax returns quickly and painlessly. And, our easy-to-use manual pro vides the information you'll need to keep your returns accurate and up-to-date. Features: Guides you through every step of the tax preparation process with full user prompts, and instructs you on which forms you must complete.

Prints your tax information directly onto tax forms as well as blank paper. Prints itemized lists of dividends, interest, etc., that are too long for the standard forms. Summarizes all 1987 tax law changes at the press of a key A built-in memo pad and calculator can be used simultaneously with your SWIFTAX program.

SwiftKeys provide instant access to any

forms and schedules in your tax return.

A new program disk

your tax alternatives, and

and manual can be ob tained for one additional

calculates the lowest

year at half price.

Automatically checks

amount of income tax you must pay.

Free Technical Support:

Sets up a unique Taxpayer File,

Whether you're a neophyte or experi

enabling you to make changes to your

enced computer user, Timeworks' full-

completed tax return, at a later date.

time Customer Support Technicians

commonly used supporting schedules—

will give you plenty of TLC. (Technical Loving Care) at no charge to you!

A,B,C,D,F,R,SE, and Forms 2106, 2441, and 8615-stores the totals, and auto matically enters this information onto your Form 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ.

Swiftax. One more powerful pro ductivity tool from Timeworks to help keep your business (and your life) in order.

Calculates and completes the most

More power for your dollar Timeworks, Inc. 444 Lake Cook Road

Deerfield, Illinois 60015 C 1983 Timeworks, Inc.

312-948-9200

*Reg. Trademark of Commocote Computer Systems.

Available for: Commodore 64 & 128 Computers* (64K, 40 Columns)

Suggested Retail Price: $49.95 At your favorite dealer now, or order from Timeworks today: 1-312-948-9202


NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS • NEWS Continued from pg. 10

more information contact:

Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404. Or call: (415)571-7171.

The Black Cauldron X he Black Cauldron, based on the Disney film of the same name, is an Electronic Arts fantasy for the Amiga set in the mythical land of Prydain. You play Taran whose mission is to locate and destroy the black cauldron made from the curses of an evil king.

Suggested retail price is S39.95. For more information contact: Electronic Arts, 1820 Gateway

Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404. Or call: (415)571-7171.

or phrases to be used at one time.

Voice Master Junior comes with the Covox Composer, which lets the user write and compose music by merely whistling a tune; it can then be edited, saved or printed out. Retail price is

S39.95. For details contact: Covox, Inc., 675 Conger St., Eugene. OR 97402. Or call: (503) 342-1271.

Aegis AudioMaster Xi£f 3gis Development, Inc. has

eleased Aegis AudioMaster, a digital sound sampling and

editing program for the Amiga. AudioMaster allows you to

manipulate any digitally sampled sound, mix sounds together, alter their waveform and save them as instruments to be used in other

Amiga music programs. Sample lengths vary according to

available memory. For example, 51SK will accommodate a two-

CompuTrainer

C ompuTrainer bicycle trainer from RacerMate connects with the

minute sample. AudioMaster's

Commodore 64 or 128 to electronically match road conditions by

suggested retail price is S59.95.

simulating hills, wind conditions and the rider's inertia by means of

For farther information write to: Aegis Development, Inc., 2210

a microprocessor-controlled eddy current brake. CompuTrainer

Wilshire Blvd., Suite 277, Santa Monica, CA 90403. Or call: (213)

commands to the Electronic Load Simulator creating an exciting

392-9972.

courses, create custom courses or randomly generate the terrain.

consists of a Brain Box with 8-bit microprocessor which, sends computer racing game in which the rider can race on famous

The Racer-Mate Challenge, an optional interactive software •■'■■ .:orms training sessions into time trials in which you

Voice Master "Junior" Uovox, Inc. has released the Voice Master' 'Junior,1' a low-

cost version of their Voice Master speech digitizer and voice

recognition device. Voice Master Junior is a self-contained unit

with built-in microphone that plugs into the joystick port. It allows hands-free desktop use. Speech or other sounds are recorded into memory and can be saved to disk. Word recognition templates enable up to 32 words

12

JANUARY 1988

Larry

E lectronic Arts has released

can race against your past performance. CompuTrainer retails for $595, Racer-Mate Challenge lists for S99.95. For more information contact: RacerMate, 3016 N.E. Blakeley St., Seattle, WA 98105. Or call: (206)524-7392.

Leisure Suit Larry in the

Land of Lounge Lizards, an

adult adventure game designed by Sierra On-Line for the Amiga. You control Larry, our hapless hero who spends a night in the fictional town of Lost Wages where he attempts to overcome

the odds and seduce the woman of his dreams. Looks, lack of money and even bad breath can complicate Larry's success, just

like in real life. Leisure Suit Larry retails for $49.95. For details contact: Electronic Arts,

1820 Gateway Dr., San Mateo, CA 94404. Or call: (415) 571-7171.

Real Estate Investor V ance Associates has released The Real Estate Investor V 1.2

for the Commodore 64 and Plus/4. The Real Estate Investor allows prospective buyers to analyze the possible financial and tax consequences of their investments. The program calculates mortgage payments, mortgage amortization, anticipated cash flow, property appreciation and income tax consequences for owneroccupied and tenant-occupied investments. The Real Estate Investor is not copy protected and is available for $25.00 from Jance Associates, Inc., P.O. Box 234, East Texas, PA 18046. Phone: (215) 398-0434.


- ~ I

\

ii

You're one of the elite... parachuting alone

behind enemy lines. The enemy controls the terrain, hidden in bunkers and machine

rear... or maybe a frontal attack will take them by surprise.

MicroProse has broken newground with All

ER,

the quality action game where tactical thinking and lightning reflexes determine your fate. Your missions will vary as much as the climate and terrain. Slip silently into position to rescue prisoners trapped in "tiger pits" from a P.O.W. camp, or throw

world. You'll be running, walking and crawling across fullscrolling, 3-D terrain. Arm yourself with an M-16 assault rifle, bayonet, LAW rocket (Light Antitank Weapon) or time bomb, but be wary of enemy submachine guns, antitank rockets, robot minitanks, minefields and flamethrowers.

:R .. More than just a great game. Ifs

caution to the wind and try to destroy a key munitions dump in

an adventure.

the desert. But watch out... enemy troops can attack from any direction.

AIRBORNE RANGER is available from a "Valued MicroProse Retailer" (VMR) near

The action is fierce as you control one soldier's battle against overwhelming odds. You'll need skill and strategy to outmaneuver your enemy, plus courage and some luck to make your escape. Along the way, search out that hid

den cache of weapons and first aid supplies... you'll probably need them.

you. Call us for locations! For Commodore 64/128, IBM-PC/compatibles and

Apple ll+/e/c. Call or write for specific machine availability, and tor MC/VISA orders if product not found locally.

SIMULATION

180 Lakefronl Drive • Hunl Valley. MD 21030 • (301) 771-1151


FINALLY, A CHALLENGING HELICOPTER Sure, our competitors have their own â– Thfl new Kit* ol 1M art In htllcoptir iimulitlon-

versions of what they believe to be

realistic helicopter simulations. But they're either too superSIMPLE or they make helicopter flight a true

HARDSHIP. Only ThunderChopper's advanced flight systems, graphics, and game-playing strategies provide the perfect combination of challenge and fun.

-$29.95Better Engineering at a Better

Price

For Commodore

64--/128- Computers

a cm Soft

ThunderChopper puts you at the controls of an

Infrared, CO2 laser radar, and zoom television. Arma

advanced Hughes 530MG Defender. This high-

ment consists of TOW and Stinger missiles, a Hughes

performance scout/rescue/attack helicopter has the

Chain Gun, and Zunt rockets - ThunderChopper's

enhanced power and controllability not found in today's

750-horsepower jet turbine and precise controls provide

helicopters - or helicopter simulations. Thunder-

the power and maneuverability to use them all effec

Chopper's combination of power plus control lets you

tively.

land on helipads or rooftops with ease. With enough ex

perience you'll be ready to test your skills in a variety of

Superior programming and documentation design gets

dramatic escort, land and sea rescue, and combat

you up and flying in minutes. Flight techniques and

scenarios.

combat strategies by Colonel Jack Rosenow, USAF

High-speed 3D animated graphics, courtesy of Sub-

you've been looking for.

(Ret.) provide all of the helicopter action and realism LOGIC,offersuperbout-the-windowviewsinday,dusk,

and night flight modes. ThunderChopper's sophisti

From simple landing practice to the most dangerous

cated instrument panel lets you scan all vital information

combat mission, ThunderChopper is the perfect combi

at a glance. An onboard flight computer provides mis

nation of challenge and fun. ThunderChopper, truly

sion instructions and pilot performance feedback.

generations ahead of the pack!

Advanced instrumentation includes Forward-Looking


SIMULATION THAT'S ALSO FUN TO FLY!

C64 Screens shown. Other computer versions may vary.

ip Periscope!

ee Your ueaier...

And don't forget Up Periscope!, the

Or write or call for more information.

new state of the art in submarine

ThunderChopper is available on

simulation. For the ultimate in sub

disk for the Commodore 64/128 and

marine action and realism, nothing

Applell computers. Up Periscope!

else even comes close.

is available for the C64/128 and IBM PC. For direct orders please specify the program and computer version

you want. Enclose $29.95 plus

$2.00 for shipping (outside U.S. $6.25) and specify UPS or first class mail delivery. Visa, Mastercard,

American Express, and Diners Club ! 1987 AclionSolt Corporation

charges accepted.

3D graphics and special effects courtesy SubLOGIC Corp. Commodore 64 and Commodore 128 are registered trade marks of Commodore Electronics Ltd.

Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer. Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corp.

-GENERATIONS AHEAD IN STRATEGY ACTION SOFTWARE'

201 WEST SPRINGFIELD AVENUE. SUITE 711 CHAMPAIGN. IL 61B20

(217) 398-8388


Compiled by Louis F. Sander

r'his month Tips & Tricks explores new territory—literally as well as figuratively. Honduras and Chile represent our 49th and 50th contributing countries, while tips for the Amiga and PC-type computers are our first ever on these exotic and mysteri ous machines. Add to that our customary selection of type-in programs, com mercial software tips, computer room hints, on-line machinations and the like, and you have a wonderful potpourri to ring in the new year.

Ifyou'd like to share your own ideas, write them up and send them in. Many contributors use Q-Link E-Mail to LFS. More traditional folks send them, one per sheet ofpaper, with every sheet containing a return address, to: Louis F. Sander

New Year's Treat: Fire up your 64 and see how the accompany ing program works. It's the Spritemaster Snaders' way of wel coming 1988, done with their usual explosive sound, pyrotechnic graphics, and bang-up animation. You'll have to type the program in, because we aren't reveal ing what it's all about (at least not directly). But like most of Bob & David's software... "It's short and it's sweet, and it does some thing neat.'' It's a dazzling New Year's treat for you, courtesy of: Bob & David Snader Baltimore, Maryland PRINT"[CLEAR,YELLOW] HAPPY

NEW

YEAR

SNADER!":POKE :DIM

FROM

&

DAVE

M(39),N(39)

P=832:Q=1:R=255:S=54 296:V=5324 8

20

FOR

TO

38:READ

:N (J)=L:NEXT:FOR :POKE

K,L:M(J)=K

J=0

TO

4:READ

K,L

POKE

V,R-225*RND(0):Z=100*RND(0)+50

30

POKE

V+39,Q:POKE

:FOR

Y=230

:NEXT:POKE POKE :POKE

TO

Z

P+18,16 STEP-1:POKE

S,15:POKE

53281,1:FOR 53281,0:FOR

JANUARY 1988

K=0

TO

:IF

Q=8

THEN

300:NEXT:Q=Q+1

FOR

J=0

TO

Q=l

38:POKE

P+M{J),0

:POKE V+1,PEEK(V+1)+1:FOR K=0

TO

50

:NEXT:NEXT

50

POKE

S,5:POKE

55

DATA

019,040,016,017,022,016,013,

56

DATA

025,131,010,041,028,040,015,

130

S,0:GOTO

25

007

57

DATA

017,192,007,108,006,030,008,

58

DATA

004,068,009,097,011,012,012,

240

59

DATA

014,002,001,131,000,003,002,

128

60

DATA

018,056,020,056,021,064,023,

004

61

DATA

024,129,026,002,027,006,029,

62

DATA

031,068,034,068,030,008,032,

63

DATA

037,198,033,016,035,016,040,

192

032 130

64

DATA

036,016,038,016,043,130,033,

65

DATA

021,001,032,000,023,001,029,

000

001

Notes from PC Land: Here's what I've observed about my month-old PC, as compared to my long-familiar 128/Ptus4/64/VIC/PET machines: • The PC is much less fun. Commodore-land has lots more in teresting programs and lots more interesting programmers. • Though ray own machine is a $3000 AT clone, Commodore's inexpensive PC's look very, very nice, and will fill most people's needs with lots of power to spare. • The hard disk drive makes loading and saving instantaneous. Other than the price, that's the biggest tangible difference in the systems.

• Another big difference is the filenames. MS-DOS is limited to

V+K,L:NEXT

25

35

16

BOB

2040,13

15

J=0

45

P+M(J) ,N (J) :NEXT

FOR

128

Post Office Box 101011 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15237 Yes, the P.O. Box number was selected with computers in mind. (The Postmaster calls it decimal, but we know it's binary). And yes, we pay money for every tip we print. Most of them get $10. and the best get up to $50.

10

:POKE

40

J=l J=0

V+1,Y

S,0 TO TO

3:NEXT 38

eight very specific characters, while we get to work with sixteen of anything we want. • The difference in the keyboard layout is driving me insane, but I do like having four separate cursor keys. • The 80-column EGA display is great. The CGA isn't, but it's Continued on pg. 102


100 levels, 2473 ghosts, 586 scrolls -and one wicked demon Blast mad mages, mutant rats, and murderous monsters. Explore mysterious multi-level mazes. Annihilate hordes of ghosts, snappers, and dervishes to claim magical artifacts and treasure. The action won't stop until you get to the bottom of it

all - and hand Calvrak the Demon a one-way ticket to oblivion. GET YOUR

DEMON STALKERS DEMO DISK! Three wicked levels of manic arcade action. Send your name, address, and a check for $2 (to cover shipping and handling) to Demon Stalkers Demo Disk. Electronic Arts Direct Sales, P.O. Box 7530, San Mateo, CA 94403.

The deeper you ro, the harder ii got* lYnu T wur.i to bnni! iilunj: a frii-nd to lii-lp.) Elui don'l tntlt 'til you find a Slow Deulh rurse to me the

Simlls give you hints, magic, uiid the bhj;h of ihu

I [gfl the ])un|;t'un Constniction Set to design your

Mnrblr Vaults. If you'd nither, write wirai' lustor>

mm VOial nightniare .. hiiJ then indict it on your fni'iid*. With over li(K> desiEn options. Demon

of your own.

Stalkers' horrors can bv as infinite as

Save (Jumo i-omnuind.

yuur in tap nation.

ELECTRONIC ARTS速 TO PURCHASE DEMON STALKERS: Visit your retailer. Or call 800-245-4525 (in CA 800-562-1112) between 8am and 5pm Pacific time, and place a direct order on your Mastercard or VISA. Or order by mail by sending a check, money order, or VISA/Mas tercard information to the address above. C64 version is S29.95, plus $3 shipping and handling. CA residents add 6'i sales tax. Demon Swlkers is u lni(lemnrk of Electronic Arts. Commodore 64 is a registered trademark of Commodore Business Machines. Ltd.


Compiled by Tim Jones

/'(you have an item that you would like to submit for use. you can send it to: Commodore Amiga Tips 651 Outrigger Dr. Deltona.FL 32728

Amiga Date Idea: For those of us who haven't gone out and in vested in one of the various hardware clocks available for the Amiga 1000. here's an addition to the Startup-Sequence to help us speed up our boot sequences.

Because of the complex nature of AmigaDOS calls, it is possi ble to redirect the input and output of a command. By using this along with the RUN command, we can "multitask" a portion of our startup so that things progress at the best possible speed If you have an entry in your Startup-Sequence that looks like this: Date ? > NIL:

as a method of forcing yourself to reset the date and time each

time you reboot, you know that the system suspends operation until you enter the appropriate data and hit RETURN. Here's a fix for that that demonstrates a couple of features only available to the Amiga owner. Try changing the Date entry in your startup to the following: RUN DATE <CON:452'12'180/2LDD-Mi\LM-YY HHfcMM >NIL: ?

The results are quite surprising and while the new task is wait ing for you to enter the date and time, your system will continue to execute any additional instructions in your startup file. You

will find this most effective if you place it at the beginning ofthe file. If you have other time-consuming functions that block the continuation of the startup of your machine, you could insert a RUN command in front of them, increasing the boot speed of your machine even more. The best way to find out is to experi ment. If you do experiment, be sure to do it on a backup ofyour normal boot disk so that you don't mess up a working version of your Startup-Sequence. [This was submitted to me early in the series, but I lost the ad dress of the author. 1 do remember his city and state, so, ifyou think this sounds like your submission, please drop me another

18

JANUARY 1988

note and I will be glad to give you credit (and a check) for your work. - fa/7 Author Unknown

ASK for Amiga 500/2000 Owners: Here's a neat way to condi tionally install CLI commands into a RAM disk and then assign the appropriate virtual volumes. Included on the 500 2000 Workbench disk is a command called ASK. ASK allows you to make an entry into a batch file tin this case, Startup-Sequence) that prompts a user for a yes or no response. The syntax for ASK is:

ASK "Any text question in QUOTES" Then handle the response with an IF WARN statement i WARN is true if the first letter of the user's response is"Y"or"y"): IF WARN {operation} ENDIF Here's an example that I use to install my C directory into

RAM: Echo"" ASK "Install the CLI commands into RAM:Drive (Yor Nl? " IF WARN

MAKEDIR RAM:C COPY C: ALL RAM:C QUIET ASSIGN C: RAM:C ENDIF Then before the line ENDCLI > NIL:, I place the following: IF EXISTS RAM:C NEWCLI CON:540/150/100 50 CLI ENDIF

This allows me to decide whether to work in a Workbenchonly environment or to create a CLI for use with these com mands. If the commands were copied to RAM:, it is safe to as sume that I want to use a CLI environment, while a lack of Continued on pg. 114


■U2 Vl/ALl II Take command of the most modern naval task force in the world. Control an entire fleet of warships equipped

with hi-tech weaponry and surveillance systems. Yourtheater •<

Dining

BED' fress

of operations: today's hot spots like the Persian Gulf,

the Falklands and the North Atlantic. As realistic as tonight's

six o'clock news.

Hunt down the enemy with phase-array radar and ultra long-range sonar

surveillance systems. Launch Seahawk, Lynx or Seasprite helicopters for remote targeting and anti-sub warfare. Modern weapon systems include Phalanx auto-cannons, Harpoons, Exocets and Tomahawk cruise missiles.

EVERY OTHER NAVAL SIMULATION IS HISTORY. *J1*" """■">»■ JLJMrt_IJtralA*

usm

Bround-baaad EilKuom

Choose from 10 individual missions or fight a gut-wrenching campaign spanning 4 separate conflicts.

■r1

v. ;■

Command your fleet from the Combat Information Center. Take control from the bridge of any vessel or the cockpit of any helicopter.

■v.

stiltf

Configure your task force from a dozen different classes of vessels. Like Spruance destroyers, Ticonderoga

cruisers and Oliver Hazard Perry frigates. Deploy up to 16 vessels in your fleet.

Screen shots represent C64 version. Others may vary

HOW TO ORDER: Visit your retailer or call 800-245-4525 for direct VISA or MastefCard orders (in CA call 800-562-1112). The direct order price is S29.95 for the C64 version and S34.95 for the Apple version. Send a U.S. checkor money order to Electronic Arts Direct Sales. PO. Box 7530. San Mateo. CA 94403. Add S3 shipping and handling (55 lor shipping to Canada). Please allow 1-2 weeks lot U.S. delivery. C64 is a registered trademark oi Commodore Electronics Limited.

Apple is a regislered trademark of Apple Computer. TM & (& 1987 Lucasfilm Ltd. All rights reserved. Electronic Arts, authorized user.

ELECTRONIC ARTS*


64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS'

Reviewed by Jack Emberly

Castle Clobber Computer:

Commodore 64

Publisher:

Thunder Mountain Division Mindscape School Software 3444 Dundee Road Xonhbrook, IL 60062 Disk S9.95

Medium: Price:

In this three-level educational adven ture, the robot Tbnk is piloted through a maze of castle rooms in search of TinkTonk Land's stolen toy chest. Mean King Gork who took the chest from the sad dened town folk, thwarts Tonk with trap doors that send him back to TinkTonk Land and menacing soldiers cart him off to "jail." But Tonk may triumph by follow ing a map of the castle and remembering the whereabouts of obstacles and locked doors. By winning games of pattern recog nition Tonk acquires keys to doors con cealing the chest. Lively sound, inventive graphics, and numerous surprises make Castle Clobber great sport for kids four to 13.1 like the systematic treatment of visu al perception skills needed for grade one reading and the critical thinking skills de manded throughout school. Level one, (for 4-7 year oldsi begins in the "Spooky Garden" leading into the up per floor of the castle. Using joystick or keyboard one guides Tonk into the castle's upper and lower rooms. Soon Tonk finds the "keys" he may hold and use should he win one of five spatial orientation games that now appeal's on screen.

Good Pre-Reading Activity

In "Odd Keys Out" the child examines 16 keys similar to the one found in the ad venture. The task is to isolate four that are different from the other twelve. "Pair the Keys" displays eight mixed keys that must be arranged in four equal sets.

In "Four in a Row" one studies 20 keys to discover four in sequence. Levels two and three add keys to each game. "Build Me Exactly" requires the child to study the color and shape of a soldier's four parts (head, body, legs, weapon I and build a similar soldier given two choices for each part. In level two there are four choices for each part; in level three the sol dier disappears and must be rebuilt from memory.

In "Who's Next" the child "analyzes" 20

JANUARY 1988

Lively sound, inventive graphics, and numerous

surprises make Castle Clobber great sport for kids four to thirteen. the height and shape of five soldiers to find the pattern which predicts the dimen sions of a sixth soldier. In level one the pattern is the same from soldier to soldier: by level three it changes from figure to fig ure. Teachers should appreciate this pain less way to introduce Bloom's taxonomy of thinking skills-analysis and synthesis. All five games will help grade ones distin guish commonly reversed "b"s and "d"s. Noting details could improve the spelling of older kids. The choice of Adventure or Games on the menu allows adults to select these activities for extended drill at their discretion.

Winning or losing games returns one to the Adventure in progress and its haz ards. At level one these consist of locked doors and Gork. The emphasis here is on visual discrimination. In level two Tonk encounters more haz ards and surprises, and a dungeon con nected by stairways. Trap doors appear suddenly to whisk him back to his start ing point. Bumping into soldiers sends him off to jail. On the good side. Tonk dis covers lanterns, shovels, and magic boxes which may help him escape darkened chambers and jail but their applications must be discovered by experimentation.

The result is problem solving by trial and error.

Useful objects may also be held and traded with Boomer, an ally should Tonk find the key to release his friend from jail. The challenge then is to locate keys, ob jects and hazards and through a planned route safely acquire the tools for victory. In level two kids in grades two through five leam to plan and follow the most ex peditious routes. In small groups debate rages on whether to first acquire useable objects, release Boomer or forge ahead in search of the chest. Thus cooperative prob lem solving becomes a major outcome of the fun. Players must succeed with level two to learn the password to level three (grade sevens love it). Here catacombs appeal- be neath the dungeon. These dark passages are connected by stairs to the two upper levels. Now trap doors may close behind Tbnk to end play. Only careful map read ing will take the adventurer to the prized toy chest. Castle Clobbers three levels of play are good educational fun for any elementary child. The program comes with back up disk and documentation containing maps and instructions. g


AKING MUSK HAS NEVER BEEN EASIER. Suddenly, you're a rock star. Screech ing, pulsating, throbbing with sound. You'ie

playing music on your computer There's on invisible band in your bedroom Your parents

don't understand you anymore—and you like it! What happened? Yesterday you didn't know a treble clef from a tuba. Today you're

creating mistake-free music on multiple in struments, You've discovered the revolution

ary program with musical intelligence. You've discovered Instant Music!"

C

Experiment with different arrangements or choose from 40 built-in songs—jazz, reg gae, even classical.

ROM SOLO EXPRESSIONS TO JAM SESSIONS. Open your concert with a bass guitar solo Then rip into a real-time rock out and

jam with the interactive band inside your computer. Play up to three instruments at

one time. And for really awesome effects, play out through a MIDI keyboard. The sound will blow your socks off!

"IT'S ONLY ROCK'N'ROLL DISK INCLUDED

REATE COLOR-CODED COMPOSITIONS.

With Instant Music you can actually see the music you're playing with color bars that

appear on your screen. Featuring over a dozen instruments to choose from, you se lect the ones you want to use. Just move your joystick or mouse to draw in lines of music. It's that simple.

You can compose, too. Instant Music lets you copy and paste, even erase your musical ideas. So improvise and synthesize. Screen shot represents C64 version

Jam-packed with over 50 rock tunes

from the '50s to Now. (Included with C64 version ONLY.)

H

OW TO ORDER:

I VISIT YOUR RETAILER OR CALL 800-245-4525 FOR DIRECT

VISA OR MASTERCARD ORDERS (IN CA CAlL 800-562-1112) THe Direct Puce is S29 95 for lhe C64 version Apple Ites and Amiga

versions S49 95 To Duy Ey mail, send check or money order lo

Electronic Arts. Direct Soles P.O Box 7530, San Mnteo. CA 94433 Add S3 tor shipping ana hcndlmg (S5 Canadian) There is a 14-dov,

money-cock guarantee on direct orders instant Music and it s Only RocknRoll are iraflemarks of Electronic Arts

INSTANT MUSIC. THE POWER TO PLAY.

ELECTRONIC ARTS


Reviewed by Scott A. May

64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS"

Street Sports Baseball Computer:

Publisher:

ages), but aiming your hit requires a deft

touch. The inherent qualities of each play er must be considered. Some swing too early, some too late. Take this into account and swing according to who is at bat. Once the ball is hit. the main windowautomatically displays the fielder closest to the ball. The smaller window now shows the entire field, the path of the ball and where each fielder stands. Right be

Commodore 64 Epyx, Inc. 600 Galveston Drive P.O. Box 8020

Redwood City, CA 94063

Medium:

Price:

Disk -5^4.95

To participate in back yard sports is al

most a constitutional right for kids growing up in America. Although the set ting may differ according to region—a grassy field, vacant lot or urban side street—the fun and neighborhood cama raderie are universal. This spirit of im

promptu competition is the theme behind Strvet Sports Baseball the first in a newseries of games by Epyx. Like the real-life events they salute. Street Sports Basebcill will appeal to players of all ages and abili ties.

The games first option is the choice of two locations, a concrete parking lot or a grass field. The only difference between the two settings is the type of obstacles that litter the outfield. Going for fly balls isn't easy with obstructions like bird baths, dirt piles, bushes and puddles to contend with. The position and type of ob stacles changes fi-om one game to the next.

Games can be played against a street wise computer team or another human op ponent. Teams can be either hand-picked from scratch, recalled from previously saved groups or randomly chosen by the computer. Select new teams and you'll get to know the personal strengths and weak nesses of each player. There are 16 mem bers of the 52nd Street Hall of Fame, each a tiny terror in the neighborhood leagues. One of the nicest qualities of this game is how each player is treated individually in terms of ability. As in real life, some are better than others, but each contributes something special to the team. Each has a name and distinct personality. This is also the only computer baseball game that in cludes females in the line-up. Watch out guys, most of these girls can run circles around you!

A coin-flip determines who picks first and which team starts at bat. There are only eight players per team — the com puter handles the catcher's mitt for both 22

JANUARY 1988

fore the ball appears on-screen, a message

Getting a hit is not difficult (which is one reason why this game is perfect for all ages), but aiming your hit requires a deft touch.

sides and the pitcher covers home plate after the ball is hit. Next, each player de cides the team's field position and batting oi'der. Here is where you make the most of your talent, rag-tag as it might be. Review each player's abilities and make your as signments.

The playfield screen contains a score-

board at top and two windows showing dif ferent perspectives of the field. The larg est window displays a 3D view of the ac tion—from behind the batter's box to each position on the field—depending on the location of the ball. A smaller windowshows an overhead view of the entire field, helpful for tracking fly balls, base runners and outfielders' positions. There are only four basic pitchesfast, slow and right left curve balls, but the joystick controls the ball all the way to the plate. The large window provides the best view for pitchers to guide the ball. Pitchers will find it fun and challenging to fool batters (even the computer-con

trolled type i with quick-changing throws. Start out fast and slow it down right be fore it passes home plate, or do just the op posite. Curve balls are especially tricky to hit. but be careful—too much inside curve and you'll hit the batter, resulting in a walk. From the batter's point of view, hitting the ball is simply a matter of concentra tion. Getting a hit is not difficult i which is one reason why this game is perfect for all

is flashed indicating whether it is a fly ball or grounder. Fly balls cast a shadow on the ground. Follow the shadow, not the ball itself, and you'll make the catch most of the time. Fielding the ball is very simple, yet suc

cess depends on two factors: the fielder's abilities and the obstacles present. Run ning into a bush or slipping in a puddle causes your fielder to fall down, losing time and coordination. A butter-fingered player might also catch the ball and drop it. or let a grounder slip between his or her legs. Despite errors, most hits garner onlysingles. A home run fence can be seen in the distance, but such power hits are ex tremely rare. Throwing the ball to each base is a snap. Simply point the joystick in one of four directions—as though it were a base ball diamond—and press the fire button. Players automatically move to their as signed bases and catch the ball. When

playing the computer, one trick is to hesi tate before throwing from the outfield. The runners will continue to advance, giv ing you the chance to throw behind them and possibly force an out. Likewise, base runners will automati cally advance after a hit. unless they are on second or third with no one behind them. In this situation you can seize con trol of the runner and force him or her to run. Stealing bases is unheard of. but dur ing the heat of play, runners can "go for it" and slide into base. The game's graphics are large, colorful and cute. The animation, especially the batter and pitcher, is very well done. Sound plays an important role also, from the "thwack" of a nicely-hit ball to the oc casional honk of a nearby car horn. Street Sfxtrts Baseball is nicely paced, colorful and lots of fun for players of all ages. Like its real-life counterpart, it is in

formal, not too serious, and totally enter

taining. The only thing missing is your mother calling vou home for dinner. ra


ly,The

Stuff

-NY Times (Aug. 25.1987)

Strap yourself into Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer' The only flight simulation co-designed by the greatest test pilot ever. And with action so fast, even experienced pilots 'auger in! The right stuff is right here. Test the limits of 14 different aircraft using Yeager's own

evaluation checklist. From the classicWWI Sopwith Camel to themach-speedSR-71 Black bird. Push the experimental XPG-12 to the edge of space.

Fly formation on Yeager's wing through Dead Man's Slalom. Catch the breathtaking fear of a Hammerhead stall, the adrenaline rush of an aileron roll, the thrill of your first Cuban 8.

Race computer opponents through white-knuckle courses. Bolt past obstacles and run narrow gates. Skim the ground at top speed, wing-

-wing with your rival. View the action from a chase plane or the tower. Seat-of-the-pants flying in the only simulation with over

forty years of experience. Yeager insisted on actual air craft specs and his own flight evaluation charts. Climb into the cockpit and see if you've got the'right stuff

HOW TO ORDER- Visit your retailer or call 800-

245-4525 for direct VISA or MasterCard orders [m CA call 800-562-1112). The direct order

price is $39.95 for the IBM version and 534.95 for the C64 version. Send a U.S. check or money order to Electronic Arts Direct Sales. PO Box 7530, San Maleo, CA 94403. Add $3 (or shipping and handling ($5 Canadian). Please allow 1-2 weeks for U.S delivery Coming for the Apple II. IBM is a registered trademark

of International Business Machines, inc. C64 is a registered trademark of Commodore Electronics Limited Software 6 1987 Ned Lerner.

PHOTO COURTESY NORTHROP AVIATION/ALLEN QUINN. Headline quote c 1987 by The New York Times Company Reprinted by permission.

ELECTRONIC ARTS 速


. So there you are, furiously working away at your Commodore 128, thinking every thing is just peachy, when all of a sudden, it hits you. That haunt ing, hollow, horrible

question that every computer

owner must inevitably face: "Is my computer up to date —or out of date?" If you use GEOS 128, that's a question you— or your grand- A children's chil dren—won't ever have to worry

about. Because GEOS 128 is the revolutionary software system designed to push your hardware to new lim its. Unleash its full power across a full 80 column screen. And expand its capabilities for years to come.

We should have installed disk brakes.

Loading up with GEOS

turns your 128 into a mousedriven maniac that loads, pro cesses and saves everything up

to seven times faster than nor

mal. Part of that's due to the GEOS diskTurbo, but most of it's due to the fact that GEOS 128 doesn't treat your 128 like aC64. You see, by recognizing your machine as a 128, GEOS 128 operates at a full 2 MHz, instead of 1 MHz. So you get twice the speed. Twice the power. And since GEOS 128 also

sort of like talking in sign language. For example, if you want a document for word-processing, you point to the icon that looks like a stack of papers. Click your mouse and bingo—you're in the file. If you want to erase the file, you drag the stack of papers over to the little waste basket and click your mouse. Poof. That's about as tough as it gets. Working within the system.

Learning where things are in GEOS is pretty simple, especially if you've ever sat behind a desk. Because that's exactly how we designed fiCifl! tit vr^n (rat rti* bB

i [* ..

supports the quicker 1571 and

1581 double-sided disk drives — and the 1750 RAM expansion unit—there's no telling how much faster that puppy will fly.

Fast and slick with mouse or stick.

1..

. 1,,

P.I.

1 .

tN ul be hw tg tactu tint tit first qwmr tdei iur.ii ^= Jim

a

ii Jon

Fib

;:

111 TraTri'

Ilt

?*

Using GEOS is ridiculously

simple. All you need is a mouse or joystick, and a keen ability to point and click. Everything else is pretty much a matter of read

ing menus (a technical term for "little lists of things"), or select ing icons (a technical term for "little pictures of things"). It's

GEOS 128. You keep your documents and graphics in files; everything else stays right on the desktop: the notepad, the calculator— there's even an alarm clock. In fact, the only thing our desktop


Now, we realize that's a lot to pack into one GEOS package. But as long as we're packing it in, we might as well let you know something else: There's more. doesn't have is a place to put your feet when the boss isn't around. But not only does GEOS give you a place to write and draw, it actually helps you write and draw better. Because unlike your basic office model, our desktop comes with geoWrite and geoPaint built right in. With geoWrite, your way with words leaves people speechless, as they watch you effortlessly cut, paste and move entire blocks of copy anywhere on the page. And since geoWrite comes with different fonts in a variety of styles and sizes, your docu ments become even more dazzling. With geoPaint, you can draw designs. Create with col ors. And tantalize your tastes with tons of tones and textures. Invert, rotate or mirror images.

Then place them wherever you want: either in your geoWrite document, or in your GEOS Photo Album for later use. But no matter what kind of masterpiece you create, you vVn ilo

The older it gets the better it looks.

It's true. Because there are always new GEOS applications just waiting to jump off the shelves and into your 128. Pack ages like geoDex and geoFile. for keeping addresses and data straight. Fontpack and

GEOFILE i>«

geoWrite Workshop, for tweaking text with that special,

^_

KS EEC! ia. <f» a srij (« o at «w M tt« d we.

ft; Ma, (rsa

always get to view it on a beau tiful, 80 column-wide screen. No more scrolling left to right. With GEOS 128, what you see really is what you get.

The more you put into your system, the more you get out of it.

Of course, when we say that GEOS 128 has far-reaching implications, we're not kidding around. Every GEOS 128 pack age includes free QuantumLink software, which hooks you (via modem) into a nationwide net work of Commodore people just like you. There's even a service that will Laserprint your docu ments for you.

Berkeley

n Softworks

extra touch. And, of course, geoCalc, a full-fea tured graphics spreadsheet for all you number freaks. They're just the first in a long line of GEOS applications that are constantly being devel oped to keep your 128 up to date. So if you'd rather have your 128 grow up than grow old, load up with GEOS. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your 128. Heck, you owe it to your grandchildren. To order call 1-800-443-0100 ext. 234

GEOS 128 $69.95 (California residents add lc'c sales tax.)

$2.50 US'$5.50 Foreign for shipping and handling. Allow six weeks for delivery.

GEOS128

The brightest minds are working at Berkeley.


64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Reviewed by Gary V. Fields

The Graphics Transformer Publisher

Commudore U4 CDA. Inc.

Medium:

561 N. Main Street Yreka. CA 96097 Disk

Price:

.$#4.95

Computer:

rhe Graphics Transformer is a collec tion of graphic utilities which can convert screens nxim one drawing pro gram to another, plus a little more. Who would l>e interested in .such a product?

Anyone who uses more than one graph ic program and desires to use the draw ings or clip art designed on one with the other. Perhaps you have used Doodle! for

years but have recently purchased GEOS. Over the years you have created some im pressive graphics which you would like to incorporate in ageoWrite document or a geoPaint design. How do you translate them into files GEOS recognizes? Without a utility program like The Graphics Transformer you are out of luck — either

you must manually recreate those graph ics or forget them. But now all you have to do is boot this program, cursor through the intuitively designed menus, and in short order the graphic is ready to be used by nearly any drawing program on the 64

market Why must a graphic be converted to be used by different drawing programs? Unfortunately there is no standard for mat for packing graphic codes for the 64 system as has been established for the Amiga. In the absence of such a standard, individual programmers have devised their own methods for storing and retriev ing code. As a result, a legion of powerful programs are on the market which are for eign to each other. The Graphics Trans former serves as a translator for those pro grams.

How does Graphics Transformer work? The entire program loads into the com puter's memory tin 20 seconds), not just a portion. After it is loaded you can remove and store the program disk. This is impor tant since you will be switching disks as you load graphics created by one drawing 26

JANUARY 1988

If you've ever tried to do graphics conversion by brute BASIC programming force,you'll understand why The Graphics Transformer is a genuine answer to a prayer. program and resaving the converted pro gram to another. Using the program is simple and logical. First you are present ed a screen which lists all the different graphic programs it is compatible with. There are over two dozen on the list, in cluding the more popular ones plus sever al 1 have never heard of: GEOS, Flexidraw Flying Colors, Kwik Paint, Comput er Eyes. Cadpak 64, Animation Station and Sahara Abstraction are but a few of the mix. To begin the conversion process you simply cursor down the list, highlight the name of the program your design was cre ated with and press RETURN. Next a conversion screen appears. Again you cur sor to highlight which program you want the file converted to. You can also convert a graphic file into a "stand alone" or

"multi" file, which I will mention in a minute.

After you've made a selection you are presented the DOS screen. Here you can read a disk directory, select and load files, convert the graphic or return to the main menu. After reading a disk's directory into memory, you simply cursor through the

listing and highlight the file (or files) you

want to convert. After the graphic is load ed, the power screen of The Graphics Transformer is displayed.

Does The Graphics Transformer have any

other unique or interesting features? Yes. Not only can you convert graphic

files to formats which alien programs can handie, but you can also create "stand alone" and "multi" files as well. With the "stand alone" option, you can convert and

save files which can be loaded and dis played independently of any graphic pro gram. To load and display a drawing you simply type: LOAD "filename".8,l and the graphic will appear on screen just as it originally appealed when it was stored to disk. The "multi'' file option allows you to re locate the graphic load to a memory loca tion you specify. This option would be use ful tor anyone designing a game program in which they would like to use their

graphics lor displays, playing fields, etc.

Is The Graphics Transformer worth buying and why? Ifyou own only one graphic program. you don't need The Graphics Transformer. But if you have collected several over the years, chances are you'll find this program invaluable. It is logically designed, does what it claims and does it quickly. My only complaint is—Why did you guys wait so long? I've needed a utility program like this for years. g


Speed in Spades. Throttle—wide open. Joystick—back hard. Air it out, man.

GeeBee Air Rally. Airracing action that puts the wildback in the wild blue yonder. Speed in spades. One tricky turn after another. And a lot of nasty competition between you and the finish line. Buzz em. Bump 'em. Blow 'em away.

Show "em who owns the skies.

16 unique courses, 4 spe

cial events, 256 levels of difficulty.

Bailout front a midair

mishap, andyou never know where you'll end up.

GeeBee Air Rally. $29-95 suggested retail price for Commodore 64/128. $39-95 suggested retail price for Amiga™ computers.

ACTIVISION.1 Ask your software retailer or order direct: just call 800/345-2888, operator 300. A) Activision. Inc. Amigj screens shown. Stiecm

m»y vuy depending on computer lyiiem. Amigi and Commodore 64 and 12R are iradcmiiks of Commodore Electronics. Ud.


64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Reviewed by Scott A. May

Wargame Construction Set

,■

and vital information are displayed on a status line near the bottom of the screen. This information is helpful for status re ports before and after an attack. At the heart of the program is the Game Editor, a comprehensive and some what intimidating look behind the scenes.

Computer: Commodore 64 Publisher: Strategic Simulations, Inc 1046 N. RengstorffAve. Mountain View, CA 94043 Medium: Disk Price: 829.95

Novice designers will find it much easier

To loyal fans of computerized battle simulations. Wargame Construction Set represents a dream that has finally come true. Play one of the eight pre-designed war games included on the disk, or

build your own versions of military con

flicts. Both diehard strategists and novice armchair generals will find a lot to like in this dynamic feature-laden program. The program's greatest asset stems fVom the talents of designer Roger Da mon, author of S.S.I.'s Panzer Grenadier, NAM and Field ofFin: Damon evokes a user-friendly style without sacrificing au thenticity — no easy task considering the complexity of most computer war games. Lush graphics, easy-to-use joystick com mands, intricate scenarios and fast gameplay characterize a typical Damon design. The author shares some of his secrets in Wargame Construction Set. resulting in a program with real long-term play value. The program consists of two pails: game scenarios and the Editor Novice players — and those unfamiliar with Da mon's style — should begin with a few tri al games. Five one-player and three twoplayer games are included to spark your imagination and display the Editor's pow erful features. The eight pre-designed games offer a wide range of styles and difficulty levels. Scenarios include historical re-enact ments ("Rommel's 88's." "First Bull

Create combat simulations from medieval conflicts to intergalactic megawars.

tion of the scenario, the number ofplay ers, map configurations, unit statistics and the overall objective. Veteran war gamers will find the users manual up to S.S.I.'s customary standard of excellence. All games consist of a series of phases that comprise one full turn. Game turns typically include Observation. Fire and Movement phases for each side. AVictory phase indicates which side is favored in the battle at the end of each turn. Finally. a Save Game phase allows players to con tinue the game at a later date. Two-player games feature additional

fire phases, depending on the scenario.

Games that support the Artillery Plot phase aliow both sides to summon off-

board artillery fire. Such force is so dam aging—often simulating atomic weapon ry—players may wish to delete this phase.

Run"), textbook military maneuvers <"Tb

Another phase unique to two-player games is Opportunity Fire. Mere a player may interrupt an opponent's Movement

turn to Beta 4" i. Wargame Construction Set is flexible enough to create combat simulations of almost any time period,

previous turn. This is a powerful defensive tactic, used against advancing armies.

Crass a River." "Fulda Gap"), fictional confrontations ["Delta Force Rescue," "Castle Siege'"i and futuristic battles ("Re

from medieval conflicts to intergalactic megawars.

Specifications for each pre-designed game are detailed in the back of the users manual. Information includes a descrip28

JANUARY 1988

phase and fire any unit reserved from the

Damons use ofjoystick controls simpli fies gameplay tremendously, especially in two-player scenarios. The joystick moves a cursor in eight directions across the smoothly-scrolling battlefield. When placed atop a player's unit, its ID number

U) alter certain aspects of a pre-designed game rather than .starting completely from scratch. Soon you will understand how each change affects different features in the game. It also gives you the unique opportunity to study how professional de signers use Wargame Construction Set to achieve desired effects. The final step be fore committing an original design to disk is to follow the editing tutorial outlined in the manual. This will take you step-bystep through the entire process, including game genre, theme, plot, map construc tion, unit design and deployment. Graph paper is recommended for sketching pre liminary map layouts. Players will soon discover two factors that will either make or break a good war game: terrain placement and unit design (both friendly and enemy). Terrain fea tures include: roads, bridges, blown bridges, trees, crests, hilltops, woods, mines, buildings and rivers. Each terrain type affects different units in terms of movement and line of sight. Players must be careful not to box off prime objectives with impassable terrain. Keep in mind that nothing you can do will cause the program to crash. Poor planning, however, can render the most attractive design virtually unplayable. Few people will get everything right the

first time out: re-editing your designs is inevitable. Always consider your final ob jective to avoid design errors. Unit design is complex, yet fascinating to experiment with. Each unit (both

friendly and enemy] contains a wealth of interactive parameters: firepower, de fense, assault, movement, strength and range. Fire type determines unit weapon ry: small arms, machine guns, anti-tank and heavy explosives. Unit types for both

sides include infantry, tanks, engineers. mortars and cannons. Friendly units can also contain trucks, helicopters and boats. Wargame Construction Set tackles a se rious game genre with unusual style and grace. Roger Damon and S.S.I, have cre

ated a masterpiece oflong-term entertain ment value.

Q


The time: 1400 hours. Some where in the Pacific. Some ill-fated coordi nates in World War II.

Jmdm.\iim

eyeball to eye ball action. This time around you'll be right in the middle of it all. You knew it wouldn't be pretty But how tough could it

Damaae Conlwl irpnrlsa hit on the starboard side. Sen d in Alpha. l--> i.~ Baker and Ckarik to to repair. repa

Ifou're at the helm, command ing the

DC tO

It sure seemed a lot easier than shelling islands, escort ing a convoy or hunting subs. Or so you

WTill it be the twin

anti-

40mm Bofors -i:i^ aircraft

guns? Or the 5"lead-spewers aft? Depth charges j or torpedoes?

Autopilot or guts? i

Any choice could be your

last, so make it good. Suddenly, you hear the ominous rumble of YOU'VE ALWAYS DREAMED OF greatest conincoming Zeroes. BEAUTIFUL MODELS. Now you can pick up an entire assaultfleet, including But now You fire, and send Radar spotf inbound Zeroes. Ready a replica Fletcher Class Destroyer, from forward gunnery positions.,Man the fiv.ar.ral[Ta^ anti-aircrafttitrrcts.They'rf coming HICJJUWCl one plummeting to look what Revell. Onvin an authentic scrambled eggs flight deck cap. Sweepstakes details ever put in a lightweight you've got. the sea, trailing a are in every box, or writefor an entry coupon. No purchase necessary. Sweep fighter. The deadly Thirteen plume of smoke. stakes ends June 15.1987. Official rules Fletcher Class Destroyer. fully-opera are available at participating dealers. On instinct, you in You've embarked on the tional, earstruct the bridge to first simulation that actually bursting battle stations to commence evasive maneuvers •combines the intricate, worry about, all armed to the Even though, by large-scale strategy of gills. Not to mention radar. experience, you lwargamingwith Navigation. Sonar. know there's no the intensity of And half the Japanese fleet where to run. crawling up your spine. furious, Time to make some tacti Apple II& compatibles, C$41128, IBM & compatibles. cal decisions.

EPYX


64 AND 128 SORWARE REVIEWS

Reviewed by John Jermaine

Aliens Computer: Commodore 64 Publisher: Activi>ion 2350 Bayshore Parkway Mountain View. CA 94043 Medium: Disk

Price:

$34.95

Aliens, developed and marketed by Aotivision, is a special collection of six mini-games in which the player partici pates in events from the movie of the same name. The characters of Newt and Ripley are both included, and you must control the actions of Ripley in many phases of the game. The first phase of the operation chal lenges you to pilot the drop-ship as it de scends through the planet's atmosphere. This sequence isn't a true flight simulator, with complicated controls to master, but it delivers an easy-to-understand flight sim ulation which everyone should enjoy. Once the troops have landed, four ma rines are sent out to search the interior of the Atmosphere Processor Building. Un fortunately, the aliens quickly become aware of their presence, and the second game has you directing a systematic re treat of your men to the APC i Armored Personnel Carrier), This exercise can be come complicated, considering that a large enemy force is closing in on the ma rines' position. When your people have been extracted

from the area, they are driven to a new lo cation in the complex. The Operations Room Rampage takes place when the squad becomes hopelessly surrounded. You must defend your position until one of your men can cut an escape mute through a heavy steel door. This particular game forces the player to quickly analyze the situation and deal with each alien as an individual, even though yuu have to worry about eight lanes of invading creatures si multaneously. As the group leaves the Operations Room behind them. Newt suggests it might be safer to travel through the air ducts. A fourth game, the Air Duct Maze Scramble, has Newt, Ripley. and the sur viving marines desperately trying to find a route out of the building. If the team is captured, it means a slow death for every one. Each marine knows the score and has volunteered to sacrifice his own life to save the others, by detonating his gre nades when the safety of the group is 30

JANUARY 1988

Each marine has

volunteered to sacrifice his own life to save the others, by detonating his grenades when the safety of the group

is threatened.

threatened. Once again the user becomes an armchair general. During this evacua tion maneuver, an accident places Newt in the hands of the enemy. Even though the nuclear reactor of the complex will explode in 17 minutes, Rip ley disregards her own safety and sets off to rescue her young friend in the Newt Rescue Race. There are a number of things to worry about during a relatively short period of time. For one thing, you are using the range locator to find Newt. Secondly, Ripley must leave a trail of flares to show her how to get back to the elevator. As you search for the child, blast aliens that pose an immediate threat, but try to conserve your ammunition for the encounter with the queen in the alien nest. Smart players become clock watch ers and gauge their activities to the re maining time. The final challenge is a brutal One-OnOne Confrontation with the alien queen. Ripley commands a power loader during this epic battle taking place on the mili

tary transport ship. These loaders are heavy duty second bodies for their opera tors, and powerful enough to deliver a mean jab to a big bad alien spoiling for a fight. Weaken her as quickly as possible, grab the creature at the right moment, and drop her through the air lock to com plete the final task of the mission. Alien's graphics are well done and accu rately depict their big screen counter

parts. I was very pleased with the way the alien creatures looked in the games. Steve Gartwright must have had a difficult time analyzing those distinctive mugs and making them look presentable on the 64. Even though the Aliens are basically

black figures, with some white detailing added, their appearance is more than just acceptable. It's interesting to note that your foes move differently than the human beings in the program. Some aliens are faster than others, and it seems that certain "bugs" are more aggressive when you en counter them in a game. The Operations Room scene really looks sharp, while the graphics display of the flame thrower in action is equally impressive. It would have been nice if the digitized transitional screens could have contained more de tails, but they still look good, and their movie dialogue is very entertaining. You may recognize something familial* about the "Drop-Ship Maneuvers" game. It made its debut in Activision's Master of the Lamps program and challenged the user to guide a flying carpet through a se ries of mystic colored rings. This whole se quence was re-vamped for Aliens. Now the software pilot of your group has the oppor tunity to fly the drop-ship to the landing field, by maneuvering the craft through a computer graphic pipeline. As you enter

the planet's atmosphere, you feel as if you're actually flying the craft. The image on the screen shakes, a low roar is heard in the background, and the ship's hull be gins to glow, as the outer skin of the vessel makes contact with the atmosphere. Aliens also contains original theme mu sic and a nice collection of realistic sound effects. As you progress through the story line of the movie, you'll hear automatic gun fire, the unmistakable sound of feet walking across catwalks, a noise emitted by the creatures themselves, and the hyContinued on pg. 52


1987- Expanding Scenery disk

coverage; East Coast, Japan, & Europe 1986- Flight Simulator II for the 68000 computers

1985- High-performance Jet flight simulator for the IBM,

Commodore 64, and Apple II computers

1982/1983 - Microsoft Flight Simulator & Flight Simulator II

1979 - 3D graphics applied to the original FS1 Flight Simulator for

the new Apple II and TRS-80 computers

1977- SubLOGIC's 3D graphics

package in BASIC and M6800 Assembly Language

Some say our technology has helped us define the state of the art in flight simulation. We believe our ten years of dedicat ion have gotten us where we are today.

SubLOGIC's first black & white 3D graphics routines, developed in 1977, paved the way for our introduction to flight simula tion and aerial combat gaming theory. Our second-generation Flight Simulator II was so well conceived that even we find it

difficult to improve upon. Jet's spectacular land and sea battle scenarios set another classic milestone in state-of-thejart simulation gaming. Scenery concepts incorporated into SubLOGlC flight simulation products right from the start continue to

evolve as we introduce new, more beautifully detailed areas of the world to explore. And coming in 1988 - a flight control yoke for even more realism!

We invite you to help us celebrate our first decade of success, and share in our anticipation of the next ten years to come. SubLOGlC tenth-anniversary promotional shirts and posters are available at your dealer or directly from SubLOGlC. See your dealer, or write or call us for more information.

UOGIC

Corporation

713 Edgebrook Drive

Champaign IL 61820 (217) 3S9-WB2 Telex: 206995

ORDER LINE: (800) 637-4983 {excÂŤpt in i i'ito s j



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64 AND 128 SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Reviewed by Mark Cotone

Cauldron

latter, fairy-tale-familiar transportation choice, which will be the one most fre

Computer: Commodore iÂť4 Publisher Broderbund

quently accessed, demands some rather

17 Paid Drive

Medium: Price:

Sail Rafael. CA 94093-2101 Disk $ 29.99

Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Come closer. Commodore players, and sam ple a delicious new dish being served up by the designers at Broderbund. They've taken one part adventure, two parts ar

cade, a healthy dash of novelty, and blend ed it all together in Cauldron, a tempting ly fresh entertainment offering with a fla vor all its own. This satisfying recipe first reaped praises in England, where it was introduced and quickly climbed to the top-

seller status. Now it has finally arrived on our shelves, again promising to be noth ing less than a lip-smacking success. Cauldron is actually not one game but two: an acrade double feature containing both the original title and its related yet divergent sequel. Both challenges are structured around the antagonistic ten sion that has grown between the Witch Queen and the PumpKing. neighboring mortal enemies locked in an eternal pow er struggle over the land they share. In the first contest, you step into the role of the Witch Queen, an enraged old sorceress who has just been victimized by a sweeper swiper. It seems that your or ange archenemy, the PumpKing. has pil fered your precious golden broomstick, and is now keeping it under tight wraps in the far reaches of his secret subterranean lair. Physically, you are no match for the legions of muscle-brained guards sur rounding your lost treasure. But your magic is strong, and after researching through your ancient potion index, you come across the exact concoction that will render the PumpKing and his followers powerless. The game itself now develops into a nationwide solo scavenger hunt, as you comb the chimerical countryside look ing for the six scant and peculiar ingredi ents — eye of newt, juice of toad. etc. — that are to be mixed in the cauldron to prepare this mystical brew. On. over and under forests, mountains and seas you must search, all the while dodging a full assortment of enemy creature's who try to weaken you with their strength-sapping touch. It's a long, hard journey but an en joyable one just the same. 34

JANUARY 1988

Broderbund's taken one part

adventure, two parts arcade, a healthy dash of novelty, and blended it all together in Cauldron. The second game, a flip side follow-up entitled "The Pumpkin Strikes Back." picks up the action a few years later. As legend outlines, the Witch, after retriev ing her golden broomstick, has risen to power and initiated a vengeful iron-fisted wave of terror aimed at eliminating all who oppose her. You. in an ironic role re versal, now take control of the PumpKing's last surviving guardian. Your mis sion: to single-handedly defeat the witch and restore your fallen leader to his right ful place of honor. Again, your attack will be carried out through the magical chan

nels simmering in the all-powerful caul dron. The catch here is that the entire in ventory of required secret potion items must be obtained from your enemy's cas tle, a heavily fortified citadel where the witch herself resides. So into the jaws of death you search, axing doors, skirting hallways and avoiding soldiers until you have gathered all the necessary ingredi ents. Its a demanding quest that will take timing, practice and ingenuity, to say nothing of a little luck. The games, as described so far, would appeal' to be strict adventure contests. But I can assure you that these programs are arcade through and through, built on that high-velocity, quick-triggered foundation that all experienced joystick jockeys have come to embrace. The genre is also given a unique, almost whimiscal twist, by the designers' choice of surrogate movement. In Cauldron I your joystick-guided witch can either walk. jump, or take to the skies on the back of her broomstick. This

uncommon controller techniques to sus tain flight. Unlike other arcade contests in which an on-screen airborne vehicle can instantly dart back and forth without regard to the laws of physics, your witch's cloud duster adheres to the principle of in ertia, and will be required to first deceler ate and stop before reversing direction. Carrying out evasive maneuvers and landing patterns will demand training mid patience as you orient yourself to the feel of the ship. In Cauldron II the strange gets strang er, for your pumpkin guardian, like the rest of his species, has no arms. legs, hands or feet. The only way he can move about is by bouncing. Talk about nervewTacking! Where it would have been tough enough to sidestep the traps and terrors of the castle as a pedestrian, your

jack-o-lantern character is forced to roam the witch's headquarters like some sort of overactive, smiling basketball, ricochet ing off walls, thumping under tables and jouncing through the smallest of open ings. Control will be difficult at first, but as you learn the unexpected and unusual tricks you can perform, this novel addition augments the game's addictive appeal. Visually, Cauldron provides a crisp and colorful cartoon environment, with both stages combining the natural with the bi

zarre to create a dream-like, surrealistic atmosphere. The animation is fluid, with attention paid to even the smallest detail. The witch's clothes flap in the wind as she> soars through the moonlit sky, gargoyles turn their granite heads to follow the path of your pumpkin, and fiery lava bubbles to the surface of overheating volcanic pools. But as rich as this program's graphics are. this is not a contest that will allow for much sightseeing. In a word, this game is tough. You are given nine lives as a witch and six as a pumpkin. It will only take a novice a quick couple of minutes before he is dead and buried. Broderbund must have sensed the stiffness of the challenge, for they even included a set of maps that not only detail the worlds to be explored, but also pinpoint the exact location of all the necessary potion ingredients. Only the most seasoned arcaders will be able to make do without the extra help. For some of the inexperienced, knowing where the Continued on pg. 105


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REVIEWS

HardBaU! Computer: Amiga Publisher: Accolade 20813 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino. CA 95014 Price: $44.95

TTardBall! from Accolade is an arcade

Reviewed by Jeffery Scott Hall

In the dugout

there's a teammate

who blows blue bubble gum from

time to time.

11 lover's baseball dream. This is one

baseball game that has great digitalized sounds, music, speech and graphics. After the title screen, you select which device is plugged into port 1—mouse or joystick. Next choose your team—All-Stars or Champs, and whether you want to be the home team or the visitors. Finally, you may choose a one-player game, two-player game or a computer vs. computer game.

HardBaU! has an on-the-diamond view point which is very nicely done. The pitch er, batter, catcher, umpire and baseball are very lifelike. Your batter faces you and the pitcher has his back to you. Did I say that the baseball was lifelike? Yes, I especially like the baseball, it is very viv idly done! Batting is done very simply—press the fire button once to activate the batter each time you're ready for a pitch, and just push the joystick (or mouse) either up, down, left or light and push the fire but ton at the same time. The way you swing depends upon which way you think the ball will go. For example, if I pitch a curve ball left, then you should swing left. In a one-player game the computer will auto matically activate his batter or pitcher, whichever the case may be. In a two-play er game, pitching is done in almost the same way as batting. To select the type of pitch you want, press the fire button with the stick held up. down, left or right. Note, the pitcher's options vary some according to who is pitching. For example, Ibmpkins has a

good Fastball! pitch. You might be won dering about the difference between a

"Fastball" and a "Fastball!" The latter has less salt and more pepper. Once you have selected the type of pitch, you may now pitch either up, down, left or tight. Sound familiar? Its a lot harder than it sounds, you must remember that, you have just se lected the type of pitch which makes it much more complicated than just a simple pitch to the strike zones. There's not too much to say about the catcher, except of course he catches the 36

JANUARY 1988

pitcher's balls. The umpire, on the other hand, has an added plus, he actually calls the strikes (not the balls), and has a real istic look to him. In the dugout there's a teammate who blows blue bubble gum from time to time. You may laugh, but this does add to the game, giving a more life-like feel. Now that we've taken a good look at the players, let's look at the ballpark. A good looking ballpark is important in a base ball game, after all. that's where all the action takes place. When I play some com,puter baseball games it seems like I am looking at tiny pixels on the screen, like you would see if you were looking out of a blimp upon the stadium below. Baseball fans will not be disappointed with the sta dium in HardBaU! You can see people in the stands inot pixels i with different facial expressions. The green grass (or turf) is veiy distinguishable from the diit. It is a nice shade of green, with good depth to it. Now, let's talk about dirt. How exciting is dirt, right? Well, if your dirt looks like grass, or tiny pixels, you don't have a real istic atmosphere. Again, HardBaU! will not disappoint you. The dirt. well, looks like dirt. It all has a 3D aspect to it. When your base runner slides head first into third base, the dirt flies up around him— this is truly a plus for the game. Now that we have looked at the people in the stadi um, grass and dirt, let's look at the struc ture of the ballpark itself. The stadium is done in a nice, light shade of blue. It has markers that are clearly distinguishable marking the 400 foot area (and others) and a nice 3D perspective. Wait until you hit that grand slam into deep center field. That will be one you won't forget for a while! Has your pitcher grown tired? Has your center fielder missed that ball once too of ten? Has your shoitstop stopped short? Then it is probably time you called in a

(gaspi substitute. To call this screen up you simply press your space bar. A screen is displayed for both All-Stars and

Champs with a list of every player cur rently in play, his name, batting average and position. To make a substitution you just move the joystick up or down to high light the person you want, then press the fire button. Now a third window will open at the bottom of the screen displaying some players for your team. To .scroll through them, press your joystick up or down. Each person's name, position and average are displayed in this window. Now you select the right player for the person being substituted. For example, let's say you're substituting a new player in the shoitstop position. You scroll through your list until you find the short stop you want Then press your fire but ton. That's it. you have just substituted a player. While playing the game, I found one small bug. I had a runner on second, two outs, one strike and three balls on the heavy hitter. I decided to bunt, and what a surprise I got! It just so happened that when I bunted, the ball fell short of where the third baseman could go. As a result. I got an in-the-park bunt homerun. Howev er, at this point the game was hung up and I had to reset the machine. It would appeal- that the players are programmed to go only so far on the field toward the catcher. On the plus side, I re-created the same situation land many others where I bunted) and cannot get it to happen again. If you are a statistics fan and would like

to create your own players and teams, this is not the game for you. However, if you love to play baseball and don't like to mess with stats, this is definitely what you're looking for. Great graphics, music, sound and speech combine to make HardBall! a grand slam. Q


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REVIEWS

Faery Tale Adventure Computer: Amiga Publisher: Micro Illusions 17408 Chatswoith Street P.O. Box 3475 Granada Hills, CA 91344 Price: $49.95 In Faery Tale Adventure, you are guid ing three brothel's in their attempt to retrieve a magical talisman that has been stolen from the village of Tambry where they live. Since the talisman's disappear ance Tambry has been attacked by strange creatures, controlled by a power ful evil Necromancer. Faery Tale begins with oldest brother, Julian, standing in the middle of Tambiy the morning after the attack. The user interface for Faery Tale is a sort of "mini-menu." positioned in a por tion of the bottom of the screen. The Items menu allows you to list all your items, search for hidden items or give an item you have to another person. The Magic menu allows you to use any magic item you have acquired during the game. The Talk menu is used for conversing with oth er characters. The Buy menu is used to purchase items in shops. The Game menu contains options for loading and saving a game in progress, plus options for pausing the game and options for turning offibn Faery Tales music or sound effects. In addition to the mini-menu, there is also a compass that tells you what direc tion you are traveling. You can even click on one of the compass points to move your character if you are using the mouse. Fa ery Tale conveniently allows you to use mouse, joystick, or keyboard for virtually all choices and actions in the game. The information part of the screen also con tains the narration scroll, which gives in formation on your character's status and actions. It aiso shows five numerical val ues that carn- vital information about your character. Bravery measures each brother's combat effectiveness. Kindness has a major role in how effectively a broth er will be able to communicate with other people (If this attribute drops very low. even the shopkeepers will refuse to do business with you!). The most unusual at tribute in Faery Tale is luck. If your char acter has anv luck left when he dies, a 38

JANUARY 1988

Reviewed by Graham Kinsey

The most unusual

attribute in Faery Tale'is luck —if your character has any left when he

dies, a faery will

appear and bring him back to life. faery will appear and bring him back to life. She will then place him in the last "safe" spot he was located. Each brother has eight lives to "'waste." One of the two remaining numerical values, vitality, is the equivalent of the famous "hit points" figure. The final figure is how much gold you are carrying. The top two-thirds of the Faery Tale screen contains the view of your character and his surroundings. What a view it can be! All the people, objects and places in Faery Tale are represented in a 3D per spective from a top view. When outdoors, all objects cast shadows, which vary in in tensity I but not in length' depending on the time of day. Outside light varies from a bright view during the day to a nearly pitch-black view in the evening. The natu ral scenery varies greatly, from gentle plains to mountains, from lakes to thick forests, from towering mountains to ex pansive deserts.

You will see animation and graphics during a fight that are so good that made many people compare Faery Tale Adven ture to the extremely popular coin-op vid

eo game Gauntlet. While I wouldn't say that all ofFaery Tale compares equally to Gauntlet, the combat sequences in Faery Tale come admirably close to the game that many youngsters spend dozens of quarters on.

Don't be too eager to explore even- nook and cranny of Holm, for the nasties that ransacked your village last night are waiting for you! You are armed with a dagger at the beginning ofFaery Tale, but this is no substitute for bravery and pow erful magic. As a result, you will soon find out why each brother has many lives. Fortunately you have several things that can help keep you from dying for

good too quickly. Seven common magic items are found all over the place. There are glass vials to improve your vitality and jade skulls that can blast all attack ing foes out of existence! There are also items that allow for better vision, speedy

travel, and one that even temporarily stops time. All these common magic items work only once, but they can be found quite easily (especially if you can manage to take them from your foes). There are

also different weapons that you can ob tain. Four can be bought from any local merchant, although you have to be able to steal enough gold from your enemies in order to buy them in the first place I a real nasty catch-221. You can use time to your advantage, too. When your character sleeps at night he will recover from a certain amount of damage received during the day. So even if you aren't lucky enough to find glass vials (or aren't rich enough to buy them at the shops i, you do have a real chance to recover from your wounds, if you can just survive until sundown. If you refuse to al

low the brothers to eat and sleep, they will collapse from starvation or exhaustion. However, with sustenance and rest the re covery is relatively quick. The main task in Faery Tale is to re trieve the talisman from the clutches of the Necromancer. So, being a tireless ex plorer, you decide to check out even- place in the land of Holm. However, you can't just barge into every castle, crypt or keep and interrogate its occupants or search ev ery nook and cranny, because almost ev ery place is locked! Even if you do find a key, how do you know it's the right one? There are six different colored keys in Fa ery Tale, and each only opens certain types Continued on pg, 115


The wait is over...

but the excitement has just begun.

More than two years in the making, Warriors of Destiny sets the new standard fojc roleplaying games. No other game can ojjperyou as beautifully detailed a world or as exciting an adventure. Ultima V is the game for all role-playing gamers: Warriors of Destiny will enchant the novice and challenge the expert.

Highlights of Ultima V • Powerful new combat and magic systems, increasing in sophistication as your skill increases. • Over twice the graphic detail, anima tion and sound effects of earlier games. • Hundreds of truly life-like people who i carry on complex conversations and interactions with yor

,

Screen displays shown from the Apple™. OUiers may vary.

Allows (he use of Ultima IV

characters. No previous Ultima experk'net1 required.

Jiuiidlng 'B'


Reviewed by Gary V. Fields

SOFTWARE REVIEWS

Barbarian Computer: Amiga (512K Required) Publisher: Psygnoas Ltd. Distributed in U.S. by: Computer Software Service 215D Executive Drive

Price:

Addison,H, 60101 $39.95

With jaw set, teeth exposed, long hair flapping and your father's

sword in hand arbarian is a one-man search and destray mission where you control Hegor the Barbarian. The object is to fight your way into the underground lair of evil Necron and destroy him. his power and Vulcuran the dragon which protects him. The 14-page novelette which comes with the game explains that Necron is. in fact. Hegor's uncle. Before Hegor was bom, his uncle and his father, Thoron had a parting of the ways. Thoron took the path of good. Necron the path of evil. Eventually Thoron killed Necron allowing the earth to take a deep breath of relief. But wait, evil won't be written out of the scheme of things so easily. Necron some

how resurrected himself, set up a kingdom down under and released his guardian dragon Vulcuran on the earth to settle the score with Hegor's father—which he does. As the dragon retreats to its lair, Hegor takes the broadsword from his dying fa ther's hand and swears revenge. From youth to manhood he studies and trains

until he is finally ready to set out on a quest to settle the score between good and evil. That's where you come in. Clad oniy in loincloth, wrist armor and sandals you face the marshes which lead to the open ing into Necron's domain. With jaw set. teeth exposed, long hair flapping and your father's sword in hand you begin. It doesn't take more than a few steps to dis cover that there are more evils in this land than Necron and his dragon. Each step reveals new dangers, both breathing and mechanical. Barbarian creates an un earthly world where few of the creatures you encounter will look or react like any thing you have seen before. The first guardian you must outmaneuver or fillet is a two-legged, evil-faced, rubber-kneed brute which is more teeth than anything else. Next you must jump past a trapped archway, slash through a fur-coated, ani mated claw-and-jaw of destmction, dodge a demon, disperse a ghoul, retrieve an ar40

JANUARY 1988

you begin.

row. Only after all that are you ready to begin your descent into Necron's private hell—a catacomb carved out of a living volcano. This is where things really get tough. The game looks and plays like an ex pensive arcade but is actually a mixture of both arcade and graphic adventure. Rath er than having to eliminate even' oppo

nent you may, providing your reflexes are welt tuned, sidestep them. Although a joystick can be used, mouse or keyboard input is more effective. The game's unique interface devotes the lower 15 of the screen to a row often large icons. Tb get Hegor to move right you click on the right arrow, to get him to climb you activate the up arrow, to fight you click on the sword symbol, etc. These ten command icons, plus an additional row of less-used com mands let you rapidly issue commands for Hegor to run or walk left, right, up and down plus stop. jump, defend himself, flee, pick up objects and switch weapons. Barbarians graphics are as good as Pve seen anywhere—that includes dedicated

arcade machines which you must pop quarters into. Hegor is proportionally sized to his surroundings, his body is shaded to reveal form, muscles, joints and even the direction of the light falling on him. The bad guys and creatures you'll encounter are just as well defined. (Note: ifBarbarian were rated it would get at least a PG-13 because of the abundance of graphic violence. I Happily, the excellent graphics are not paid for at the expense of animation. The first animated screen displayed when the game loads shows a wonderfullv realistic.

detailed Hegor with a body as large and muscular as any boxer from a Rocky mov ie, The character comes to life, lifts a huge sword, his face grimaces and twitches and then with a great effort he raises the sword. The screen flashes and the speak ers clatter as the sword falls and severs the chain holding Hegor. The documentation doesn't mention how the sound effects of Barbarian were created, but they sound like digitized ef fects from real life. When Hegor is injured his moans sound real and when he thrusts his sword the grunt which accompanies the action is of a man exerting effort. Barbarian is a tough, challenging game. Each time you begin the quest, the opponents you face are almost always the same, although some small details ran domly change (the tree demon doesn't al ways throw rocks, for example i. Since

there is no way to save your position in the game, each time Hegor dies you must face them again. This means your mem ory of which opponent is next and where snares are hidden is paramount. This also leads to some frustration since you can spend hours battling and memorizing the first five or six levels of Barbarian and will still be only 15-20% of the way through the game. Because the game is so well designed and each turn in the cavern opens up new visual delights, being de nied seeing those is irritating.

One other thing: fighting your way to Necron's lair, destroying the crystal of evil and conquering all his evil defenders isn't enough. After all that effort, you still have to get back to the surface and the marshes Continued on pg. 115


SPECTRUM HOLOBYTE PRESENTS

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REVIEWS

Reviewed by Bob Lindstrom

Animator: Apprentice

work, calculating the 28 drawings that will go between the beginning and ending positions. Now we can Audition the action in real time. After a moment's pause for calcula tion, the stick figure springs to life in smooth, fast animation. The instant feed back is very satisfying. The whole process seems simple and, relatively speaking, it is. However, the Ac tion module gets complicated as the ani mation gets complicated. Animating a ba

Computer: Amiga (1 MB Required) Publisher: Hash Enterprises 14201 S.E. 16th Circle Vancouver, WA 98684 Price: % 295.00

A nimator Apprentice is a new Amiga

/I animation program that specializes

sic walk, for instance, requires careful po

in character animation. It won't duplicate |

the ''squash and stretch" genius that made Disney great—even the Amiga

can't yet capture the organic illusion of life achieved by professional animators. However, Animator: Apprentice makes a potent attempt by providing the tools to make your own cartoons, the power to de sign, animate and direct your own Dafiys, Dumbos and Dopeys. Animator: Apprentice consists of seven program modules: The Character module is for the construction of the skeletal stick figures that will be your characters. The Sculpt module puts flesh on those bones by allowing the sculpture and painting of 3D body parts. The Action module is where characters are animated. The Di rector module is a scene editor that pro vides a computerized stage where the ani mator assembles and directs his "actors" and plots camera angles and movement. The Rehearsal module previews scenes in real-time, with stick figure animation, and the Display module plays it back. Finally, the Record module brings to gether all the data from all the modules and draws (renders! the final product as either compressed graphics files or IFF-

compatible graphics files (with frames that can be edited individually with Aegis Images or DeluxePaint). Also included in the three-disk package are a matte disk containing sample char acters and a data disk with examples of animation and scene editing.

Animator: Apprentice requires an Amiga running Kickstart 1.2, 512K of in ternal RAM and at least 512K of external RAM. Hash Enterprises also plans to pub lish A nimator Jr., a consumer version of the product incorporating only some of the Animator: Apprentice features for under $80. Additional data disks of characters and animation for use within the program are also scheduled for release. 42

JANUARY 1988

Hurl by Daniel Wile

Suddenly, the work of animation becomes very time-efficient. Before describing Animator: Appren tice's seven modules, here's how conven tional animation works

Although Saturday morning cartoons look like continuous movement, they ac tually consist of thousands of still pictures flashed quickly before your eyes. Because of a peculiarity of human vision, these se quences of rapid-fire "snapshots" blur to gether into fluid motion.

Conventional animation artists meticu lously draw each new image. The process is repetitive, time-consuming and con tains a large helping of the kind of tedium that a computer takes in stride. Animator: Apprentice is programmed to reduce that tedium. Just load the Action module of Animator: Apprentice and choose a character design. A stick figure of the character appears on the screen. Let's say we've chosen a little man and we're going to make him scratch his head. Animating the figure is like manipulat ing an on-screen doll with moveable joints. Use the mouse to move the doll's aims, hands, legs and head into the start ing position. In this case, standing still with his arms at his sides. Then use the

mouse to "grab" his hand and put it on top of his head. Because the arm and shoulder are attached, they follow the movement automatically. That's the final position. Then select, say, 30 frames to get from the starting position to the final position. The computer jumps in to do the grunt

sitioning of each hand, forearm, shoulder, the head, the legs, the feet and coordinat ing all those movements down to the indi vidual frame. Once the animation is outlined (to use animation jargon) by these "'key" frames, the computer will fill in the gaps with the "tweens" or in-between drawings. And the

entire sequence of movement can be saved to disk and reused by eveiy other charac ter in your disk file of characters. Anima tor: Apprentice automatically customizes the movement to suit the skeletal struc ture of each character. Suddenly, the work of animation becomes very time-efficient. The Director module operates in a simi lar fashion. You load a cast of characters from disk and position symbols to show the characters' location on the on-screen "stage." The Director module also in cludes the option to tilt or swivel the char acters in any direction and the ability to designate camera angles and camera movements during a scene. Additionally, you can locate and move the light source and control the amount of direct and am bient light in their computerized environ ment. In a very real sense, Animator: Ap prentice is like having your own stop-ac tion studio with total control over anima tion, camera and lighting. The Action and Director modules pro vide many more capabilities than those described here. The computer can account for momentum—speeding up a body part at the beginning of a move and slowing down at its end. Action can be stepped one frame at a time. And much more. The Character and Sculpt modules are among the most powerful and the most difficult ofAnimator. Apprentice's tools. In the Character module, the animator cre ates a diagram of Bone Boxes, a sort of or ganic flow chart that shows how a charac ter's "leg bone's connected to the knee Continued on pg. 44


CAN BE VERY ENTERTAINING DEFCON 5: The Authentic SDI Simulation.

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DEFCON 5 is an authentic simulation of our Strategic Defense Initiative. Your computer is in command of a network of orbiting visual reconnaissance satellites and an awesome arsenal of sophisticated space-based weapons, The tale of the world is in your hands. You make the split-second decisions necessary to detect, intercept and destroy incoming enemy warheads. Using realistic military commands you control 9 separate weapon systems, including orbiting lasers, neutral particle beam emitters, electro

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Animator: Apprentice Continued from pg. 42

bone." This chart records the size, length and position of each body part and how it hinges to the other parts, whether it swiv els or pivots or swings wide. Even' part of a character that will be animated must be described here as a Bone Box from eyelid to ankle.

Though the example characters all are

humanoid. two-footed characters, the Character module provides the freedom to design any kind of weird being and then edit or alter it to create new, even weirder beings. How about a Saturday cartoon about two-headed, six-legged zombies whose mouths are on the soles of their feet? Do it. Fortunately, everything can be saved to disk to generate a growing library of parts. Just as individual animations and scenes could be saved in the Action and Director modules, the Character and Sculpt modules provide the ability to save character designs, sculpted body pails and final, fully-detailed characters. With a sizeable library of your own creation, it's a simple matter to mix and match character skeletons, body parts, animations and

frames or if you want to render an entire scene and save it to disk. If you choose to direct the images to disk, you have the choice of a packed format which allows more images per blank disk or IFF format that can be touched-up with DeluxePaint or Aegis Images.

Animator: Apprentice is like

having your own stop-action studio with total control over

animation, camera and lighting. Identify the Director file that contains the desired staging. Enter the range of frames that you wish to create during this session. (You might have to split long ani mations between several disks, i Decide whether you want realistic 3D shading or flat cartoonish lighting. Then take a vacation. The computer ma}- take from five to 20

scenes.

minutes to draw one frame. Even simple reckoning reveals that rendering the final artwork is an overnight job at least. My

The Record module asks if you want to test your work by previewing individual

Amiga labored for 12 hours on 70 frames of a 120-frame animation before it ran out

SUPERTAX

of disk space. Sadly, there is no way to de termine in advance how many of your frames will (it on a disk. Happily, it is pos sible to recover a partially completed ani mation and start the computer drawing again from that endpoint. Hash is cur rently working on a more efficient solu tion to the disk space problem. The final pi-oduct is worth the wait — smooth, dimensional, computerized. 3D character animation in all its glory. When the finest quality is required, it is best to generate IFF files instead of packed disk files. Hash is constantly revising and en hancing Animator: Apprentice and typi cally makes program upgrades available for little more than the cost of disks and postage. There is also a newsletter to keep users abreast of the latest versions and achievements with the program. Animator: Apprentice is a phenomenal program, an impressive programming feat and the kind of innovative break through that Amiga owners have come to expect. With constant upgrades and an in expensive consumer-level version on the way. Animation: Apprentice represents a substantial source of computer animation utility for professionals and a novel source of creative fun for Amiga hobbyists. Q

Get Supertax now and relax on April 15th .

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SUPERTAX DATA can be stored on a diskette SUPERTAX updates are available at 50% discount to registered SUPERTAX users. SUPERTAX is an essential addition to your

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REVIEWS

Reviewed by Graham Kinsey

Online! 2.0 Computer: Amiga Publisher: Micro-Systems Software, Inc. 12798 Forest Hill Blvd. W. Palm Beach. FL 33414 Price:

$69.95

When the Amiga was very young and its software base was very small, there appeared a terminal program called Online! When it Brat came out Online! was applauded for its features, which in cluded a huge menu set. macros, script files, multitasking support. VT-100 emu lation, and Xmodem and HVP protocols. As time passed, the Amiga software mar ket grew tremendously, and the Amiga

telecommunications realm was constantly changing, but Online! didn't keep up with the market. As a result, Online! went from the best Amiga telecommunications

program, to just a good one. to just an other Amiga terminal program. Then sev eral public domain/shareware Amiga ter minal programs appeared (first Starterm, then Comm and AMIC) which stalled to embarrass Online! as well. Finally, Online! has been upgraded to version 2.0, and this terminal program has risen from near the grave to climb back to the top of the heap of Amiga tele communications programs. Four new transfer protocols are one sig

nificant improvement in Online! 2.0. Kermit. which is the standard protocol for transfer between mainframes and remote terminals, is now quite common in the Amiga terminal world. On the other hand, the other new protocols in Online! have not yet appeared in any other Amiga terminal program, commercial or PD. The first is Ymodem. an improved ver sion of Xmodem. The difference between Ymodem and standard Xmodem is that while Xmodem transfers in 128-byte blocks. Ymodem blocks are 1024 bytes in size. The original version of Online! con tained a protocol called tPVP (Hayes Ver ification Protocol), which also transferred data in block sizes of 1024 bytes; but HVP became rather unpopular with Online!

owners (due to reliability problems), and has been removed in favor of Ymodem. Assuming your transfer has few naks (er rors, which are usually associated with line noise), increasing the block size can significantly reduce the amount of trans fer time due to error checking. For exam46

JANUARY 1988

Finally, Online! has been upgraded to version 2.0, and this terminal program has risen from near the grave... pie. when I perform file transfers on a lo

cal BBS that runs PC-Board (an MS-DOS BBS program), using Xmodem-CRC pro tocol at 2400 bps, I usually average 165 cps (characters per second I. File transfers under identical conditions, are through put at a rate of about 210 cps using Ymo

dem ia 21c/( increase). In addition to standard Ymodem, On line! also provides Ymodem-batch, which allows you to transfer multiple files in one continuous file transfer. The last new protocol in Online! is Zmodem. yet another improvement for Xmodem. Zmodem has two main im provements over Xmodem and Ymodem. First, Zmodem implements sliding win dows, which can effectively reduce or even eliminate the delay caused by accessing a BBS or on-line service via a packetswitching network, like PC-Persuit. Te lenet or Tymnet. Secondly. Zmodem is far superior in detecting errors during a file transfer. Zmodem is also a very stable pro tocol, in that it has a better chance ofsur viving a shot of severe line noise that might cause other protocols fatal problems. A new feature in Online! is that you can

now tell Online! to automatically redial a busy number. You can also tell it to dial more than one number at once. Online! will even let you set up a queue, scr that you can tell it which numbers to try first. It will normally dial each number only once, before moving on to the next num ber, but you can force it to redia! a number by selecting that number more than once in a queue. Another major change in Online! 2.0 is the graphics and text display. There are two additions to the terminal emulation part of the program. Tektronix 4010 emu-

lation capability has been added. Tektronix terminals display high resolution color graphics and sell for thousands of dollars each. At the moment, the Amiga is the only microcomputer under $5000 that can actually emulate a Textronix 4010 display without costly graphics add-on boards, or gimmicky scrolling tricks in or der to view the full 'lektronix screen. The other addition is that Online! can now ful ly support color ANSI displays, like those you often see when you call many bulletin boards that run MS-DOS BBS programs like PC-Board, RBBS and Opus. In addi tion to being able to display all eight col ors (which many Amiga terminal pro grams can now do). Online! supports all ANSI color commands, including the infa mous dear screen command. (I have seen no other Amiga terminal program that

can handle all ANSI commands, i Support ing ANSI color doesn't make much sense if you don't also support the IBM charac ter set in order to display all those IBM character graphics symbols. Online! has the IBM 8X8 font included on its system disk and now uses the IBM font as its de fault font. Online! also allows you to choose from four different font sizes at any time, even while it's running. One of these new font sizes, the 5X8 font, allows you to display 132 columns within a normal sized screen. However, if you want to dis play more than 80 columns tor more than 24 rows) without having to use a tiny font, then Online! can accommodate you also. Online! can now enlarge its display to take advantage of the overscan area of your monitor, if you have previously nan a program that allows you to use display in the overscan area. (Refer to MoreRows and ScnSizer. reviewed in the November and December installments, respectively, of my Amiga Public Domain column in Commodore Magazine), Another important change to Online! has to do with binary file transfer. Pre viously, Online! did not utilize any buffer for storing data while the binary transfer was taking place. Instead, during a binary file transfer. Online! just read or wrote to the disk each time it had to read or write a 512-byte block of data. Fortunately, this ghastly problem has been rectified. On line! now utilizes a 16K buffer for binary transfers, which is quite reasonable.

Online! was formerly unable to keep up with 2400 baud in terms of screen I/O. Continued on pg. 111


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TECHNICAL TIPS"

by Marshall Freedland and Luis Garcia

Fastload

the two sections. As you begin to open it up, it is important to keep the separation even all around. (Photo 2.) 3) When the cartridge is apart, set the part with the electronic components aside. The other section is where the switch is going to be mounted, but first you have to

Switch

Turn Your Fastload On and OffWith This Easy To Install Switch I still had my 64 when I first bought my Fastload cartridge and it really was worth the investment; it did the job but there were "problems." I had to disable it to run some programs, but that was sim ple. I just pressed the English "POUNDS" key to switch onto the menu screen and then "D" to disable the cartridge. But there was the occasional annoyance of having to actually physically remove the cartridge in order to run some heavily pro tected software because it seemed, for some reason, just disabling did not always work. Still, I was able to live with that. My worst fear was that I would, at some point, absentmindedly forget and either remove or install the cartridge while the power was on, potentially destroying the car tridge and causing very serious damage to the computer. Fortunately that never hap pened. Then I bought my 128.1 found I was not only spending much more time re moving and inserting the cartridge in or der to switch back and forth from the 64 mode to 128, but I was also beginning to cause significant wear and tear on the car tridge, the computer connectors and my nerves. Needless to say, my fear about for getting to turn off the computer when I was inserting or removing the cartridge was compounded now that I was doing this more often. It was time to come up with a better solution. Because of the limited space on my desk there was not enough room behind my computer to in stall one of those multi-cartridge loaders I'd seen advertised. The cartridges are in stalled vertically and the placement of my monitor would not allow for this. When I explained my dilemma to my friend Luis, he said, "No problem, we'll put in a switch." If you follow along with the instructions you should have no trouble installing this small switch in your Fastload cartridge. This whole project should take you no longer than an hour, and upon completion it should save you time, wear and tear, and eliminate the fear and worry of acci dentally ruining your cartridge (or com puter). You should be forewarned that by 50

JANUARY 1988

Photo 1

installing the switch you are in effect void ing any warranty. Also, those who at tempt this project should have some fa miliarity with soldering. You will need the following pails and tools (Photo 1): A small screwdriver A phillips screwdriver Three inches of double stranded wire A soldering iron and solder A small SPST switch (Radio Shack #275-645. Cost: approximately $1.49) A sharp knife A 13/64 drill bit and drill

locate where the hole is to be drilled. I drilled just between and below the "P" and the T in EPYX, above the "a" in "Fast." You have some options here as long as there is room below for the switch in the cartridge when, it is closed. Carefully drill the hole where you have decided you want it. The next step is soldering the wires to the switch. Prepare the wires by stripping away about 1/4 inch of the insulation and then tin all four ends and the two poles on the switch. (This entails coating them all with a small amount of solder.) Then care fully solder two wire ends to the two poles on the switch. Make sure they are not shorted.

Getting Started

1) The first step is getting the cartridge open. This is done by locating the small phillips screw that holds the two sides of the cartridge together. It is located in the center of the cartridge and near the bot tom of the letter "a" in "Fast." Take the knife and, starting near the bottom of the letter "a," gently cut around the screwhead. If you desire, you can re-glue this small piece later, so be careful removing it. Remove the phillips screw and set it aside for later assembly. Next, make a cut along the paper in the rear of the car tridge following the seam already in the cartridge.

H

m

m

â–

--

O

11

,,-^H,,:*| Photo 3

4) After the wires are soldered to the switch, locate the ninth position edge con nector. Now, carefully cut the trace. Basi cally what you are going to do is place a switch across this cut. Make sure there is a small but definite separation. Now, scrape away just a little of the solder mask on each side of the cut on the trace. Take the soldering iron and tin the areas you just scraped making sure NOT to apply too much heat. Just a small amount of solder is all you will need. Work quickly so the heat does not build up. (Photo 3.)

Photo 2

2} With the screw removed and the pa per label slit, grasp the cartridge at the sides and at the opening and gently pull it apart. This may be the most difficult part of the whole procedure, so be careful not to crack the plastic case as you apply even pressure. You may need to use a regular screwdriver to help start and to pry apart

Photo 4

Continued onpg. 52


Acknowledged by our customers...

Through 5 man-years ol research and

GUNSHiP may be the best simulation of any type

"... from the eye-catching packaging to the palm-

ever created for the C-64... a perfect simulation for

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novices and aerial combat veterans alike..."

standard setter for the industry."

development, the Gunship Design Team has crafted an unparalleled simulator experience...

Recognized by Reviewers...

(RUN. August 1967}

(J.R., Portland. Oregon)

"Take all your combat flight simulators and stick them

"I think it's the best flight simulator I've seen for [my

in the bin. GUNSHIP is the ultimate. (Computer & Video Games Monthly. U.K.. Feb. 1987}

(LC, Crystal Lake. I

"In terms of action alone, GUNSHIP is the best flying

"Thank you for releasing the most AWESOME program

game we've ever played... it could become one of

GUNSHIP.. .'should easily be the //I program of the

your favorites."

year..."

(Family Computing. June 1987)

• Realistic Helicopter Right Characteristics

computer) and I've seen them all...

(R.T.. Chicago, Illinois)

"GUNSHIP... is a very well-executed simulation, not

"The GUNSHIP team has produced a landmark in 8-bit

just a game... MicroProse has another winner."

computers. The manual is the STANDARD."

(Computers Gazette. May 1987)

(S.M.. Pennsauken. New Jersey)

• Accurate Weapons and Counter-Measures

• Up-to-date Enemy Threats • Complete and Carefully Researched Documenta' • Right and Combat Tutorials • Hundreds of Mission Scenarios

GUNSHIP. For C-64/128, IBM-PC/XT/AT and compatibles, Amiga, Atari ST and Apple

IIGS/+/c/e. Call MicroProse or check with your dealer lor specific machine availability. Available at a Valued MicroProse Retailer (VMR) near you. Call for locations! Ifproduct not found locally, call or write MicroProse for MC/VISA orders. (IBM screen shown. Actual screens may vary.)

ISO Ukefrorii Dnve • Hunt VaUev MD 21030 ■ (301) 771-1151


Technical Tips/Fastload Switch

64 and 128 Software Reviews/Aliens — Continued from pg. 30

Continued from pg. 50

Myfriend said, "No problem, we'll put in a switch." 5) Take ends of the wires that you have already soldered to the switch and gently solder each end to the scraped and tinned trace. It is not critical which wire is sol dered to which side, but be very careful not to apply too much heat. Just a little should do the trick. iPhoto 4.)

draulic whine of loader arms doing battle with the alien queen. Every game has its own group of sounds, each noise support ing the action on the screen effectively. In conclusion, Aliens is a unique pro gram for several reasons. First, it re creates key scenes from the movie of the same title and dares you to walk a mile in the shoes of a Colonial Marine. Six tough assignments will test your powers of ob servation, while putting you on the spot to

I had the chance to talk briefly with Steve Cartwright, the leader of the Aliens de sign team. Here are some of his thoughts and some tips for playing the game. Jermaine: What led to the development of ! Aliens'? I Cartwright: Believe it or not, Activision owned the software rights to Aliens a year before the movie appeared in theaters. However, the in-house programmers, art ists and game designers knew nothing Photo 5 about that arrangement. After seeing 6) After you have soldered the wires Aliens one afternoon, we all left the the from the switch to the trace, you must cut ater with the same idea: Aliens would be a small notch on the rib of the top section the perfect subject for a computer game. of the cartridge. Use your knift to cut The next day I brought up the idea and awayjust enough so that the wires will not found out that Activision already owned be crimped when the cartridge is back to the rights to that particular property. gether. Now insert the switch in the hole Jermaine: Can you tell me more about the and then screw in and tighten the retain early days of the project? ing nut on top of the cartridge. Cartwright: We planned out the entire 7) Re-assemble the cartridge by gently program in fifteen minutes. It was just a squeezing it back together and replace the matter of analyzing the movie, breaking it phillips screw. (Photo 5.) Now install it in \ down into key scenes, and coming up with the slot in your 128 or 64 (Make sure it is a game concept which recreates each par turned ofil) Turn on the computer. If noth ticular situation. ing happened, the switch is in the OFF po The games were designed to share a sition. Turn off the computer, switch the common quality. When you participate in switch, and turn on the computer again. an Aliens challenge, your fate is truly in your own hands. Each game is a tough lit You should now see the familiar Fastload message on your screen. If you didn't get tle assignment where experience is the best teacher. You can play to win or ex these results, it will be necessary for you periment with different ideas, but you to go back and re-check each step of the can't blame the failure on random events instructions to find where you made a or bad luck. These factors simply don't mistake. Check for shorted wires and bad exist. (cold) solder joints. If all worked well, it Jermaine: Did 20th Century Fox ask you will not be necessary to remove this car | to make many changes in the finished tridge again unless you need to install a program? different cartridge. Changing the switch while you are in either the 64 or 128 mode Cartwright: There were some minor prob will have no effect at all. Tb use the switch lems alright, but nothing we couldn't take you must turn the computer off (or use the care of right away. Twentieth Century Fox was very concerned about the fact that our reset button! and choose one of your op transitional scenes contained direct tions: Fastload on—(or off) in 64 mode by quotes from the shooting script. I was led holding the COMMODORE key; or Fastload off to access the 128 mode. If you like, to believe that Activision might have to pay for the privilege of using that materi you can affix a label on your 128 to indi al in the program. Thank goodness our le cate which direction the switch should be for a specific function. 52

JANUARY 1988

Q

gal people investigated the situation and

make quick decisions at a moment's no tice. Good graphics, special music, and a number of interesting sounds were also added to the scheme of things. The final result is a superior product which simulta neously challenges and entertains the person behind the joystick. Ifyou have the guts to pilot a drop-ship, call the shots for a marine unit and wage a private war against an intelligent creature from an other world, Aliens is definitely your cup

of tea.

said everything was fine. Another problem concerned the fact that you couldn't say the aliens were kill ing people. They were actually capturing human beings for later use (which would be the cause of their death). We also had to use the correct terminology for every thing. You couldn't talk about a small alien creature crawling around on the floor. These little devils are called "Face Huggers." In short, the owners of the li cense were concerned about legal techni calities, correct terminology, and "good taste" at this time. We had kept in close contact with 20th Century Fox through out the making of the program, so they

knew all about the games and really liked

the finished product. Jermaine: Would you share some tips for playing Aliens? Cartwright: The Armored Personnel Car rier is always located in the same corner of the building. Learn to move the ma rines in that direction and you'll eventual ly find it There are two basic rules to follow when you use the flame thrower: (1) destroy the fast-moving aliens by shooting blasts of fire in their direction and (2) use the flame of the weapon to back off slow-moving creatures.

The Newt Rescue Race is a race against time, where Ripley must conserve her am munition in order to survive. When you confront the alien queen in the nest area, shoot at the nest, and the queen will move over to protect the eggs. Now is your chance to slip by her in the confusion and proceed to the elevator. The best strategy in the One-On-One Confrontation is to keep hitting the queen with the power loader claws until she weakens substantially. While this boxing match is going on, the claws should also be used to keep the alien at bay. At the proper moment, grab the creature from below and eject it from the ship. One more thing—don't make your move on the alien queen too early in the battle. H


IBM £ compatibles.

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Sometimes its best. take a pass.

out of a needle at 20 feet. And guys who couldn't sink one if they were sitting on the back board. Pass on the run. Get that big man on the inside. Let 'em from the corners. real street trategy Take a hook shot. A tip-in. Bounce the ball off the chainlink fence, then go for the basket. Or power through a slam dunk. But don't dribble in the oil slick. And for heavens sake, watch out for windows. It's not like any basketball game you've ever played on a computer. But just like every basketball game you've ever "played for real.

"another hit

\iftice that somebody

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it was here a minute ago.

It's bottom of the ninth. Batter's 0 and 2. The

score—well, maybe it's time to take up bridge. Introducing Street Sports Baseball. It's not going to be as simple as you thought to be the .

first on your block. After all, you'll have to cope with makeshift diamonds, bases made from spare tires and trashcans, bushes, rocks, even squealing cars. Not to mention 16 neighbor hood players. Each with their own personalities and skills in pitching, hitting and fielding. With the right combination, you could be the champs. With the wrong combination, the chumps. You'll pick the place. The team. The positions. The strat egy And then, you'll be right in the middle of it all. With a split-screen view from above and up close. It won't be easy. But it's right up your

alley Apple It & compatibles. Commodore 64/128, IBM & compatibles.


SNOOPS

SCO&OPS

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VANISHING TIMES

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rewrrsal by dropping a row egg into a

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Anderson was booked on felony

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recognizance. The man who offered

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all

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Dr.

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that, I'd just tell people to hold on and enjoy the ride!'

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to

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Thursday, reversing its direction and

charges of dog munching, poodle

asserted. "I think it's safe to say that

when

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printed on (in Apple Laser Writer

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POODLE!

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by John lovine

TECHNICAL TIPS

Interfacing Commodore's User Port, Part 6

Building a Digital Camera, Part 2 Welcome to part two of the digital camera series. Sorry about missing that month in between, but I'm sure you will find that my time has been well spent. In this article we will construct the camera and program it for the low-resolution screen. I have included a number of options into the program such as gray scaling, coloration and on-the-fly timing changes.

Low Resolution Screen The low resolution screen we will use this month is 40 pixels by 2 (16) pixels. The reason I gave the row quantity as 2( 16) is that the program divides each text screen byte into two vertical ly stacked pixels. This makes our overall vertical resolution 32. Therefore our effective resolution is 40 X 32. which equals 1,280 pixels per screen. In part three, I plan to jump into the bit map high-resolution screen with a 128 X 64 pixel screen. You may be thinking to yourself "Fine, but why are we bothering with the low-resolution in the first place?" The reason is that experiments in edge detec tion, character and pattern recognition, and neural networks will be much easier to accomplish with the low-resolution (1,280 pixel) screen. It should be obvious that manipulating 1,280 pixels (or 640 bytes) of information is much easier and quicker than 8192 bits of information on the high-res screen. Additionally on the lowres text screen, addresses proceed in an orderly fashion. Starting at address 1024 in the upper left hand corner through address 2023 (bottom right). This order makes programming sub-scan ning programs for edge detection, pattern recognition and neu ral networks that much easier. Did you notice that the entire low-res screen is composed of only 1000 bytes, yet we are reading 1,280 pixels. The 1,280 pix els is our effective resolution, remember we are splitting our text bytes into two pixels. This means that we are usingjust 40 X 16 bytes of screen memoiy.

Extended Field of View

The photosensitive area of our chip is rather tiny, and with the low-resolution screen we are compounding the problem by using only 1/6 (40 X 32) of the pixels available to us in either one of the 128 X 64 pixel banks. This could make our processing diffi cult if we had to fit an entire image onto that tiny section of the

matrix. Tb alleviate the problem somewhat, I decided to extend the field of view (FOV) of the camera. I accomplished this by ac

cessing every other pixel, horizontally and vertically on the camera chip. So although our resolution is still 40 X 32 pixels on the screen, we are reading the image off the chip as if it were 80 X 64 pixels. The skipped pixels make the edges of the object a little choppy, but as you can see from the photos it's not too bad. I also centered the FOV on the matrix rather than leaving it to ei ther side. This makes aiming the camera easier. 56

JANUARY 1988

Black and White Camera

The black and white camera (BW) operates at three to four frames a second. This is substantially faster than the gray scale camera and affords a real-time image. Besides being an excellent camera in itself, it is also useful for aiming and adjusting the camera before going into the gray scale mode. In fact I advise you not to enter the gray scale cam era any other way, especially when you are still a beginner. Be cause of the additional time the gray camera requires, images will smear across the screen if the camera is moved during im age processing. This can make aiming the camera somewhat frustrating. Therefore it behooves you to have the camera at least partially aimed and adjusted beforehand. As you gain ex perience using the camera, you may find that pre-adjusting it in the B/W mode is no longer necessary before entering the G'S mode. As stated, the program splits each text byte into two pixels —

let's take a closer look at this and see how it operates. Tb divide each text byte I implemented four programmed characters. One white, one black, one top white bottom black and one top black bottom white. Depending on the scan number and feedback from the camera, the computer will choose the appropriate byte and store/display it on the screen.

Gray Scale

The gray scale camera gives us four shades of gray with one background color. How the camera interprets the binary infor mation from the camera chip for the gray scale is based on indi vidual timing cycles of each gray scale scan. Tb achieve four gray scales we are using four separate scans, each with its own timing cycle. If you remember, in part one we stated that after a memory cell was charged to +5 volts, light falling on the cell would in

crease the rate of discharge in proportion to intensity and dura tion.

If the light intensity is such that a cell is discharged below the

binary "1" threshold, lets say in the first scan/cycle, that mem ory cell (pixel) is read as a binary "0" and displayed as a white

pixel on our monitor. Further let's say that another memoiy cell lying next to it (second pixel) discharged just above the thresh old, Remember from part one during any read or write to a cell all memory cells lying in the row are refreshed, so at the same time our computer is reading the information, all the memory cells that did not fall below the binary "1" threshold are re-


Technical Tips/User Port, Part B freshed at + 5 volts. So the computer reads that second pixel as a binary "1," displays a black pixel and continues. What this boils down to is that the timing cycles are not addi tive. On our second scan we can't add a little time to the first scan and expect to read anything new. Our second scan must start from scratch (as far as timing is concerned! and last longer than the preceding one. To continue let's say the computer is now running the second scan and has waited 50 percent longer than the first scan, now that second pixel (memory cell) has fal len below the binary "1" threshold, the computer reads that memory cell as a binary "0" and displays it as a light gray pixel. This procedure is followed for all shades of gray. After the four shades of gray have been scanned, the program resets and starts over.

One point I would like to mention on the display procedure is that once a pixel has changed, subsequent scans will not alter the pixel any further, until reset. This must be included in the program or the screen would constantly go black. The computer would read all previously changed pixels and currently changed pixels as the same and would therefore display all of them at current gray level. I hope I didn't bore you with the above dissertation on timing, but this information is critical when you begin adjusting the timing on the gray scale camera. I've provided on-the-fly timing changes as well as a menu option on the main program. At the time I was writing the program I was undecided whether I should allow the user to adjust and control the timing of the scans. I could have taken the easy way out by plugging in what I thought was a general default value. But I realized that all lighting conditions couldn't be met with one timing. Since flexi bility breeds innovation and experimentation and inflexibility obsolescence, I opted to have the timing user adjustable.

256 Shades of Gray Although we are using only four shades of gray in our pro gram, you should be aware that it is possible to generate 256 shades of gray. Before I describe the procedure to do this, let's first examine our four gray scale generation. We are using the extended background mode as described in the Programmer's Reference Guide. Each gray scale scan is associated with one of the background color registers. This is how we also provide col oration, but we will come back to this later. In the default mode. we begin scanning with white, then light gray, medium gray, and dark gray all with a black background. To generate a 256 gray scale you must employ a technique known as dot dithering. How dot dithering works is similar to the procedure we use to split our text byte into two vertical pix

els. They both employ programmable characters. The computer generates each character on an 8 X 8 matrix. That equals 64 dots per character. Which dots are turned on or off generate the character pattern displayed. By turning off the standard charac ter generator and programming our own characters we can gen erate 64 shades of gray. We do this by progressively turning on the dots one at a time for each character. Starting with one dot turned on in the center and progressively adding dots for each new character until we end up with all the dots turned on for character #64. (If this section on programmable characters is confusing, see Programmer's Reference Guide.) Tb continue to our 256 shades we employ the extended back ground mode with our 64 dot dithered programmed characters. Now we have four backgrounds: white, light gray, medium gray and dark gray. Four backgrounds with 64 dot dithered gray

scales for each background comes to 4 X 64, or 256 gray scales. Although it is possible to do this it would increase the process ing time tremendously. A more realistic attempt would be a 16 or 32 gray scale.

Coloration Coloration is simple once we have the gray scale into place. A color is assigned to each extended background register instead of the default gray scale. This option is provided in the main pro gram. By choosing that option on the menu, each color you enter in the sub menu for a particular scan will be displayed. It is in teresting to note that the coloration can be implemented with the fast scan black and white camera. The first and last colors picked in the coloration menu will be displayed with the black and white camera. This is the kind of technology used by astronomers and movie producers. If you have ever seen an astronomical photograph that had colors assigned to each B/W density, for improved im age resolution, this is how they accomplished it. The photograph runs through an image enhancer that assigns a color to each density. The machines sensitivity is much greater than the hu man eye in determining B/W density. Similar techniques are used in coloration of old black and white movies. The CCD technology used in video cameras, eye in the sky satellites, text readers, image enhancers and a host of other ap plications are very closely related to what we are doing and what we are doing with it.

Timing Timing changes can be implemented on-the-fly during cam era operation, or from the main program. The > key will in crease timing, the < key will decrease the timing. The timing is changed by one millisecond for each screen scan that the key is held. If you are operating in the gray camera mode, each one of the timing cycles will be affected. There is a kink in the on-the-fly timing changes you should be aware of. If you decrease the timing beyond 0 milliseconds, the timing will roll over to 255 milliseconds. This will show itself as a tremendous increase in scan time. On the other hand, if you increase the timing past 255 you will roll over to 0. At any time, if you should get stuck or lost in the timing, I advise pressing

the "R" key which will return you to the main menu. There you can check, adjust or correct the timing by choosing the timing option for the camera you're currently operating. The menu op tion has the added advantage of reading the current scan times, that enables you to see where you are before modifying. Since the program uses every microsecond available for pro cessing, the keyboard is only checked once per screen scan. So you will have to hold down the key until the computer sees it, this may take one or two screen scans. In the fast scan B/W mode the menu will appear almost instantaneously. Alas, in the gray camera a couple of screen scans take longer.

Construction

As I promised in part one, our camera uses no additional cir cuitry aside from our computer. The most critical aspect of con structing the camera is the lens. The lens must be at the proper

distance to be focused on the matrix of the digital camera chip. If you use the same components I have, then all the measure ments have been taken care of. In the future if you would like to use a better or different lens or case, you will have to redesign the camera a little to place the lens at the proper focal length. COMMODORE MA3AZINE

57


Technical Tips/User Port, Part 6

Lenses

The lens we are using for the camera is a surplus lens avail able from Edmund Scientific Co. (See parts list). I chose this sur plus lens because it is very inexpensive for the quality. It is much easier to mount than a standard lens, since as you can see from the picture, it has its own housing, which means we don't have to build one. We can easily mount this lens on our camera housing with little or no hassle. The lens has an adjustable iris, (f-stop) that controls the light entering the camera, a valuable aid for various lighting conditions. This feature itself is worth the cost of the lens. It expands the operational latitude of the camera.

Begin construction by drilling the holes in the case for the lens and switch. The lens hole (approx. 5/8" diam.) is centered on the face of the case (See photo). Try for the best fit possible. With a good close fit you can actually screw the lens on instead of glu ing it on with epoxy. Do not install the lens at this time, just drill all the holes. If you plan to add a small tripod as I have, drill an additional hole in the bottom of the case. We are using two PC boards with this project, one that comes with the case, and an additional PC board that facilitates solder ing and wiring the IC socket. Later these two PC boards will be mounted together. Using ribbon cable begin soldering the card connector to the IC socket. Make sure the IC socket is centered on PC board #276-159 (See photo and schematic). Then solder the wires from the IC socket to the joystick plug RS# 276-1538. Solder in the capacitors to the IC socket. Note that both ground wires from the power supply and the user port must be connected to the chip for operation.

Now begin construction of the power supply (See photo and diagram). Use a small piece of perforated board to mount the

four resistors, then make all the connections to the mounted re sistors. Try to construct the power supply as you see it in the photo or as close to the photo as possible. Since it will be in stalled in the camera housing permanently, neatness counts, es pecially when you're installing in a small space. The power supply is bi-polar, meaning it supplies both posi tive voltage and negative voltages to the camera chip. Notice the switch we use to turn the power on and off is a double pole. Do not substitute this type of switch, since both grounds for each battery must be turned on and off for proper operation. If you try to use a single pole switch and disconnect the main ground, elec tricity will still flow through the circuit, killing the battery and possibly destroying the camera chip. You can check switch operation and the power supply with an inexpensive VOM from Radio Shack, $7.95, catalog #28-4012. If you have been following this series and building the projects, it's time you get one if you haven't already. When you wire the power supply to the IC socket use a mini mum of six inches of wire. This will make changing the batteries easier when they wear out.

Pre-Assemble Test

When you have gotten this far you're ready to check out the camera. Do this before installation, in case you need to comect any wiring error. Get the second IC socket that came in the package and install the camera chip onto it. Thafs correct, we are using both IC sockets, this brings the camera chip to the cor rect height in the final assembly. Insert the joystick socket into joystick port #2. Insert the card connector into user port, turn on computer. Load main program, from the main menu load B/W camera. When you are returned to the main menu, run the cam era. At this point the camera screen should appear on the main screen. Turn on the power to the camera. Depending upon the

Photo 1. The finished camera with lens and tripod.

Photo 2. Power supply completed with batteries.

Photo 4. Black and White cup.

Photo 5. Gray scale cup.

Photo 3. Power supply installed and wired to camera chip board.

Photo 6. Hand in front of white screen. Continued on pg. SO

58

JANUARY 1988


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To order these new peripherals, see your local Commodore dealer or complete and return the form below to order directly from Commodore.

ORDER FORM

(Please Print)

Please send me the following new Commodore

NAME.

peripheral(s): ADDRESS.

(Sorry, no P.O. Boxes)

QTY

ITEM

PRICE

Commodore 1581 3.5" Disk Drive for S249.95 ea.

STATE.

CITY

DAYTELEPHONE NUMBER

ZIP.

Area Code

Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.

Commodore 1764 Memory Expansion for S149.95 ea.

Pennsylvania residents please add 6% sales lax

Shipping and handling charge: $5.00 each

Mail this order form with check or money order only to:

Commodore Business Machines 1200 Wilson Dr. West Chester, PA 19380

ATTN: Nancy Rahn

TOTAL AMOUNT OF CHECK OR MONEY ORDER ENCLOSED

= Commodore

,


Technical Tips/User Port, Part 6 Continued from pg. 58

Bi Polar Power Ground Connections

amount oflight available the screen could be either black, white or some combination. If it's black, make some light available to chip—the entire screen should then go white. If it's white to be gin with, cover the chip with your hand to block the light — the screen should go completely black. If the chip passes this test, you can congratulate yourself, you're almost finished. If it didn't, turn everything off, start checking the power supply wires. Check batteries to make sure they are fresh. Finally, check the wiring from the user and joystick ports to the IC.

Final Assembly

We start with installing the power supply. Wrap some scotch

tape around the perforated board holding the resistors to pre vent accidentally shorting anything out. Glue or epoxy the bat

tery holders on both sides of the lens hole, (See photo) install switch in the top hole with the perforated board underneath it. Take your time with the installation. You only have to do this once so don't force any components in. You have ample space. Now get the PC board that came with the housing, cut a chan nel in one end of it for the wires to pass through. Place the IC wired PC board on top of this board and center it, making sure that you don't install the IC wired PC on the copper clad side of the second PC board. This could short out the unit. With the one board centered on the other glue or epoxy them together. You will notice on my prototype I used two rubber bands to secure the boards together, you can do this also if you wish. Now mount the entire board assembly into the housing using the two screws that came with the housing for the board. Final ly, mount the lens, if you succeeded in making a good fit you can screw it in, if not, glue or epoxy. 60

JANUARY 1988

Lighting

When you start using the camera, stall with simple lighting conditions and objects. In other words, start in a dimly lit room with a light on a simple white object such as the cup I have used for illustration. If you arbitrarily start aiming the camera every where, you won't be able to see the forest for the trees. You need to gain some experience adjusting the timing and f-stops of the camera. I detailed the light conditions for the cup, use that for a starting point.

Program Operation

Type in the respective programs for your computer. Take care in saving the programs under the proper names. This is essen tial for the main program to load the camera programs into memory and return. After you have typed and saved the programs, load and run the main program. At the menu prompt choose item 2: "load the B/W camera." The computer will then load the B/W program and return to the main program. Then start the camera—item 7. In the beginning I advise you to use a simple subject to get ac quainted with the digital camera. As a prop use a white cup as illustrated. Copy the lighting arrangement in the diagram. With this set up you can vary the f-stop on the lens and or the timing cycle of the program. Notice the effects each one has on the image. You should see that the f-stop has more impact and should be used to adjust the camera to the basic lighting condi tions. The timing can then be used for fine adjustments. After you're satisfied with the B/W camera picture, return to the main

menu by pressing the "R" key. Once there, load the gray scale

camera item 3, then start it running, Return to the main menu


Technical Tips/User Port, Part 6

by pressing "R" again. Now this will take longer to happen, as I stated before, the keyboard is only checked once per screen scan. Once you're back at the main menu choose the gray timing op tion 5. Change the timing to 50, 60 and 70. The program auto matically returns to the main menu. Restart the camera. Notice the changes the timing has on the digital camera picture. Re turn to the main menu again and choose the coloration option 6. The sub-menu lists ail color codes as you are prompted for the coloration of each scan. Choose whatever colors you like, the pro gram will return automatically after all your choices are en tered. Restart the camera, if you find you don't like the colors or wish to change them simply return to the main menu as before and change them.

Conclusion Many projects say "you will enjoy this for yeara to come" or "cutting or leading edge of technology." I'm saying that this is a tool. With it you can explore leading edge topics like neural net works, character and pattern recognition. But it is still only a tool. It is up to you to use it. I left an open vector line in 1000 for sub-programs that you may want to add for pattern recognition and so forth. Slight modifications in the program will cause the image to stay the same when you return to BASIC from the camera, but that isn't necessary for recognition or networks, that would be esthetically pleasing to the user. If you are inter ested in programming articles for this camera involving pattern recognition or neural networks let us know. We have just scratched the surface. In part three we will jump to the bit map screen, where we can better the resolution by 6X. You may be relieved that this will just involve programming. Due to space limitations, only the 64 listings are presented this month. Next month we will run the 128 versions.

Parts List Item

Qty

Case Battery holders Switch DPDT Circuit Board

i

2 1

1

Part Number Radio Shack # 270-283 RS# 270-405 RS# 275-663 RS# 276-159

Price $3.69 .49 2.49 1.49 _1

in

pkg2

IC Sockets

1

RS# 276-1998

12 volt battery Ribbon Cable Joystick connector .1 uf Disc cap.

2

1 3

RS# RS# RS# RS#

22K ohm Resistors

2

RS# 271-1339

15K ohm Resistors

2

RS# 271-1337

IM-16 D-Cam Images Co. P.O. Box 313 Jamaica, NY 11418

1

IM-16

32.00

Lens

1

E41,146

11.50

1

23-144 278-772 276-1538 272-135

.89 pkg/2 .89 3.59 2.49 .59 nlrir/9

pkg/J

Edmund Scientific

.39 pkg/5 .39 pkg/5

101 E. Gloucester Pike Barrington, NJ 08007

Card connector Digi-Key

1 Continued on pg. 106

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61


ADVENTURE ROAD

by Shay Addams

Quest for Sequels

of the game, import a character from City. Unless you've got a strong character ready to go, consider this an advanced-lev el game. Even with such an asset the

News and opinion from a leading explorer of those fantasy realms called adventure games. Just as television has its summer reruns, adventure gaming has its summer se quels. I returned from an all-too-brief va cation to find three of them lurking in the shadows of my monitor Eternal Dagger (sequel to Wizard's Crown), Alternate Re ality, the Dungeon (sequel to Alternate Re ality, the City) and Roadwar Europa (se quel to Roadwar 2000). Judged solely as a sequel, Dungeon is the most impressive accomplishment. One reason is that the original game lacked certain things — a goal, for exam ple, and magic spells — that most adven turers expect in such a scenario. City of fered many opportunities for mapping and developing a character through combat, but the program's sole purpose was to en able you to build up a character strong enough to survive future installments in the series. (Alternate Reality is planned as a seven-part series in which each area, contained on a separate disk, can be en tered from one or more of the others.) This seemed like a waste of time to me and still does, especially since it took them over a year to come up with a program in which City characters could finally be used. That program is Dungeon, set in a fourlevel maze beneath the City of Xebec's De mise, where you were originally dumped after being kidnapped by aliens and left on this planet. Your long-range goal in the series is to escape, which can't be accom plished in this game, whose goal is simply to escape the Dungeon. Dungeon's strongest new feature is its introduction of Guilds. There are six Guilds, such as the Wizards of Law and the Guild of Chaos, and your good/evil alignment is determined by your choice. In addition to typical attributes such as strength, the program keeps track of your actions and how they relate to your align ment, A Wizard of Law, for example, who kills a member of a good Guild can be rep rimanded or even ejected from this Guild. Guild membership also entitles you to a locker where you can store weapons and loot, a Guild ring that empowers you with spell-casting ability, and a chance to learn 62

JANUARY 1988

game is still tough and should give any

dungeon-delver a good run for his money.

Shut That Window!

Sequels have always been a mixed blessing. and practice magic spells — none of which were possible in the original Alternate Re ality. (Yes, I found it hard to believe some one had done a fantasy role-playing game without magic spells, too.) Combat hasn't changed much, for you still carry primary and secondary weapons that may be switched during combat, but the inclusion of spellcasting makes a dramatic differ ence during encounters. The maze is a 64 X 64 grid, and with four levels that amounts to more than 16,000 locations. Mapping, however, is easier than in City. Although you still ad vance only a few inches with each move, not a complete map square, wooden beams in the walls clearly mark each square. You can also obtain a compass that proves handy, and the location spell will reveal your precise location according to its north and east coordinates. Music and song accentuate many en counters and discoveries. Enter a Guild, and the lyrics of a song appear in big let ters while a tune plays. One by one, each word is highlighted in time with the mu sic, and this variation on the "follow the bouncing ball" routine adds atmosphere and occasionally drops a few clues. You get a first-person view ofyour location and any monsters. Graphically the game looks better than City, even tossing in a bit of spot animation here and there, though it still can't compare with the lush illustra tions of Bard's Tale. It is possible to create a fresh character for Dungeon. It is also possible to swim the English Channel, but most people find it easier to take the ferry. So unless you're looking for a hard time in the early phase

Built around the interface and combat routines seen in Wizard's Crown, Eternal Dagger makes you responsible for the lives of up to eight characters as they at tempt to defeat the hordes of monsters in vading the Middle World and seal the De mon Portal through which they entered. (Tb do so they'll need the magical weapon for which the game is named.) No revolu tionary features are introduced in Dagger, but the animated combat is more detailed and faster, and other routines function more smoothly. Your party now moves as a unit while in a dungeon, so you don't have to use the "follow" command that of ten led to characters getting stuck in cor ners, and some of the rarely-used combat commands were eliminated. Outdoor scenes are better illustrated, and the pro gram's overall feel is more polished and enjoyable than Wizard's Crown's. The magic system is unchanged, offering 20 spells, but this intermediate-level chal lenge is really designed for the "long swords and chain mail" crowd anyway. There aren't as many puzzles as in

Crown, for this is an even more combat-

oriented scenario. In battle, you can choose a quick or tactical fight. The latter allows you to pick one of 22 combat com mands — use magic, aimed attack, and so on — for each of your warriors and wiz

ards via one-keystroke commands. My first battle occurred moments after I hit the aerial-view countryside, and it took

me over 30 minutes to wipe out two dozen zombies and ghouls. The quick combat op tion saves time, but prevents you from us ing certain items and spells. So unless you truly enjoy wargaming as much as you do

adventuring, Eternal Dagger will seem

more like "eternal combat" to you. Still, someone who completed Dagger recently says the monsters are easier to beat than in Crown, which he gave up on in disgust haliway through.

On the Roadwar Again

When the going gets tough, the tough get going — and if you've already wiped Continued on pg. Ill


Presenting.The Future Of Business. The Commodore Amiga 2000

A

Desktop Presentation System. The Next Step Forward.

Commodore' presents a major breakthrough in the art of present ing ideas. Introducing Desktop Presentation with the Commodore Amiga" 2000. It's the personal busi ness computer that's also a complete desktop publishing center, video production studio, and live presen tation workstation—giving you access to professional-quality results at a fraction of the cost of outside suppliers. Desktop Publishing Color. It's the next generation in desktop publishing. And with the Commodore Amiga 2000, you can

toppingjuggling QCt, Since the Commodore Amiga Is the worlds first multi taskingpersonal

business computer, you can actually run severalprograms

slm ultaneo usly.

Strictly Business For your everyday business needs,

Enjoy true w freedom ofthe press ivith Gold Disks'" Professional Page1" desktop publishing software Even make color separations with resolution

ashigh as2400dotsperInch

create your own catalogs, brochures, and magazines in up to 4096 colors.

There's a big advantage in black and white, too. Since the Commodore Amiga 2000 can display 16 levels of

there's WordPerfect' word pro cessing. Advanced database and spreadsheet programs. Complete networking. And the Commodore Amiga is the world's first multi tasking personal business computer, so you can actually run several programs at the same time. So take a step into the future of business computing. Call 1-800-S7AMIGA to locate your near est Commodore Amiga 2000 dealer.

grey, it gives

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Xetwork TVproducers use the Commodore Amiga to crease

Gtn em a show the\ It

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aPoIaroid Palette'" and make 35mm slides in up to JQQ6 colors

preview of your laser-printed docu ments than the Macintosh"1 SE

ever could. Desktop Video Video is part of the new language of modern business. But you won't need epic budgets to produce your own corporate, sales, and promotional videos. With the Commodore Amiga 2000 you can create professional-quality

3-D animation. Titles. Wipes. Fades?

You can even paint over video images, one frame at a time.

dazzling graphics and special effects. It can boost the ratings ofyour next business video, too.

Live Presentation

The Commodore Amiga 2000 shines in front of a live audience, too. Create 35mm slides, storyboards, transparencies—even ani mated "electronic slideshows." You'll get all the support you'll need when you're on your feet.

Carrv your whole slide presentation in your shirt

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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

bv Robert W. Baker

Inside Q-Unk Explore the inner workings of the Q-Link telecommunications service with network pro Bob Baker. Back in the fall, I sat in on an on-line meeting with a number of the sysops who manage the Commodore Community. During the meeting I asked for ideas or hints that might help Q-Link users. Here's a collection of some of the ideas that we hope you'll find useful. With a lit tle luck we'll have more for nature issues. First of all, one issue that seems to con stantly come up is the use of on-line mes sages. Many users think that if someone is on-line, they can answer an on-line message right away. However, that's not always the case! If someone is uploading or downloading files, entering a message

in the message boards, participating in an auditorium event or group meeting, it just might not be convenient or even possible to answer an on-line message. It's always advisable to use an E-Mail message first to contact someone and then use on-line messages once you know the individual is ready to talk. Once you es tablish contact, it might even be better to meet in a People Connection room or one of the various meeting or conference rooms. This can provide much quicker in teraction than on-line messages when needed, or if you're going to be talking for awhile. Most heavy users of the system, like sy sops and myself, try to clear out any cur rent E-Mail messages when they first log onto the system. Then, any new messages that appear while online can easily be no ticed and handled when there is a break in the action. Besides, answering older messages first gives the sender a chance to catch you online with another comment if they need you. Before sending a message to one of the sysops, consider whether your message might be more appropriate for one of the message boards. The sysops occasionally get a number of messages or questions on the same subject. If you post the question on a message board, the Sysop can answer it once and the information will be avail able for a number of people. It also gives other users a chance to add additional in formation. If the answer to one of your questions is 64

JANUARY 1988

long winded, or a sysop is getting a num ber of questions on the same subject, the sysop might post your question and the re sponse on a message board himself. That

way the information is readily available to everyone, and anyone who asked ques tions on that topic can be sent short mes sages indicating where the information is available. This can save a sysop a consid erable amount of time! By the way, if you're trying to contact the sysops, keep in mind that the Byte Bar in the Commodore Community is staffed nightly by various sysops from that area. You might be able to catch the person you want there, and talk directly. Plus, there may be other users or Commo dore Gurus there that could help with a problem as well. On the other hand, use of the message boards gives you access to a wide variety of users with almost limitless knowledge on all sorts of subjects. In many instances, your exact situation may have already been encountered by someone else online who can quickly provide a useful com ment or the solution to your problem. Many people overlook the value of this added support. As a general rule, try to pick the most appropriate place for your message before you post it. Keep in mind that there are special message boards in the classified

section of The Mall if you want to buy, sell or trade something. Such messages should not be placed in the other message boards on the system. Also, posting duplicate messages in different message boards only wastes system resources.

When scanning the message boards in the Commodore Community, be sure to check the "What's New" and library areas for information on the latest happenings, detailed product reviews or more informa tion on various topics. Many people don't realize the large number of informational text files within the libraries besides pro gram files. After downloading a text file, all you need is the Sprint or similar se quential file reader/printer utility to view the information. If you're uploading programs or files to the public domain libraries, please refrain

from including those that have been typed in from magazine articles. Some people still don't realize that these programs are not in the public domain, the magazines own the copyright to any material they print. You'll only waste a sysop's time in processing a file that cannot be made available online.

Some magazines are on Q-Link and may provide copies of their programs from time to time. Additionally, some authors may obtain special permission from a Continued on pg. 117


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On October 14, 1947, an unknown Air

Force captain named Charles E. Yeager made aviation history. Piloting the experimen tal Bell X-l rocket plane, he became the first person in the world to fly faster than the speed of sound. Forty years later, retired Brigadier Genera] Yeager is still in the public eye. The story of his history-making flight was told in the recent movie The. Right Stuff. General Yeager's book (aptly titled Yeager) remained on the best-seller list for months, and the Gen eral himself can now be seen in a series of tele vision commercials. In private life, the master

pilot still finds time to fly a number of different

, Ned Lerner and Chuck Yeager: by John Jermaine

-p

/ •

taking

Computer Flight to New Heights

66

JANUARY 1988

aircraft (both civilian and military). Even to day, he occasionally breaks certain aviation performance records just for the fun of it. Yes, this is the Yeager we all know and admire, but most people know little about his latest project: Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer (AFT). This article examines the development of that program and concludes with a few words from General Yeager himself. To get things rolling. I spoke with Ned Lemer, the 28-year-old designer of the AFT. .Jermaine: What inspired you to write the Advanced Flight Trainer? Lerner: During the summer of 1985.1 was shopping around for an inspiration. I really wanted to dazzle the software buying commu nity with a three-dimensional something or other. Simulations seemed to fit into that line of thinking, particularly flight simulations, be cause they tend to merge a knowledge of aerial mechanics and science with the thrill of flying. A second factor also came into play. One of my childhood fantasies was to manipulate the con trols of an ultra-modem aircraft, high above the clouds. Even if I were a pilot in real life, I probably wouldn't be flying any of those air planes, because most of them are used exclu sively by the military. I could fulfill my dream, however, in a software sense by creating a real istic flight simulation, featuring all of the planes I wanted to fly. Jermaine: Did you examine the other flight simulators? If so, what did you think of them? Lerner: After studying the other flight-related software on the market. I arrived at two con clusions: (1) all of the programs were similar in content, and (2) they couldn't hold my atten tion for very long. In many respects, this mate rial reminded me of the driver's education class I had tolerated as a teenager. The pro grams supplied fundamental flight instruc tions, defined a number of aviation terms, explained how to use the switches and gauges on your airplane correctly, etc. In short, you learned the accepted procedures for flying the aircraft safely and how to get from one point to another without becoming lost. Now don't get me wrong. Every pilot has to learn the basic

skills of aviation, but no one said you had to stop the learning process at that point. I want ed the user to fly a number of different aircraft as fast as he possibly could. Once the novice pi lot felt comfortable in the air. he could use sim ple visual instructions to perform a series of complicated aerobatic stunts. My final goal was to make each experience fun and enter taining, instead of resembling a textbook lesson. Jermaine: How was the flight environment of the program developed? Lerner: Flight simulations, in general, have traditionally been created by initially setting up an aerodynamic model. This model is a tiny defined universe where gravity, lift factors, thrust, drag, etc. exist, as they do in the real world. Once the model has been completed, the programmer begins gathering the flight char acteristics of every plane in the program. The information he acquires, for each individual airplane, will eventually be stored as a sepa rate data base within the model itself. We de cided to follow this accepted procedure because no one came up with a better way of doing things. By the way, Gabe Hoffman developed the aerodynamic model for the project. He was the perfect man for the job because Gabe had been a captain in the Air Force and held a de gree in aerodynamic engineering. Jermaine: Tell me more about the problems you faced. Lerner: Commercial flight simulators start out at about $50,000 and go up in price to the mil lions of dollars (NASA uses the most advanced machines). The top-of-the-line simulators have multi-megabytes of memory (1 megabyte = 1,000,000 bytes), with palettes containing over 65,000 colors. We, on the other hand, were dealing with microcomputers. Our machines had 64-256K of memory, and four to sixteen colors on their palettes. After experimenting for a while, I came up with an interesting set of graphics. These pictures could be easily adapt ed for use on both the IBM and 64 computers, while operating on both systems at approxi mately six frames per second. Creating the correct feel and performance of each airplane in the program was another matter altogether. Constructing the data bases was one thing; getting them to operate correct ly was another. It often became necessary to al ter the facts a little to obtain the desired re sponse from the computer. It's also interesting to note that flight simulator people and air craft designers face many of the same prob lems in their work. The most difficult planes to generate on paper, or re-create in a software sense, are the ultra-modern high-performance machines. Naturally, our simulation of an SR71 (nicknamed the "Blackbird") became a ma jor source of headaches around here. It's the



Each of these

planes needs to be analyzed by a trained test pilot, so the user can

literally assume the role of Chuck

Yeagerand learn what makes these planes tick.

fastest aircraft on the planet, and we just couldn't make it fly like it should. In case you're interested, the SR-71 is a military re connaissance jet. It was designed to replace the U-2 spy plane and has probably been flown by fewer than 100 people in real life. Jermaine: Was it difficult getting Electronic Aits and General Yeager interested in the program? Lerner: Electronic Arts was involved in the project almost from the very beginning. Look ing back on things, it's funny to think that we were programming a flight simulator at a com pany located a short distance away from the runways of San Francisco aiiport. By late summer of 1986, we had been work ing on the basic flying progi'am for almost a year. It ran smoothly, looked shaip, and faith fully re-created the performance characteris tics of several different airplanes. Even though the people who saw the progi'am liked it. I se cretly felt it lacked a certain quality I couldn't put my finger on. Several weeks later, Stewart Bonn (VP, Creativity Division) came up with a novel idea which eventually took care of that factor. He reasoned we should get a well-known pilot, like Chuck Yeager, to co-design the prod uct. No one else was even considered for the job, because Yeager is a living legend in the field of aviation. He had flown practically ev ery aircraft we could name, and his influence on the project would add a new dimension of realism and authenticity to our simulation of flight. There was only one flaw in this master plan; I didn't believe it was possible to get General Yeager interested in our work. Stewart had other thoughts on the matter and set things in motion to contact the famous aviator. Our peo ple initially had to explain to him what Elec tronic Aits was. They also convinced him that the project wasn't a risky venture, and his in put, as an experienced pilot, would make the program superior to other flight-related soft

ware on the market General Yeager officially joined the team (on paper) in October of that same year.

Jermaine: Would you describe your earliest de sign session with General Yeager? Lemer: Our first face-to-face meeting took place during March of 1987, in the office of the General's accountant. A party of five had driv en up to Grass Valley. CA, in a pouring rain, to ask General Yeager to look things over and tell us what he thought of the program. As we were sitting there in the office, listening to the rain outside. Rich Hilleman, Associate Producer at EA was first to spot the Blazer entering the parking lot (license plate BELL XI). A few mo ments later, we heard the unmistakable West Virginia drawl outside the door, as pure and easy-going as the man on TV who sells spark plugs with a shotgun. For a brief second, I re 68

JANUARY 1988

membered the opening scene ofPatton where George C. Scott steps forward, dressed to the teeth, in full military regalia. The door sudden ly opened, and there he was: wearing cowboy boots, blue jeans, and a polo shirt under his racing-style jacket. General Yeager had a trim figure, and his face was tan, well weathered, as if he had spent a lot of time outdoors. The Gen eral stepped forward, shaking hands with the members of the group, but I sensed a certain degree of reservation in his actions. Tb get past this awkward beginning, we loaded in the current version of Advanced Flight Trainer. I flew the simulator for a while, and offered to let General Yeager take over. "I never fooled with these things," he said. "That's because, you know, the damned things are so—" he searched for the word, "insignifi cant. The problem," he said, "is how mature do you want to make this dang thing?" Yeager leaned back in his chair and pointed at the P-51 Mustang on the monitor screen (it was the most modern plane featured in the pro gram at that time). "You guys are stereotyped is your problem." he said. "These planes are okay, except people want something more mod ern like an F-14. If you want to really scorch something, hell, you can program the X-31 in there, the aerospace plane," he said with en thusiasm. "Now, see, you got some kid who can say, 'Man, this thing is smoking along at Mach25.'" The ice had finally been broken, and we all began contributing to the conversation. After discussing the subjects of liquid oxygen fuel and the current types of aircraft that are touching the edge of space, the day was practi cally over. In the meantime Glennis, the Gen eral's wife, had invited us back to their house. Now was the moment of truth. We had gone through the entire program and were waiting to hear what General Yeager thought of the project overall. "This thing's pretty dang realis tic," he told us. "You've got a lot of goodies in there." Then a smile appeared on his face. "But in my opinion, it would be interesting to dog fight." (We are currently at work on the sequel: Chuck Yeagers Air Combat Trainer. Unfortu nately, I can't tell you anything more about that project at this time.) Jermaine: Had General Yeager worked with computers before this time? Lerner: Yes and no. Computers exist in the control systems of all modem military aircraft, so I guess you could say he has quite a bit of computer experience. When General Yeager saw the IBM system for the first time, he said it reminded him of the cockpit of an F-20. On the other hand, the General doesn't own a home computer and really hadn't worked with one until the AFT project came along. Jermaine: What was it like to work with the legendary Chuck Yeager?


Lerner: During our design sessions with the master pilot, some interesting situations occa sionally arose. One day we were talking about the joystick and its relationship to the comput er. Every time we mentioned the word "joy stick," the General started laughing a little bit louder. Someone finally asked him why he was so amused, and Yeager said he hadn't heard that term since WWII. We had taken it for granted that pilots called the stick a "joystick," but recently I discovered most of them use the term "control stick." A short time later we were designing the graphics of the objects on the ground. A mem

ber of the group asked General Yeager if he re

membered seeing anything interesting as he flew over the Mohavi (during his earl}- days as a test pilot). ''We never had much time for scenery," he told the individual, ''Besides, Edwards (Air Force Basel doesn't have much to look at."

And now a few words from General Yeager Jermaine: Would you give me some back ground information about yourself, General Yeager? General Yeager: I'm 65 years old and happily married with'four children (two "boys and two girls) and 12 grandkids. And yeah, I have a lot of hobbies. I repair my own cars, do some wood working around the house, sneak off to do a lot of fishing, and still find time to fly on a regular basis. Jermaine: How often do you fly. and what types of aircraft do you use?

General Yeager: Oh, year in and year out I probably average ten or 15 hours a month. Just to give you a feel, this year I've flown F-4's F-15's, F-16's, F-18's, two different types of Harrierjeta (AV-8A and AV-8B), and a lot of light stuff. Jermaine: If home computers and the Ad vanced Flight Trainer had been around when

After working closely with the man for a pe riod of time, it soon became apparent why he's considered to be one of the top pilots in the world today General Yeager seemed to antici you were growing up. do you think they would pate everything we were planning to do and have altered the direction of your life? understood anything we explained to him the General Yeager: Probably not, John, because I first time. It was also great to have someone grew up in a world where mechanical devices around who could answer almost eveiy ques were state-of-the-art. Electronics, as we know it tion we had about a variety of different air craft, while actively contributing fresh ideas to today, wasn't even on the drawing boards dur the group on a regular basis. I guess I was most ing the years leading up to World War II. Most of the kids I knew back then had pinball ma impressed with General Yeager's positive atti chines, if you remember those crude things. tude toward the project. He took things quite We also played a lot of Ping Pong and had oth seriously, seeing the program as an authentic simulation of flight and not merely a game. He er activities which helped us to develop good also permitted us to add the equivalent of mili coordination. I spent most of my time as a tary training to the scheme of things. It was a young man studying internal combustion the ory and the mechanical marvels of the age. As pleasure to work with a man of his caliber. I became older, that knowledge kept me busy .Jermaine: Can you tell me more about the while other people were looking for work. Get Advanced Flight Trainer! Lerner: Basically, the program consists of four ting back to your question, I don't think computere would have helped me very much parts: Flight Instruction, Test Flight, Forma because I was mechanically inclined. tion Flying and Airplane Racing. If you're al ready a pilot, you probably won't learn very Jermaine: Is it true that you became an "Ace" much from the Flight Instruction portion of pilot during a single day of World War II? Was the program. It's there to teach the average that an unusual feat during those days? consumer the basic skills of aviation. General Yeager: In order to become an ace, The Test Flight exercise gives you the per you had to destroy five enemy planes in air fect opportunity to test your new abilities. Of combat. Few people achieved this status dur course, you have to take off and land the plane ing a single mission because: (11 You normally safely, but while you're in the air, the pilot is didn't run into very many German aircraft at completely on his own. He can simply fly one time, and (2) most pilots couldn't survive a around, add a wind factor to the environment, dogfight long enough to do the job. On the day test the performance of his craft, or try to steer I became an ace, I was lucky enough to be lead it through one of the seven 3D obstacle ing my squadron. That allowed me to spray my courses. This segment of the AFT also features fire at the enemy craft as soon as they were three experimental planes of our own design. within range. The rest is history. For the re Each was named after someone who worked on cord, I have accumulated a little better than the project (mine was called the Lerner Aero 14,000 hours of total flying time (in the mili nautics XNL-16 Instigator). We had a lot of fun tary), with about 13,000 of them taking place designing these unusual aircraft, but they in fighters. Continued on pg. Ill)

"Yes, the Bell X-l has its own set of peculiarities, and you will experi

ence them first hand in the Advanced Flight Trainer."

Continued on pg. 110

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Adventures at

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JANUARY 1988


Infocom

by Russ Ceccola

At the basis of Infocom's success in the software industry is a collection of hard-working people dedicated to making Infocom games as great as they can be, while maintaining a sense of humor and thoroughly enjoying their jobs. I visited Infocom recently to interview and learn about the people and company responsible for the classic Zork games and many, many others. Airport Entrance You are standing in the entrance of Bos ton International Airport. An exit leads west and a ramp goes up from here. There is a dollar bill here. >TAKE DOLLAR BILL As you bend over to pick up the dollar bill, a little boy runs over to you. leading his mother by the hand. The boy is crying. He says that you took his dollar and. after the mother slaps you for being cruel to chil dren or some such nonsense, the duo walk away. You are left embarrassed and con fused. >GOWEST Outside Airport You have wandered onto the sidewalk out side of Boston International Airport. A cab pulls up in front of you and the driver looks impatiently at you. There is a small white stone here. >TAKE STONE Taken. >GETINCAB As soon as you step into the cab, the driv er floors the gas pedal and you find your

self smashed against the other door. The driver apologizes for the inconvenience and begins to ask you where you're going until he notes the look of mesmerized an ticipation on your face and realizes that you must be headed to Infocom in Cam bridge. "Happens to the best of them," the driver chuckles. >EXAMINE STONE The stone is a small white piece of smooth marble that feels unusually light. >WATT The driver takes you to the front of the building at 125 Cambridge Park Drive and tells you that the fare for the ride is $16.90.

>INVENTORY You are carrying: A wallet. >EXAMINE WALLET Inside the wallet, you find $25 and a mov ie stub. Upon seeing the movie stub, you

universe-on-disk. Hence the name inter active fiction. You control the events in the story and time passes only in relation to the entering of commands. There is no set method to finish a story. For the most part, there are certain things you must do to finish, but the order in which you do them varies, depending on the game. For example, in the above stray, I didn't have to pick up the dollar or stone. Trying for the dollar was a nonsense action, as we found out afterwards. The stone, on the other hand, has some distinct purpose. In this case, it sensed closeness to Infocom's offices. Typical of Inibcom games, you sometimes don't find out the purpose of an object until later in the game or by experi

remember that terribly boring and stupid

menting. Also, examining objects is very

summer movie about the return of a giant shark to claim revenge on a family. >GIVE $20 TO DRIVER The driver thanks you for your generosity and leaves you standing on the pavement in a cloud of dust as he speeds away.

important. I wouldn't have known that I had any money unless I had examined my wallet or that the stone was different in that it was unusually light for its size. The commands that you can use in an interactive fiction stoiy are much more numerous than the two or three I used above. Aside from going in different direc tions and examining objects, you can do all sorts of other things, including attack ing other characters, using objects and talking to characters. There are special commands that allow you to change your playing environment as well — like SCRIPT, which prints a transcript of your game session on your printer, if you have one. Also, some games have commands specifically made for them (the Enchanter games use CAST for casting spells). Com mands use verb-object relationships to get things done. The structure is easy to learn and in no time you can be playing. Most games also give you some kind of rating or score and the goal of that game is to reach the maximum status or score. "You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door." Sound familiar? This is the first line of what has since become a classic in the realm of adventure games and software, Zork, Four college students at M.I.T. de signed the game after being totally en thralled with Adventure, created by Willie Crowther and Don Woods. The first "ad venture game" ever. Adventure appeared on M.I.T.'s ARPAnet in the Laboratory for

Outside 125 Cambridge Park Drive You are outside the building that houses, among other offices, the headquarters of Infocom, the destination of your visit to the Boston area. A door enters to the east. The stone is glowing with a dark blue light. What you have just read is an example of interactive fiction, the trademark of Cambridge-based Infocom, describing fic titiously the jaunt I recently took from the aiiport to Infocom's offices, For those of you who don't know what interactive fiction is all about, a definition is in order. Infocom interactive fiction games are entirely text games. There are no pictures, moving graphics or space in

vaders that pop up on your screen. Rather, the computer responds to your typed com mands with prose descriptions of your sur roundings, the consequences of your ac tions, what you see. hear and feel, what objects are within reach and which direc tion you can traverse. In an interactive fiction game, you con trol a central character or, in some cases, more than one character, through your commands. You must assume the role of that character as if you were really in that

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Then the imp must account for all other situations that Computer Science about a decade ago. These four men were Tim Anderson, Dave Lebling, Marc Blank and Bruce Daniels, the first three of whom went on to fonn Infocom. along with Chris Reeve, Joel Berez and Stu Galley in 1979. Since then, business has gone up and down, but Infocom's staying power in the marketplace led to a $10 million gross last year. Infocom has sold over two million in teractive fiction titles to date, one million of the Zork trilogy alone. Their place in

the software industry is a direct result of the lengthy and exacting evolution of a

game from conception to the software store's shelves. The initial idea for a game starts with an imp. There is usually a meeting sched uled when an imp decides that he/she wants to start designing a new game. At

Infocom has sold over two million interactive fiction titles to date, one million of theZor/c trilogy alone. this meeting, the imp introduces all of the ideas that he/she has and they are voted upon and talked about. This gives the imp a good idea of which project to pursue. An imp usually takes four to six months to design a game. In that period, many changes will be made in the direc tion the game takes. Each imp has a dif ferent approach to the physical design of the game. Dave Lebling starts by drawing the geography/locations and then popu lates them with the objects and characters in the game. Steve Meretzky writes down

his ideas and develops the story line first. Only after these elements are worked out does he progress further. He then develops the puzzles and finally works on the geog raphy of the game. Designing interactive fiction is not as easy as just coding what must be done to finish the game. That's the first pail. Then the imp must account for all other situations that can occur based on the many strange things that people try.

There has to be a limit. For instance, an imp has to try to think of every possible thing that a person can tiy to do with an object to ensure that there are no fatal crashes. Sometimes, an imp decides that 72

JANUARY 1988

climbing the peach tree—I didn't want to have to check all possibilities such as players jumping off the tree, cutting its branches, etc."

can occur based on the

many strange things that people try. he doesn't want people to try some thing and makes it impossible to do in the game. For example, in The Lurking Hor ror, on the roof of the Brown building there is a peach tree in a tub. Lebling was originally going to have a puzzle revolve around the tree and a single peach on its branches but instead covered the tree with slime so that it couldn't be climbed. His reasoning: "I wanted to keep people from

Creative Services The Creative Services department is re sponsible for putting together the packag ing for all Infocom games. Consisting of Carl Genatossio (Creative Services Man ager) Elizabeth Langosy (Staff Writer), Gayle Syska (Product Manager) and An gela Crews (Product Services Supervisor), Creative Services makes the game look and read as attractive as possible. Early in the testing stages, Elizabeth, Angela and Carl play the game for about a week to get the feel of what's happening. They think about ideas for a few days and then meet with the game implementor to determine what should go into the game's packaging. After deciding what the pack age will look like and what enclosures will be used, the work is started. Carl con tracts photographers and artists to work on the game's cover and inside art. Eliza beth writes the manuals and any other written material included with the game. Angela investigates appropriate gim micks for the game and the production of these enclosures. Angela Crews has had some interesting experiences in searching out Infocom's trademark enclosures. For Leather God desses ofPhobos, which won an award for Best Software Packaging, she contacted many companies to assemble a large number of samples for the Scratch 'N Sniff1" card included in every package. Game designer Steve Meretzky followed people for days with these samples in hand urging them to guess what the smells were. Another conquest that An gela made was the plastic bug included

Trying to code all possibilities can be very tedious. To avoid burnout, the imps meet once a week to talk about puzzles and how other imps' programs are coming with The Lurking Horror. Again she con tacted numerous companies and had liter ally hundreds of bugs in the drawers of

her desk. Eventually, after rejecting ones that grew in water and ones that were too expensive, the right one was picked. A recent change made by Creative Ser vices was the elimination of the gray pin striped package that opened to reveal the story book for the game. Genatossio ex plains that the package was designed to be browseable in the stores, but that store owners demanded that they be shrinkwrapped to prevent dog-eared copies. "We had this browseable shrink-wrapped pack age that wasn't really browseable any more," remarked Genatossio. Langosy offers, "People found it awk ward putting that box on their computer table to read the book, which was unremo vable. The format forced us to have a booklet for each game, as well. Also, cer tain enclosures couldn't be used because they couldn't fit in the tray." The packaging for The Lurking Horror and Stationfall introduced a new format for Infocom games. The two boxes look very exciting and all of the enclosures are removeable so that examination is easier. Infocom has found that many people buy the games for the packaging. Also, the packaging includes items helpful in the game and, more recently, the enclo sures have become an effective anti-piracy safeguard. The enclosures sometimes con tain code numbers, and these items just can't be duplicated. At any rate, the pack aging of Infocom games is one of the at tractive features of the company's prod ucts, part of the reason the games jump right off the store shelves. a


along. They exchange ideas and trade sto ries pertaining to game design and inter active fiction to get a fresh perspective on things and keep themselves abreast of the others' activities. Other times, these meet ings are just fun. with no talk at all about designing tips. Rather these are an oppor tunity to let off steam that builds up after deciding how many times to allow a play er to mess up in the game before getting killed. Lebling described Infocom's philos ophy: "We try to make each game as com plete and clean as possible. I'm sure we spend far more time in testing than any of our competitors. We work very hard to make things as rich as we can. We don't like nothing to happen in response to the players command if we can help it. We'd rather have the game work so that if you try something reasonable, you'll get some kind of response for your actions." The key word at Infocom is "we." It's not a competition to see which department can do the best in their area of the game, but an active collaboration among all de partments. The relationships that are probably the most important to the fin ished product take place in the second stage of game production, in which Test ing and Creative Services simultaneously do their jobs, while going back to the imps for suggestions and problems they might

have. Creative Services and Testing each

Testing Testing a game is instrumental in re leasing it to the public. At Infocom. the Testing department probably does more than similar departments in most other software companies. The complete testing process takes about four months and causes a lot of headaches for the testers. From internal errors to unexpected re sponses, these people have seen all of the bugs, errors and inconsistencies that Info com games have had in their early stages. Infocom games go through three testing stages — alpha, beta and gamma. Product Testing Manager Liz Cyr-Jones describes the transition from alpha to beta: "For a game to move out of alpha into beta, the game has to be clean — free of obvious ty pos and crashes. The story line has to be set, and all of the puzzles and characters and the real guts of the game have to be intact.'' Beta and gamma testing are both done outside the company by unpaid volun teers. There is a group of about 15 people who test the games in these phases. They check for errors and play the game as much as possible. After correcting any re maining errors from the beta stage, the game is passed through gamma phase and is then ready for shipment to the stores.

put in about four months of work in their areas.

Creative Services is responsible for packaging the game and all the neat things that go into the package. Carl Genatossio, Creative Services Manager, ex plains the process: "Elizabeth Langosy (Staff Writer), Angela Crews (Graphic

Services Supervisor) and I play the game

very early in testing for about a week to get the gist of it. We play just enough so that we can create packaging to reflect the world you're about to enter when you slip the disk into the drive. We meet with the imp to discuss what should go into the

Sometimes errors still make it through the system, but after Testing is finished tearing a game apart, the final product is virtually flawless. The testers try 98r< of the possible commands in the game and then continue to try more. Tester Gary Brennan remarks, "We try everything. We beat them to death," This lengthy pro cess of finding the bugs and sending the game version back to the imp pays off in the end when a product is released with a certainty that most of the problems have been tested and corrected.

I used to think that game testers had an easy life, getting paid to play computer games all day. That misconception dis solved when I met this hardworking bunch. They are a collection of sharp minds who unceasingly explore a game from top to bottom. Max Buxton says that after finishing the testing process, bore dom with the game results: "We'll get a game in early alpha and it'll be great. By late gamma, it's not the same—we never want to see that game again." Each tester has his or her own approach to testing. Most agree that you determine your attitude toward a game the first time you play. The testers are given no instruc tions for playing a new product. They sim ply start the game and play it to see what it does. Often, it takes most of alpha to fig ure out what is going on. Games that are received into Testing aren't necessarily complete, so testing in volves a lot of interaction with the imps. When problems occur, the imps can come to the terminal to delve into the code of the game exactly where the problem oc curs. Elements change from revision to re vision like the weather. Besides the test ing of a game, other duties include testing the computer version of the game on the PCs and evaluating other companies' games to keep from being burned out. What are the toughest games that they've tested? Cyr-Jones claimed Spellbreaker was her toughest because the game was already hard and not knowing what to do only made it harder. Brennan picked Norcl and Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail OfIt because there was nothing to do in the game except for the wordplay and Beyond Zork because of the random geography that changes every time you play it. Buxton claimed A Mind Forever Voyaging was the toughest be cause the game takes place in a mediumsized town in five time zones and its geog raphy and story line are very intricate, g

package as well. Since we've always made all-text products, we put all the graphics in the packaging. Eventhing in the pack

aging contains clues to something hap pening in the game." Genatossio contracts artists and photog raphers for the package art, Langosy writes the text, for the manuals and in serts and Crews pursues the physical ob jects placed in the game package. Later,

Continued on pg. 118

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z Commodore

AMIGA

1. Computer Systems As

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

"ewTek, Inc. meristar Technologies, In Associated Computer Services CalComp Gold Disk Inc. Anakin Research Aegis Development Inc. Mindware Inc. University of Lowell (Zoxso) Byte by Byte Liquid Light Commodore Business Machines Inc. Software Visions Inc Micro-Illusions Crystal Rose Software Winners Circle System Mimetics Inc.


by Tim Jones

SKJGRAPH '87 What do you get when you invite all of the major producers of graphic development software and hardware to one central California location? In addition to more traffic headaches in the

The conference was spon sored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on Computer Graphics (GRAPH). They brought together the in dustry leaders in the world of computer graphics and anima tion and presented exhibits, lectures and courses based on the world of computer graphics and animation. Exhibits ranged from handson ease-of-use demonstrations, by Silicon Graphics, to static displays showing various pieces of hardware used to add or enhance graphics and ani mation capabilities. Lectures included a panel discussion with students from Los Ange les area schools who have cre ated award-winning graphics projects and discussions on Ray Tracing Techniques (which in cluded a presentation on Ray Tracing JELL-O" brand Gela tin) and Surface Rendering (which involved more math ematics than I was prepared to digest). Courses ranged from beginner's level (Fundamen tals and Overview of Computer Graphics) to the advanced lev el (Advanced Topics in Solid Modeling). In the exhibit hall major cor porations and small companies could show off their products to over 30,000 people at the fiveday show. Among the exhibit booths of the many highm powered companies representg ed, including Cray Research, < Apollo, Pixar, and Alias, was a

very busy booth sponsored by Commodore Business Ma chines. Although most people in the business have yet to take a serious look at the new line of Commodore computers, it was hard for them to ignore Commodore's presence at SIGGRAPH. Aside from the actual Commodore-sponsored booth, companies like Microlllusions (Dynamic-Cad, Faery Tale Adventure), Fairlight Instru ments, Micro Magic (Forms in Flight) and The University of Lowell (MA) had booths of their own where major Amiga demonstrations were being held.

Included in the Commodore booth were exhibits by: Aegis Development Ameristar Technologies Anakin Research Associated Computer Services Byte by Byte CalComp Computer System Associates (CSA) Gold Disk, Inc. Liquid Light Microlllusions Mimetics Mindware, Inc. NewTek Software Visions, Inc. University of Lowell (Zoxso) Winner's Circle System Let's take a look at what each of these companies was demonstrating and what they have planned for the Amiga line in the near future.

Disneyland area, you get SIGGRAPH '87. From July 27-31, the Anaheim Convention Center was transformed into a carnival for computer graphics enthusiasts.

Aegis Development With a large area of the Commodore booth, Aegis De velopment was quite a hit with their new line of Desktop Video products, VideoScape 3D and Video Titler. Company person nel Bill Volk and Michelle Mehterian were among the Ae gis people in attendance along with Allan Hastings, the au thor of VideoScape 3D. These packages allow for very com plete design and control of 3D animation sequences. Even though the demonstrations presented by Aegis were very good, a programmer by the name of Leo Schwab grabbed the spotlight with his produc tion of a take-off on a major corporation's animation se quence that he referred to as "The Dream Comes Alive." Leo's creation ran in real time with Aegis' Sonix music pro gram performing the score on a one megabyte Amiga 2000 to the delight of thousands who came by the Commodore booth.

Ameristar Technologies

Ameristar Technologies' sec tion of the booth was filled up with three Amiga 2000's and a SUN Series 3/100 minicom puter. They were using this set up to demonstrate their line of networking products. Included were methods by which the Amiga line can be networked with other existing systems via the Network File System (NFS) standard, developed by

SUN Microsystems, which is an industry standard. They were also demonstrating an

Amiga-to-Amiga (AFS) net work which allows Amigas to share resources in the same manner as the higher priced mini and mainframe systems. Ameristar's system allows for the use of Arcnet or Ether net (also with Cheapemet in terfaces available) with an Amiga, allowing the Amiga 2000 to operate with equip ment from other vendors. The key to the Ameristar networking ideals is that a net work interface should be trans parent to the user. They have accomplished this in their products for the Amiga 2000.

Anakin Research Anakin Research demon strated their pressure-sensitive graphics tablets known as the Easyl (pronounced "easel") for the Amiga 500 and 2000. The Easyl is a compact tablet that allows for full interaction with the Amiga in the same man ner as the Amiga's mouse. When the Easyl's drivers are installed, the Easyl will send data from your pressing on its surface to your application as if it were coming from the mouse. The Easyl makes it much easi er for most of us to produce art on the Amiga. The demonstration was done from a Workbench environ ment using DetuxePaint from Electronic Aits. The unit is easy to install and takes up litCOMMODORE MA3AZINE

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tie more desktop space than

that required for normal, un hampered mouse operation.

Associated Computer Services Associated^ Keith Masavage was at SIGGRAPH demon strating their E/FX package. This is a storyboard-based ani mation package that allows de velopment of presentations in a very easy to use and edit for mat. The demonstrations be ing shown involved newscastgrade animated weather maps and animated corporate graph ics examples. E/FX is a very high-powered system that was not designed with the hobbyist in mind. Its main thrust is in two-dimen sional animation (unlike the majority of products intro duced) for use in boardroom and television presentation fields.

Byte by Byte

Byte by Byte took advantage of SIGGRAPH to introduce

The user/design interface of Sculp! 3D was one of the most intuitive of all of those shown. The menus and function names can be recognized by a novice, as well as a seasoned professional, making the learn ing curve of this package less steep.

CalComp

CalComp has been manufac turing plotters for the profes sional computer marketplace for quite a while. They were at the Commodore booth demon strating their line of color plot ters. These plotters are priced in line with most other Amiga peripherals, which adds to their attractiveness to Amiga owners. The images produced are very sharp and very close to the colors actually displayed on the Amiga's screen. The driver used in the demonstra tions showed none of the bugs that were present in many of the drivers for the array of col or printers released for the Amiga at earlier dates. This shows that CalComp has a tme

Turbo-Amiga products prom ises to be the highlight of the hardware world for Amiga owners, both present and fu ture.

While many other compan ies are dropping their expan sion systems for the Amiga 1000, CSA is introducing the Amiga Highrise. an Amiga 2000-compatible expansion chassis that alleviates the need for a 1000 owner to purchase a 2000 for the expandability. The Highrise can use any of the Zorro standard cards being de signed for the Amiga 2000 as well as the IBM-XT Bridgeboard and four XT expansion boards. They have also de signed 512K and 2 MB Static RAM boards for use in the Highrise and the Amiga 2000 with their 68020 devices. Oth er products include a SCSI DMA de\ice interface and a se cure disk system for the stor age of sensitive data. Their line also includes a se

ries of 68020/68881-based sys tems for the entire Amiga fam ily. This includes a piggyback unit for the 500 and 1000 and a full-slot card for the Highrise and the 2000. Their entire product line is designed specifi cally to enhance the perfor mance of the Amiga to a level

above and beyond that of any microcomputer available at the present time.

Gold Disk, Inc.

their Ray Trace'3D design package — Sculpt 3D. Sculpt 3D is a straight-forward editor that allows generation of threedimensional objects and then creates full ray-traced images of these objects. In its current version, there is no way to ani

mate the objects, but Byte by Byte has promised that an ani

mation package will be coming in the near future. 76

JANUARY 1988

dedication to the development of a fully-compatible line for the Amiga.

Computer System Associates

CSA has developed a line of products that will allow the Amiga family to move up in performance to that of the much higher priced mini's on the market. The new line of

Kalish Ambwani and Alex andra Peace were manning the booth for Gold Disk and show ing off their coup de grace — Professional Page. Professional Page is a very powerful step up from the company's entry into the desktop publishing market — Pagesetter. While Pagesetter was a full-featured package. Professional Page goes the ex tra mile and gives the user the ability to use color separation techniques for the creation of "magazine-quality color docu ments'' and use of the system with high-level typesetting units for up to 2400 dots-perinch images. They have kept the interface

for Professional Page as unclut tered as it was for Pagesetter, but have increased the func tionality and performance greatly. While Pagesetter gave user groups an easy method for

creating a newsletter, Profes sional Page may just cause an outbreak of user group maga zines'.

Liquid Light

Liquid Light set up their area of the Commodore booth with their image capturing package based on the Polaroid

Palette hardware. Their pack age allows a user to grab a screen and transfer it to film media, from Polaroid instant to

high-quality 35mm slides. The images produced were very sharp due to a dithering effect done by the software while ex posing the film negative. This basically involves exposing the film, shifting the image (figu ratively) down a half-pixel and then re-exposing the film. The resulting image doesn't appear computer generated due to the lack of tell-tale dots and scan lines.

Microllluaions

Microlllusions was repre sented at SIGGRAPH both in the Commodore booth and in their own booth. They were demonstrating quite a few products, including DynamicCad and their new Photon Vid eo Series. Of the Photon Series, the module being shown in its fullest was the Cell Animator. This module, and the entire se ries, is being designed to take full advantage of the various types of graphics files available on the Amiga. You can take ob

jects and drawings designed

under other companies' pack ages and incorporate them into all phases of the Photon pro duction series. The Cell Animator is based on the long-standing "pageflipping" technique for anima tion. Using this technique, the artist/animator draws a frame. stores it, makes slight changes, and stores it, until a full series Continued on pg. 112


COMMODORE 64 and AMIGA

Commodore Magazine is sponsoring our third Graphics Contest. This year we have added an Amiga category for aspiring Amiga artists out there, in addition to the Commodore 64 category. Winners will receive a cash prize and the winning graphics screens will be published in the June, 1988 issue of Commodore Magazine.

Commodore 64 Category Prizes

Grand Award: $500 and Publication in Commodore Magazine Five Runners Up: $100 and Publication in Commodore Magazine Honorable Mention: Publication in Commodore Magazine Amiga Category Prizes

Grand Award: $500 and Publication in Commodore Magazine Five Runners Up: $100 and Publication in Commodore Magazine Honorable Mention: Publication in Commodore Magazine GRAPHICS CONTEST RULES

1. This contest is strictly for amateur artists. Anyone who derives more than 10°oOf their annual income from the sale of original artwork is ineligible.

2. Employees ol Commodore Magazine, Inc.. Commodore Business Machines, Inc., Commodore Electronics Ltd , Commodore International Ltd., their advertising and promotional agencies and their immediate families are not eligible to enter this contest. 3. Each entry must be wholly the product of the developer in whose name the entry has been submitted. Copyrighted images are not eligible. This includes record album covers, movie figures, famous paintings and cartoon characters Outside assistance is expressly prohibited and will provide cause for disqualification.

4. A maximum of two screens per person is allowed, You may submit either two screens for one computer or one screen for each computer. If a contestant submits more than two screens for consideration, all of that person's entries will be invalidated.

5. All entries must be submitted on disk. 1541 format for the Commodore 64 and 3.5-inch format for the Amiga, with the following marked clearly on the disks label: a. Contestant's name, address and phone number

b. Picture title(s) c. Graphics package or programming aid used to create the graphics

d. The words GRAPHICS CONTEST" A photo of the screen display or a printed copy of the screen does not constitute an acceptable entry.

6. Mail entries before January 31, 1988 to Commodore Magazine, 1200 Wilson Drive, West Chester. PA 19380, ATTN: GRAPHICS CONTEST. GENERAL CONDITIONS

• Graphic screens are judged on originality, creativity and best use of the computer's unique graphics features. > Entries will be judged by the staff of Commodore Magazine.

- Make sure your mailer will protect your disk from damage. Affix sufficient first-class postage. Mail your disk and the official entry blank to the address shown above in time to reach us by the January 31. 1988 deadline. : ■ Entries become the property of Commodore Magazine, which reserves the right to adapt, use or publish all entries received. No disks will be returned, so be sure to make a copy of your entry before you submit it to the contest. ■ Non-winning entries will not be acknowledged. Winners will be notified by February 28, 1988. Taxes on cash prizes are the winners' responsibilities.

PLEASE PRINT

NAME

PHONE

ADDRESS CITY AGE

STATE

ZIP

SIGNATURE

PARENTS SIGNATURE (IF CONTESTANT IS UNDER 18)

PICTURE TITLE #1

COMPUTER

GRAPHICS PACKAGE OR PROGRAMMING AID USED

PICTURE TITLE #2

COMPUTER

GRAPHICS PACKAGE OR PROGRAMMING AID USED

DEADLINE FOR ENTRY: JANUARY 31, 1988. MAXIMUM 2 SCREENS PER CONTESTANT.


GAME PROGRAMS'

by Joseph M. Schwartz

Castrovia

For the Commodore 64 Many centuries ago warring overlords battled for control of the land of Castrovia and its people. This two player strategy game for the 64 tests you and

your army's ability to conquer your oppo nent and become sole ruler of Castrovia. Castrovia is a grid-based war game where you must develop and implement defensive and offensive strategies in order to remove all your opponent's troops from the board.

The Land and People of Castrovia At the beginning of every game the computer will randomly construct a map of the playing field. If the map is satisfac tory to both players the game will proceed. Ifnot, the computer will construct another. There are three different terrain cate gories. Each quadrant is identified by a letter and a number (Example: quadrant A6I. The quadrant* is described by the let ter at its center: ''F" for farmland, "S" for swampland and "L" for a lake. The popu lation of the quadrant is indicated by the number (in hundreds) to the left, of the de scribing letter. The number of occupying troops is indicated by the number to the right of the letter. Thus, if quadrant A6

reads "5F3," then it is farm land with a population of 500 people, occupied by three troops. Swamps and lakes always have zero populations. The player control ling a quadrant is indicated.

There are three special quadrants: the

two players' castles and the capitol. The capitol is always at quadrant 5E while the position of the castles changes. Each play er starts out with nine troops.

Moving and Combat

When it is your turn the computer will first ask the quadrant from which you want to move troops. Enter the quadrant coordinates, letter then number. You don11 have to press RETURN. Then enter the quadrant to which you want to move troops. You will then specify the number of troops to be moved (between zero and nine). The computer will check to see if you have sufficient troops at the from posi tion and if the number of your troops in the to quadrant will not be greater than nine. Players may occupy farm lands. castles, swamps and the capitol, but never lakes. If you move into an unoccupied quad rant you automatically gain control of that quadrant. If you try to move into a quadrant occupied by your opponent, com bat will commence. Your attacking force is

based on the number of troops moving into the quadrant. The defending force is based on the number of troops in the quadrant plus an amount proportional to the population present. The combat is re solved based on probabilities. Castles and the capitol are fortified and are thus twice

as defendable as a regular quadrant.

Taxes and News Reports Every five turns or so the year will end and players will collect taxes. Players re ceive one barbie (the Castrovian unit of currency) for every person in the areas they control. Thus, a player who controls A6 ("5F3"), would receive 500 barbies from that quadrant. With this money you can buy troops at a cost of 1000 barbies per troop (2000 barbies if you wish to place them directly in your castle). All troops outside the castle must be placed in a sin gle quadrant already under your control. For example, a player with 8,000 barbies buys one troop for his castle and six for quadrant A6. Any money not spent on troops is kept in the players' treasuries. This money earns interest at the rate of 10% each year. If you have lost control of your castle you cannot collect taxes or buy troops.

The game is user friendly so the best

way to become good at it is to play it.

Before typing this program, read "How to Knter Programs" and "How W Use the Magazine

65

M(X,Y)=0'BHRJ

Entry Program." The BASIC programs in this magazine are available on disk from Loadstar.

70 75

IF IF

80

P(X,Y)=0'BHUG

85

IF

P.O. Box 300(T.Shrevcpori. U 711304007, l-BOt).H?1-2694.

Castrovia 10

P=1:DL=1500:SS=5427 2:C$(0)=""

:C$(1)=" [CYAN] ":CS(2)=" [YELLOW] "'GKAJ

15 17 20

AS(0)="F":A$(1)="S":AS(2)="L" :AS(3)="C"'EXNK A$(4)="X":POKE 53280,0 :POKE 53281,0'DVIK

100

30

PRINT"[CLEAR,WHITE](LIMIT

35

LETERS)"'BAVF INPUT"NAME OF

40

:IF LEN(N1$)>6 THEN 35'FNSO INPUT"NAME OF PLAYER TWO";N2$ :IF

45

LEN(N2$)>6

DIM M

THEN

PRINT"[CLEAR]SETTING

ONE";N1$

78

S=0

135'GLPD

A$="N"THEN

PRINT"[CLEAR]"

50'FFLG

130 135

GOTO 120'BDCY GOSUB 490:PRINT"PLACING

140

:FOR X=l TO 500:NEXT X'GMWN X1=INT(9*RND(1)+1):Yl=INT(9*RND(1)

CASTLES11

+1)'KTHJ

UP

FOR Y=l TO 9:FOR X=l TO N=INT(40*RND(1)+1)'FJUH

JANUARY 1988

IF

:GOTO

40'FNPK

MAP"

:S=1'CDMH

55 60

PLAYERS (Y/N) ?'"CEIP GET AS:IF A$="Y"THEN :GOTO

R(2)'BHAL

50

M(5,5)=4'BHAW

P(5,5)=INT(5*RND(l)+5)'FNKF

SIX

(9,9) ,P(9,9) ,T(9,9) ,C(9,9) ,

P(X,

GOSUB 430'BDKW GOSUB 490:PRINT"IS THIS MAP ALRIGHT FOR BOTH[SPACE12]

125 PLAYER

THEN

110 115

120

900'BDME

M(X,Y)=0

105

PRINT"[CLEAR,DOWN4,SPACE15,GRAY2] GOSUB

THEN M(X,Y)=1'EJAH THEN M(X,Y)=2'EJWM

Y)=INT(9*RND(1)+1)'IUSS 90 T(X,Y)=0:C(9,9)=0'CPCJ 95 NEXT X,Y'BDTL

CASTROVIA"'BAIE 25

N<8 N<4

9'GHIL

145

Y1=INT(9*RND(1)+1)'FJMJ

150

IF

155

M(X1,Y1)=3:C(X1,Y1)=1

M(X1,Y1)<>0

THEN

=9'DELN

140'EMFF

Q


Game Programs/Castrovia

:FOR

160

X2=INT(9*RND(1)+1):Y2=INT(9*RND{1)

165

+ 1) 'KTJL IF M(X2,Y2)<>0

"■ ::: THEN

160'EMJL

170 M(X2,Y2)=3:C(X2,Y2)=2

180 185

GOSUB 490:PRINT"[CYAN]"; N1$"'S CASTLE IS AT[SPACE2] "CHR$(Xl+64);YL'ERIS PRINT"[YELLOW]";N2$"'S CASTLE IS AT[SPACE2]"CHR$(X2+64);Y2'DNPM X(l)=X1:X(2)=X2:Y(1)=Y1:Y(2)=Y2

195 200

GOSUB 430:P=2:N$=N2$ :C$="[YELLOW]"'EPIK X=INT(4*RND(1)+1):IF X=4 THEN 210'IOSR IF P=2 THEN P = l:N$=Nl$:C$="[CYAN]" :GOTO

205

215 220

FX=ASC(A$)-64'DIYB

225 230

LA=49:HA=75:GOSUB FY=VAL<A$)'CGDB

235

PRINT:PRINT"[SPACE17] TO

210

OK":T(FX/FY)=T(FX/

THEN OR

370

TY)=P THEN T(TX,TY)=T(TX,TY)+MN :C(TX,TY)=P:GOTO 415'JATB GOSUB 490:PRINT"A BATTLE!!"

375 380

385 390 395 400 405 ;

840'DNOH

X

IF

210'HRBE

IF P=l THEN P=2:NS=N2$ :CS = " [YELLOW] '"GNPI GOSUB 490:PRINT CSNS" MOVES FROM ";'CJAD LA=65:HA=73:GOSUB 840'DNKG

DLlNEXT

365

:N$(1)=N1$:N$(2)=N2S'GUSW

190

PRINT"

C{TX,TY)=0

:GOSUB

:

TO

290'GLCN

FY)-MN'DTMO IF T(FX,FY)=0

I 360

:T(X2,Y2)=9'DESK

175

X=l

:GOTO

C(FX,FY)=0'ESBK

C (TX,

900'DITJ

DS=T(TX,TY)+(.5*P(TX,TY))'DWMQ IF M(TX,TY)=3 OR M(TX, TY)=4 THEN DS=DS*2'HXBP DV=INT(DS*RND(1))'EJJO AV=INT(MN*RND(1))'EJKK IF AV=DV THEN T(TX,TY)=0 :C(TX,TY)=0:GOTO 415'GCDV IF DV>AV THEN T(TX,TY)=T(TX, TY)-AV'FWQH IF AV>DV THEN

T(TX,TY)=MN-DV

:C(TX,TY)=P'GBLO

410 415

IF T(TX/TY)<1 THEN T(TX,TY)=1'ESBG GOSUB 430:GOSUB 490'CHKG TU-TU+1:IF TU>(INT(7*RND(l)+3)) THEN

TU=0:GOSUB

425 430

GOTO

195'BDOG

";'CCOI

505'LYDM

PRINT"[HOME,GRAY2,SPACE4]A[SPACE3] B[SPACE3]C[SPACE3]D[SPACE3]E

[SPACE3]F[SPACE3]G[SPACE3]H

240

LA=65:HA=73:GOSUB

245

TX=ASC(A$)-64'DINI

250

LA=49:HA=57:GOSUB

255

TY=VAL(A$)'CGRI

260 265

IF C(FX,FY)=P THEN 275'DMGG GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU HAVE NO

440 R(1)=0:R(2)=I :FOR Y=l TO 9'FPWI 445 IF YO1 THEN PRINT" [SHFT B,

TROOPS THERE! - TRY :FOR X=l TO DL:NEXT GOTO 210'BDCE

450 455

270 275

IF ABS(FX-TX)<=1 ABS(FY-TY)<=1

280

GOSUB

840'DNKE

840'DNOF

435

460

290'LRLT

490:PRINT"YOU

CAN

ONLY

290 295

PRINT" — TRY AGAIN":FOR X=l TO :NEXT X:GOTO 210'GLES IF M(TX,TY)<>2 THEN 305'EMFK GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU CAN'T MOVE INTO

A

LAKE

TRY

DL

310

LA=48:HA=57:GOSUB

315

MN=VAL(A$)'CGYF

320

IF MN = 0 THEN PRINT" :GOTO 415'FHVE

325

IF

330

GOSUB

T(FX,FY)=>MN

470 475

PRINT"[SHFT B]":NEXT Y'CCMH PRINT" [CMDR ZfSHFT C36,CMDR 11' BAFO

TROOPS! :FOR

335 340

X=l

TRY

TO

GOSUB

350

TROOPS PRINT"

IN

340'ENMJ

ENOUGH

MORE

AND

THAN

T(TX,

355'HAJL

OR

R(2)=0)AND

S=0

THEN

8 55'HRMO RETURN'BAQL PRINT"[H0ME,D0WN21]";'BBAJ FOR

X=1864

TO

2023:POKE

X,32

X'FQAS

RETURN'BAQY

505

GOSUB 490:PRINT"YEAR END TAX REPORTS":TA(1)=0:TA(2)=0'ESXP

510

FOR

515

IF

Y=l

TO

C(X,Y)=1

9:FOR THEN

X=l

TO

9'GHIF

TA(1)=TA(1)

520

IF

525

+100*P(X,Y)'GBFK NEXT X^'BDTH FOR PP=1 TO 2:PRINT

530

WOULD

RESULT

NINE[SPACE5]

IN A";'CFAV QUADRANT - TRY

IF(R(1)=0

X]

+100*P(X,Y)'GBCO

X'GLHO

490:PRINT"THIS

X'DBAR

500

AGAIN"

GOTO 290'BDKG IF NOT(C(TX,TY)=P

345

485 490 495

:NEXT

:NEXT

OK"

THEN

DL:NEXT

TY)+MN>9)THEN

480

840'DNNC

490:PRINT"NOT

A$(M(X,Y));CHR$(T(X,Y)+48);" R(C(X,Y))=R(C(X/Y))+T(X,Y)

AGAIN"'CEMV

300 FOR X=l TO DL:NEXT X:GOTO 210'FKOC 305 GOSUB 490:PRINT"HOW MANY TROOPS TO MOVE — ";'CFYL

B]"'FCWQ

PRINT CHRS(Y+48)"[SHFT B]";'DGEH FOR X=l TO 9'DDCK PRINT C$(C(X,Y));P(X,Y);"[LEFT]";

465

'CFJS

285

S]

[GRAY2]";'DRKQ

MOVE

INTO AN ADJACENT[SPACE6]QUADRANT";

C36,CMDR

"'BASK

SPACE36/SHFT

AGAIN" X'GLCX

AND

THEN

[SPACE3] I1"BAII PRINT" [CMDR A,SHFT

AGAIN"

535 540

545

C(X,Y)=2

THEN

TA(2)=TA(2)

C$(PP)'ELFH

IF C(X(PP),Y(PP))=PP THEN 560'DTNN GOSUB 490:PRINT"ATTENTION trN$(PP) :FOR X=l TO DLlNEXT X'GRYN GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU CAN'T COLLECT COMMODORE M/CAZINE

79


Game Programs/Castrovia TAXES

550

OR

BUY

TROOPS[SPACE3]IF

'CFQV PRINT"YOU'RE NOT IN CONTROL YOUR CASTLE":FOR X=l TO DL :NEXT X'FHJS

";

OF 730 735 740 742

555

GOTO

560 562

GOSUB 490:PRINT NS(PP)" COLLECTED"TA(PP)"BARBLES"'CQJO PRINT"IN TAXES THIS YEAR"'BAPM

770'BDNK

565

FOK

570 575

I(PP)=INT(.1*BA(PP))'DPML PRINT"AND EARMED"I(PP)"BARBLES INTEREST"'BFGU

580

FOR

585 590

603

BA(PP)=BA(PP)+1(PP)+TA(PP)'DXXT GOSUB 490:PRINT NS(PP)"'S NEW BALANCE IS"BA(PP)"BARBLES"'CQQT FOR X=l TO DL:NEXT X'EGEO GOSUB 490'BDQO PRINT"HOW MANY CASTLE TROOPS DO YOU"'BAQI PRINT"WANT TO BUY (2000 BARBLES

605

LA=48:HA=57:GOSUB

X=l

:GOSUB

592 595 600

TO

DL:NEXT

TO

IN

X

DL:NEXT

IN

745 750 754 755

X'EGEL

EACH)";'BBVL

760

620 625

IF

A=0

IF

T(X(PP),Y(PP))+A<10

630

THEN

HAVE DL

GOSUB MORE

NINE

IN

HAVE

645

PRINT" - TRY AGAIN":FOR :NEXT X'FHDL GOTO 595'BDSK

650

T(X(PP),Y(PP))=T(X(PP),Y(PP))+A

X=l

TO

DL

:BA(PP)=BA(PP)-(2000*A)'FYCT

655

GOSUB 490:PRINT C${PP)"YOUR NEW BALANCE IS"BA(PP)"BARBLES"'CQUV

658

FOR

660 665

GOSUB 490'BDQH PRINT"HOW MANY TROOPS"'BAPS

667

PRINT"DO YOU WISH TO BARBLES EACH)";' BBDX

670 675 680

X=l

DL:NEXT

X'EGER

NEXT

7 75

:NEXT

790

IF

Z=2

THEN

GOSUB

490

TREASURIES

810 814

DISAPPEAR"'FGXA IF Z=2 THEN BA(1)=0:BA(2)=0'FPUV IF Z=3 THEN GOSUB 490 :PRINT"REVOLUTION IN CAPITOL"'FGWM IF Z=3 THEN PRINT"ALL TROOPS KILLED":T(5,5)=0:C(5,5)=0'GSGT IF ZO4 THEN 830'EFPG GOSUB 490'BDQI

815

PRINT"CASTLE KILLS

ALL

820

HALF

TROOP'S

DISEASE

OF[SPACE4]

CASTLE

TROOPS"'BADX

T(Xl,Yl)=INT(T(Xl,Yl)/2) :IF

T(X1,Y1)=0

THEN

C(X1,

Yl)=0'HNTR T(X2,Y2)=INT(T(X2,Y2)/2) :IF

(1000

TO

DL

X'GLOV

T(X2,Y2)=0

THEN

830

IF

Z>4

THEN

:PRINT"NO 835 840 845

C(X2,

IS

490

GOOD

GOTO 660'BDLO IF A=0 THEN 770'DFRL GOSUB 490:PRINT"WHERE TO PUT THEM ";'CFLY

700

LA=65:HA=73:GOSUB

705 710

XX=ASC(AS)-64'DIRJ LA=49:HA=57:GOSUB 840'DNOG

715

Y=VAL(AS)'CFIJ

DO

YOU

840'DNKF

WANT

IF

ASC(A$)<LA

OR

ASC(AS)>HA

PRINT A$;:RETURN'CEBJ PRINT"[CLEAR]":IF R(1)=0

THEN

W=2

865'IYYW

W=1:WS=N1$:L$=N2$'DORN

865

PRINT"[GRAY2]"WS"

875

THEN

840'IPUT

860

870

NEWS"'FGRO

GOSUB 430:RETURN'CEKL GET A$:IF AS=""THEN 840'EILK GOTO

850 855

GOSUB

NEWS

:W$=N2$:L$=N1$:GOTO

685 690 695

JANUARY 1988

DOUBLE"'FGDX

IF Z=l THEN BA(1)=BA(1)*2 :BA(2)=BA(2)*2'HAWX

Y2)=0'HNCW

BUY

X=l

PP'BCIJ Z=INT(20*RND(1)+1):PRINT"[GRAY2]"; ' GLWT IF Z=l THEN GOSUB 490 :PRINT"ALL TREASURIES

785

REGULAR

MONEY!":FOR

DL

770

825

LA=48:HA=57:GOSUB 840'DNNL A=VAL(AS):IF A*1000<=BA(PP)THEN 690'HUAV GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH

80

TO

TO

660'LYAX

T(XX,Y)=T(XX,Y)+A:BA(PP)=BA(PP) -1000*A:GOSUB 490'GMAY

805

A

QUADRANTI";'CFHX

640

X:GOTO

765

795 800

THEN

CAN'T

TROOPS

GOSUB

MYSTERIOUSLY

660'DFPJ

490:PRINT"YOU THAN

IF XX=X(PP)AND Y=Y(PP)THEN PRINT"YOUR CASTLE":FOR X=l

:PRINT"ALL

650'EUWK

635

GOSUB

1000'HVVU

MYSTERIOUSLY

625'HUEJ

GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU DON'T ENOUGH MONEY!":FOR X=l TO :NEXT X'GLOT GOTO 595'BDSD

QUADRANT"'BALW

FOR X=l TO DL:NEXT X'EGEO GOTO 660'BDLH IF XX=X(PP)AND Y=Y(PP)THEN 490'GQLS IF XX=X(PP)AND Y=Y(PP)THEN

:NEXT

780

840'DNNJ

TROOPS[SPACE2]

ANY

490:GOSUB

610 A=VAL(AS):IF A*2000<=BA(PP)THEN 615

IF C(XX,Y)=PP THEN 735'DMKH GOSUB 490:PRINT"YOU CAN NOT PUT TROOPS WHERE YOU DO NOT[SPACE2] HAVE ANY!"'CEAX FOR X=l TO DL:NEXT X:GOTO 695'FKGJ IF T(XX,Y)+A<=9 THEN 755'FMDP GOSUB 490'BDQG PRINT"YOU CAN NOT HAVE MORE THAN NINE

490'FKDP

X=l

720 725

HAS

BEATEN

"L$'BERS PRINT"[DOWN3]FINAL STATISTICS"'BALO PRINT"[CMDR Y16]":PRINT"[DOWNJ "'CBCB Continued on pg. 90


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The 128 Mode

Fuel-Gauge 128

Explore the Commodore 128 in its powerful native mode. Some of the articles in this column may be technical, some not so technical —but we guarantee that they will spark your creativity. A s I sit at my keyboard I can hear the xaJiowl of the north wind at the window — winter approaches. I look to my right and see a lifeless, black woodstove. I look to my left and see a stark, white electric baseboard heater. I look about 12 degrees to my left again and discover a forlorn kerosene heater. Lying next to it is a Sears Home Catalog opened to the furnace sec tion. My brain is burning with the ques tion: WHAT IS THE CHEAPEST WAY TO HEAT THIS PLACE? Find the answer by typing in the two listings that follow. You'll need to type and save "Listing Two'' and then run it once before using the main program. This will save the sprite data to the disk. You'll need to save the sprite data listing with the filename ''fuel sprites" and be sure it's on the same disk as your program. Fuel-Gauge allows you to compare the operating costs of each of the four major types of fuels — wood, oil, gas, and elec tricity — in two ways. You can compare the cost per therm imore on that later) or you can compare the cost per year for your house. And there's more: you can get a very good approximation of what your next energy improvement will save you in dollars per year. Fuel-Guage's spreadsheet consists of three rows of four columns. The top row of the screen contains your fuel options in the form of sprites: wood, oil. gas. and elec tricity. The second row deals with options specific to the fuel type chosen in row one. The third row deals mainly with factors specific to your house, your heater and your climate. Here's how it works: using your cursor keys, move the cursor to the sprite you want and press RETURN. Let's say you chose wood. A second wood sprite will slide

down from row one to the first slot on row two as a reminder of your choice. Also, be82

JANUARY 1988

neath it will be the term used for the base unit of that particular fuel. For wood, the base unit is a cord. Now, mo\ing from left to right, go to the second column on row two entitled "Unit Price" and press RETURN. For wood in my area, an average price per cord is $85. So type that in. Next move left to the next column, "Therms per unit;' and press RETURN. A therm is one hundred thousand BTUs, (British thermal units) the smallest mea sure of heat that heating engineers deal with. So a therm is just a bunch of BTUs. Oops. I forgot to warn you: with gas there is a sub-option: whether you want to measure natural or LP gas. The program defaults to natural, so if that's what you want to compare, no problem. If you want to compare the cost of LP. you'll need to press "L" just after you choose the gas icon. 'The main difference between the two is the basic units: natural gas comes in CCFs — hundred cubic feet — while bottled gas iLP) comes in gallons.) You can do the same for electricity, though if you live in northern Indiana or anywhere outside of government subsi dized electricity (this is a sore spot with me and I don't mind you folks in the Northwest knowing it), figuring for elec tric heat is mainly for laughs — bitter ones. Example: to heat my home with electric my winter fuel bill would be close to $2000. I'm not sure but I think I could get just as much heat by burning two thousand one dollar bills. Now you know which fuel is cheapest. It's probably wood first, gas second, then oil, then electricity. How much will that calculate out to in one year? Let's go down to row three and find out. The first column allows you to adjust

the efficiency of your~h~e~ating unit. The de fault values were chosen because they are generally accepted as accurate within the industry. They are: wood — 60% efficient. oil — 80%, gas — 85%, and electricity — 100%. But each of these figures is subject to change. For example, you could get a highly efficient woodstove with a catalytic converter. That might up your efficiency to 80r/(. Or you might get one of those 999E efficient pulse gas furnaces. Or if you're using electricity, the 100$ figure applies only to baseboard units. If you've got an electric furnace, some heat is lost in the ductwork. Don't be too concerned about precision in rating your heater. Unless you know otherwise, use the default values. Next column is "House Efficiency." The help screen will help you determine how efficient your house is. Basically, if you've got a weather-tight, super-insulated house, figure 10096. If you live in Uncle Joe's old uninsulated farmhouse where the curtains rustle in the breeze even with the windows down, figure 30*7. The de fault is 75<*. The third column is 'Total Area." Just type in the approximate square footage of floor space in your house. Finally, column four asks for the degree days in your area. Fortunately, a help screen gives you nine locations in the U.S. to use as a guide. If you need to be more exact, or can't extrapolate from the data given, or live in another country, just call the local weather bureau. Once you have entered all the data on the bottom row the top row will now light up with more information under each sprite-icon. This information is the total annual fuel costs estimated for your house using each fuel. Continued on pg. 84


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128 Users Only/128 Mode

amount of money you would have to spend on each of the four main fuel choices. But you can do much more. Sup pose for example you have been thinking of installing a new. highly-efficient gas furnace. Is it worth it? Well, just change the heater efficiency number to reflect the higher rating and compare results. Or suppose you're considering insulat ing the house and putting in new storm windows. That would likely up your House Efficiency at least 209$. Try that

Continued from pg, 82

Wonderful! But first, let's fine-tune it a bit. Suppose you happen to know that your house costs $700 to heat last winter with natural gaa but the top row says it should cost $800. You should adjust the house efficiency number until your cost reads close to $700. < Be sure you're using last winter's CCF price.) This way you can be sure that the other fuel calculations are accurate.

Now you can compare at a glance the

Bcion- typing ihi> program, read "How io timer Programs' and "Ho* lo Use ihe Magazine

10

FOR

T=0

20

FOR T=0

30 40 50

BSAVE"FUEL SPRITES",B0, P3584 TO P4096'CPRH DATA C1,80,00,C1,80,00,63,00'BXWE DATA 00,6B,73,80,7F,4A,56,36'BXNG

60

DATA

4A,51,00,39,D1,00,00,1E'BXJH

70

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,00,18,00'BXQH

80

DATA

00,7B,C0,06,FB,FC,3F,E7'BXKJ

90

DATA

C1,FF,1E,3F,FF,01,FF,FC'BXRK

:POKE :POKE

TO

255:READ

AS

3584+T,DEC(A$):NEXT'IUVG

TO

41:POKE

3840+Tf255

:Z2S="[RVS]

[RVOFF]#####%"

:Z3$="[RVSj

[RVOFF]###.##"

:Z4$=" [RVS]

[RVOFF]######"'EPAL

F$(1,1)=Z1S:FS(1,2)=Z3$:FS(1,3)=Z1$

40

3840+T+42,0:NEXT'JAKI

middle of a heat wave — you might not think it all that useful. But it is winter now, and the north wind is beginning to blow. What better time than now to check your Fuel-Gauge. Wj

Z1S="[RVS]$[RVOFF]###.##"

30

Listing Two

time of year that I wrote it — July, in the

:TH=2.8E-04TKWEI

Entry Program.' The BASIC programs in rhi> magaiine are available on disk frnm Loadstar. PO Bta 30008,Shreveport.LA 71130-000"'. 1-800-83!-2694

and see how much you'll save. Or you may be thinking of adding an other room. How much will it cost to heat it? Just add the Total Area and let the pro gram show you. If you were reading this at the same

:F$(2,0)=Z2S:F$(2,1)=Z2S :FS(2,2)=Z4$:FS(2,3)=Z4$

:F$(1,0)=11[UP,RVS] ####.#"' IJHX 50

FOR

FU=0

TO

3:READ

VB(FU,0)

:VB(FU,1)=75:NEXT'GAGK 60

DATA

70

FOR

60,80,85,100'BMKE T=0

TO

2:READ

TUS(0,T)

:NEXT'FNPI

100

DATA

0F,FF,F3,67,FF,9F,F7,FC'BXAA

110

DATA

7E,F7,E0,08,76,00,00,00'BXAB

120

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,07,00,00'BXOB

130

DATA

1C,00,F8,30,03,FE,60,07'BXND

140

DATA

FF,C2,03,FF,00,04,7C,81'BXCE

150

DATA

07,83,81,3B,FF,80,66,7F'BXRF

ASH/BIRCH=2 55","ELM=215[SPACE2]

160

DATA

80,45,BF,80,45,AF,80,46'BXHG

CEDAR=20 5[SPACE2]WHITE

170

DATA

6F,80,47,EB,80,67,EB,80'BXFH

180

DATA

3B,FB,80,07,F8,80,07,FF'BXQI

PINE=155"'BCTD

190

DATA

80,03,FF,00,00,7C,00,00'BXIJ

200

DATA

00,06,00,00,0C,00,00,1C'BXCA

210

DATA

00,00,38,00,00,78,00,00'BXIB

220

DATA

78,00,00,FC,00,00,FC,00'BXYD

230

DATA

3D,C6,3C,41,82,40,41,BB1BXGE

240

DATA

78,4D,83,04,45,BB,04,39'BXQF

250

DATA

BB,78,00,FF,00,00,FE,00'BXOG

260

DATA

00,7E,00,00,7C,00,00,3C'BXDH

270

DATA

00,00,38,00,00,18,00,00'BXCH

280

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,08'BXPI

OUS=4500[SPACE2,SHFT

290

DATA

80,00,49,00,00,25,00,00'BXKJ

TY=3500[SPACE2,SHFT

300

DATA

10,00,FF,FB,FF,00,00,00'BXFC

310

DATA

00,15,00,00,24,80,00,44'BXKC

320

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00'BXHD

330

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00'BXHE

340

DATA

03,70,06,92,49,54,03,49*6X70

350

DATA

94,92,49,54,DB,69,56,00'BXLH END

Fuel-Gauge 128

20 FM$(0)="

[SHFT C]ORDS

:FM$(1)="[SHFT :FM$(3)="

[SHFT

[SPACE2]":NAS(5)="

" W,SHFT

[SHFT

C2,SHFT

:FM$(2)=NA$(5):NA(5)=1:NA(6)=.93 JANUARY 1988

OAK=285[SPACE2]",

"HARD

90

FOR 0

MAPLE/BEECH=270[SPACE2]

FU=1

INPUT

[SHFT

TO

3:TU$(FU,0)="[SHFT

N]

NEEDED.":TU$(FU,1)="

T]HERMS

FOR

THIS

FUEL

ARE

CONSTANT.":TU$(FU,2)="":NEXT'HKXH 100

FOR

110

DATA

"[SHFT

T=0

TO

SHFT

C]HICAGO=6500[SPACE2,SHFT

NDY=5500",

"[SHFT

2:READ

DD$(T):NEXT'FLPA

MJNPLIS=7500[SPACE2,

"[SHFT

S]T[SHFT O]KL

I]

L] [SHFT

C]

D]LLS=2 500",

P]ORTLD=5000[SPACE2,

SHFT

N]EW[SHFT

SHFT

B]OSN=6000"'BCIE

Y]ORK=5000[SPACE2,

120

ES=CHR$(27):XP=0:YP=0'EOLD

130

K$="[RIGHT,LEFT,DOWN,UP]

140

KYS="0123456789.[CLEAR]

NL"+CHR$(13)'DGOD

150

SP$="[SPACE40]"'BDUG

160

FOR

T=l

TO

3:READ

VA(T,2)

:NEXT'FMPG

H]S F]

S [SPACE2]":NA$(6)="[SHFT G]ALLONS"

84

"HICKORY=300[SPACE2]

WHITE

"+CHRS(13)'DHVF

G]ALLONS" K,SHFT

DATA

80

170

DATA

180

SC(0)=10:SC(1)=2:SC(2)=7

1.4,1, .033'BKXE

:SC(3)=8'EDRL

Continued on pg. 86


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128 Users Only/128 Mode 190

COLOR

210

SPRITE

1,1,10:SPRITE

:SPRITE :SPRITE 220

MOVSPR

2,1,2

3,1,7:SPRITE 4,1,8 8,1,5,1,1,1'FQDI 1,53,55:MOVSPR

:MOVSPR :MOVSPR 230

540

BLOAD"FUEL SPRITES '" BBS I 0,1:COLOR 4,7'CHSY

200

:DI(3)=257:SL(0)=160:SL(1)=250 :SL(2)=350:SL(3)=400:SP(0)=6 :SP(1)=7:SP(2)=9:SP(3)=11'MAAD 240

260

PRINT"[RVS,UP,SPACE10,SHFT NNUAL [SHFT H]EATING [SHFT [SPACE10]"'BARM

:GOSUB

930'CFTE

A] CJOSTS

270

PRINT"[DOWN,GRAY3,SPACE13,SHFT U] NIT[SPACE5,SHFT T]HERMS[SPACE5, SHFT C]OST/[SPACE2]"'BALN

280

PRINT"[SPACE13,SHFT C]OST[SPACE5J / UNIT[SPACE5,SHFT T]HERM[DOWN] "'BAXM

290

GOSUB

300

PRINT"[RVS,UP,SPACE11,SHFT UJNIT [SHFT H]EATING [SHFT CJOSTS

310

PRINT"[GRAY3,DOWN,SPACE2,SHFT H] EATER[SPACE4,SHFT H]OUSE [SPACE6, SHFT

A]REA[SPACE5,SHFT

D]EGREE

330

PRINT"[GRAY3,SPACE3,SHFT E]FF. [SPACE6,SHFT E]FF.[SPACE5,SHFT EATED[SPACE5,SHFT D]AYS[DOWN] "'BAUJ GOSUB

930:FOR

T=l

TO

H]

4

:PRINT"[RVS,BLUE]"SPS:NEXT'GMVG 340

FU=0'BDYC

350

DO:GET

360

ON A GOSUB 400,420,440,460,950, 950,490'CDFJ

370

MOVSPR

380

LOOP'BAKF XP=XP+1:IF

400

KEY

A$:A=INSTR(K$,A$)'FMRI

8,XP*80+40,YP*56+52'FQVL XP>3

420

RETURN'BAQY XP=XP-1:IF XP<0

430

RETURN'BAQB

440

YP=YP+1:IF

410

:GOSUB

THEN

XP=0'GMTF

IF

16'80IFNCV

1,2,12,

TO 3:PRINT"[CYAN]";'EFJK

VB(T,0)=0

OR

VB(T,

1)=0 OR VA(FU,1)=0

THEN

610'HDAR

590 AC(T)=TH*VB(T,3)/{VB(T, 0)/100)*VB(T,2)*3/(VB(T, 1)/10)*VA(T,3)'JCQA 600 VA(FU,0)=AC(T)/VA(FU,1)'CVUG 610 CHAR 1,T*10,5,"":PRINT USING

" [RVS]$[RVOFF]####.##";AC(T)' EPU J

620

CHAR

630

CHAR

640 660

NEXT:RETURN'CBXF ON XP+1 GOSUB 1070,690,700, 1070'DUJL

670

GOTO 570'BDLI MS (1) = "[SHFT U]SE DECIMAL IF APPLICABLE":GOSUB 1080 :GOTO 720'DOJW

690

700

1,T*10+1,12,"" :PRINT USING FS(1,T);VA(FU,T)'PCVL 1,T*10+1,19,"" :PRINT USING FS(2,T);VB(FU,T)'FCFM

FOR T=0

TO

2:M$(T)=TU$(FU,T)

710 GOSUB

1080:IF FU>0

720

GOSUB

980'BDUE

THEN

740'ELQG

730 740

VA(FU,XP)=VAL(NS)'CNTI IF VA(FU,2)>0 THEN VA(FU,

3)=(VA(FU,1)/VA(FU,2))'FKUQ 750

RETURN'BAQG

770 780

ON XP+1 GOSUB GOTO 570'BDLK

790

MS (1)="[SHFT NUMBER — NO

800

GOSUB

810

M$<0)="[SHFT

[SHFT 820

T]YPE AS A WHOLE DECIMAL."'BFYV

870:GOTO

RJ-26+

M$(1)="[SHFT NO

790 , 810,840,860'DSBN

740'CHME

T]IGHT

HOUSE,

INSULATION = 100%'"BFSO D]RAFTY

HOUSE,

INSULATION=30%"'BFFO

THEN

XP=3'GMWH

830

GOTO

THEN

YP=0'GMWJ

840

450

RETURN'BAQD

M$(1)="[SHFT TjYPE FOOTAGE."'BFQP

460

850 860

GOTO 870'BDOI FOR T=0 TO 2:M$(T)=DD$(T)

490

YP=YP-1:IF YP<0 THEN YP=2'GMAL RETURN'BAQF ON YP+1 GOSUB 520,660,770'DOCL

500

RETURN'BAQY

870

GOSUB

:NEXT'FQFO 1080:GOSUB

980'CIOL

520

FU=XP:SPRITE

880

IF

T=0

470

YP>2

6,0:SPRSAV

XP+1,

6'EQXH 530

MOVSPR 6,RSPPOS(XP+1,0), RSPPOS(XP+1,1):SPRITE 6,1, SC(XP)'GHMN

86

JANUARY 1988

POINT

:NEXT'FTGI

[SPACE2]"'BANJ 320

PRINT"[CYAN]";:CHAR FM$(XP),1'CSDK

930'BDPG

[SPACE11]"'BACH

6,53,110

560

580

PRINT CHR$(14)CHR$(11)ES"M[HOME2,

PRINT"[DOWN4,RVS,CYAN]";

8,1'JDLV

570 FOR T=0

CLEAR]";'DLJF 250

6,0#0:MOVSPR

:SPRITE

IF XP=2 THEN M$(1)="[SHFT PjRESS [SHFT N] FOR NATURAL, [SHFT L] FOR [SHFT L,SHFT P] GAS"

4,293,55

DI (0)=180:DI(1)=235:DI(2)=251

rMOVSPR

550

2,133,55

3,213,55:MOVSPR 8,40,52'FWQL

SPRITE 8,0:MOVSPR 6,DI(XP)#SP(XP) :FOR T=l TO SL(XP):NEXT

870'BDOG

XP>0

THEN

FOR

APPR.

TO

SQUARE

3

:VB(T,XP)=VAL(N$):NEXT

:ELSE 890

VB(FU,0)=VAL(NS)'MIDA

RETURN'BAQL Continued on pg. 90


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24

Gallsrias -each

21

Holiday/Clip Arti/ClipArill/

25

Graphic Label Wizatd (Kra Jan)

19

Graphics Translormer 'CDAi

25

Home Designer \1% iKenaaih

45

Icon Factory (Solo Unlmtdi

29

Moving Pictures fCDAl

?0

Perspectives H(Kira)

39

Picasso's HevengeiProqress)

49

Photo Finish (Sol Unlmtd)

25

Printmaster Plus illntson)

25

Art Gallery 1 or II

BESTA/PorA/R

55 45

BESTG/Lor Inventory

45

BEST Project Planner

50

Business Form Shop ISpinnl

30

Add-on modules

Checkbook 128 <Nu Age)

Bord crs i A ni mal s / F u lu ri s lie/ Graphics Iniegratm 2 iinkwei.

17

SCREEN F/X (Solo Unlmid)

119

Accountant 128|KFS>

17

129 53

CMS Accounting 12B

Inventory Module Easy Working Fikr/Plannei

or Writer iSpmnl

ID

Fleet System 2 + (Professional)

39

Fleet System 4 fProlessionai)

55

FlexFile 64 or 128 (Cardinal)

39

Fonlmasler UBiXelec)

39

Fontmasler ll64(Xetec)

Geopiinlor Geodei

35 49 39 29

Geocalc 01 Geotile

35

Fontpak 1 nr Deskpak 1

GEDS12BIBerkeley)

GEQS 64 (Berkeiev*

29

Writer's Workshop

n 33

GEO Publish rBs'keiyi

49

Microlawyer iCrcg-ss5'

45

JKLasser Money Manager

69 49

AIDS/UTILITIES Antibump Boards fCDAl

39

1541/1571 Dr Align 1 Free So) Assemtiler/Monitor [Abacus]

20 29

BasicfliPuecni

30

BASIC Compiler 1281 Abacus)

45

Pockei Superpak Gd rDig So1!

BASIC Compiler 64 [Abacus)

29

BBS Construchon Set (Hrra)

43

Big Blue Header (Soqwaoi

25

Big Blue Reader CP/M

32

Bobsterm Pro 64 (Progress!

39

Bobsterm Pro 128 ^Progress)

49

COBOL 64 (Abacus)

2g

Comrnunica1or64(FflSPRTi

20

GnomeKil64/12B(Kirat

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G-o"o Sflcc il'S

-

39

Pocket Superpak 2 64/128 Pockol Dictionary (Dip Soil

Pockel Writer 64 (Dig Sol)

69 10 29

Pocket Wnler2(Dig Sol)

45

Superbase 61 (Progress)

49

Superbase 128 IPrcgressl

55

Superscript 12B (Progress)

49

ThoughlForm 64 fGallery)

25

TIMEWORXS

Call 65

Vmslaror Vi;rwrite128 Wordpro12B/Spell/Filepro

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HeartlabiBoayioql

$49 20

Superbaso (Progress)

Muscle Development (Bwlyloql

54

TV Text I Btown W)

99 69

Prjtigree ifieneal)

59

Videoscape (Aegis)

119

Sexual Edge (Merrill)

20

WordPerfect

Standard Stress lEocviccS

89

Draw Plus 1 Aegis)

229 1G9 59

Digi! 1 Aegis 1 Amiga 500-51? Eip Boards

Fisher Price

Pe1erRabbitReadmgi3'6i

19

Peter i Wolf Music 13-71

19

Jungle Book Reading (6-9i

19

Alice in Wonderland (10 + )

9

Treasure Island (10 + I

9

Wi2ardotO:(10+ 1

9

Swiss Family Robinson 110 + 1

9

BelowtheRoot(tO +1

9

Math/Verbal and Exams (All)

35

Spinnaker Facemaker O-81

22

AlphabelZool3-7)

18

Kids on Keys (4-9)

18

Math Busters (S-14I

22

KidwrilerlB-10)

72

Homework Helper Math (10 + ) 29 Homework Helper Write (10 + 129 Early Learning Friends (3-81

G

Grandma s House

6

you are not satisfied wilh your

Si 00 per relumed item Icr handling

Delective

item; are replaced tree 0! change1

MOVING PICTURES

Silly Stories/Scary Tales (3-8) Beat The SAT - Vernal Video Beat The SAT-Maih Video

Whole Brain Spell (SuD'oqict EA MOVING

AMIGA

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Analyze 2 0 (Brown W)

99

30 30

CLI-Male (Progress)

29

Express PainifPAfli

59

FACC'ASDG) PHA.S.A.H. (Finally)

25 55 45

Mertin 128 (Roger Wagnen

49

Cardio Exercise (Bodylog)

69

Pagesetter iGolrJDisk)

99

PhvEiam1541 or 1571 (Card)

29

Celebrity Cookbook (Merrill)

25 9 12

Family Tree 128 or 64 fGeie

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Favorite Adventures (3-8)

Microlawyer (Progress)

45

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Bridgemasler (Radarsolt)

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Christmas Classics

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Search (or Stolen Sentence

39

Enhanced Stress 1 Bocylcqi

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Merlin 64 (Roger Wagner)

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First Men on Moon Math (9 +) 19

How To Get Most GEOS Book

Power Assembler 64/128 iSpinn) 30

99 139

Viziwrile1 Progress)

EDUCATIONAL

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Cold Spell or Lam Script

30

Printmaster Plus (Brown W)

39

Publisher 1000 INE Soil)

129

25 199

Logistix (Progress)

99

Leicheck ICDA)

20

39

Scribble i Brown Wl

69

PICTURES is more than just animahon

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Use

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;; why; m m\\ YOUR PICTURES:

This allows

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rn memory a! the same time

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*

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at

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colors

vary

change display

536 en

Hold several movies in memory ana switch instantly from one movie to

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Homework Helper Math + Writer - S49

:tlST:S3O:

Write movie scripts in BASIC, using the powerful English-like command set 'or complete control cf your creal'ons Whether you are a programmer or a novice, you'll be able to create spectacu lar animated stories movies, presenta tions or whatever. You can even edit your scripts or eiecute a BASIC program while your movie is Demg displayed. MOVING PICTUHES is an excellent program, and at this price it is an excellent bargain!

•OFFER GOOD UNTIL 1/15/88

ORDERING INSTRUCTIONS VISA MasterCard Personal Ctieck Money Order or COD Shipping USA S3 OO/grourd. S5 00/?nd 0a/ $14 OO/ovemighl COD add S? Me»ico S6 00 An Mail Forsrgr Si2 00 (for Air Mad use charge i, specify ma*imumi add 6% wles lax Inc'ufle ohone number and computer/drive moae* wtm oide< Alt shrooea immediately lit we are cut-Qt-stock wewlllet you know | Charge is oerorOer

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Call or write tor ojr FfiEE CATALOG describing maet*! hunOreOaot t'fle 3'OdudS icr your Commodore


'Sampling

AmigaBASIC Tutorial

'is

'will

both tips on confusing areas and tricks to make your life easier. Rather than an article followed by a program, we have combined them for the

AmigaBASIC,

we

have

two

items

available.

'The first is a command, SAY, and the second is a function, 'TRANSLATES. To use the command SAY, you must prepare your 'text by translating it into a series of phonemes. A "phoneme" 'is a specialized phonetic spelling of the actual words that 'you wish to have spoken. I won't attempt to cover the •entire list of phonemes available, but will direct you to "Appendix H of the AmigaBASIC manual. It is the method used put

these

phonemes

together

that

we

will

look

'First, Let's get our window set up. As before, 'looking REM statements are for AC/BASIC users.

at.

the odd

ON

"

'

ERROR

Get

MENU

3,0,1,""

the Translator

GOTO

:

MENU

4,0,1,""

library

loaded

Handlelt

Intro:

AS

=

"This

is

the

PRINT AS WINDOW OUTPUT

COLOR

3

:

default

mode

for

speech

PRINT

see

just

Channel

3

=

Channel

1

=

Channel

2

'3 ■A

Channel

3

=

Channels

0

&

'5

Channels

0

&

1 2

simply

'window and

the

'window.

This

'makes

any

text

at what

'translation

phoneme

also

that

would on

error

and

'the

Mouse

Button

tell

the

we

same

you

and

printed

if

that

in

we

using

didn't

sentence. will

can

the

use

SAY

3

&

3

'9

=

Any

■10 '11

= =

Any pair that uses 1 LEFT and Any available SINGLE channel

channel

stereo

listen

setups,

please

Let's

perform

take

Another

text

into

2

a

is wrong.

trap

Just

click

continue.

of

the array.

If

ement

BASIC

is

'Let's 'and

take a look

listen

to

the

at some of

'Let's set up arrays for easier use 'voices for these demonstrations. Count

=

fl

TO

Count

character

to a

phoneme,

SAY

problem

crops

up

phonemes,

but

pass

if

didn't you

it

know

FOR

have

to SAY

=

0

TO

8

MaleRob%(Count)

Count

=

II

TO

B

READ FemNat*(Count) NEXT Count

as

FOR Count = 0 TO 8 READ MaleNatl(Count)

that in

you

have

upper

case

translated

yourself,

be

simple

things

first. to

watch

for

while

using

FOR

Count Count

READ

-

1

TO

8

Humorous^(Count)

120,0,150,0,22000,64,5,0,8

DATA

220,8,130,0,16000,64,5,0,0

DEFAULT

'Base Pitch 'Inflection Choice

110 0

'Speaking

15fl

Rate

Gender

0

'Sampling Frequency 'Volume 'Audio Channel

22K 64 10

'Synch

B

assign

CHOICES 65

Q

to

220

(Hz)

(natural)

or

1

(robotic)

40 to 400 (words per minute) H (male) or 1 (female) SK to 28K (Hz) 0 (quiet) to 64 (loud) 0 to 11 (See below) H (synch) or 1 (asynch) 0, 1 or 2 (See below) these values is to set up an array

elements

(0

to

8)

and

then

place

it

'directly following the SAY call. For example: 'SAY TRANSLATES ("Hi There"), F.I ementst 'If we had set up Elements! correctly, we would have changed 'the manner in which speech was produced. 'Of the elements listed above. Sampling Frequency, Audio 'Channel and Synchronous/Asynchronous and options should be

JANUARY 1988

in creating

Count

that

the nine

the

8

'We have the ability to control a total of nine factors 'define the manner in which speech is produced from 'AmigaBASIC. These are as fallows:

up of

are:

the variations on these factors

120,1,158,0,22000,64,5,0,0

'made

here

results.

DATA

Asynch

The choices

second SAY statement before

DATA

or

just how your

If you wish

encountered.

finds a

way

'Asynch Options 'The method used to

set

" cur ent one is finished, it will cut off the current 'sta ercent and begin the new statement immediately.

'SAY, let's take a look at the factors that control the 'our voice sounds and which speaker it comes out of.

'Voice

to

of

ent one is finished, it will stop the current eraent and discontinues speech until another SAY

190,1,150,1,22000,64,5,0,0

all

know what

'ITEM

set

statement as the system tried to time. The way around this is

DATA

are

time

any additional SAV statements would

ninth element

*5ta

FOR

phonemes

they we

oc

you plan

If BASIC finds a second SAY statement oefore the 'current one is finished, it will hold the new statement 'until the current cne finishes. If BASIC finds a second SAY statement before the

the

program will

the

this,

the existing SAY them at the sa^ie

DATA

that

the

if

output.

Count

that

take

selects a specific channel,

NEXT

'Now

Therefore,

your

for

'going 'sure

to.

'channels,

NEXT

pass

RIGHT

up

uncomfortable to

'anything but all upper case. If we were to take the word '"book", translate it into a phoneme, but pass it as lower 'case, SAY would give an error condition once again. Book 'translates to "BUHK," but wouldn't work if passed as "buhk" 'or any other upper/lower combination. Therefore, if you are

to

1

READ FemRob%(Count) NEXT Count

translate AS

it.

RIGHT

'an array that

READ

handle

available

'on supporting

NEXT

to

this value

a

'somewhat

TRANSLATES

Fixed:

88

&

'1

AS

'translated your

changing

'from a mono setup, this will be acceptable. If you have 'stereo setup, the results can become unpredictable and

and

2

'Since we didn't

required

'The default (10) selects any available pair [1 left, 1 'right) and sends the speech out that way. If you are working

AmigaBASIC. the TEXT

AS

'how

1 2

Any available LEFT channel

FOR

WINDOW OUTPUT 2 COLOR 3 : PRINT SAY

Channels Channels

'clash with 'SAY all of

ProblemExample: CleanScreen WINDOW OUTPUT 1 PRINT AS

DELAY

=

'8

PHONEME

that it.

The

something

things

we

Amiga from printed in

translation

convert

happen

that

'the

version

shows

'6 ' 7

'0 how

the however,

options.

=

•i

'with

to get speech out of our the text of our sentence

the differences that

•a

'couldn't control

basic."

TRANSLATES(A$)

'TRANSLATES 'We can see

'look

amiga

2

WINDOW OUTPUT 1 SAY TRANSLATES(AS) 'In this opening, we

on

in

video

'for your program to wait until each SAY statement is 'executed before continuing, then you would select 'Synchronous mode [the default) for the eighth element of 'the array. If this is the case, then the ninth element is 'ignored, even though you must include something in this 'position of the array. If you wish to allow your program to 'proceed with its operation while SAY handles speech on its 'own, then you would select Asynchronous for this element. 'Once Asynch has been chosen, you must decide just how 'additional SAY statements should be handled. If you

WINDOW l,"Text Window",(B,0)-(631,75),0,-1 MENU 1,0,1,"Exit" MENU 1,1,1,"Exit to BASIC"

"

the more memory

■program acts while speech is being produced.

WINDOW 2,"PHONEME Window",(0,90)-[631,186},0,-1

SAY

frequency,

'The Synchronous/Asynchronous elements decide

Setup:

REM SIGNORE ON MENU 2,0,1,"" : REM SIGNORE OFF

the

take a look at

'available

Speech Tutorial ' In the last installment, we covered the various commands and ■functions that allow us to access Sound from AmigaBASIC. 'This time out, let's take a look at the what's involved 'with invoking the "voice in the machine." from

the higher

make,

•2

speech

like

"Audio channel decides which of the four Amiga voice channels 'the speech should be produced on. The table below lists the

sake of clarity.

'to

that

'will

A short program demonstrates difficult areas of AmigaBASIC, offering

use

be considered

'to produce the sound. Therefore, the biggest tradeoff will 'be between memory constraints and speech quality required. 'The default value of 22030 is a very safe place to work. We

Speech Tutorial

'To

Frequency could

■resolution. The higher the frequency, the better "quality of the sound produced. The one drawback,

190,0,150,1,22030,64,5,0,0

'Now

let's

1 the

same

take

care

of

some

text

strings

for

future

use

in

manner.

FOR Count = 3 TO READ T$(Count)

7

NEXT

Count

DATA DATA DATA

"I am now a female ro bot. boring, huh" "This is a male ro bot. Not much better." "As a pseudo-natural female, things are a little better."

DATA

"This

DATA DATA DATA

"We can get very ridiculous if we want "Using this voice, I can tell humorous "or become a creature of ridicule in a

DATA

"And

is

we

the

are

guy

all

that

you

available

met

to

in

you

the

from

beginning."

to." stories," fantasy tale." Amiga

BASIC."

CleanScreen

WINDOW OUTPUT WINDOW OUTPUT SAY

1 2

: :

COLOR COLOR

1 3

: :

PRINT PRINT

TRANSLATES[TS(0)),FemRob*

TS (0) TRANSLATES(TS(0)J

Continued on pg. 90


An open letter to the readers of Commodore Richard Olsen President: The Ennon Corporation My purpose in writing is to ask

you to join me in shaping the

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1718 Connecticut Ave. N.W.. Suite 410

Washington. D.C. 20009 Canadian orders must be in U.S. dollars. COMMODORE 64 is ,l

recisiered trademark.


Game Programs/Castrovia

AmigaBASIC Tutorial

Continued from pg. 80

Con tm ueil from pt>. 88

880 885

PRINT T$[l) WINDOW OUTPUT COLOR 3 PRINT TRANSLATES(TS(1)) SAV TRANSLATES(TS (1)) ,MaleRob%

WINDOW OUTPUT

WINDOW

OUTPUT

1

COLOR

1

COLOR

1

8 90

PRINT TS 12)

WINDOW OUTPUT 2 COLOR 3 SAY TRANSLATES(TS [2) ] ,FerrN

PRINT tl

1

:

COLOR

1

PRINT

TS(3|

WINDOW OUTPUT

2

:

COLOR

3

PRINT

TRANSLATES(TS(3))

TRANSLATES(TS(3)).Male Hnt%

SAY

WINDOW OUTPUT

1

:

COLOR

1

PRINT

T${4)

2 : COLOR 3 PRINT TRANSLATES US(4)) SAY TRANSLATES (T$ M ) ) ,HUITO Oust

WINDOW OUTPUT

WINDOW OUTPUT

1

:

COLOR

1

PRINT

WINDOW OUTPUT

2

:

COLOR

3

PRINT TRANSLATES(TS(5))

SAY

T$(5)

TRANSLATES(TS(5)),Humo

WINDOW OUTPUT WINDOW OUTPUT SAY

1 2

: :

COLOR COLOR

1 3

PRINT PRINT

TS(6) TRANSLATES(TS(6))

TS(7)

TRANSLATES(TS(6)),Humo

WINDOW

OUTPUT

COLOR

PRINT

WINDOW

OUTPUT

COLOR

PRINT TRANSLATES !T5 (7))

SAY

TRANSLATES<TS(7)),FemSat%

YourTurn:

CleanScreen

AS

=

"Now

type

AS

ti$

"You may

change

AS

AS +

"name

the SAY state ment.,

AS

AS

"blank

SAY

*

+

in

text

in

line

that

to

you wish

the

for

voicing

me

to

say.,"

by changing

hit

the

re turn

array"

on any"

end."

TRANSLATES(AS),MaleNat*

WHILE

AS

<>

""

WINDOW OUTPUT

LINE

1

:

COLOR

1

INPUT AS

IF AS <>

"" THEN

WINDOW OUTPUT 2 : COLOR 3 PRINT TRANSLATES[AS] SAY TRANSLATES (AS) ,KaleNatt END WEND

Cleanup

1 the 'is

notice

spell ing due

to

'correct

that

of

the

103*

■particular

I

of

have

some

fact

of

the

made

the

that

some

words

time.

The

slight modifications

in

TRANSLATES

the

text

can't

only way

spellings cause problems

get

to

is

strings. Che

'pronounced

'Chis was

as

in

SO

BOT

the word

instead

of

RAH

STATEMENT.

By

'syllables, translator recognized 'proper phoneme mixture.

to

This

determine which

to play with them and

'If you

are

interested

in

B3T.

Anocher

simply

the

long

learning

'from Compote!

Books.

'of

the

describing

a

The authors

process

relatively complete

•combinations available AmigaBASIC.

'Until

next

to

in

listing you

using

and

to

a

phDnemes

of

the

Che

of

the

made

a

create

a

phoneme

I will direct you the chapter 6, Amiga Basic,

have done

which

example

separating A

how

'string without Che use of the translacor, 'Co Appedix H in the AmicaSASIC manual and '"Speech Synthesis," in the book, Advanced

fantastic

are

created

various

SAY

job and

sound

scatemenc

in

time...taj.

Handlelt:

SAY TRANSLATES("I

can't

handle

PRINT "See what I mean? Click WHILE MOUSE(0) = 0 ! WEHD GOTO Fixed SUB

CleanScreen

1

CLS

WINDOW OUTPUT COLOR 1

2

CLS

END

SUB

SUB

DELAY(Count!)

current

WHILE

SUB

SUB

Cleanup

the

if

they

are phonemes.")

Mouse."

SOUND'BFYF

905

FOR

XX=1

910 915 920

POKE POKE POKE

925 930

FOR DD-1 TO 10: NEXT POKE SS+4,129'CHBI

935

FOR

940

:NEXT DD,XX'JVKV FOR XX=SS TO SS+24:POKE :NEXT XX'GQYP

945 950

POKE POKE

955 960 965 970

POKE SS+6,15*16+10'EKER FOR XX= 255 TO 100 STEP POKE SS+1,XX'CGSQ POKE SS+4,17'CGYM

975

NEXT

XX'BCYQ

980

POKE

SS+24,15'CHWN

985 990

POKE POKE

SS+1,15'CGTS SS+4,128'CHAO

995

FOR XX=1 TO 900:NEXT XX :FOR XX=SS TO SS+24:POKE

TO

5:POKE

X:END'FJRU

SS+24,15'FMGO

SS+5,9'CFDG SS+1,20'CGPL SS+4,128'CHAH

DD=1

DD'EICO

TO(50*INT(10*RND(1)+1))

XX,0

SS+24,7'CGAO SS+5,12*16+0'EJBM -1.4'FLEO

XX,0

END

Continued from pg. 86

910

END'BACE

930

FOR

950 960

:NEXT:RETURN'GJTM IF FUO2 THEN RETURN'FDPL FMS(2)=NA$(A):VA(2,2)=NA(A)'CAGP

970

GOTO

980

N$="

990

WINDOW

T-l

TO

3:PRINT"[CYAN,RVS]"SP$

490'BDML BCKM

. XP*10+2,YP*7+5,XP*10+7,

YP*7+5fl'JYUX l'JYUX 1000 DO:GET KEY A$:IF $ INSTR(KY$f A$)=0 THEN 980'HQTB 1010

1050 1060

1070

IF AS=CHR$(13)THEN EXIT'FGCX N$=NS+A$'CGOW LEN(N$)>6 OR "S>~ A$="[CLEAR] IF Lj^in \ li s> / f w "~"*i<_uuni\ "THEN N$="":PRINT"[CLEAR]" ":PRINT"[CLEAR]" :GOTO 1050'JPOG PRINT"[CYAN]"TAB(6-LEN N$'EIVB LOOP'BAKX . PRINT"[HOME2]":RETURN'CBJA PRINT"

1080

MS(1)="[SHFT N]O INPUT REQUIRED."'BFXH WINDOW 1,22,38,24,1'BNTE

1090

FOR

2

1100 1110 1120

TB=(38-LEN(MS(T)))/2'EOIY PRINT"[GRAY3]"TAB(TB)M$(T)"CIWX M$(T)="":NEXT'CGGX

OFF

1130

PRINT"[HOME2]":RETURN'CBJX

<

current

Countl

:

WEND

long.")

REM SIGNORE ON WINDOW 1, "BASIC",(0,0)-(617,IBS),31,-1 RESET

SICNORE

5000:NEXT

128 Users Only/128 Mode

1040

STATIC

WINDOW CLOSE

TO

:NEXT XX:RETURN'LCJF 1000 PRINT"YOU CAN'T PUT REGULAR TROOPS IN ":RETURN'CBOD

1030

STATIC

SAY TRANSLATES("So

REM

X=l

REM

1020

TIMER

TIMER

END

those

STATIC

WINDOW OUTPUT

MENU

FOR

900

phonetics

■ listen to them after running your text through the 'translator. If it doesn't sound correct, try subtle ■spelling changes. Above, by simply separating the syllables 'of ROBOT made Che difference between hearing Che word

'give

895

IF

'You'll

PRINT"[DOWN]BARBLES",BA(1), BA(2)'BMPQ

TRANSLATES(TS(2))

WINDOW OUTPUT

PRINT" ",N1$,N2S'BIMM PRINT"TROOPS",R(1),R(2)'BKJT

T=0

TO

3'DDQE

END

END 90

JANUARY 1988

END


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De:u«o cosmetic. Robust construction Joystick Comfortable rugged hand grip. 8Directionoi control, will automatically come bock (o the center when you lei It dee Heavy duty dose with strong/stabilizing suchoncups Four highly sensitive, light touch tire buttons Two tire buttons on heavy1 duty baso. Othef two tire buttons on control

hoidle Eitra strong, high conductivity leaf type directiona/fire contacts be built m Auto ond quick lire electronic circuit includao

BMX RACER GOLDEN TALISMEN SLUGGER (BASEBALL) SPEED KING

5 A SLIDE SOCCER VIDEO POKER

ELEKTRAGLIDE

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ACTION BIKER

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NINJA

KICKSTART

3 99


UPDATE-

by Graham Kinsey

Amiga Public Domain Software What*a new for the Amiga in the public domain? Here are some of the more recent public domain

programs for the Amiga.

For the first time since I have been writing this column, no new Fish disks have been released However. 1 do have a number of programs from PeopleLink and from local bulletin boards to talk about, so all is not lost. The best pub lic domain programs this month are ComniandReg. a program which adds a

whole new dimension to AmigaDOS batch files, and PacMan87. an excellent shareware arcade game. For each pro gram, the author is given, and if that PD program is available on the Fish or AMICUS of public domain disks, the number is given before the description. I do not keep track of which programs are available on PeopleLink here since virtu ally all of the programs mentioned in this column are available for downloading in the libraries in the Amiga Zone on PeopleLink (ifnot by the time I write this, then certainly by the time this column is published i. When a public domain pro gram has been classified as shareware, this is also mentioned, with the suggested amount.

Cancel: by Bryce Nesbitt If you are tired of having to answer sys tem requesters, here is a program that can answer them automatically for you. When you run Cancel, the next time a system requester comes up. Cancel will automatically select the Cancel gadget for you. Since most requesters ask you to in sert a disk (that you don't want to use any more), or something else trivial, many people like to kill those requesters im mediately. This program would be useful to those who are running GOMF ireviewed in the November 87 installment of this column), since this program will al ways take care of the "Task Held" request

er and bring you immediately to the GOMF window. 92

JANUARY 1988

Finish: by Mark Wolfskehl Multitasking usually makes things a lot easier on the Amiga. But when two si multaneously running programs want to access the same storage drive, multitask ing only makes things worse. On the Amiga if two programs both want to ac cess the same drive, they will each be al lotted a short amount of time for drive ac cess. before1 they are forced by Exec to give up access to that storage device to the oth er task which is waiting its turn. The reason why this is so bad is because if each program is trying to access data that lies on a separate track, the drive

head will be constantly switching between tracks every time one task gives up access of the drive. Not only does this slow things down, but you will also experience that hideous "gronking" noise when the drive head is constantly moving. Finish can eliminate these problems. Finish will force a task that has just decided to re quest access to a drive already being used to wait until the task that is using the drive is completely finished. The only bad point about Finish is that it must be ex ecuted each time you want to use its fea ture. Therefore, you are forced to load Fin ish into memory in order to gain any real benefit. At least you don't have to allow tasks to fight over access to a drive land cause undue wear on your drivel.

Mousetalker: by Rod Molina This program is designed as an aid for

Journal (reviewed in the December '87 in stallment of this column). Mousetalker

will speak whenever a keyboard input mouse movement or mouse button input has been performed during the playback of a Journal file, so that you can more clearly understand what is happening during the playback of any Amiga session that has been recorded with Journal.

XoKUCKstart: by Bryce Nesbitt The Amiga floppy drives can be very an noying! If you've ever experienced the tor turous noise caused by not having a disk in an Amiga floppy drive, I'm sure you'll agree, NoKLICKstart will eliminate this

dreadful noise. The big catch is that this program changes a bit in the Kickstart code. Therefore, those who have Kickstart in ROM are out of luck. Autotest: by Michael Hitch Autotest will test the performance of your hard lor floppy) drive. It will peiform both sequential reads and random reads for testing purposes. Also included is a program called DiskVerify, which will ver ify even1 cylinder on a floppy or hard disk to ensure that there are no errors. CommandReq: by Jay Johnson and Sam Morse CommandReq is an extremely handy program for writing batch files and Continued on pg. 9-1


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1


Amiga Public Domain Update" Continued from pg. 92

startup-sequences. CommandReq allows you to create yes/no questions concerning whether a certain command should be ex ecuted or not. CommandReq is unique in that it will bring up a standard system re quester, asking you if you want that par ticular command executed or not. There will be three options available as gadgets: Yes (executes the commandi, No (skips the command and continues on with the batch file), and Stop (halts execution of the batch file). The command in question will be displayed inside a string gadget, which can be edited if you want to alter the command, or even change it entirely! When writing the batch file, you can specify a timeout, which when the amount of time specified for the timeout has ex pired, will automatically select one of the three gadgets. Of course, you choose which option will be selected by default. Not only does this offer a lot of power and flexibility when creating batch files, it also makes a batch file much more userfriendly. Dbuglin: by Steve Raineri For C programmers i or for any pro grammer who uses a language that doesn't have line numbers), who find it a pain to have to count lines while debug ging, Dbuglin will add line numbers to ev ery tenth line. It adds them as comments. Dbuglin can revise source code that al ready has been numbered, and has had lines added or deleted. Gauge: by Peter de Silva If you like the fuel gauges in Work bench that display how full a disk is, but don't like Workbench in general, here's a program you might want to try. Gauge

displays memory usage, with a Work bench-type fuel gauge. Gauge can be moved and resized at any time.

cleaned, here's a program that will make the drives spin so you can clean the heads. TTT: by Ron Carlton Here's a 3D Tic-Tac-Toe game that uses

the computer for one of the players. You can decide if you want to go first or last.

HDbackup: by Charles Carter If you are unfortunate enough as to not receive a backup program with your hard drive, here's a very simple program that will fill in the gap. HDbackup does noth ing other than backing up a hard drive or restoring a backup hard drive. Be sure to format lots of floppies before you start the backup. Access: by Keith Young Access is another terminal program based on version 1.34 of the Communica tor, the very popular terminal program by Dan James. The biggest new feature in Access is that it supports 16 different col ors (including colored backgrounds). The Silver Demo: by Impulse Inc. A very nicely done animation demo which shows off what can be created with Silver, a Hold and Modify frame anima tion package from Impulse (makers of Prism, a HAM painting program). Silver

basically allows you to create Juggler-type demos. Esuom: by Sean Riddle

Another graphics display hack, you might have noticed that "esuom" is "mouse" spelled backwards. That's all that needs to be said about this program! FastDOS: by Martin Taillefer A simple 20-line program that speeds up AmigaDOS. FastDOS will speed up AmigaDOS by a small amount, .75 per cent (that's .75 percent, not 75 percent!). The source code is provided (C program mers take note; this code is written in Modula-2, but porting it shouldn't be a problem).

Microhost: by Michael Cox (Shareware: amount not specified) Microhost is a miniature bulletin board system. It allows people to call you via mo dem, and have your computer answer automatically just like a real bulletin board. Microhost features include twoway message support, Xmodem uploads and downloads, chat, password protection, bulletins and more, from the Sysop's end Microhost can also double as a simple terminal program.

Kickbcnch version 1.2: by Alonzo Gariepy This program is an update to the origi nal version of Kickbench (reviewed in the August 87 installment >f this column). Kickbench will now work correctly with version 1.2 (release) Kickstart and Work bench disks.

Scrub: author unknown If you think that disk heads should be

screen. You must select the drive that you want to use when you load Sectorama.

94

JANUARY 1988

Sectorama: by David Joiner

Sectorama is a disk editor, that displays a wealth of information due to its high-res

Sectorama has the potential to be able to edit a simulated storage device that is cre ated out of a RAM disk. Demolition: by Kriton Kyrimis If you ever wondered what it would be like to play a game of Breakout on your Workbench screen, with the window, icons and drawers on the screen acting as the "bricks," here's a good demo of such an event.

You don't have to spend forty dollars in order to entertain yourself on your Amgia. Not only are there many programmers out there who are writing original, chal lenging public domain and shareware games for your Amiga, but there are also others working night and day to port over popular board games and games from oth er computing environments. Even if you don't like a certain public domain game, at least you haven't parted with a wad of cash. Hack: by John Thebes (Fish 7,8,25,62) This game is a port over from the Unix world. Hack is another D&D type game,

where the ultimate goal is to retrieve the Amulet of Yendor. This Amulet is located deep inside a multi-level dungeon. You can choose one of six different character classes for your alter ego: Cave-Man, Fighter, Knight, Wizard, Speliologist, and Tourist. Hack in its original form (and in version 1.0.1A on the Amiga) relies solely on complexity and richness for its enter tainment, for there are no graphics, only ASCII characters for representation of the monsters, treasures, and all the other ob jects in Hack. This lack of graphics for the Amiga version of Hack was rectified with version 1.0. IE of Hack for the Amiga. The ASCII characters were replaced with 8 col or graphic characters. There have been many more enhance ments in the latest version, 1.0.3D. There is a new set of graphics characters which

look much better than the set in 1.0.1E. Whenever you die, a "death scene" is load ed up. This death scene in a nice IFF pic ture, and the program will even personal ize the picture for you, saying who you were and how you died. There is also a new parameter file, which allows you to

decide such things as whether you want to use the space bar for pausing, whether

you want the inventory sorted by item type and whether your character is male or female. As for the game itself, let me say that it

can be quite addictive! The big challenge

Continued on pg. 96


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Amiga Public Domain Update Continued from pg. 94

when playing Hack is often not whether you can keep all the nasty monsters from killing you, but will you be able to find enough food so that you don't starve to death! Only two of the six classes are al lowed to bring any food with them, and both the Tourist and Speleologist classes are quite weak and barely able to stay alive in this vicious world for long. Note that there is a special "Wizard" mode, which allows you to get used to the game and its idiosyncrasies (by basically mak ing you invulnerable), but your score won't get saved whenever you are playing in Wizard mode. Conquest: by Rob Shimbo (Fish 10.24) This game is ported over from Unix.

The object of this interstellar conquest game is to colonize as many planets as possible and to build the population of your empire as high as you can. You play against the computer only; there is no pro vision for more than one person to play. Since this game is a straight port from the Unix world, the graphics are of the crude ASCII type. However, there is a decent amount of complexity and strategy in volved, so if you don't care about graphics. then this game might please you.

Pacman87: by Steve Jacobs and Jim Boyd (Shareware: $10)

Here is one of the best public domain games to appeal' in a while. This is not just a cheap copy of the original game. PacMan87 has five different screens all interconnected via tunnels and staircases. If you're stuck on a particular screen, just move on to the next screen. There are also many traps laid throughout the screens, including fire pits, flame throwers and electric airs. PacManS? keeps a top ten score list and has difficulty levels, digi tized sounds, and a pause button. If you're looking for a good arcade game, check out PacMan87.

Yachtc: by Sheldon Leemon (Fish 10; Amicus 2) The popular dice game, up to four peo ple can play at once. Backgammon: bv David Addison (Fish 28) A simple implementation of the game Backgammon. The doubling cube is not used in this game, and no score is kept. You cannot play against another person. Cribbage: by David Addison (Fish 28) Another computer version of an old board game. 96

JANUARY 1988

Milestone: by David Addison (Fish 28) Computer version of the French card game Milboume. You cannot play against another person. The sound effects do add a bit to the enjoyment The computer has one flaw in its strategy which will give ex perienced Milboume players enough of an edge to win the majority of the time. Score can be kept after each game if you like. the grand total goal being 5000 miles. This one can be slightly addictive. Othello: by David Addison (Fish 28) In this version of Othello, the board is tilted, giving a quasi-3D look to the game. You select the position you want to place your piece by clicking with the mouse on one of four arrows that move a pointer. You can not play against another person. Canfield and Klondike Solitaire: by David Addison (Fish 32) Both of these solitaire games use a 640 by 200 graphics mode, which allows a good display of the cards. The sound effect of picking up putting down a card is some what realistic. I found the Klondike ver sion to be the more entertaining of the

it played back later. The only complaint, if any, is that the game really isn't played in

real-time; it takes a little while to draw the land each time to change views, but that may be nit-picking a bit too much. You can choose whether the graphics screen uses four or five bit-planes. TunnelYision: by David Addison i Fish 36) This is a maze game. But the perspec tive is a true 3D one, from within the maze. And there are complications, that turn this simple maze game into a real challenge. First of all, your vehicle can leave a trail as you wander through the maze, and if you track back over that trail, your vehicle's battery will start to

drain. If your battery becomes completely drained, your short-range view will dete riorate, making it very difficult to see. And if you should happen to bump into a wall, your vehicle will sustain damage. If you sustain too much damage, your longrange view will malfunction. The longrange scanner shows where you have traveled. You can view the maze, but you can only do so three times.

two.

Puzzle: by Bill Beogelein (Fish 32; Shareware: amount not specified) A simple little puzzle program. Fifteen square pieces in a four by four box, with only one space vacant at a time. The ob ject being to get the numbered square in numerical order.

Triclops: By Geodesic Publications (Fish 35) This game is a public domain version of a game put out by Geodesic Publications, released for promotional purposes. The public domain version is a complete game in itself. The object to protect your city from being destroyed by five Triclops walkers' which look similar to the AT-AT walkers in Star Wai's). You have three jet fighters and two self-detonating mobile tanks with which to accomplish your task. Control of the fighter is done completely via the mouse. Not only can you move in all three dimensions, but you can also ro tate the jet along any of the three axis. You can even fly into space, in order to de stroy the mother ship space hull. The graphics are very nice indeed, especially the earth, which is drawn via geodesic fractals. This allows several levels of de tail to be available for representing por tions of the earth, Everything is drawn in a true 3D perspective. You can even re cord your playing session, and then have

Revcrsi: by Manuel Almudevar (Fish 38) This version of Othello has several op tions. First of all, there are five difficulty levels. Second, you can ask the computer to show you all possible moves. The com puter can also suggest a move to you. You can decide whether you want the comput er to speak to you. This program inns at a low priority, so that if you are playing with a high difficulty level, you can easily run and use other programs while the comput er is thinking about its next move. Cosmoriods: by John Harris

(Fish 40; AMICUS 15; Shareware: $6) Asteroids for the Amiga. This program uses the keyboard for controls. The rocks have some color to them, but otherwise this game will wear thin on most people rather quickly. Missile Defense: by Glen Merriman (Fish 50; AMICUS 16; Shareware: $5) This game is of course a copy of Missile Command. Let me say first that because this program was written entirely in as sembly language (a rarity among Amiga

programs), it is fasti For once, multitask ing may be necessary in order to slow the missiles down enough for most mortals to have a fighting chance. The sounds in this game are outstanding, especially the opening "scream,"' since the sounds are di gitized. If you like, you can replace the


Amiga Public Domain Update supplied sounds with your own, as long as

they are in IFF format. If you send in the five dollar shareware fee, not only will you receive the source to the program, but you will also receive a copy of Glen's machine language monitor/debugger. Cos: by Steve Michel (Fish 51) A Wheel ofFortune game. Up to four people can play at once. The only problem I saw with this game is that not enough of the screen is devoted to the wheel itself. There aren't even any numbers on the wheel. Clue: by Greg Pryor (Fish 45) The popular board game. You can't play against another person, but you can choose how many computer opponents you have. You can also decide how smart your opponents are (the perfect option!). All input is via the mouse. 3D Breakout: by Tim Kemp (Fish 50; AMCUS 15; Shareware: amount not specified) An old favorite with a unique twist. This version of'Breakout truly is 3D, but you will able to play the game as it is in tended only if you are wearing a pair of red/blue 3D glasses. The field of play is a box, with bricks on four sides: in back, on top, and to the left and right. Your paddle floats where the bottom of the box would be, but the ball will fall out of the box if you don't intercept it with your paddle.

Larn: by Edmund Bumette (Fish 63) Another Unix port, this game has some similarity to Hack but with a lot more to offer. Your daughter has been stricken with a deadly disease, and the only chance to save her is to find a very rare and magi cal potion that will cure her disease in a limited amount of time. When you start Lara, instead of being immediately in a dungeon, you end up on the surface, in the middle of a little adventuring town. In this town there is a bank, a college where you can take such courses as Applied Wiz ardry, Behavioral Psychology, and Con temporary Dance. There is a shop where you can buy all the equipment that you can afford, and another shop that will buy back new and used items for cash. There is even a tax office (more on that later). While Hack characters have only a strength attribute, Larn characters have all six of the classic D&D attributes. An other major feature in Larn that is not in Hack is spell casting. Characters can ac tually cast spells that they have learned

from reading spell books. Unlike Hack, hunger is not a factor, but time is. It is easier to feed yourself than to go back in time! Another difference between Larn and Hack is that Lam has difficulty lev els. You stail off at difficulty level zero, and then if and when you complete the game (which isn't overly difficult), the next time you boot up Larn, you will start the game over at difficulty level one. Not only is the game generally harder, but you don't even get a measly dagger and leath er armor with which to protect yourself. If this weren't bad enough, you will now owe taxes on the valuables owned by you when you won the game at the previous difficul ty level! Of course you don't inherit any thing that you had from the last game. Like Hack, Lam has similar graphics characters (you can even interchange characters between Larn and Hack 1.0.3D). There is also a "wizard" option in Lam, as well as a parameter file. One last piece of advice. Even though your charac ter doesn't have to eat. make sure that you take a break once in a while so that you can feed yourself! Daleks: by Robert Paauwe (Shareware: $10) This game is based on the "Doctor

THELOWEST

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Who" television show. You have to try to avoid the Daleks, who are chasing you around the screen. Your main defense is to try to force the Daleks to crash into each other. If some get too close, you can use your sonic screwdriver to destroy them. The sonic screwdriver will only work once per screen. You can also teleport at any time to another area of the screen, but you could teleport on top of a Dalek. A nice feature of this program is that you can let the Amiga take control of your character, and watch her play the game. Expect a lot of new PD programs in next month's column. As always, I can be reached in the Amiga Zone on PeopleLink (ED: G KINSEY), or on the IDCMP BBS (617-769-8444,8pm-8am). If you have written a PD/shareware program or have obtained one that you think is worth men tioning to all Amiga owners, then please attempt to contact me. See you next month.

Fish disks: For a catalog, send a SASE and four loose stamps, or $1 to: Fred Fish, 1346 W. 10th Place, Tempe, AZ 85281. AMICUS Disks; $7per disk, or send $1 for a catalog to: PiM Publications, P.O. Box 869, Fall River, MA 02722. a

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97


by Stephen Rodda

COMPUTER TUTOR

Custom Screen Designer

Instructions

Pressing F6 will display two pages of instructions. As explained before, these instructions give a general description of how to use Custom Screen Designer, and give the names of the functions along with the keys needed to call them.

Create multi-color graphics screens for your games, add neatly organized instruction pages to your business programs, make impressive title screens or just have fun creating pictures, all with this easy-to-use, user friendly utility for the Commodore 64. Custom Screen Designer is a screen creating utility which lets you create multi-color screens using any graphics

character, number, letter, and color avail able on the 64. These screens may be saved on disk or tape and recalled through your own programs.

After a screen has been loaded, a simple SYS command instantly sets up the screen, the border color, and the back ground color in less than a second. The screen may then be cleared and recalled as many times as you wish by using the same SYS command. When you first run Custom Screen De signer, you have an option of displaying instructions. These instructions give a general description of how to create a screen and list the functions available with the keys needed to call them. After viewing the instructions, you will see a blank screen with a flashing cursor. To create a screen, you may now press any

key on the keyboard, and use any modes such as reverse or quote mode. To change

the color of the cursor, use the standard CTRL key with a number key. or the

COMMODORE key with a number key. There are a number of functions that can help when creating a screen — they are as follows.

Memorize

Memorize lets you do as the name says. memorize the screen. The purpose of this function is to store a screen in memoiy. The monitor screen may be cleared (using the SHIFT and CLR HOME keys) without affecting the stored screen. A new screen can be worked on and at any time the old

screen may be recalled using the recall

function. To memorize a screen, press the Fl function key. The border color will change for a split second and return to its 98

JANUARY 1988

Load

previous color. This is just to show that the screen has been memorized.

Recall

Recall will retrieve a memorized screen along with the border and background col ors that were memorized with the screen. This will erase the screen being displayed at the time the recall function is executed and will not store it before doing so. If a re call function is executed, the screen being worked on should be saved to disk or tape if desired. By pressing F2. the previously memorized screen will be recalled.

FlipX

The Flip X function will flip the screen on the X-axis, a horizontal line in the mid dle of the screen. In effect, this turns the screen upside down. When flipping a sci'een with graphics characters, such as a heart (SHIFT S), the heart will be moved to its corresponding line on the opposite side of the axis, but the heart itself will not be turned upside down. This function should primarily be used with text, re versed spaces, or other symmetrical char acters. Pressing F3 will flip the screen on its X-axis. Tb flip the screen back to its original condition, press F3 again.

FlipY

The Flip Y function will flip the screen on its Y-axis, a vertical line in the middle of the screen. As with the Flip X function. Flip Y will only move the character; it will not turn the character itself around. This also should primarily be used with text and symmetrical characters. To flip the screen on the Y-axis, press F4.

Reverse

The revei-se function will reverse any character on the screen. A reversed char acter is simply an eight pixel by eight pixel box with all pixels illuminated ex cept the ones that form the character. Press F5 to reverse a screen.

The load function will load a Custom Screen Designer file fixim a disk or tape and display it on the screen. When load ing a screen, it will not erase a memorized screen. If desired, a memorized screen may be recalled after a file has been load ed. To load a screen, press FT. A prompt asking for the filename will appear. Type the filename, no more than sixteen char acters will be accepted, and press RE TURN. You will then be asked if you are using a disk or tape. Press "D" followed by a RETURN if you are loading from a disk. or "T" followed by a RETURN if you are loading from a tape. Then, after answer ing an "OK TO CONTINUE" prompt with "Y" or "N," the file will load and the loaded screen will appeal' with a flashing cursor.

Save

The save function will save the screen that was displayed before calling this function. It will not save a stored sci'een. Tb save a screen, press FS. A prompt ask ing for the filename will appeal'. Type the filename, no more than 16 characters will be accepted, and press RETURN. You will then be asked if you are using disk or tape. Type "D" for disk or'T' for tape, fol lowed by a RETURN. After answering an "OK TO CONTINUE" prompt with "Y" or "N," the sci'een will be saved. When Custom Sci'een Designer saves a screen, it also saves a short machine lan guage routine to recall the screen. This is located at 34770 or (S87D2). while the data for the screen and it color is located at 32768 or ($8000). A screen saved on a disk takes nine blocks or 2K, and a screen saved on tape takes 20 tape counters to save.

Loading Screens Through BASIC Programs Once a screen has been created and saved, it may be loaded in immediate mode or through your own programs. lb load a screen in immediate mode, a simple LOAD"FILENAME".8,1 <RETURN> for disk or LOAD"FILENAME",U<RE-


Computer Tutor/Custom Screen DesignerTURN> for tape, followed by a SYS 34770 <RETURN>, will load and display the screen. A special technique, described below, must be used to load to a screen through your own programs. After a file has been loaded through a program, the computer automatically gives control to the first line of the pro gram in memory. When loading a file, this is a problem that should be avoided by loading the file in the beginning of ihe BASIC program. The following line should be used to load a file, and should be the first line of the program. DISK 10 IFA = 0THEN A= 1: LOAD"FILENAME",8,1

continues to the next line.

Anytime after the LOAD, a SYS 34770 command may be inserted into the BASIC program. This SYS will instantly display the screen, the border color, and the back ground color of the file that was just loaded. The method just described may not be used to load more than one file. To load more than one file through a program, a short subroutine is needed: 1000

LL=LEN(NA$) :FOR

DD=1

:POKE

TAPE

1020

POKE

10 IF A = 0 THEN A = 1: LOAD-FILE NAME ",1.1

1030

:POKE :POKE

POKE

780,1:POKE

781,8

782,1:SYS

65466

780,LL:POKE

This subroutine can be placed any where in a program and may be called by a GOSUB command at any time. Before calling it. NAS must be set to the name of the file to be loaded. This routine will load as many files as desired provided NA$ is set to the new filename each time the rou tine is called. For example, to load and display throe different screens iSCREEN :POKE

Entry Program "The BAMC programed iliis mag-i/im.* an1 availalile mi di-k I mm loadstar

P.O.Box30008.Shrcvcpon LA 7H5O-OO0"1, I-800-83] IW4

Tfi

Custom Screen Designer Z=6:Zl=6:PRINT

:PRINT

CHR$(147)

CHR$(5):POKE

38

34847,6

40

:POKE

34848,6'IHRM

42

4

GOSUB

168:POKE

44

6

GOSUB

170:SYS

:PRINT

650,128'CLTF 49152:GOSUB

104

46

CHRS(147)'FTDK

8

SYS

10 12

:H=PEEK(781)'FTPN IF B>39 THEN B = B-40:GOTO IF B>40 THEN H=H-1'FGQD

14

49574:B=PEEK(782)

10'GKY.C

PEEK(B)=32

THEN

POKE

THEN

E=E+F:POKE

20

GET

22 24

IF PEEK(214)=24 THEN GOSUB 28'FJJE IF A$OtM1THEN POKE B,D:PRINT AS;

26

GOTO

28

IF

B,E:F=-F'FKKK

30 32

THEN 34

IF

In line 10, NAS is set to the filename of the first file, SCREEN 1. The next com mand i GOSUB 10001 causes the program to jump to the subroutine (shown above! that loads the file. The file is then loaded

mand will display the screen that was just loaded. Line 20 and line 30 act the same way as line 10 except NAS is set to the new filename each time. The load routine assumes that the disk drive is being used as the source of the file. To change it so that the tape drive may be used, the POKE 781,8 command in line 1010 must be changed to read POKE 781.1. It should be noted that only one screen may be displayed or stored in memory at a time. However, it is possible to have a Screen displayed and have a different screen stored in memory at the same time.

n 49647,Zl

62'IHIO SYS

49622

IF

A$=CHR$(134)THEN

IF

SYS SYS

49261'FMGM 49366'FMQF

SYS

49486'FMQH

IF

A$=CHRS(138)THEN A$=CHR$(135)THEN A$=CHR$(139)THEN

IF

A$=CHRS(136)THEN

IF

IF

58

60 62 64

AS=CHRS(17)OR

:POKE

53280,Z:IF

GOSUB 122'FKGJ GOTO 66'FJOK

GOSUB Z=Z+1

Z>15

A$=CHR$(22)THEN 53281,Z1:IF

IF

78'FJQM

THEN

Z=0'LWTN

Z1=Z1+1 Zl>15

THEN

P=l

A$<CHRS(141)

66 68

88'IODJ

THEN

P=0:D=PEEK(B)' GJCL

RETURN'BAQH SYS

49152:POKE X=0

POKE

53280,Z:POKE

:POKE

TO

53280, Z + l

:FOR

99:NEXT'HUHR 34847,Z

34848,Zl'DYTR

RETURN'BAQC POKE

53280,Z + 1:FOR

X:POKE

X=0

TO

100

53280,Z:RETURN'IANO

Z=PEEK(4 9646):Z1=PEEK(4964 7) :POKE

A$ = lM" LVBR

AS=CHRS(133)THEN

34770

52

59

18'BCQE

GOSUB

:SYS

IF A$=CHRS(137)THEN :GOSUB 64'GPJL

:NEXT

RETURN'BAQY IF A$>CHRS(132)AND

1000

NA$="SCREEN

A$=CHRS(140)THEN

8'HLCI

A$=CHRS(141)THEN

3":GOSUB

30

A$=CHR$(2)THEN

32'CFYA

AS=CHR$(13)OR

1000

34770

IF

54

18

:GOTO

2":GOSUB

:SYS

50

F=-F'JTMN A$:GOSUB

20

49646,Z:POKE

:GOSUB

:POKE

C,

D>127

1000

IF

56

D=PEEK(B):E=D:F=128:IF

1":GOSUB

:SYS 34770 NA$="SCREEN

Z1=0'LDJQ

PEEK(646)'NIKQ 16

NA$="SCREEN

48

G=H*40+1024:B=B+G:C=54272+B

:IF

65469

65493

:RETURN

fu-ftiri' typing [ins program, read ' Ho» to Entci Programs" and "Hot in Use tlic Magazine

2

781,34

782,136:SYS

780,0:S¥S

10

and the program returns to the SYS 34770 command in line 10. This SYS com

1)+CHRS (0) ) :NEXT POKE

time because A was set to one. The line is ignored the second time and the program

LL

34849+DD,

ASC(MID$(NA$,DD, 1010

After typing RUN. A will be equal to zero therefore the program will proceed and set A to one. The program then loads the file that is indicated by the LOAD command. Because a load function was executed, the computer gives control to the first line of the program, which is line 10. The statement IF A - 0 is not true this

TO

1. SCREEN 2. SCREEN3I, one after the other following program should be used:

53280,Z:POKE

53281,Z1

:RETURN"HLLS GOSUB 58'BCYI PRINT

CHR$(147)CHR$(18)CHRS(5)CHRS

(17)"LOAD"CHRS(14 6)CHR$<17)'HAQU SYS

49588

70

POKE

53280/6:POKE

53281,6'CPXH COMMODORE MAGAZINE

99


Computer Tutor/Custom Screen Designer 72

GOSUB :SYS

74

SYS

90:IF

49537:SYS

GOSUB 76

78

OKSO"Y"THEN

49217:GOTO

GOSUB

168

48'ISYO

49579:IF

TS="D"THEN

236'GRAO

SYS 34770:Z=PEEK(34847) :Z1=PEEK(34848):D=PEEK(B):P=0 :GOTO 24'JKFW GOSUB

58:POKE

:POKE

53281,6'DSAQ

80

PRINT

CHR$(147)CHRS(5)

82

GOSUB 90: IF OKSO"Y"THEN GOSUB 168 :SYS 49217:RETURN'IQBO SYS 49537:SYS 49556:IF T$="D"THEN

:PRINT

84

GOSUB 86

SYS

236'GRUP

INPUT"[DOWN]ENTER

92

INPUT"[DOWN](T)APE OR (D)ISK";TS : IF T$O"T"AND TSO"D"THEN 92'IKHT INPUT"[DOWNJOK TO CONTINUE (Y/N)";

B,D:P=1:RETURN'DHAP

OK$:IF 96

98 100

FILE

THEN

0K$O"Y"THEN

NAME";NS

90rFMSO

GOSUB

168

49217:RETURN'ISGX

IF T$="T"THEN IF T$="D"THEN

POKE POKE

L=LEN(NS):FOR

:POKE

K=l

49540,l'EJUP 49540,8'EJLR TO

L

POKE

49547,L'BHCX

102

PRINT

104

FOR

CHRS(147):RETURN'DGVA

X=0

:PRINT

TO

4:PRINT:NEXT

CHRS(5)SPC(8)"CUSTOM

[SPACE2]SCREEN[SPACE2] FOR

X=1144

:POKE

:WAIT

197,4'DIDP

148

PRINT

CHR$(147):PRINT"[DOWNJ

TO

150 152

A

1183:POKE

156

X,42

ANY

OF"'DGHU

160

PRINT"[DOWN]CHARACTERS ALL

ON

SHOULD."'BAXP

PRINT"[DOWN]TO CHANGE THE COLOR OF THE CURSOR,'"BAYR PRINT"[DOWNJUSE THE STANDARD CTRL WITH

A

NUMBER"'BATM

PRINT"[DOWN]KEY, KEY

WITH

A

OR THE COMMODORE

NUMBER"'BAVO

164

PRINT PRESS

SPC(7)"[DOWN3J ANY KEY TO CONTINUE"

:WAIT

197,4'DIDP

166

SYS 34770:POKE 198,0 IPRINT CHR$(19):RETURN'FRRN PRINT CHRS(19):POKE 53280,Z :POKE 53281,Z1:RETURN'FWXQ

168

170 B=0:FOR X=49152

176 236

:B=B+A:POKE IF BO76098 :ENDrGHGO RETURN'BAQI

TO

49645:GOSUB

34846:GOSUB 500

X,A:NEXT'IYTO THEN PRINT"DATA

238 240 241

120

PRINT CHRS(17)" PRESS ANY CONTINUE"CHRS(19)'DIGL

:G0TO

116'GQND

242

CLOSE

122

GOSUB

58:PRINT

124

POKE

53281,6

212,0'DVRG

126

PRINT~CHR$(19)CHRS(5)"[DOWN]

128

F 1 - MEMORIZES PRINT"[DOWNJF 2 MEMORIZED

130

THE SCREEN'"DHUN - RECALLS THE

SCREEN'"BAAO

198,0

500

REM

520 530

READ AS'BCKB LM=ASC(MIDS(A$,2,1))'DMGG

MOVE

TO

MEMORY'BMPD

540

HM=ASC(MID$(A$,1,1))'DMBH

550 560 580

LM=LM-48:IF LM>9 HM=HM-48:IF HM>9 A=HM*16+LM'DHVK RETURN'BAQK

THEN THEN

LM=LM-7'HPAM HM=HM-7'HPFN

3

-

SCREEN

THE

X

AXIS'" BAFH

592

132

PRINT"[DOWN]F

4

-

SCREEN

THE

Y

AXIS"'BAHJ

134

PRINT"[DOWNJF

5

--

CHARACTERS

THE

SCREEN"'BAWM

6

DISPLAYS

910 DATA A9,00,85,02,85,FD,85,FB'BXAJ 920 DATA A9,80,85,03,A9,E9,85,04'BXYK 930 DATA A9,83/85,05,A9,04,85,FE'BXRL 940 DATA A9,D8,85,FC,A0,00'BRCL 1000 DATA B1,FD,91,02,B1,FB,91,04'BXWX 1001 DATA C0,E8,F0,10,C8,C0,00/D0'BXNY 1002 DATA EF,E6,03,E6,05,E6,FE,E6'BXDA 1003 DATA FC,4C,1C,C0,A5,FE,C9,07'BXEB

136

ON

PRINT"[DOWNJF HELP

138

ON

-

FLIPS

THE

197,4:POKE

TO

PRINT"[DOWNJF ON

FLIPS

15:WAIT

KEY

:RETURN'EPFH

CHRS(147)'DIDC

53280,6:POKE

ERROR"

OPEN 15,8,15:INPUT#15,U,V$ :PRINT#15,"In'DTSK IF U=0 THEN CLOSE 15:RETURN'FFEL PRINT CHR$(147):PRINT U,V$'DKBE

PRINT CHRS(5)SPC(6)"DO YOU WANT INSTRUCTIONS (Y/N)[SPACE6J"'DFJM GET A$:IF A$="Y"THEN PRINT CHR$(147):GOSUB 124:RETURN'IPKK IF A$="N"THEN RETURN'ECMH SYS 49486:FOR X=0 TO 200:NEXT

:POKE

500

X,A:NEXT:'JDYN

172 FOR X=34770 TO

114

118

THE

THE"'BAEL

PRINT"[DOWNJKEYS, SUCH AS THE INST/DEL1" BAOO PRINT"[DOWNJKEYS, WILL BEHAVE AS

KEY

162

174

116

NUMBERS,

GRAPHICS'" BABJ

THEY

158

X,42

1583:POKE

SCREEN,

USE

CURSOR AND

:POKE X+54272,4:NEXT'HYXH FOR X=0 TO 4:PRINT:NEXT'FFIE

TO

MAY

PRINT"[DOWN]THE LETTERS, OR

FOR

X=1544

CREATE

YOU

112

115

THE

REVERSES THIS

SCREEN"' BAGM

PRINT"[DOWNJF PREVIOUSLY

100

TO

X+54272/2:NEXT'HYNF

COLOR"' BAWN

SPC(7)"[DOWN3J ANY KEY TO CONTINUE"

:B=B+A:POKE

DESIGNER"'ILAM 110

BACKGROUND

PRINT PRESS

52223+K,ASC(MID$(NS,K,

D+CHRS (0) ) :NEXT'MGOJ 101

THE

146

154

POKE

LEN(NS)>16

PRINT"[DOWNJF 8 - SAVES THE SCREEN TO DISK OR TAPE1" BACJ PRINT"[DOWN]CTRL + B - CHANGES THE BORDER COLOR"'BAOK PRINT"[DOWN]CTRL + V - CHANGES

KEYBOARD.

34770:RETURN'CGGM

:SYS

144

CHR$(18)"SAVE"CHRS(146)'GSLM

88

94

142

53280,6

90

:IF

140

JANUARY 1988

7

SAVED

-

LOADS

A

SCREEN"'BAPQ


Computer Tutor/Custom Screen Designer 1004

DATA

D0,EA,60 ,A9,FD ,8D,21,C0 'BXIC

1005

DATA

A9,02,8D ,1F,C0 ,A9,FB,8D •BXSD

1006

DATA

25,C0,A9 ,04,8D ,23,C0,20 'BXLE

1007

DATA

1008

DATA

00,C0,A9 ,FD,8D ,1F,C0,A9 •BXJF 02,8D,21 ,C0,A9 ,FB,8D,23 'BXCG

1009

DATA

C0,A9,04 ,8D,25 ,C0,60,20 'BXMH

1010

DATA

00,C0,A9 ,00,85 ,02,A9,80 'BXVY

1011

DATA

85,03,A9 ,E9,85 ,04,A9,83 'BXCA

1012

DATA

85,05,A9 ,C0,85 ,FB,85,FD 'BXWB

1013

DATA

1014

DATA

A9,07,85 ,FC,A9 ,DB,85,FE 'BXIC A2,00,A0 ,00,B1 ,02,91,FB 'BXID

1015

DATA

Bl,04,91 ,FD,C8 ,C0,28,D0 •BXCE

1016

DATA

F3,E8,E0 ,19,F0 ,31,18,A5 'BXSF

1017

DATA

1018

DATA

02,69,28 ,85,02 ,B0,03,4C 'BXNG B2,C0,E6 ,03,18 ,A5,04,69 'BXUH

1019

DATA

1020

DATA

1021

DATA

28,85,04 ,B0,03 ,4C,C0,C0 'BXKI E6,05,38 ,A5,FB ,E9,28,85 'BXJA FB,85,FD ,90,03 ,4C,90,C0 ■bxjb

1022

DATA

C6,FC,C6 ,FE,4C ,90,C0,60 •BXRC

1023

DATA

A9,00,85 ,02,85 ,04,8D,FE 'BXFD

1024

DATA

03,A9,04 ,85,03 ,A9,D8,85 'BXRE

1025

DATA

05,A0,00 ,A2,27 ,B1,02,9D 'BXBF

1026

DATA

1027

DATA

1028

DATA

00,80,B1 ,04,9D ,E9,83,C8 'BXEG CA,E0,FF ,D0,F0 ,18,A5,02 'BXCH 69,28,85 ,02,85 ,04,B0,03 'BXFI

1029

DATA

4C,0D,C1 ,E6,03 ,E6,05,18 'BXKJ

1030

DATA

AD,EE,C0 ,69,28 ,8D,EE,C0 'BXNB

CCMMCDCREie COMPUTER SYSTEM COMPLETE STARTER SYSTEM BELOW DISTRIBUTOR COST

$9990 COMPUTER: The Commodore 161M Personal Computer. Has a full typewriter style keyboard with 8 programmable function keys separate cursor control keys, a full graphics set and six preprogrammed function keys. Basic, the world's most popular programming language comes built in Sound and 16 color graphics are also built in. The C16 connects directly to your TV Commodore 1531 Data Cassette Recorder: The 1531 Data Record provides easy and efficient external media storage for your C16 Computer.

SPECIAL BONUS ORDER NOW AND RECIEVE PROGRAMS AT

1031

DATA

90,03,EE ,EF,C0 ,18,AD,F3 'BXNC

1032

DATA

C0,69,28 ,8D,F3 ,C0,90,03 •BXED

1033

DATA

EE,F4,C0 ,EE,FE ,03,AD,FE •BXGE

1034

DATA

03,C9,19 ,F0,03 ,4C,E7,C0 •BXMF

1035

DATA

20,41,C0 ,A9,00 ,8D,EE,C0 'BXRG

STARTER CALC — Beginning Word Processor MORTGAGE CALC - Mortgage Analysis

NO ADDITIONAL COST

1036

DATA

A9,80,8D ,EF,C0 ,A9,E9,8D 'BXJH

STARTER FILE - Data Base

1037

DATA

F3,C0,A9 ,83,8D fF4,C0,60 'BXLI

1038

DATA

20,00,C0 ,A9,00 ,85,02,A9 •BXPJ

1039

DATA

80,85,03 ,A0,00 ,B1,02,C9 'BXRK

DEPRECIATION CALC - Depreciation Analysis STARTER SCRIPT — Word Processing Programs WHAT'S NEXT LETTERS/NUMBERS - Educational Program

1040

DATA

20,F0,06 ,C9,A0 ,F0,02,49 'BXNC

1041

DATA

80,91,02 ,C8,C0 ,E8,F0,09 'BXCD C0,00,D0 ,E9,E6 ,03,4C,59 'BXME C1,A5,03 ,C9,83 ,D0,F1,20 •BXFF

1042

DATA

1043

DATA

1044

DATA

1045

DATA

41,C0,60 ,A9,01 ,A2,00,A0 'BXUG 01,20,8a ,FF,A9 ,00,A2,00 'BXDH

1046

DATA

A0,CC,20 ,BD,FF ,60,A9,00 'BXWI

1047

DATA

85,02,A9 ,80,85 ,03,A9,02 'BXUJ

1048

DATA

A2,21,A0 ,88,20 ,D8,FF,60 'BXLK

1049

DATA

38,20,F0 ,FF,60 ,20,81,C1 'BXRL

1050

DATA

A9,00,20 ,D5,FF ,60,A9,B8 'BXGD

1051

DATA

85,02,A9 ,88,85 ,03,A9,A1 'BXSE

1052

DATA

1053

DATA

PRINTER 40 column 2 color printer made by citi zen. Prints graphics and text in five differ ent sizes! Sturdy construction: Perfect for beginners and advanced users alike.

$4990 *Only With Purchase of System

DISK DRIVE

High Speed Disk Drive

80 COLUMN PRINTER Tractor Friction Feed

H6900 JOYSTICK

$990

1054

DATA

85,04,A9 ,8C,85 ,05,A9,00 •BXPF 85,FDf85 ,FB,A9 ,04,85,FE •BXUG A9,D8,85 ,FC,20 ,1C,C0,60 •BXGH

1055

DATA

A9,C1,8D ,57,C0 ,A9,B4,8D •BXHI

1056

DATA

56,C0,20 ,41,C0 ,A9,C0,8D 'BXFJ

1057

DATA

1058

DATA

57,C0,A9 ,00,8D ,56,C0,60 'BXWK A9,00,85 ,02,85 ,FD,85,FB 'BXAL

1059

DATA

1060

DATA

A9,80,85 ,03,A9 ,E9,85,04 'BXYM A9,83,85 ,05,A9 ,04,85,FE 'BXRE

1061

DATA

A9,D8,85 ,FC,A0 ,00,B1,02 'BXWF

1062

DATA

91,FD,B1 ,04,91 ,FB,C0,E8 'BXYG

1063

DATA

F0,10,C8 ,C0,00 ,D0,EF,E6 'BXKH

1064

DATA

03,E6,05 ,E6,FE ,E6,FC,4C 'BXWI

S & S Wholesalers

1065

DATA

EE,87,A5 ,FE,C9 ,07,D0,EA 'BXQJ

226 Lincoln Road- Miami Bch.. FL 33139

1066

DATA

AD,IF,88 ,8D,20 ,D0,AD,20 'BXQK

1067

DATA

88,8D,21 ,D0,60 'BOQJ

END

Deluxe cosmetic. Robust construction Jovs'ick Comfortable ruggad hand grip. 8-Directlonal control, will auto matically come back

lo

the center

when you let it free. Heavy duty base

with stfong/stabiliilng suction cups Four highly sensitive, light touch lire buttons Iwofnebuttonsonheavyduty base Other two lire buttons on control handle. Extra strong, high cortductivity leaf type directiona/fire contacts be

built in Auto and quick tire electronic circuit included

1-800-233-6345 • 1-800-331-7054


Tips & Tricks/64 and 128 Continued from pg. 16

hundreds of dollars cheaper. • Programs that require 256K on the PC are not four times bet

ter than those that fit comfortably into 64K on the Commodore machines.

• They are four times more expensive, and usually more than that.

• There's not much good, free software. • The BASIC takes getting used to. There are many new state ments and commands, and many of the familiar ones do unfa miliar things. • There's a silly little synthesizer, with one monotonous voice. No harpsichords here, folks! • BASIC graphics are similar to those on the 128, but there aren't any sprites. • It's much harder to work with screen and character colors. • The technical documentation is overwhelming and opaque. The non-technical is oversimplified and a pain. • The magazines are full of ads and product reviews, empty

of type-in programs and devoid of the goodies you find in this column. Louis F. Sander Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

PC compatibility: Many Commodore owners have access to some sort of IBM PC or clone, or can see such access in their fu ture. I recently added a clone to my computer room and have found some products that make it much easier to work with the combined equipment. The first is Omnitronix's IBM TO CBM Printer Port Adapter. This cable and software convert the PC's parallel printer port to a Commodore-compatible printer port. With it I can use my Commodore DPS-1101 daisywheel and MPS-801 dot matrix printers with the new PC. Think how much money I saved by not buying two new printers! Both printers work fine with my clone, and there's veiy rarely a hangup. I can list programs, dump text screens, and do all the other common printer tasks, but I haven't attempted graphics. My word processor drives the DPS-1101 without any problems. The IBM TO CBM is made by Omnitronix. 760 Harrison Street. Seattle, WA 98109. It's available from them or from their dealers. Another valuable product is Big Blue Reader, a program that lets the 128 and 1571 read and create MS-DOS compatible disks. (MS-DOS is the PC's disk handling system. 11 have the socalled (and misnamed) CP/M version of Big Blue Reader, which is more costly and more useful than the standard version. It doesn't use CP,M at all—it just has the additional capability to deal with CP/M diskettes. But it also has other features that make it better than the original. Using Big Blue Reader, I'm able to move my Easy Script files and my Microsoft Multiplan spreadsheets over to my clone, where they can be processed by the more powerful software. I'm also able to move files from the clone to the 128. Big Blue Reader is available from dealers and from S.O.G.W.A.P. Software, 611 Boccaccio Avenue, Venice, CA 90291. By the time you read this, a 64 version may be on the market. If you plan to get a PC in the future, you might want to start buying double-sided double-density disks right now. They will work with all Commodore drives, are the preferred disk for the 1571 in 128 mode and can be easily reformatted to work with

MS-DOS. They're often just a little" more costly than SSDD's.

102

JANUARY 1988

Although I haven't tried it myself, it's been reported that the 1902 monitor is compatible with the PC's Color Graphics Adapt er (CGAi mode. It's not compatible with monochrome or EGA modes, however. Commodore's new 2002 may be even more com patible. If you own one of these monitors, look into compatibility before acquiring your PC; you could save hundreds of dollars by avoiding a monitor purchase. Louis F. Sander Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Burning; in: Modem electronic equipment is extremely reliable, and for many of us service calls are a thing of the past. In fact, if a newly-manufactured piece of equipment is going to fail at all during its life, it will probably fail during its first few hours of operation. Where reliability is important, it's common to "burn in" new equipment by letting it run for several days, with peri odic operational checks. You can bum in your own new equipment, with several ad vantages to you. All you have to do is turn the equipment on, and leave it on all day and all night. It's desirable, but not neces sary, to have it doing some innocuous task. To be on the safe side, somebody should be there with it if possible, in case some thing starts to smoke. From time to time, put the equipment through its paces to see if anything has failed. If it comes with a diagnostic program, run it. If not. do something that exercises the major features. When the bum-in period is finished, repeat these tests once again. The length of the bum-in period is up to you, but the longer the bum in, the better. It should be something between a few hours and two or three days or more. Remember, you want to give the equipment every chance to fail during its critical first hours of operation. Here are the advantages of burning in. First, you put in enough hours during the warranty period to decrease the chance of later out-of-warranty failure. Second, if the product fails so soon you can take it back to the retailer while he still remem bers your purchase. And third, you get a head start on learning your equipment and its quirks. Willem Anders Marietta, Ohio Doodle picture loading: Have you ever wanted to load a Doodle picture without loading the main program? Well you can do it with this simple program: 10 IFA = 0 THEN A= 1: LOAD'*DDFILENAME".8.1 20 POKE 56578,3 : POKE 56576,6 30 POKE 53272,PEEK(53272) OR 8 40 POKE 53272,(PEEK(53272i AND 15) OR 112 50 POKE 53265,PEEK(53265i OR 32 When you run it, the Doodle picture "FILENAME" should ap pear on the screen. It's necessary, in line 10. to prefix "FILEN AME" with "DD;', since Doodle assigns those characters as a prefix to the names of all its picture files. Chris Price Pensacola, Florida

Doodle color printouts: If you have several colored ribbons for your printer, here's a way to get more colorful pictures from your Doodle program. First print the picture in one color, say black, in the normal way. Then change ribbons and use the "photo neg ative" feature of the Doodle program. Align your paper to its po sition at the start of the first printout, then reprint it in the new


Tips & Tricks/64 and 128 color, which will fill in all the blank spaces. If your paper is in a slightly different position on the second pass, the resulting color-free and overlap areas can add high lights and texture to your picture.

THE AMAZING NEW Junior

§39.95

Sieve Martin

...TURNS

Camarillo, California

YOUR COMPUTER

Aztec trick: I'm a fanatic of this game, and have gotten the idol 17 times, receiving a reward of $19,392,550. How? I discovered the following formula for getting to the idol without going through the typical dinosaurs, snakes, spiders, leopards, scorpi ons, Indians and carnivorous plants. You still need to be agile, clever and lucky, but your enemies will be a lot fewer. When you're in the entrance, press the space bar and turn left before going down the stairs. Crawl and place some dynamite, but not too close to the wall. Cover yourself immediately, but don't go down the stairs. When the dynamite explodes, walk to ward the hole in the wall and don't stop. Finally, you'll be in the idol's room. Open all the boxes you see, since one of them holds the idol. If you're trapped in a room and the walls are closing in, just press the Fl key for instructions. Tb exit, press "R." Automati cally, the closed wall will open. If you're close to it, you're out. Alain Portmann Santiago de Chile ChUe

INTO A TALKING AND LISTENING SERVANT... High-Tech

hits

put

Voice

and voice recognition with

this single hardware product' Vour voice controls programs, or appliances,

robots,

and

more

with spoken commands

Verbal

response

status,

Back

gives

verifies, or requests your reply' Speecn output ana recognition patterns ore recorded into memory with your voice. Programming is simple with new

commands added to BASIC Demo programs get you up ana running quickly A music bonus lets you write ana compose musical scores merely Dy whistling the tune. Unlimited uses for fun. education, prociicai applica

tions.

Speech

and recognition qualities !he finest available.

remarkable product you will love

Truly a

The Covox Voice Master Jr comes complete with all hardware, software (5 MA' (loppy), ana instructions for only S3905 30-Ooy satisfaction

guarantee One year warranty. (Aaa Sd shipping ond handling tor USA, 56 CanaOa. SlO overseas.) Available for Commodore 64 128. Atari 6OO 8OOXL, 13OXE. Specify when ordering. Visa. MasterCard phone orders accepted. Other enhanced Voice Moster systems available lor

Commodore 64.. 128, Apple II *

He He. IBM PC and compatibles.

Call or write today for FREE Product Catalog

COVOX JNC (503)342-1271

One-On-One tip: When playing this popular game against the computer, it is always better to stay near the backboard facing in the direction of your opponent. Most of the time he will run into you, drawing an offensive charging foul. When these fouls accumulate to five, you get to shoot two free throws. The strate gy only works when your opponent is the computer, has re bounded the ball and is trying to score on you. Don't try it against a human opponent! Stephan Lutz San Pedro Sula Honduras

ogam1

Master Ji gives Doth speech out

675 Conger St., Eugene, Oregon 974O2

Includes

Game map maker: A good map of all the locations in an adven ture game is very important to the serious adventurer. This pro gram, for use with any Commodore system and most compatible printers, will print 154 blank location squares on a single sheet of paper. After typing in the program, save it to disk or tape. Run it and relax while the printer does its work. To use the maps, fill in the boxes with a short description of each known location. Draw ar rows to show the exits and entrances for each room. For up and down, I use a small letter "U" or "D" beside the arrow. If a series of rooms can be reached only from one location, I find it easier to map these rooms separately from the main game

500

Labels

map.

Bradley L. Dina Euclid, Ohio 100

PRINT"[CLEAR,RVS,SPACE7]

GAME

MAP

-

BRADLEY

L.

DINA[SPACE7]

n

110

PRINT"[DOWN2]

120

THEN PRESS 'P1..." GET A$:IF A$O"P"THEN

READY

THE

PRINTER,

120

COMMODORE M/ÂŁAZINE

103


Tips & Tricks/64 and 128 130

BS=CHRS(255)+CHRS(26)

140

OPEN

4,4,10:CLOSE

150

OPEN

4,4:PRINT#4,CHR$(27);"P"

160 170

FOR Y=l TO 14 PRINT#4,CHR$(8);

180

B=129:GOSUB

190

B=128:FOR

200

B=192:GOSUB

210 'FOR

J=l

TO

4

260

J=l

TO

3:GOSUB

NEXT

230

PRINT#4,CHR$(12):CLOSE

240

END

250

:

260

FOR

TO

280

GOSUB

11:D-14:IF

110

4

X=ll

THEN

280:NEXT:RETURN

:

130

REM

**

CHARACTER

FORMAT

**

LOUIS

ments.

In the Commodore world, we use a somewhat different code, often called PETASCII ifrom its original use in Commodore's PET compute!11 for these purposes. When poking characters to the screen, Commodore computers use yet another code, often called the Screen Poke Code. All three codes work in the same general way—each displayable character has a unique numenc code that can be easily handled internally by the computer. But unfortunately there are significant differences in the codes. For example, a lower case "a"' is represented by 97 in ASCII, 65 in PETASCH, and 1 in Screen Poke. Since programmers frequently need to convert data from one of these formats to another, there's a real need for computer algorithms to make the conversion. The accompanying listing contains user-defined functions that can be used to convert any of these formats to any other. Once your program executes lines 170-250. you can use the functions to make the conversions. The functions have been named to make it easy to know their purpose. FNPS from PETASCII to Screen Poke. FNSP converts from Screen Poke to PETASCII. FNPA converts from PETAS CII to ASCII and as an added bonus also converts ASCII to PE TASCII. Say, for example, that you want to convert PETASCII 97 to its Screen Poke equivalent and to store the result in vari able A. Just execute A = FNPS97). When using these functions, you should keep some important points in mind:

• When converting text, the Commodore should be in upper and lower case mode, not graphics mode. • PETASCII codes from 0-31 and 128-159 have no corres ponding screen pokes. FNPS converts them to 32's (spaces). • Screen Poke codes greater than 127 (for RVS characters! have no corresponding PETASCII codes. FNSP converts them to the PETASCII codes of their unreversed equivalents. • PETASCII and ASCII differ greatly in the meanings of con trol codes 0-31. and somewhat in characters 92. 94. 95. 96 and 123-127. FNPA makes no conversions on any of those codes.

• ASCII has no codes greater than 127, while PETASCII goes

F.

SANDER,

1987

FNPS(X)

-

PETASCII

TO

SCREEN

FNSP(X)

-

SCREEN

-

PETASC11/ASC11

POKE

140

REM

POKE

TO

PETASCII

150

RETURN

JANUARY 1988

REM

120

PRINT#4,B$;CHR$(28);CHR$(B);B$;

Character format conversions: In the non-Commodore comput er world, the ASCII code is often used for transferring text from place to place^ For example, word processors often save text to disk in ASCII, and BASIC uses ASCII codes in CHRS state

104

REM

AUGUST

CHR$(D);CHR$(128); 290

100

CONVERSIONS

D = 10 270

(tildes). Louis F. Sander Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania

3:PRINT#4:NEXT

220

X=l

260:NEXT

260

all the way up to 255. Where PETASCII codes above 127 can be converted to ASCII equivalents, FNPA makes the conversion. It changes unconvertible PETASCII characters to ASCII 126's

REM

FNPA(X)

AND

BACK

160

:

170

DEF

FN

A1(X)=

X-161-33*(X<255)

-64*(X<192)-3 2*(X<160)+32*(X<96) -64* (X<64) 180

DEF

FN

A2(X)=

ABS(X*(X<128

X>159) )-32* (X>127

OR

AND

X<160)-(32-X)*(X<32) 190

DEF

FN

A3(X)=

X-64*(X<32

X>95)-32* (X>63

AND

OR

X<96)

200

DEF

FN

A4(X)=

X

210

DEF

FN

A5(X)=

X+(X*(X>127))-126*

AND

127

A6(X)=

X-32*(X>64

(X>127) 220

DEF

FN

X<91)+32* (X>96

AND

AND

X<123)+128*(X>192

AND

X<219)

230

DEF

FN

PS(X)=

FN

Al(FN

A2(X))

240

DEF

FN

SP(X)=

FN

A3(FN

A4(X))

250

DEF

FN

PA(X)=

FN

A5(FN

A6{X))

Marking telephone cables: If you use a modem, you probably do a lot of plugging and unplugging of modular telephone cords, There's one from the line to the modem, one from the modem to the telephone, and often several more. Making the modular con nections is easy, but identifying the proper cord can be a real nightmare. They all have identical connectors, and they all are made of similar-colored cable.

I've solved the problem by using a Sharpie brand marker to

label the ends of every modular cable in my computer room. The Sharpie is indelible and has a fine point, while the flat modular cable is very easy to write on. If I label both sides of each end of the cable. I can tell at a glance exactly what it is. Fred Rednas Charleston. South CaroUna

Q-Link multitasking: While typing an on-line message or EMail, you can still interact with others in People Connection or in a conference. If you press F7 while working on your message, the system

will give you a Help prompt for E-Mailing or OLM'ing, but in

Continued on pg. 128


64 and 128 Software Reviews/Cauldron Continued from pg. 34

treasures are won't really matter much, since getting there will prove hard

Pot Luck As I mentioned in the review, simply trying to move the characters around the screen will undoubtedly cause fits for most beginners. It would benefit newcomers to initially forget about score and advance ment, and to take a dozen rounds just to get the feel of the wild witch and awkward pumpkin. Control is tough, but since it is both consistent and evenumlly predict able, it's not impossible. After you've got ten the hang of surrogate steering, check the tips Fve listed below. They should have you sailing along to victory with leaps and bounds.

• When using your broomstick to move from one location to another in Cauldron 7, you will meet the least amount of en emy resistance if you travel at the highest possible altitude. The PumpKing's hench men (i.e., bats, birds, ghosts and soldiers) swarm up from the ground whenever they sense your presence. If you sail along the screen's upper edge, the enemy will not be

enough. Be warned, this is not a game for the young or easily frustrated. But if you're looking for a fast-paced game that

will test as well as reward your arcade prowess, then Cauldrons brew just might be your cup of tea. Q|

able to ascend quickly enough to impede your forward progress. The high flying tactic will help save time, energy and lives. • Keep a watchful eye on your witch's energy level. If she's aboard her broom stick when the gauge drains down to zero, the next enemy hit will send her into a tailspin. But even as she plummets to her death, if you can manage to direct her across the path of a magic key, it will still be collected and counted toward her recipe requirements. A minor consolation, per haps, but it's one step closer to victory. • When you become a skilled enough witch pilot that you can hover the broom stick motionless above the landscape, then you might notice an interesting con trol nuance. If you want to move your craft a short distance in one direction, it can be accomplished by tapping your joys tick a couple of times in the opposite direc tion. This reverse gear factor is a side ef fect of the game's inertia simulation, and is actually easier to execute than trying to nudge your witch forward in the conven tional manner.

• If you're persistent and lucky enough to have advanced to the climactic bottom corridor of the castle in Cauldron II, make sure to keep your bouncing under control. The ceiling of this final hallway is actual ly a one-way trapdoor. If your pumpkin bounces too high and too hard, there is a good chance it will break right through the overhead structure, sealing it in a compartment that has no escape. • Tb help the player deal with a no-es cape situation like the one mentioned above, Broderbund's designers have been thoughtful enough to include a special "relocation" key. By pressing "R" on the keyboard, your surrogate, at the cost of a life, will be removed from his trapped posi tion and placed in a safer castle location. Aside from its intended use, this button also has an inadvertent use that's even more valuable. If you push the "R" key just after your pumpkin has met his de mise, he will be immediately resurrected without a life loss registering with the pro gram. If you're a quick enough key punch er, there's a good chance that your alloca tion of six pumpkins will last forever. Q

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105


Technical Tips/User Port, Part 6

DELAY

Continued (rum pg. 61

505

fti Main Program 5

REM

C-64

MAIN

PRINT

PROG

506

JOHN

CHRS(142):REM

30

POKE FOR

SWITCH

UPPER

:

56334,PEEK(56334)AND J=12288

REM

TO

PLACE

254'DQQE

12288+32

CHARACTER

DATA

IN

RAM'FMIP 80

READ

A:POKE

J , A :NEXT'DGMH

100

POKE

56334,PEEK{56334)OR

1'DORY

120

DATA,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0:REM

@'CSHB

130

DATA

255,255,255,255,0,0,0,0'BXFC

140

DATA

0,0,0,0,255,255,255,255'BXFD

150

DATA

255,255,255,255,255,255,255,

160

B=0'BCKC

162

POKE

255'BGAG 53282,15

53283,12:POKE

165

POKE

170

REM

180

PRINT"[CLEAR]"1BATE

53284,11'EJOM

53265,PEEK(53265)OR

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT:PRINT1EDSH

PRINT"[SPACE19]DIGITAL MENU"'BAME

210

PRINT:PRINT:PRINTrDCMY

215 220

PRINT " 1) INSTRUCTIONS"'BAUG PRINT" 2) LOAD B/W FAST SCAN LOAD

G/S

GRAY

SCALE

CAMERA"'BAYK

230 235 240 250

PRINT" 4)ISPACE4]SET/RESET TIMING B/W MODE"'BAVH PRINT" 5)[SPACE4]SET/RESET TIMING G/S MODE'"BAXM PRINT" 6)(SPACE4]COLORATION [SPACE2]G/S'"BATF PRINT"

7)

START CAMERA"'BAGF

255

PRINT"

8)

QUIT'"BAFI

260

PRINT:PRINT"INPUT

261

FOR

262

POKE

265

INPUT

OPTION

NUMBER

1-8"'CBRJ

:IF

270

T=0

TO

175:NEXT

197,64:POKE X:IF

X>8

X<1

THEN

ON X GOTO

T'EHIH

198,0'CMGH

THEN

280

280'HNBO

290,300,400,500,600,700,

800,900'CHPK

280

PRINT"ERROR, PLEASE ENTER NUMBER BETWEEN 1-8":GOTO 265'CERQ

290 300

GOTO 910'BDJG CLR'BAFW

301 400

LOAD"64

CLR'BAFX

B/W CAM",8'BCPB

401

LOAD"64

GRAY CAM",8'BCXC

500 501

PRINT"[CLEAR]"'BATA PRINT:PRINT:PRINT'DCMC

502 503

106

IS

16

DELAY

IS

510

POKE

PRINT:PRINT"THANK

512

FOR

513

GOTO

49574,G'BHXC T=l

TO

YOU"'CBHF

500:NEXT

T'EHBG

180'BDIE

600

PRINT"[CLEAR]"'BATB

601

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT'DCMD

602

";G'BCHM

DELAY";G'BCLM

PRINT"[SPACE3]SET

/

RESET

TIMING'"BAFH 603

PRINT"NUMBERS

REPRESENT

DELAY

IN

MILLISECONDS'" BAFO PRINT"[SPACE11]BETWEEN

GRAY

SCANS"'BADK 605

PRINT:PRINT'CBHG

606

J=PEEK{49569):K=PEEK(49885)

607

PRINT:PRINT"

:L=PEEK(49917)'GBMP

1ST

SCAN

IS

PRINT"[SPACE3]FAST SCAN

608

PRINT:PRINT" DELAY

2ND

SCAN

DEFAULT

IS[SPACE3]7"'CBCQ

609 610 611

PRINT"CURRENT DELAY IS ";J'BCKO INPUT"ENTER DELAY";J'BCHF PRINT:PRINT" 3RD SCAN DEFAULT DELAY IS 28"'CBUK

612

PRINT"CURRENT

613

INPUT"ENTER

DELAY

IS

";K'BCLI

DELAY";K'BCII

614

PRINT:PRINT"

615 616

DELAY IS 72"'CBBN PRINT"CURRENT DELAY IS ";L'BCML INPUT"ENTER DELAY";L1BCJL

617

POKE

618 619

:POKE 49917,L'DXGO PRINT" [SPACE3]THANK FOR T=l TO 500:NEXT

620 700

GOTO 180'BDID PRINT"[CLEAR] '" BATC

701 702 703 704 705 706 707 708

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT'DCME PRINT"[SPACE4]COLOR CODES"'BAWH PRINT'BACE PRINT"0 BLACK"," 8 ORANGE1" BBDJ PRINT"1 WHITE"," 9 BROWN"'BBNK PRINT"2 RED","10 LIGHT RED"'BBSL PRINT"3 CYAN","11 DARK GRAY1" BBWN PRINT'U PURPLE","12 MEDIUM GRAY"'BBEP PRINT"5 GREEN","13 LIGHT GREEN1" BBQQ

709

4TH

49569,J:POKE

SCAN

DEFAULT

49885,K

YOU"'BAWM T'EHBO

PRINT"6 BLUE","14 LIGHT BLUE'"BBBH PRINT"7 YELLOW","15 LIGHT GRAY"'BBPJ

PRINT"[SPACE4]RESET / SET

PRINT:PRINT"NUMBERS

ENTER

511

712 714

TIMING"'BAMG

JANUARY 1988

INPUT"

710 711

B/W

CAMERA"rBAUI

504

PRINT"CURRENT

509

CAMERA

CAMERA"'BAYF

3)

DELAY

NON-ADJUSTABLE"'CBVP

190

PRINT"

G=PEEK(49574)'CIZJ

508

64'DPYK

MENU'BEUD

200

225

PRINT:PRINT"DEFAULT

507

604

53281,1:POKE

:POKE

SCREEN

MILLI SECONDS'" CBFP

CASE'DVNE 70

MILLISECONDS"'CBKP

SCANS'" BAIL

IOVINE'BWPJ 10

IN

PRINT"[SPACE10]BETWEEN

REPRESENT

715

PRINT:PRINT'CBHF PRINT"DEFAULT COLOR FOR IS[SPACE2]1"'BAXO

INPUT"ENTER COLOR CODE

1ST

#

SCAN

";C'BCEM

716

PRINT'BACI

717

PRINT"DEFAULT COLOR FOR 2ND SCAN

718

INPUT"ENTER COLOR CODE #

IS

15"'BAAR

";D'BCFP


ATTENTION

Technical Tips/Userport, Part 6 719

PRINT'BACL

720

PRINT"DEFAULT COLOR FOR IS

721 722 723

3RD

SCAN

12"'BACL

724

INPUT"ENTER COLOR CODE # ";E*BCGJ PRINT'BACF PRINT"DEFAULT COLOR FOR 4TH SCAN IS 11"'BAIO INPUT"ENTER COLOR CODE # ";F•BCHM

725

PRINT'BACI

726

PRINT"DEFAULT COLOR FOR BKGRD IS [SPACE2]0"'BARR 727 INPUT"ENTER COLOR CODE # ";B'BCDP 728 POKE 53281,C:POKE 53282,D :POKE 53283,E:POKE 53284,F'EGVT 729 PRINTlPRINT" THANK YOU"'CBNQ 730 FOR T=l TO 500:NEXT T'EHBI 731 GOTO 180'BDIG 800 G=PEEK{53272):POKE 53272, (PEEK(53272)AND 240)+12'GEYL 801 PRINT"[CLEAR]":FOR L=55296 TO 56295:POKE L,B:NEXT:SYS 49233'HXUM 802 POKE 53272,GiGOTO 1000'CMTH 900

END'BACD

910

PRINT"[CLEAR]"'BATF

912 914

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT:PRINT'EDSJ PRINT"[SPACE2JDIGITAL CAMERA

916 918 920 922 924 926 928 930

A complete self-tutoring BASIC programming course is now available. This course starts with turning your

computer

>

KEY

TO

INCREASE

<

KEY

TO

DECREASE

PRINT"PRESS

R

KEY

PRINT'BACM

938

PRINT"THE WITH

940 942

about

of the information presented. Furthermore, ALL answers are supplied to all the questions and pro grams, including the answers to the tests. Follow this course step by step, lesson by lesson, and turn yourself into a real programmer! You won't be dis appointed! We will send this COMPLETE course to you at once for just $19.95 plus $3.00 for shipping and handling (U.S. residents, please pay in U.S. funds). If you are not COMPLETELY satisfied, then simply return the course within 10 days of receipt for a FULL refund. Kl Now available! a 200 page course exclusively on sequential and rel ative files using a unique approach

TO

RETURN

for those with very limited

TO

file programming ex

perience - set up your own personal and business

MENU"'BAVS 936

just

stand explanations as well as many programs for

TIMING'"BAUQ 934

programming

you to make up. At the end of each lesson is a test

OPERATION.(ON-THE-FLY)"'BAUT PRINT"THESE COMMANDS ARE AS FOLLOWS:"'BABT PRINT'BACN

PRINT"PRESS

to

MODORE 64/64C, VIC 20, COMMODORE 16 and the COMMODORE 128 and takes you step by step through a discovery approach to programming and you can do it all in your leisure time! The les

TIMING"'BALO 932

on,

anything you want! This course is currently used in both High School and Adult Evening Education classes and has also formed the basis of teacher literacy programs. Written by a teacher, who after having taught the course several times, has put together one of the finest programming courses available today. This complete 13 lesson course of over 220 pages is now available for the COM

sons are filled with examples and easy to under

INSTRUCTIONS"'BAQQ PRINT"[SPACE21]PG1"'BAEO PRINTrPRINT'CBHN PRINT"THE DIGITAL CAMERA PROGRAM PROVIDES"'BARP PRINT"THREE COMMANDS THAT CAN BE UTILIZED'"BAVR PRINT"DURING CAMERA

PRINT"PRESS

ALL COMMODORE 64/64C, VIC 20, COMM. 16 AND COMMODORE 128 owners

records! — disk drive a must — same author — TIMING

KEYS

same guarantee — same cost— this course for

OPERATE

all computers except Vic 20.

BOTH"'BADX

PRINT"B/W AND GRAY CAMERAS."'BADN PRINT"THE KEYS WILL INCREMENT OR

Fill in the coupon or send a facsimile.

DECREMENT"'BAMT

944

PRINT"THE

946

ONE"'BACT PRINT"MILLISECOND

948 950 952

OVERALL

SCAN PER

TIMING SCREEN

PRINT"TIMING

MODES

SIMULTANEOUSLY 956

GET

AS'BCGR

ARE

ANY

PROV./STATE:. POSTAL/ZIP

CODE:_

I desire the BASIC program

KEY

TO

Comm. 64/64 c:.: Comm. 128

Any complete course: $19.95 Postage and Handling: S3.00

ming course for:

CHANGED"'BAOX

PRINT:PRINT"PRESS CONTINUE"'CBCW

958

SCAN

THAT THE"'BAEX PRINT"KEY IS HELD."'BADS PRINT"IN THE GRAY CAMERA MODE, THIS MEANS"'BAXR PRINT"THAT EACH OF THE THREE GRAY SCALE"'BAMT

954

BY

Vic 20 Z

Comm. 16 II

Total:

S22.95

Send Cheque or Money Order to:

I desire the FOLLOW-UP □

Brantford Educational Services

course on relative and seq

6 Pioneer Place,

uential

files

for all

above

computers but Vic 20 .

Brantford. Ontario. Canada N3R 7G7

COMMODORE MAGAZINE

107


Technical Tips/Userport, Part 6 960

IF

AS=""THEN

958'DFNL

1000

DATA

1001

DATA

00, 04, 03, 07, 08, 0C, 0B, 0F1 BXIX 10, 14, 13, 17, 18, ic. IB, IF1 BXQY

20, 24, 23, 27, 28, 2C, 2B, 2F1 BXYA 30, 34, 33, 37, 38, 3C, 3B, 3F1 BXGB

962

PRINT"[CLEAR]"'BATM

1002

DATA

964

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT'DCMP

1003

DATA

966

PRINT"[SPACE3]DIGITAL

1004

DATA

40, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00, 00' BXLB

1005

DATA

4C, 0C, 4F, 0F, 50,

1006

DATA

1007

DATA

53, 13, 57, 17, 58, 18, 5C, IC BXZE 5B, IB, 5F, IF, 60, 20, 64, 241 BXRF

1008

DATA

1009

DATA

1010

DATA

00, AD, 02, DC, 8D, 25, C0, A91 BXJY

1011

DATA

FF, 8D, 03, DD, 78, A9, 0B, 8D' BXDA

1012

DATA

02, DC, A9, 0B, 8D, 00, DC, 8D' BXGB

1013

DATA

1014

DATA

DC, 8C,

1015

DATA

DC, C8, C0, 7F, D0, EE, A9, 0B1 BXVE

1016

DATA

1017

DATA

8D, 00, DC, EA, EA, EA, EA, EA' BXIF EA, A0, 00, A2, 00, A9, 0B, 8D' BXWG

1018

DATA

1019

DATA

1020

CAMERA

INSTRUCTIONS"'BAXX

968

PRINT"[SPACE23JPG

970

PRINT:PRINT*CBHL

972

PRINT"BY THE

2"'BAAV

PRESSING

THE

R

KEY,

PROGRAM"'BAMV

974

PRINT"WILL

976

MENU. HERE"'BAAX PRINT"FURTHER ADJUSTMENTS

978

TIMING ARE "'BAEA PRINT"POSSIBLE BY ALLOWING USER

980

TO

RETURN

TO THE

BASIC IN THE

FIRST"'BADE

PRINT"READ THE TIMING SCANS BEFORE ADJUSTING"' BARV

982

PRINT"PSEUDO-COLORATION

984

GRAY SCALES'" BAWX PRINT"IS IMPLEMENTED THE COLORATION"'BACB

986 988

PRINT"ITEM

ON

COLORATION

OF THE

PRINT"CAMERA

THE

FIRST

THE IS

AND

OF

BY

CHOOSING

MENU.

B/W"'BAYC

POSSIBLE,

LAST"'BALE

990

PRINT"COLORS

992

COLORATION MENU"'BAWW PRINT"WILL BE DISPLAY WITH B/W

994

THE

ENTERED

ON

THE

THE

CAMERA1" BAQX

PRINT:PRINT"[SPACE2] END

995

OF

INSTRUCTIONS"'CBEX

PRINT"PRESS

ANY

KEY

TO

RETURN

TO

MENU"'BARB 996

GET

997

IF

998

GOTO

1000

A$'BCGT

A$=""THEN

996'DFPV

180'BDIV

GOTO

180IREM

VECTOR

FOR

PROGRAM

INSERTATION'CGND

END

64 B/W Data 10

PRINT"[CLEAR]POKING

20

P=49152:

30

49654/$ClF6)'CFKF READ A$:IF A$="END"THEN

40

L=ASC(MID$(A$,2,1))'DLEE

50

H=ASC(MID$(A$,1,1))'DLYF

60 70 80 90

L=L-48:IF L>9 THEN L=L-7'HKVJ H=H-48:IF H>9 THEN H=H-7'HKBK PRINT"[HOME,RIGHT12]"P;'BCVG IF H>15 OR L>15 THEN PRINT"DATA ERROR

IN

REM

SC000

-";'BBGA (END

AT

110'EISD

LINE";1000+INT((P-49152)

/8):END'LXUV 100

B=H*16+L:POKE :GOTO

110

IF

TO62021

DATA

P,B:T=T+B:P=P+1

30'JUYF

->

THEN

CHECK

PRINT"MISTAKE

DATA

STATEMENTS"

:END'GHUL 120

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT"LOAD

SUCCESSFUL..."'DCAE 130

PRINT"[SPACE4]RETURNING

TO

MENU"'BAUF 140

FOR

150

LOAD"64

108

T=l

JANUARY 1988

TO

500:NEXT'EGWC

MAIN

PROG",8'BCIE

MAIN

IN

10/ 54, 14 '

BXLD

63, 23, 67, 27, 68, 28, 6C, 2C1 BXHG 6B, 2B, 6F, 2F, 70, 30, 73, 33' BXXH

00, DC, A0, 00, A9, 0B, 8D, 001 BXEC 01/ DD, A9, 09, 8D, 00' BXVD

DATA

00, DC, B9, 00, C0, 8D, 01, DD1 BXFH A9, 09, 8D, 00, DC, A9, 01, 8D1 BXII 00, DC BD, 28, C0, EA, EA 8D' BXLA

1021

DATA

01,

DD

CE, 00

DC

A9, 08

8D

BXIB

1022

DATA

00, DC

A9, 09

8D, 00, DC

E8

BXVC

1023

DATA

E0, 28

D0, El

A2

00, 86

FC

BXXD

1024

DATA

C8, C0

21

D0

C8

A9

C8

85

BXNE

1025

DATA

FA, A9

04

85

FB

4C

95

Cl

BXFF

1026

DATA

EA

A0

00

A2

00

A9

0B

8D

BXWG

1027

DATA

00

DC

BD

00

C0

8D

01

DD

BXQH

1028

DATA

A9

09

8D

00

DC

B9

28

C0

BXJI

1029

DATA

8D

01

DD

A9

08

8D

00

DC

BXVJ

1030

DATA

AD

0D

DD

C9

10

D0

60 ,4C

BXBB

1031

DATA

Bl

Cl ,EA

EA ,C8

C0

28

D0

BXRC

1032

DATA

DF ,A0 ,00

E8 ,E0 ,21 ,F0 ,6A

BXID

1033

DATA

A9 ,0B ,8D

00 ,DC ,BD

00 ,C0

BXTE

1034

DATA

BXWF

1035

DATA

8D ,01 rDD ,A9 ,09 , 8D ,00 ,DC B9 ,28 ,C0 8D ,01 ,DD ,A9 ,08

1036

DATA

BXTH

1037

DATA

8D ,00 ,DC rAD ,0D fDD ,C9 ,10 D0 ,34 ,4C rBD ,C1 ,EA ,A9 ,01

1038

DATA

8D ,00 ,DC ,C8 ,C0 ,28 ,D0 ,DB •BXHJ

1039

DATA

1040

DATA

1041

DATA

18 rA5 ,FA ,69 ,28 ,85 ,FA /A9 BXYK 00 ,69 ,00 ,85 ,FC ,A5 ,FB ,65 'BXSC FC ,85 ,FB , EA , EA ,A0 ,00 , EA 'BXBD

1042

DATA

EA , EA ,E8 , EA ,*c ,D5 ,C0 ,A9 •BXME

1043

DATA

1044

DATA

1045

DATA

1046

DATA

03 ,91 ,FA ,4C ,FA ,C0 /Bl ,FA 'BXRF C9 ,03 ,F0 ,07 /A9 ,02 /91 ,FA 'BXNG 4C ,2D /Cl ,A9 ,03 /91 /FA /4C 'BXRH 2D ,C1 /A9 ,C8 ,85 ,FA , EA , EA 'BXYI

1047

DATA

1048

DATA

1049

DATA

78 ,A9 ,0B ,8D ,02 ,DC ,4C /85 'BXPL

1050

DATA

C0 ,60 ,8D ,00 ,DC ,A0 ,00 , 8C 'BXMD

1051

DATA

01 ,DD ,A9 , 0B ,8D ,00 ,DC ,A2 'BXWE

1052

DATA

CA ,CA ,D0 ,FD ,C8 ,C0

1053

DATA

F3 ,EA , EA ,AD , 0D , DD ,4C ,D0 •BXRG C0 ,A9 ,00 /91 /FA /A9 /01 ,8D 'BXAH

BXKG BXYI

A9 ,04 ,85 ,FB ,AD /25 ,C0 ,8D 'BXAJ 02 ,DC ,58 /4C /Dl /Cl , EA , EA 'BXUK

/10 ,D0 'BXCF

1054

DATA

1055

DATA

00 ,DC /4C /FA ,C0 /Bl /FA /C9 •bxhi

1056

DATA

03 ,D0 ,07 /A9 ,01 /91 ,FA ,4C 'BXFJ

1057

DATA

2D ,C1 ,A9 ,00 ,91 ,FA ,4C ,2D 'BXNK

1058

DATA

Cl ,A5 ,C5 ,C9 ,40 ,F0 ,0C ,C9 'BXSL

1059

DATA

2C ,F0 ,0B /C9 ,2F ,F0 , 0D /C9 'BXJM

1060

DATA

11 ,F0 ,0F ,4C ,88 /Cl ,EE ,A6 'BXVE

1061

DATA

Cl ,4C ,88 /Cl ,CE ,A6 ,C1 /4C 'BXLF

1062

DATA

88 /Cl ,4C /91 /Cl ,FF /13

END' BYHG

t

END


Technical Tips/User Port, Part 6

10 20

1038

DATA

C1,EA,C8,C0,28,D0,DC,4C

BXWJ

1039

BXBK

PRINT"[CLEAR]POKING -";'BBGA P=49152: REM SC000 (END AT

1041

49971/$C333)'CFRF

1042

95,C1,EA,EA,EA,EA,EA,A9 DATA 03,91,FA,4C,FB,C0,B1,FA DATA C9,03,F0,04,A9,02,91,FA DATA 4C,31,C1,A9,00,85,FA,85

1043

DATA

M Gray Data

30 40 50 60 70

READ A$:IF A$="END"THEN 110'EISD L=ASC(MIDS(A$,2,l))'DLEE H=ASC(MIDS(A$,1,1))'DLYF L=L-48:IF L>9 THEN L=L-7'HKVJ H=H-48:IF H>9 THEN H=H-7'HKBK

80 90

PRINT"[HOME,RIGHT12]"P;•BCVG IF H>15 OR L>15 THEN PRINT"DATA ERROR IN LINE";1000+INT((P-49152) /8):END'LXUV

100

B=H*16+L:POKE :GOTO

110

120

130

P,B:T=T+B:P=P+1

30'JUYF

IF

TO107792

IN

DATA

->

THEN

CHECK

PRINT"MISTAKE DATA

STATEMENTS"

1040

DATA

1044

DATA

1045

DATA

1046

DATA

BXSC

'BXKD 'BXOE

FC,A9,04,85,FB,AD,C6,C2 'BXIF 8D,02,DC,58,A5,C5,C9,40 'BXLG F0,0 3,4C,08,C3,78,A9,0B 'BXNH 8D,02,DC,4C,84,C0,60,4C 'BXDI

1047

DATA

08,C3,A9,02,91,FA,4C,FB 'BXVJ

1048

DATA

C0,B1,FA,C9,02,F0,07,A9 'BXNK

01,91,FA,4C,31,C1,A9,00 'BXYL 91,FA,4C,31,C1,8E,C8,C2 •BXYD

1049

DATA

1050

DATA

1051

DATA

A0,00,A2,CA,CA,D0,FD,C8 'BXXE

1052

DATA

C0,07,D0,F6,AE,C8,C2,A0 'BXDF

1053

DATA

00,4C,BB,C1,C8,C0,0F,D0 'BXSG

1054

DATA

EF,8E,00,DC,A0,00,4C,CB 'BXOH

1055

DATA

C0,EA,EA,A0,00,CA,A9,0B 'BXSI

1056

DATA

8D,00,DC,BD,00,C0,8D,01 'BXEJ

1057

DATA

DD,AD,0D,DD,A9,0 9,8D,0 0 'BXBK DC,B9,28,C0,8D,01,DD,CE 'BXFL

:END'GIDM

1058

DATA

PRINT:PRINT:PRINT"LOAD

1059

DATA

00,DC,EE,00,DC,AD,0D,DD •BXSM

SUCCESSFUL..."'DCAE

1060

DATA

C9,10,D0,03,4C,8D,C2,C8 'BXCE

PRINT"[SPACE4]RETURNING TO MAIN

1061

DATA

C0,28,D0,E5,A0,00,E8,A9 'BXXF

1062

DATA

0B,8D,00,DC,BD,00,C0,8D 'BXVG

1063

DATA

01,DD,AD,0D,DD,A9,09,8D 'BXCH

1064

DATA

00,DC,B9,28,C0,8D,01,DD 'BXPI

1065

DATA

CE,00,DC,EE,00,DC,AD,0D 'BXSJ

DD,C9,10,D0,03,4C,9D,C2 'BXQK

MENU'"BAUF

140 FOR T=l TO 500:NEXT:CLR'FHFD 150 L0AD"64 MAIN PROG",8'BCIE 1000 DATA 00,04,03,07,08,0C,0B,0F'BXIX 1001 DATA 10,14,13,17,18,1C,IB,IF'BXQY 1002 DATA 20,24,23,27,28,2C,2B,2F1BXYA 1003 DATA 30,34,33,37,38,3C,3B,3F1BXGB 1004 DATA 40,00,00,00,00,00,00,00'BXLB 1005 DATA 4C,0C,4F,0F,50,10,54,141BXLD 1006 DATA 53,13,57,17,58,18,5C,1C'BXZE 1007 DATA 5B,1B,5F,1F,60,20,64,24'BXRF 1008 DATA 63,23,67,27,68,28,6C,2C'BXHG 1009

DATA

1010

DATA

6B,2B,6F,2F,70,30,73,33'BXXH

00,AD,02,DC,8D,C6,C2,A9'BXEY

1011

DATA

FF,8D,03,DD,78,A9,0B,8D'BXDA

1012

DATA

02,DC,8D,00,DC,A0,00,A9'BXCB

1013

DATA

0B,8D,00,DC,8C,01,DD,A9'BXFC

1014

DATA

09,8D,00,DC,C8,C0,7F,D0'BXWD

1015

DATA

EE,A9,00,85,FA,85,FC,A9'BXBE

1016

DATA

04,85,FB,EA,A0,00,A2,00'BXHF

1017

DATA

A9,0B,8D,00,DC,BD,00,C0'BXTG

1018

DATA

8D,01,DD,A9,09,8D,00,DC'BXWH

1019

DATA

A9,01,8D,00,DC,B9,28,C0IBXBI

1020

DATA

8D,01,DD,CE,00,DC,A9,08'BXIA

1021

DATA

8D,00,DC,EE,00,DC,C8,C0'BXUB

1022

DATA

28,D0,E5/A0,00,E8,EE,C7'BXVC

1023 1024

DATA C2,AD,C7,C2,C9,02,D0,C8'BXID DATA A9,00,8D,C7,C2,8E,C8,C2'BXEE

1025

DATA

EA,EA,EA,A0,00,AE,C8,C2'BXSF

1026

DATA

CAFCA,A9,0B,8D,00,DC,BD1BXWG

1027 1028

DATA DATA

00,C0,8D,01,DD,AD,0D,DD'BXLH A9,09,8D,00,DC,B9,28,C0'BXJI

1029

DATA

8D,01,DD,CE,00,DC,EE,00'BXQJ

1030

DATA

DC,AD,0D,DD,C9,10,D0,47'BXWB

1031

DATA

4C,7A,C1,EA,C8,C0,28,D0'BXHC

1032

DATA

E4,A0,00,E8,E0,21,F0,4B'BXPD

1033

DATA

A9,0B,8D,00,DC,BD,00,C0'BXTE

1034

DATA

8D,01,DD,AD,0D,DD,A9,09'BXCF

1035

DATA

8D,00,DC,B9,28,C0,8D,01'BXDG

1036 1037

DATA DATA

DD,CE,00,DC,EE,00,DC,AD'BXNH 0D,DD,C9,10,D0,18,4C,81'BXBI

1066

DATA

1067

DATA

C8,C0,28,D0,E5,EA,EA,EE 'BXVL

1068

DATA

C9,C2,AD,C9,C2,C9,01,F0 'BXMM

1069

DATA

09,C9,02,F0,1A,C9,03,F0 'BXIN

1070

DATA

2B,EA,A9,80,8D,B2,C2,A9 •BXNF

1071

DATA

81,8D,AB,C2,A9,82,8D,97 'BXYG

1072

DATA

C2,8D,A4,C2,4C,D1,C2,A9 •BXIH

1073

DATA

C0,8D,B2,C2,A9,C1,8D,AB 'BXXI

1074

DATA

C2,A9,C2,8D,97,C2,8D,A4 •BXIJ

1075

DATA

C2,4C,F1,C2,A9,4 0,8D,B2 'BXRK

1076

DATA

C2,A9,41,8D,AB,C2,A9,42 •BXTL

1077

DATA

8D,97,C2,8D,A4,C2,A9,00 'BXMM

1078

DATA

8D,C9,C2,18,A5,FA,69,28 'BXXN

1079

DATA

85,FA,A9,00,69,00,85,FC 'BXXO

1080

DATA

A5,FB,65,FC,8 5,FB,A0,00 'BXKG

1081

DATA

1082

DATA

E8,4C,88,C0,EAIB1,FA,C9 'BXMH 0 3,F0,0 3,4C,E7,C1,A9,42 'BXHI

1083

DATA

91,FA,4C,E7,C1,B1,FA,C9 'BXHJ

1084

DATA

03,F0,07,C9,4 2,F0,0A,4C 'BXEK

1085

DATA

18,C2,A9,41,91,FA,4C,18 'BXSL

1086

DATA

C2,A9,40,91,FA,4C,18,C2 'BXEM

1087

DATA

EA,00,FF,0 0,FF,00,FF,00 'BXVN

1088

DATA

FF,00,00,00,00,22,00,00 'BXFN

1089

DATA

00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00 'BXHO

1090

DATA

00,8E,C8,C2,A0,00,A2,CA 'BXAH

1091

DATA

CA,D0,FD,C8,C0,1C,D0,F6 'BXNI

1092

DATA

AE,C8,C2,A0,00,4C,BB,C1 •BXIJ

1093

DATA

00,FF,00,FF,00,FF,00,FF 'BXCK

1094

DATA

00,8E,C8,C2,A0,00,A2,CA 'BXAL

1095

DATA

1096

DATA

CA,D0,FD,C8,C0,48,D0,F6 'BXFM AE,C8,C2,A0,00,4C,BB,C1 'BXIN

1097

DATA

A5,C5,C9,2C,F0,0C,C9,2F •BXOO

1098

DATA

F0,14,C9,11,D0,01,60,4C 'BXIP

1099

DATA

6D,C1,EE,A1,C1,EE,DD,C2 'BXFQ

1100

DATA

EE,FD,C2,4C,6D,C1,CE,A1 'BXIY

1101

DATA

C1,CE,DD,C2,CE,FD,C2,4C •BXXA

1102

DATA

6D,C1,FF,END'BMMY

END

COMMODORE MAGAZINE

109


Ned Lerner and Chuck Yeager :

Continued from pg. 69

Continuvd from pg. 69

And now a few words from General Yeager

.lermaine: How do you feel about the way you were portrayed in the movie. The

actually serve a very useful purpose. Each one of these mystery planes needs to be analyzed by a trained test pilot, .so the user can literally assume the role of Chuck Yeager and learn what makes these planes tick. For the record, my fa vorite airplane in the program is the Grace Industries XPG-12 Samurai. It was named after Paul Grace, the assistant producer of the project and flies like a dream. Building on what you've learned from your previous assignments, in Formation Flying the pilot travels through obstacle courses again, but this time he plays fol low-the-1eadei* with another aircraft. The lead plane likes to perform a series of aerobatic stunts, so you quickly become a modem day barnstormer of a sort. If you like the idea of competing against

opponents in the air. you'll probably fall in love with Airplane Racing. This challenge offers the experienced aviator a race against time and five other computer pi lots. Once again, the user has a number of different courses to choose from, but he must cross the finish line first in order to win an event. If you like the sound of things so far. the Advanced Flight Trainer also contains a software hanger, housing

14 different aircraft for your own personal use.

.lermaine: How did you simulate so mamdifferent control panels in a single piece of software? Ijerner: Believe me. it wasn't easy. We solved this major problem by developing a special generic panel, which could be al tered to fit the requirements of each panel layout in real life. The FAA requires evenplane to have the same basic control panel design. By doing things in this manner, you don't have pilots reading the wrong dial and possibly making a fatal mistake. Speaking of the control system, the com

pass generated more programming-relat ed problems than any other component of the cockpit. .lermaine: Throughout this interview, we've talked about the Advanced Flight Trainer in general. Can you give me some specific information about the Commo dore 64 version of the program? UÂťmer: The AFT was originally written 110

JANUARY 1988

Right Stuff! General Yeager: You have to look at the film as being good entertainment and not a documentary. I was very pleased, how ever, with the way things turned out. .lermaine: When you endorse a product, the public believes that item is superior to others like it. Why have you allowed your name to be added to the title of the AFT? General Yeager: I guess my wife should get credit for that. EA called me and talked to Glennis. She liked their ideas, so we discussed the matter in detail and de cided the project would probably be fun. After all, I've been working with flight simulators for a long, long time. Glennis also thought it was a good idea to sort of tie my name in with something I truly be lieved in. The Advanced Flight Trainer fit into this category because it is a highquality product, with the potential to give the user the thrill of actual flight. .leiTnaine: In your career, you have been known to push machines beyond their in tended limit. Is there a provision in the AFT which allows the consumer to do the same thing? General Yeager: This is a difficult ques tion to answer. If you push a plane beyond its limit in real life, the pilot usually dies — so you only get to do it once. Follow this same procedure in the AFT. and you get a big flash on the screen which Bays "You're dead." Now this factor in the program isn't very realistic, but it drives home the idea that every airplane has its own limi tations and making a mistake at a high rate of speed is usually fatal, .lermaine: How does microcomputer flight compare with the real thing? General Yeager: Now I've only worked for the IBM computer, but everyone agreed it would have to be ported over to other systems like (he Commodore 64, [Ed. note: the Commodore 64 version be gan shipping in September 1987.] Future versions of the game will definitely be su perior to the parent program for several reasons. First of all. there are certain things we can do on the 64 that can't be accomplished very easily on the IBM sys tem, and vice versa This difference in the operating systems and the characteristics of the computers themselves, gives us a lot of flexibility in our work. You also have to remember that the basic flight program

with one of the microcomputer flight sim ulators: the Advanced Flight Trainer. The graphics are very realistic in the program, but a real pilot will miss the sensations his body experiences during actual flight. When you accelerate, for example, your body is pressed back into the seat by the force of gravity iG force). This same factor also exists when the plane is in a steep climb. Negative G force, which tries to pull you away from your seat, is generated

when the pilot dives straight down toward the ground. These natural forces are so precise that some aviators can actually tell if they're doing a stunt correctly, just by the way they feel. The absence of G force in a computer program, however, makes it easier on the human body when you're performing certain aerobatic maneuvem You don't have to worry about blacking out, but you do need to pay close attention to air speed, your rate of turn, and the data displayed on the G-meter. The AFT program also operates at a speed approaching real time. This means that the pilot can respond to a given situa tion and see the results of his effort almost immediately. I was equally impressed with the simulated air speed of the pro gram. Believe it or not, I can fly one of the computer aircraft at a specific rate of speed and come close to estimating that speed by flying over a building or buzzing an object on the ground.

Jermaine: Inside the AFT package is a picture of a broken fortune cookie with the message "Don't screw the pooch." What does this message mean, and why was it important enough to be included? General Yeager: Many years ago I was flying research aircraft, over the Mohave Desert, with some tactical air force guys. One of their pet expressions was, "Don't was written over a year ago. We've learned Q lot since then, and that knowl edge will be used in the making of future AFT translations. The IBM program, for example, featured good graphics and four colors. Our group is currently developing

Commodore 64 graphics which not only

exhibit a more fluid motion, but also take advantage of an 16-color palette. So you see it's simply a matter of taking the original design, porting it over to a specific system, upgrading the graphics and sounds to match the capabilities of the computer and releasing the finished product to the public. H


Chuck Yeager screw the pooch." It means don't auger your airplane into the ground or simply, don't screw up. Jermaine: Let's discuss a specific airplane that exists in the AFT: the Bell X-l. How well is it simulated in the program? General Yeager: Before I answer that question, I'd like to tell you a little about the Bell X-l. It was a rocket-powered mili tary prototype, created by Bell Aircraft. I used it, back in October of 1947, to break the sound barrier for the first time. The plane had a single seat and was airlaunched from a mother ship, with a full load of fuel. As the craft approaches the speed of .9 Mach (Mach 1 or the speed of

sound is approximately 739 mph). the air plane exhibits a noticeable stability prob lem. The nose of the aircraft will suddenly pull up, causing one wing to rise and the airplane turns over. Pilots call this aerobatic stunt a "Dutch roll." Someone once asked me if it was possi ble to land the early experimental rocket planes, like the Bell X-l, with a full load of fuel. I told him yes, it was possible, but you blow up. [He laughs for a moment.] That particular aircraft weighed almost three times as much fully fueled. It was air-launched from a mother ship and burned its fuel at a rapid rate, so the land ing gear wasn't designed to support a ful ly-loaded airplane. Some of the NASA pi lots (the agency was called the National Committee for Aeronautics back then) ac tually tried to land the craft with a partial tank of fuel. They succeeded in safely reaching the ground but tore the nose gear off in the process. The correct proce dure was to jettison all but a trickle of fuel before landing. Yes, the Bell X-l has its own set of peculiarities, and you will expe rience them first-hand in the Advanced Flight Trainer.

Jermaine: If you had your life to live over again, are there any events you would modify or do in a completely different way? Yeager: Now that's a foolish question (he laughs). In closing I would like to say that Chuck Yeager is a blinding light in a gloomy world, where everyone is search ing for something or someone to believe in. Speaking for the software pilots out there, I want to welcome you to our squad ron, General Yeager. I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Charlotte Tay lor and Rich Hilleman at Electronic Arts, Randy Havener (my favorite computer pi lot), and Scott Taylor for their help with this article. H

Adventure Road

Continued from pg, 62

out all the bikers and mutants in America while playing Rmdivar 2000, the logical place to go is Europe. As in the original Roadicar, your futuristic adventure un folds in the aftermath of a nuclear war. In stead of leading a crew of knights and dwarves, you'll command convoys of heav ily armed cars, trucks and motorcycles and armies made up of street gangsters, the poor and mercenaries. The goal is to find and disarm five nuclear devices, then locate the terrorists' headquarters and an nihilate them. Locations of these targets are randomly deteiTnined at the outset of each new game. As with Eternal Dagger, Roadwar Europa is basically a new scenario that makes few changes to the original game system. You view an overhead map of Europe and its highways, moving a car icon via keyboard commands, until you reach a new town or encounter enemy gangs. Then you can transact with the locals, hoping some will join your forces and fighting others in order to take over the town. A battle can take just as long as in Dagger, and again you lose certain capabilities by choosing the "quick com bat'' option. It's a novice to intermediatelevel game, not as hard as Dagger or The Dungeon. Sequels have always been a mixed blessing: you know a lot of gamers must have liked the original game, or the com pany wouldn't have released a sequel. At the same time, few sequels manage to match the excitement and intrigue of the original. In the case of these three, only

Dungeon dearly outclasses the initial game in the series. That means that if you liked the gaming system of any of these games, you'll have fun with the sequels. But even if you didn 't like Alternate Reali ty, The City, you might like Dungeon. (All are for the 64, though you can expect Amiga conversions of Dungeon and Roadwar Europa.) Clues of the Month: In Dungeon, a Spir it Shield can be used to attack as well as defend and makes a fine secondary weap on. When your character reaches level three, seek out the Oracle of Wisdom at 27N, 35E on level one. A character in Eternal Dagger can cany but three weap ons, so give each one a weapon that does Cold, Fire and Holy damage. Back up the character disk before entering Alvis' Tbwer and before airanging for transpor tation to the underwater city. These dun geons are one-way affairs, and you'll wind up in a no-win situation if you run out of karma points inside. Q

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111


SIGGRAPH'87

Continued from pa. 76

of still frames have been devel oped. Next, you instruct Cell Animator to play them back in a certain sequence. You can then view the animation, stop it, rearrange it, pause it to edit a picture or any number of things that could normally be done using paper page-flipping techniques. Gary Schultz. DynamicCads author, was also present giving full-featured demon strations of his high-perfor mance Computer Aided De sign package. His demonstra tions ranged from designs for a simple rabbit hutch to a full blown fighter jet. He utilized a Roland plotter to demonstrate the wide range of scaling and output functions available and delivered the entire fighter jet drawing reduced to the size of a postcard.

Mimetics Mimetics' entry in the Com modore booth was a new Gen lock device that will fit into your shirt pocket and a 24-bitsper-second Frame Grabber. The Frame Grabber allows you, with the aid of their graphics and control package, to completely control a video environment. For demonstra tion purposes, they were con

at the SIGGRAPH booth to in troduce their program PageFlipper. PageFlipper is true to its name — it performs anima

tion by using a page-flipping technique. This involves the creation and manipulation of a separate graphics "page" for each sequence in your planned animation. The package is de signed to work with IFF files from any of the major graphics packages, including DeluxePaint II, Images, DigiView and many others. The system al lows you to utilize frames up to the full memory capacity of the machine, in any resolution and number of allowable colors. It also supports full overscan, so you won't be plagued with the borders that are so noticeable in computer graphics. Of all the packages present ed at SIGGRAPH, I found Mindware's PageFlipper the easiest to use. By simply draw ing a series of frames and doc toring them, you can then put them together and animate the sequence by telling PageFlip per the order and speed at which to play them. The fin ished results can be very hu morous or very professional, depending solely on the amount of work you put into the separate frames.

trolling, and re-editing scenes

NewTek

from a major motion picture.

Newtek's offerings at SIG GRAPH included demonstra tions of DigiView and DigiPaint. DigiView has become the de facto standard for cap turing images for use with the Amiga. The system's resolu tion has improved over the past year to a point of extreme clarity. Color selection and sharpness of image have both improved to broadcast quality. The DigiPaint system is the first package for the Amiga that actually takes full advan tage of the system's Hold and Modify mode of graphics dis play. This allows for some very sharp graphics images with the use of the entire palette of 4096 possible colors at the same time. Demonstrations showed the complete coloriza-

The resolution of the Frame Grabber was such that it was difficult to determine which frames from the movie were being played back from the video tape and which were be ing displayed from stored, pre viously grabbed, images. Their Genlock unit promises a very high-quality output that truly meets the NTSC stan dard. With the combination of these two products, Mimetics offers video production facili ties a chance to perform highlevel, computer-aided video

production at a fraction of the cost of most systems currently on the market.

Mindware, Inc.

Mindware used their space

112

JANUARY 1988

tion of a black and white image that, upon completion of the process, would make you think the image had been captured in color. The process simply in volves outlining the area to be colored, selecting the type of colorization, from highly opaque to very subtle tinting, selecting the color to be used and then clicking in the area to be col ored. The results were phenom enal and proved to be a real show stopper.

then viewing or printing it.

The user/design interface of Sculpt

For those of you who have been involved with the Amiga from the early days, you may remember Zoxso as the com pany promising a CLJ replace ment called "ZM1" Due to prob lems with changing from soft ware version 1.0 to 1.1 and then on to 1.2, Rich Miner and his crew scrapped the ZLI pro ject and went into the nether realms of Amiga hardware. The result is a 35 MIPS (mil

3Dwasoneof the most intuitive of all of those shown. In addition to these products. NewTek also demonstrated a playback system that allows you to capture real-time video images and play them back a la Max Headroom. Their pre sentation was nicknamed "Maxine Headroom," and fea tured NewTek's own Laura Longfellow in a speech about NewTek and DigiView that consisted of 86 frames. The re sulting animated sequence (played back in real time on a standard Amiga 2000 > was quite amusing and astounding.

Software Visions, Inc. Getting away from the strict ly graphic nature of most of the software products demonstrat ed at SIGGRAPH, Software Vi sions demonstrated their data base system MicroFiche Filer. MicroFiche Filer takes a very different approach to database design and storage techniques. Instead of the standard meth ods of text storage. MicroFiche Filer uses a technique similar to that used in the micro-fiche industry, hence its name. Your records, whether pictures or pages of text stored as pictures, are stored in a micro-fiche style page, which you would scan by sliding a "magnifying glass" over the reduced images, se lecting the page of interest and

MicroFiche Filer offers the same features found in most text-oriented databases — searching, reporting and print ing, but offers them with a much simpler method of oper ation. It allows you to store pic tures of any size, display sever al pictures at once (limited only by available memory) and mix pictures with text.

University of Lowell (Zoxso)

lion instruction per second) digital processing card. The speed of this board, which is better than that required by true video throughput, allows for image applications on the Amiga 2000 that were never dreamt about by most people in the early stages of the Ami ga's development. The board uses a DMA (Di rect Memory Access) interface that will provide its user with the ability to perform very high-speed image processing for animation and other graph ics-oriented tasks.

Winner's Circle System Winner's Circle has pro duced a turnkey graphics de velopment and presentation system based on the Amiga se ries, utilizing several software packages on the market (in cluding Aegis' VideoScape 3D). The system is designed with the average user in mind, which meant mainly bringing the cost for such a system to below the $10,000 price range. Thanks to the price of the Amiga and various newly de veloped large screen projection systems, Winners Circle is


SIGGRAPH '87 able to provide systems start ing at well below $10,000. This brings the cost of gra phics/video production/presen tation systems well within the reach of everyone from schools to corporations who weren't thrilled with the idea of invest ing large sums of money to be limited to a single system. Now these people can afford to pur chase multiple systems mak ing it easier for a multi-depart ment company or school to do the same work in a more effi cient manner.

Professional Page goes the extra mile and gives the user the ability to use color separation techniques for the creation of "magazine-quality color documents." hi addition to providing the system to users, Winner's Cir cle is also going to produce vid eo advertising and presenta tions themselves. Pricing promises to be much lower than that charged by a tradi tional production studio. In addition to the turnkey system, Winner's Circle will also be going head to head with CSA with the introduction of a 68020/68881 processor replace ment board for all Amigas. The 500 and 1000 units will be pig gyback style while the 2000 version is designed to use the CPU slot provided.

Hits of the Show

Of the various items demon strated at the SIGGRAPH con vention, I found two particular lines of special interest. I'm not trying to say that the other items presented were of less importance, but the items I se lected were the kind of items that I feel will help push the

Amiga family into the lime light where it should have been all along. These items are the Computer Systems Associates (CSA) Tlirbo Amiga product line and the Ameristar Net work cards. First, let's take a look at the CSA products and describe what they will do for current Amiga 1000 owners as well as what they will do for people considering buying an Amiga 500 or 2000. CSA's major release for the Amiga 1000 is the Model TH1000 TUrbo Highrise Ex pansion Chassis. This chassis (formerly called the "Tbwer") wall allow current Amiga 1000 owners to upgrade their ma chines to full slot compatibility with the Amiga 2000. The Turbo Highrise contains seven "Zorro" slots, four IBM-com patible slots and a CPU slot. With a suggested retail of S995.00, it will probably be welcomed by 1000 owners look ing to upgrade. Now instead of trading in or selling your Amiga 1000, you can add the Highrise for less than the re placement cost required to move up to the capabilities of the 2000. The Highrise will then allow an Amiga 1000 owner to take Mill advantage of products designed to work with the Amiga 2000. CSA is also marketing a wide range of products for use in the Highrise or inside an Amiga 2000. Included are a 68020/68881 Turbo card, 32-bit Static RAM in 1/2 MB and 2 MB sizes, a SCSI controller and various SCSI-compatible hard drives. In addition they are also producing a unit that will allow you to install a 68020, 68881 and 512K of 32bit Static RAM inside an Amiga 1000 by simply remov ing the existing 68000 MPU and plugging a piggyback board into the 68000 socket. Prices for these items are S595 for the 68020, S895 for the 68020/12MHz 68881, $1,295 for the 68020/20MHz 68881 and an additional $795 for 512K of 32-bit Static RAM

with any of these configura tions.

NewTek also demonstrated a playback system that

allows you to capture real-time video images and play them back a la Max Headroom. If you have an Amiga 500 and would like to add the speed and performance of the 68020/68881 to your machine, CSA also produces versions of the piggyback unit for you. The prices are the same as for the Amiga 1000, but the 512K of Static RAM is not an available option. CSA is also planning to produce a mini-rack unit for the 500 that wall allow you to use some of the cards designed for the 2000. Exact specs were not available at SIGGRAPH. In any case, the Turbo line promises that, whichever Amiga you own, your perfor mance will be greater than any

of the industry's performance leaders'. In fact, an Amiga 1000 with the Tlirbo Highrise, 68020/68881 processing pair

and 512K of Static RAM turns in a Dhrystone figure of 2250, whereas a VAX 11/780 turns in a Dhrystone figure of 1500. This makes the Turbo-ized Amiga 50% faster than a VAX. Richard Moore and Joe Simoneti, of Ameristar, were busy showing off what many in the computer industry consider necessary for a serious comput er to survive — networking. Richard and Joe, along with the other members of Ameris tar have pixxiuced a network ing system for the Amiga se ries that gives an Amiga owner the capability to network his or her machine to other Amigas or other system servers (like SUN or DEC machines) via ei ther the Ethernet or Arcnet protocols. I spoke with Joe and

Richard to find out more about

the protocols involved and to get their reasoning behind bringing networking to the Amiga family. When asked "Why the Amiga?" Joe responded that they saw the Amiga as a ma chine that had a lot of poten tial. They felt that they could enhance the usefulness of the machine by introducing net work services. At the time, they had seen SUN's network file system (NFS) as an emerg ing industry standard and felt that they could bring the Amiga into the mainline of the industry by producing Ether

net and Arcnet boards to sup port this standard. In doing so, they've made the Amiga avail able for use as a low-cost client workstation. They have also supplied peer to peer capabilities that will al low you to assign an Amiga as the server and then have a number (limited only by the protocol you are using) of other Amigas acting as worksta tions. Each workstation can have its own local file system, however, it can rely entirely on the server if it must. Also, you would not be limited to a sin gle-server-multiple-client sys tem. With the drivers provided, any Amiga on the network can be set up to act as the server for any other Amiga, while ac tually being the client of yet another Amiga (or other host, for that matter). Therefore, given four Amigas, A could be a server for B, C & D, while C was also a server for D & A, with B acting as a client for a SUN out further in the net work. The boards sell for $495 each in the Amiga 2000 configura tion. The driver software is al most invisible to the user — in fact, when Joe demonstrated the S}rstem hooked up between a SUN Series 3 and an Amiga 2000, the SUN (which was the server) showed up on the

Amiga screen as just another Workbench disk icon. Also, when accessed, the speed in which the network responded COMMODORE MAGAZINE

113


SIGGRAPH '87

was actually much faster than the usual Amiga disk response. So far as the Amiga was con cerned, the SUN was just an other volume that it had access to. One difference to the Ami ga's devices, however, was that the server could be unmounted while an Amiga device, once mounted, is there until you re boot your machine. Joe was quick to contribute the following comment: "The best networking is networking that you don't see. The best networking is the kind where you can use the copy command or run your favorite editor or do everything as if the network was a disk on your own ma chine. You don't want to have a lot of special commands just to use the network, you want to make the whole thing trans parent to the user." Richard summed up their

work by saying. "There are cer tain areas of development that people have moved into. We feel that we've opened up an avenue into a whole new area of development. People can get on board and develop multi user applications that were un heard of before.'' In addition to their separate interests, CSA and Ameristar have gotten together and CSA will be marketing the Ameris tar Networking cards and driv ers with their Turbo-Amiga line to combine the functiona lity provided by these products. With companies like CSA and Ameristar developing products for our machines, Amiga owners may soon be able to look back at the early skepticism and laugh, knowing that it was only a matter of time before we got the last laugh. a

Included in the Commodore booth were exhibits by: Aegis Development 2210 Wilshire Blvd.. Suite 277 Santa Monica, CA 90403 213)392-9972

Anieristar Technologies

P.O. Box 415 Hauppage. NY 11788 5161698-0834

Anakin Research 100 Westmore Drive Unit 1IC

Rexdale, Ontario M9V 5C3

Canada 1416)828-0913

Liquid Light 2301 West 205th St. Suite 106

Microlllusions

17408 Chatsworth St. Granada Hills. CA 91344

(818)360-3715

Associated Computer

i4O8t741-O117

(417) 887-7373

Byte by Byte Arboretum Plaza II 9442 Capita] of Texa> Highway N. Suite 150 Austin. TX 78759 1512) 3434357

CalComp 2411 West La Palma Ave. Anaheim. CA 92803 (7141821-2000 Computer System Associates (CSA)

7564 TVade St.

Cupertino. CA 95014

Mindware, Inc. 370DunlopSt.W. Unit 3,5

Barrie, Ontario UN 5R7 Canada t705i 737-5998 NewTek, Inc. 115 West Crane St. Topeka.KS 66603 19131354-1146 Software Visions, Inc. 26 Forest Rd. Framingham. MA 01701 16171877-1266

University of Lowell (ZOXSO)

San Diego. CA 92121

P.O. Box 283 Lowell. MA 01S53-0283

.6191566-3911

(6171655-9548

Cold Disk. Inc. P.O. Box 789 217lDumvinDr.,#13

Winner's Circle System 2618 Telegraph Ave. Berkley. CA 94704

Mississausa Ontario L5L 1X2

(41518454811

114

JANUARY 1988

RAM:C assumes that I want to work from the Workbench only. The only drawback to using a RAM:C configuration is the slow down in the booting process and the loss of approximately 199K ofHAM.

I You could edit the COPY portion to include only the files that you use if you don't need the entire C directory - taj] Frank Dean Brunswick. ME

Defender of the Crown: When laying siege on a castle, you must be carefUl not to use up all of your ammunition before you completely breach the castle wall. To increase the accuracy of your shots, here are some hints that will help you break through with the least number of shots: Your first shot should be made with the cradle of the catapult (the part that the rack sits in) positioned so that five to six pixels of the rope are exposed. Each shot after that should allow one more pixel of the rope to be exposed. If you follow this guide you should be able to breach the wall with ammo to spare. Another interesting thing that I have discovered is that if your home castle is attacked, and you have no men there, the computer will put a number of men equal to your campaign army in your castle. For example, you have zero men at home and 50 men in your campaign army and your home castle is at tacked. You will now have 50 men at home and 50 men in your campaign army If you win the battle at home, you can return and put these 50 additional men into your campaign army. Greg Nichols Perm Valley, CA

(2131618-0274

Mi met ics P.O. Box 1560

1306 East Sunshine Springfield. MO 65804

Continued from pg. 18

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Tips & Tricks/Amiga

Sinbad and the Throne of the Falcon: If you are tired of being wiped out every time you get into shipwreck tenitory or killed when you have to do battle, here's a small tip that will save you some anguish (and lives): By double-clicking on the Close Gad get in the upper left hand comer of the screen, you will betaken to GAME UTILITIES. Once there, you click on the RESUME GAME Gadget which will return you to the World Map screen. You may now continue to explore. Also, if you are ready to end the game by fighting the Black Prince in the battle to the death at the castle, do this before you actually fight, and both of your strengths will be returned to full. That doesn't make it any easi er to defeat him. but it may keep }tou live a bit longer. Tim Park Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Stack Information: If you're the kind of person who uses the CLI and then "RUNs" all of yom1 applications from the cuirent CLI, here's a bit of inibmiation that may enable you to do more with your Amiga than you could before. In many instances, pro grams require as little as 2K of Stack memory to operate. In oth ers, they require as much as 50K. The first thought many of the users in my circle had was that you must set the Stack to the

largest configuration required to prevent any problems when you run those stack-intensive applications. This was due to the fact that whenever you "spawn" a new task from an existing CLI using RUN, the program will be started with a stack the size of Continued on pg. 116


Faery Tale Adventure

AMIGA Software Reviews/Barbarian

Continued from pg. 38

Continued from pg. 40

of doors, and each key is only good for one

where you began. If you delay, the volcano erupts with you in it. The game has a funny side as well. He gor may be a hero, but his IQ isn't any thing to brag about. He will follow your instructions to the letter, regardless of how foolish they may be, For instance, if you tell him to walk off the edge of a cliff, he will without hesitation, i A character asked to do an obviously deadly feat in an adventure normally points out the stupid ity of the action and refuses.) Barbarian is a first-rate Amiga title from Psygnosis. a Liverpool-based com pany, and after experiencing the game's quality and challenge I hope many more will follow. If you are looking for a beauti ful, addictive, action-packed challenge for your Amiga, this one will do just fine.

door opening.

There are some problems with Faery Tale Adventure. First, there are actually two different versions of the game. There is a second version because there were many bugs and problems with the first

version. The old version of Faery Tale Ad venture can corrupt any saved game, pos sibly prohibiting you from loading your saved game. More often it will mean that objects and people will appear in your saved game where they aren't supposed to be. If you do find out that you have bought

the old version oEFaery Tale Adventure, do not despair. Send your original disk to Microlllusions, and they will send you the new version. If you are not sure which ver sion you have, save a game in progress, and watch what happens next. If the

screen does not change, then you have the new version. However, if the Faery Tale screen disappears, and is replaced by a black screen which only contains the fa miliar CLJ prompt, then you have the old version of the game. There are still a few bugs in Faery Tale Adventure that haven't been fixed yet. For example, the game does not work with all expansion memory devices. Also, at various times the people and monsters in Faery Tale will appear as

"colorful garbage." As for problems with the game other than the programming, one problem is that you can't cany extra food with you. There are pieces of food that can be found, picked up and later eaten, but these ran dom morsels appear rarely. Since a tre mendous amount of traveling must be un dertaken, you constantly find your char acter on the brink of starvation. Another flaw is the length of time that must be spent traveling from place to place. I don't object to the size of playing field, rather I am frustrated with the lack of interesting places to check out on this land mass. Overall, I was very pleased with Faen Tale Adventure. Unlike a game like De fender of the Crown, where the audio visu al parts of the program are intended to dazzle and awe, the effect of the audio/vi sual parts of Faery Tale is much less no ticeable. Faery Tale does not have the best graphics, sound or animation of all Amiga games, but the combined effect of all three is matched by perhaps no other game on the Amiga market today. I strongly suggest that you take a look at Faery Tale for yourself, and see what I mean. Despite the problems that still exist with this game, I'm sure that you will feel that you will be getting your money's worth, g

Hints

The only sure way to succeed is to memo rize every step through the cavern. Here are some suggestions to get you started: • When Hegor first begins walking you can cause him to both thrust his sword and walk at the same time. This combina tion is great for the first two opponents since they time their attack with Hegor's hesitation. If you start and then stop him, getting him to both walk and thrust again is difficult, and sometimes deadly. • Since time is a factor, and at least on the first few levels of the catacombs Hegor is quicker than Necron's guards, combin ing running and fighting will get you where you are going faster with less risk. • Fighting isn't always the answer— Hegor can jump better than Carl Lewis. Use this move to get behind opponents who give you real trouble. For instance the only way to get past the first twin trees is to jump through before the trap falls. The same is true of the wooden bridge—you can't walk across it, but you

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can jump over it.

• If you think the way Hegor jumps for ward is good, you need to see him jump backward. This is a great maneuver to po sition yourself behind an opponent and land facing his back. To do this turn He gor's back to the advancing threat and then click the defend icon. This causes the little barbarian to do a flying reverse jump. As soon as he lands, go into attack posture and the bad guys won't know what hit them. • Hegor performs commands in se

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115


Tips & Tricks/Amiga

Continued from pg. 114

your current stack default. If this default is 25000 bytes, then

you throw away an extra 25K every time you start a new appli cation (no matter how small). One way around this is by issuing a NEWCLI command from the current CLI, resize the new CLI window to its smallest size and then adjust the stack size in that window to what is necessary for your application. Now, you are only using the memory required for the mini-CLI. the applica tion and its stack. This doesn't disturb the original stack size, however, hi many instances, this could mean the difference be tween two and three applications running in the multitasking environment awarded by the Amiga. Also, some applications create their own stack through calls to AllocMem in the Exec Li brary. If this is the case, then your savings could actually be greater than expected. These charts demonstrate the saving on my machine (512K for this example).

Type chip fast total

Original CLI with a Stack of 10,000 Bytes Full Screen Maximum Largest Available In-Use 187712 364824 151040 515864 0 0 0 0 364824 515864 187712 151040

Type chip fast total

Secondary CLI with Stack of 4,000 Bytes. Minimum Size Maximum Available In-Use Largest 370824 145040 515864 187712 0 0 0 0 370824 515864 187712 145040

Type

Original CLI \v/10K Stack and UE in 2nd C LI Maximum Largest Available In-L'se

chip fast total

224640 0 224640

291224

515864

175712

0 291224

0 515864

175712

0

Type chip fast total

Secondary Mini-CLI w/lOK Stack and IE Available Maximum In-Use Largest 224640 515864 291224 175712 0 0 0 0 224640 291224 515864 175712

Type chip fast total

Secondary Mini-CLI \v/2K Stack and UE Maximum Available In-L'se Largest 240432 275432 515864 187712 0 0 0 0 240432 275432 515864 187712

The first two charts show the difference with blank CLI win dows, while the last three show the difference between a 10K Stack initial window and the effects of reducing the Stack to 2K in the second CLI prior to running the Shareware editor. UEdit. Aden Stephens St. Louis, OH

A Better LINE INPUT for AmigaBASIC: This is a fix to the screen flash that occurs when you use LINE INPUT or INPUTS with the AC/BASIC compiler from AbSoft. It also allows you to specify the number of characters to accept and where on the

116

JANUARY 1988

screen to display the response. Also, Backspacing will only go as far as the first character that the user has entered. Tb use it, call it by passing the number of characters allowed by the user in re sponse and the X and Y locations on the screen. The examples will demonstrate how to do this. The user's response will be re turned in the shared variable User$. It is assumed that you have preset the color that you want the text to be displayed in prior to calling Response. CLS: DIM Test$(2) LOCATE 23,1 : PRINT "What is your name?'; CALL Response(20,23,20)' Or Response 20,23,20 Test$(0) = User$ LOCATE 12,5 : PRINT "How old are you?" COLOR 3 CALL Response(3,12,22) COLOR lTest$(l) = UserS LOCATE 1.1 : PRINT "What do you think of this SUB Pro gram?"

CALLResponse(78,3.1) Test$(2) = UserS LOCATE 6,1: PRINT Test$(0),Test$(l)/Iest$(2) END

SUB Response(Num%^Loc%JxLoc^) STATIC SHARED UserS

LOCATE yLoc%,xLoc% CursY = (yLoc%-l)*8 CursX = (xLoc%-l)*8 UNE(CursX,CursY)-(CursX + 6,CursY + 7),3.bf User$ = "" GetEntry: c$ = INKEY$ : IF c$ = "" THEN GOTO GetEntry IFASC(c$> = 13 THEN IJNEf CursX,CursYw CursX + 6,CursY + 7).0.bf EXIT SUB END IF

IF ASC(c$) = 8 AND LEN(User$> > 0 THEN User$ = LEFT$fUser$,LEN(User$)-l) PRINT c$; IJNE(CursX.CursY)-(CursX + 6,CursY + 7).0,bf CursX = CursX - 8 LINE(CursX.CursYKCursX + 6.CiirsY + 7).3.bf GOTO GetEntry ELSEIFASC(cS) = 8 AND LEN(UserS) = 0THEN GOTO GetEntry END IF IF LEN(User$) - Num9ÂŁ THEN BEEP: GOTO GetEntr LINE(CursX,CursY)-(CursX + 6,CursY + 7).0,bf CursX = CursX + 8 LINE(CursX,CursYMCursX + 6,CursY + 7).3,bf PRINT cS;: User$ = User$ + c$ GOTO GetEntry END SUB

This one will run as if is. Just be sure to pass the values de scribed and you can now have better control of user input in your programs.

Tim Jones

Deltona, FL

D


Arnica Software Reviews/Online 2.0— Continued from pg. -16

Inside Q-Link

Continued from pg. 64

Can Your

MicroSystems now claims that Online! can keep up with 9600 baud. Although I

magazine to provide copies of their pro grams online. These program files are be can't confirm this, I can tell you that 2400 ing provided as a special convenience and baud is no longer a problem for OnlineFs i this should not be taken as an indication screen I/O routines. that the programs are being placed in the Many new commands have been added public domain. Files of this type are usu to the script file capabilities in Online! ally segregated from the Public Domain One is the Menu command, which allows libraries. you to simulate moving the mouse and se One other type of file you'll occasionally lecting a menu option. Another new script find online are the shareware programs. command is Say, which allows you to actu These are also copyrighted programs, but ally say the line, via the Amiga's built-in you can copy and distribute them freely. speech capability. You can now effectively The authors request, however, that you create script subroutines, and keep the send some sort of monetary donation to subroutines separate from the main script support future efforts if you find their cre file via the Do command. Do will allow ations useful. You can normally find out you to execute another script file, then re how to contact them within the program turn you to the main script file. itself, along with specific information on There are now a set of little gadgets, lo what type of donation is expected. cated at the bottom of the window, which A donation typically registers you as a allow you to execute macros (shifted and user with the author and may get you de unshifted) without taking your hands off tailed printed documentation, future up the mouse. Online! now has a review dates, or supplementary programs or util mode which will store the last 8K of ities. Some shareware authors abuse this screen text, so you can review this buffer concept, however, by issuing numerous at any time. You can save the buffer, print "updates" that may attempt to milk users it, or perform cut and paste to and from for additional income. Use your head and the clipboard, which will allow you to try to support those authors you find helptransfer data to and from any other fiil and the products you like. If an author Amiga program that is running to and sees a worthwhile return for his efforts from OnlineFs review buffer. he'll be encouraged to work on new and Online! still has a few problems. Menu better products. and sub-menu options don't seem to be Many shareware authors have not fared grouped in any sensible pattern. For in so well in the past, so an association has stance, putting the Duplex menu option been formed specifically for them. If you're separate from the baud rate and parity considering distributing a program you've settings makes little sense. Another prob written via this method, it might be wise lem that still hasn't been fixed for good is to contact the Association of Shareware OnlineFs infamous bug—the screen's text Professionals (ASP) at 11058 Main St, display can be thrown into the graphics Suite 225. Bellevue, WA 98006. (or international portion for the Amiga's Here's one final hint that many novice jewel fontsl portion of a font's ASCII map. users may find helpful. If you remember Online! used to occasional start showing these two simple lines, you should never strange text characters, effectively min get lost: ing any terminal session. This happens When in doubt—Use F5 less frequently with Online! 2.0, but it When all else fails—Use F7 still can occur. If it does, you are forced to quit Online! and start all over again. These simple rules never seem to dawn Another small complaint I have is that on users and are very easy to remember. while Online! still supports CIS-B, Com They work almost anywhere on the QpuServe's special protocol, they have not Link system. F5 always gets you out of added WXmodem to their available proto whatever area or function you're in. If cols. WXmodem is PeopleLink's special that fails, F7 will do just as well or provide protocol, and there are very many Amiga more information on what to do next. If users on PeopleLink. you're totally and hopelessly lost and don't Despite these problems, Online! has reknow what to do next, there's always the emerged as a good terminal program. power switch on your computer! While it will face stiff competition, On As usual, I can be reached online al line! now has what it takes to at least de most daily via E-Mail addressed to serve serious consideration for any Amiga RBAKER if you have any comments, user who is looking for a good terminal questions, or hints you'd like to share with program. g fellow users. g

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117


Adventures at Infocom Continued from pg. 73

Creative Sendees puts together the InvisiClue booklet that is made for each game. Meanwhile, the testers are making sure

The original team of four

spent many sleepless nights creating the Great Underground Empire. that the game in production is error-free and as good as the imp can make it. The majority of the testing phase is spent checking bugs and rechecking old bugs. It gets very tiring to play the same game again and again, so Product Testing Man ager Liz Cyr-Jones tries to space out the testers so that they don't get burned out on a game. Cyr-Jones describes Testing: "There are a ton of meetings involved and at some point in the process a day may go by where three new versions of the same game are tested, fixed for bugs and retested. It's very handy to have the design ers right down the hall." After Testing and Creative Services are finished, the product is almost ready. Get ting the product to market now lies in the hands of Marketing and Sales. Director of Marketing Mike Dombrook, Product Manager Gayle Syska and Sales Develop ment Manager Gabrielle Accardi each have a few weeks with the product to do their jobs. Public Relations Manager Cyn thia Weiss also has a few weeks to send out press releases and review copies to re viewers on her list. Ironically, advertising has been cut back and Infocom relies heavily on the work of these three people to promote the product. Distribution of a new product through out the U.S.. Canada. Europe. Japan and Australia is handled by Activision. Info com. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activi sion, retains full creative control over products under the Infocom label. Director of Marketing Dombrook said "Activision is there to help us with different things we may need. Activision offers us many more possibilities, including an Amiga version of The Lurking Manor that includes sound effects." Tb put an interactive fiction program onto disk for consumer use. the imps use a language created especially for the design of interactive fiction called ZIL iZork Im plementation Language!. Chris Reeve, Vice President of Product Development, describes ZIL: "It's similar to the computer 118

JANUARY 1988

The Status Line For 250,000 readers. The Status Line is the major source of news about Infocom. Since 1982, there has been a newsletter for the fans of Infocom. Originally started by Director of Marketing Mike Dombrook as a newsletter for Zork fans called The

NewZork Times, The Status Line/The NewZork Times has seen publication 18 times as of this writing. What makes The Status Line so popular? Perhaps the fact that the newsletter is free for all purchasers of an Infocom game helps the circulation of The Status Line. By filling in the warranty card that comes with eveiy game, you are eligible to re ceive The Status Line. No renewal is nec essary for you to receive the most up-todate information about Infocom and its games. The newsletter is published four times a year and has grown larger every year of publication. The New Zork Times was first pub lished in 1982 under the direction of Mike Dombrook. who coincidental ly also found ed the Zork Users Group. ZUG. In 1986. a famous New York newspaper requested that Infocom change the name of the newsletter. One issue went by without a new name. Finally, a reader's suggestion was accepted in a contest and the name of the newsletter was officially changed to The Status Line. However, tine fans of In focom still refer to the newsletter as The New Zork Times. The New Zork Times offered subscrib ers special Zork merchandise that, alas, is no longer available. When Infocom took science language Pascal in that a com mand entered in the game calls a proce dure, and that procedure calls other proce dures in a long chain to check all of the possibilities. Eventually, the chain ends and the command can be processed. Pro gramming in ZIL with new commands re quires linking the new commands to the

appropriate procedures. ZIL is symbolic, like LISP, and checks the relationships be tween an object and an action to see if it feasible." An imp designs the game on a main frame DEC 20 system, lovingly known as "Fred." After using ZIL to get the code to gether for the game, the program is con verted to the various microcomputers. Be cause the conversion to different micros occurs after the main code is written, all versions are essentially written at the same time. The original machine lan guage (called Z-machine language) is

over NZT from ZUG, the special mer chandise did not switch hands. So. if you can find any of the original Zork buttons. bumper stickers, hint booklets and post ers, you have bona fide collector's items. Still, The Status Line continues the tradi tion of those four early editions of NZT and offers some special deals of its own. Subscribers are eligible to take part in the contests that appeal1 in The Status Line, of which there are usually two per is sue. Also, readers of the newsletter occa sionally get special offers for Infocom mer chandise and discounts on games. For ex ample, all 18 issues of The Status Line: The New Zork Times were offered for $10 in the Summer 1987 issue of The Status Line. Similar items are occasionally of fered for sale. In the Winter 1986 edition of the newsletter ithen The New Zork Times), the first 150 purchasers ofBallylux) for each computer version received editions signed and numbered by Jeff O'Neill. I find the most interesting part of each edition of The Status Line is the puzzle that appears in the back. Each puzzle really has two parts. First, the reader must answer trivia questions about the Infocom games. These questions can ask for number answers or word answers and are usually difficult and obscure. In any case, after answering these questions, the results are placed into some other kind of puzzle, requiring correct answers from the first part and an ability to solve the sec ond puzzle. Previous puzzles have includ ed crosswords, connect the dots, anagrams and guessing what game a particular name comes from. g placed on the micro's disk along with a ZIP (Z-machine Interpreter Program) that understands the original machine lan guage and adapts it to the micro. Brian Moiiarty. designer of the new release Be yond Zork. attempted to use advanced EZIPs (enhanced ZIPs) to produce unique features for his game. While developing Beyond Zork, Brian asked "What could be done to make all of the typing and mapping easier for the player?" The result is found in Beyond Zork, complete with many new enhance ments. The game draws a map on the screen as you visit locations. It also allows the player to use a mouse to point at the map to move along. You can also program the function keys to execute a string of commands. These enhancements will make Beyond Zork very popular in the market to those looking for a little extra with their Infocom game.


Adventures at Infocom I had the pleasure of playing Beyond take place in real time, so that if you take Zork during my trip to Infocom. Although your time playing the game, you'll waste it wasn't complete, I can already say that valuable game time. Blank has been the game will be one of my favorites of the away from Infocom for a few years but the year. Beyond Zork. aside from all of the veteran designer has been working on his normal elements and those discussed by new project for some time. Border Zone Moriarty above, is partly a role-playing should be available by the time you read game in that your character has distinct this. characteristic ratings that increase The success that Infocom enjoyed last throughout the game. Moriarty described year was considerable. Public Relations Beyond Zork: "It's not a sequel and it's not Manager Cynthia Weiss related proudly, a prequel. It takes place in the universe of "All of our titles released this year made it the Zork trilogy, the Enchanter trilogy to the Softsel Hot list. The games that and Wishbringer and has elements from were named to the list were Bureaucracy, all those games." Hollywood Hijinx, Stationfall and The New directions that Infocom has taken Lurking Horror. Also, last quarter we saw are evident in two games released in Sep the first profit since December 1983. tember. Plundered Hearts, designed by Obviously, the company would not be as newest imp (and first female game design successful if it weren't for the talented in novators who form the backbone of Info er) Amy Briggs, is the first interactive fic tion game from Infocom with a female com. Their interactive fiction keeps people protagonist. Briggs describes Plundered up late, home from work and hopelessly Hearts as a "pirate romance. You're a addicted until completion. I annually re play the Zork trilogy just like other people woman traveling in the Caribbean in the late 1600's and you get caught up with pi rates. It's not a silly romance story that Infocom Trivia has women swooning everywhere, but more serious and lifelike." Here are some interesting bits of infor mation about Infocom that I discovered Nord and Bert Couldn't Make Head Or Tail OfIt is the other recent release. Nord while conducting research for this article: and Bert, designed by Jeff O'Neill, is a set • Steve Meretzky designs all of the puzzles for The Status Line/The New Zork of eight short stories that deals with word games. The short story format and the on Times. In his search for the most obscure pieces of information, he sometimes finds line InvisiClues are unique to Nord and things the imps didn't know about in their Bert. On-line InvisiClues can be accessed own games. The Zorkmid coin pictured on with a special command and require the the back of the Zork I box was never in player to "peel off" the answer to a ques tion to select the level of help wanted — a | cluded in the game package or mentioned general push in the right direction or a in the caption for the photograph. It took until Zork Trilogy for the coin to surface revelation of the full answer. Jon Palace, in an Infocom game. Creative Development Manager, re • Steve is considered the most prolific marked, "We're not promising on-line of the imps at Infocom. If not working on a InvisiClues with all nature games. It's an new game or proposals for a game, Steve experiment. Just like the enhancements thinks up nasty new puzzles to unleash on made in Beyond Zork." Infocom hopes to collaborate with many The Status Line readers. • In the photo session for the Spellauthors to design games. Douglas Adams breaker booklet cover, the man playing has had two successes with Infocom's The the wizard fell asleep during makeup, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (co-auth only to wake up with a full beard added to ored with Steve Meretzky) and Bureau his head. cracy. The company would like to see col • If you examine the wizard's hands in laborations with other authors for game designers. Look for more news in this area the Spellbreaker photos, you'll notice that he is wearing Dave Lebling's class ring soon. Other big news from Cambridge is the from M.I.T., the "brass rat." return of Marc Blank, Zork trilogy co-au • Jeff O'Neill, in the process of re thor, to design a spy game. The game will searching his first game, Ballyhoo, turned have three segments, one of which will in receipts for a circus ticket, parking, cir take place in real time, so that if you take cus program, four snow cones, six hot Other big news from Cambridge is the dogs, a babysitter for four hours and lost return of Marc Blank, Zork trilogy co-au time from work for five hours. Needless to thor, to design a spy game. Border Zone say, his research paid off well with the suc will have three segments, all of which cess ofBallyhoo.

re-read certain books. The humor, creativ ity and intellectual challenges contained in each game expand the imagination. After meeting the people at Infocom, I can no longer regard a new game as merely a box with a disk and enclosures. Instead I see the hard work and dedication that goes into every game, from the Customer Support reps who replace disks and an swer endless questions to Testing who look for the best in a game, extending to all areas of the company. Carl Genatossio described it best; "It's a mix of top quality people working here — the game writers, the marketing people, the creative people, the production people, the testers, public relations and customer support. Everybody is really top-notch here, and it's just a wonderful working re lationship," I would like to personally thank Cyn thia Weiss, without whom this article could not have been written. Her hard work is well-appreciated. g • Being a tester at Infocom reaps its benefits. Director of Marketing Mike Dornbrook was the company's first tester. Imps Steve Meretzky, Amy Briggs and Jeff O'Neill all started out as testers with the company too. • Brian Moriarty, designer of Wish bringer, Trinity and Beyond Zork is a for mer editor for ANALOG Computing mag azine. • Steve Meretzky originally hated text games. As Mike Dombrook's roommate in college, he was slowly drawn into the games and before long was designing them himself. • Jim Lawrence, co-author of Seastalker and Moonmist with Stu Galley, wrote for the Tbm Swift, Jr., Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys se ries.

• Michael Berlyn, aside from his efforts in designing Infidel and Suspended, was the designer of a game called Cyborg and the author of Crystal Phoenix and The In tegrated Man.

• Finally, the word "Zork." Everyone asks where it came from. The real story is that Marc Blank, one of the original de signers of Zork and Infocom veteran, chose the name for the game that he and Dave Lebling, Tim Anderson, Joel Berez and Bruce Daniels created. "Zork" was a popular nonsense word at the M.I.T. Labo ratory for Computer Science used as an interjection when something went wrong. If only Marc could have know the impact that word would have on the software in dustry and adventure games. Q COMMODORE MAGAZINE

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HOW TO ENTER PROGRAMS The programs which appear in this magazine have been run, tested and checked for bugs and errors. After a pro gram is tested, it is printed on a letter quality printer with some formatting changes. This listing is then photo graphed directly and printed in the maga zine. Using this method ensures the most error-free program listings possible. Whenever you see a word inside brack ets, such as [DOWN], the word represents a keystroke or series of keystrokes on the keyboard. The word IDOWN] would be entered by pressing the cursor-down key. If multiple keystrokes are required, the number will directly follow the word. For example, IDOWN4J would mean to press the cursor-down key four times. If there are multiple words within one set of brackets, enter the keystrokes directly after one another. For example. [DOWN. RIGHT2] would mean to press the cursordown key once and then the cursor-right key twice. Note: Do not enter the commas. In addition to these graphic symbols, the keyboard graphics are all represented by a word and a letter. The word is either SHFT or CMD and represents the SHIFT key or the Commodore key. The letter is one of the letters on the keyboard. The combination [SHFT E] would be entered by holding down the SHIFT key and

pressing the E. A number following the letter tells you how many times to type the letter. For example. [SHFT A4,CMD B3] would mean to hold the SHIFT key and press the A four times, then hold down the Commodore key and press the B three times. The following chart tells you the keys to press for any word or words inside of

brackets. Refer to this chart whenever you

aren't sure what keys to press. The little graphic next to the keystrokes shows you what you will see on the screen.

SYNTAX ERROR This is by far the most common error encountered while entering a program. Usually (sorry folks) this means that you have typed something incorrectly on the line the syntax error refers to. If you get the message "?Syntax Error Break In Line 270", type LIST 270 and press RETURN. This will list line 270 to the screen. Look for any non-obvious mis takes like a zero in place of an 0 or viceversa. Check for semicolons and colons re versed and extra or missing parenthesis. All of these things will cause a syntax

Q ■■[UP!" = CURSORUP

■j "IRIOHT)"" CURSOR RIGHT Jl ■■|LEFT|"=CURSORLEFT

[3 ■■[RVS]"=CONTROL9 8 ■■'RVOFFI""CONTROL0 H "iBLACKl""CONTROL 1 [1 [WHrrE]"=CONTROL2

OTHER PROBLEMS

This is another common error message. This can also be caused by a typing error, but it is a little harder to find. Once again, list the line number that the error mes sage refers to. There is probably a poke statement on this line. If there is, then the error is referring to what is tiling to be poked. A number must be in the range of

■■[F2f=F2

H "iYELLOW)" "CONTROLS

R " [ORANGE]" = COMMODORE 1 P -[BROWNI-"COMMODORE 2

R"[L REDJ" -COMMODORE 3 |" = COMMODORE 4 |" = COMMODORE 5

H -[F5| =F5 "IPB1"-F8

|j ■■[F8]" = F8

|£j "IPOUNDl""ENGLISH

"(L GREEN|" = COMMODORE 6

mm

-IGRAY3I" = COMMODORE 8

■|SHFT"|" = PIS

+j ■'[■!'■ = UP ARROW

GRAPHIC SYMBOLS WILL BE REPRESENTED AS EITHER THE LETTERS SHFT (SHIFT) AND A KEY ("(SHFT Q.SHFT J.SHFT D,SHFT S]") OR THE LETTERS CMDR (COMMODORE) AND A KEY {"[CMDR QrCMDR

G.COMDR Y,CMDR H]"). IF A SYMBOL IS REPEATED, THE NUMBER OF REPITITIONS WILL BE DIRECTLY AFTER THE KEY AND BEFORE THE COMMA ("[SPACE3.SHFT S4.CMDR M2I").

124

JANUARY 1988

OUT OF DATA ERROR

ILLEGAL QUANTITY ERROR

3 ■■1BLUES"=CONTROL7

"|CYAN|"= CONTROL 4

If the variable is not coming from data statements, then the problem will be a lit tle harder to find. Check each line that contains the variable for typing mistakes.

There is only one time a syntax error will tell you the ''wrong" line to look at. If the line the syntax error refers to has a function call (i.e., FN A(3», the syntax error may be in the line that defines the function, rather than the line named in the error message. Look for a line near the beginning of the program (usually) that has DEF FN A(X) in it with an equa tion following it. Look for a typo in the equation part of this definition.

. BLUE1""COMMODORE7 ~-

typos.

This error message is always related to the data statements in a program. If this error occurs, it means that the program has run out of data items before it was supposed to. It is usually caused by a prob lem or typo in the data statements. Check first to see if you have left out a whole line of data. Next, check for missing commas between numbers. Reading data from a page of a magazine can be a strain on the brain, so use a ruler or a piece of paper or anything else to help you keep track of where you are as you enter the data.

error.

H"|HOME1" UNSHIFTED CUV CLR/HOME ["IHOMEl" == UNSHIFTED HOME til "SPURPLEI" "CONTROL 5 !| "[GREENr "CONTROL 6 D'■[CLEAR]" = SHIFTED CLR/HOME m "jDOWNr=CURSORDOWN

zero to 255 to be poke-able. For example, the statement POKE 1024,260 would pro duce an illegal quantity error because 260 is greater than 255. Most often, the value being poked is a variable (A,X... i. This error is telling you that this variable is out of range. If the variable is being read from data state ments, then the problem is somewhere in the data statements. Check the data statements for missing commas or other

It is important to remember that the 64 and the PET/CBM computers will only ac cept a line up to 80 characters long. The VIC 20 will accept a line up to 88 charac ters long. Sometimes you will find a line in a program that runs over this number of characters. This is not a mistake in the listing. Sometimes programmers get so carried away crunching programs that they use abbreviated commands to get more than 80 (or 88) characters on one line. You can enter these lines by abbrevi ating the commands when you enter the line. The abbreviations for BASIC com mands are on pages 133-134 of the VIC 20 user guide and 130-131 of the Commodore 64 user's guide. If you type a line that is longer than 80 (or 88l characters, the computer will act as if everything is ok, until you press RE TURN. Then, a syntax error will be dis played (without a line number). Many people write that the computer gives them a syntax error when they type the line, or that the computer refuses to accept a line. Both of these problems are results of typ ing a line of more than 80 (or 88) charac ters.


How to Enter Programs

THE PROGRAM WONT RUN!!

This is the hardest of problems to re solve; no error message is displayed, but the program just doesn't run. This can be caused by many small mistakes typing a program in. First check that the program was written for the computer you are us ing. Check to see if you have left out any lines of the program. Check each line of the program for typos or missing pails. Fi nally, press the RUN/STOP key while the program is "running". Write down the line the program broke at and try to follow the program backwards from this point, look ing for problems.

IF ALL ELSE FAILS

You've come to the end of your rope.

, i I j

You can't get the program to run and you can't find any errors in your typing. What do you do? As always, we suggest that you try a local user group for help. In a group of even just a dozen members, someone is bound to have typed in the same program. The user group may also have the pro gram on a library disk and be willing to make a copy for you. If you do get a working copy, be sure to compare it to your own version so that you can learn from your errors and increase you understanding of programming. If you live in the country, don't have a local user group, or you simply can't get any help, write to us. If you do write to us, include the following information about the program you are having problems with:

The name of the program The issue of the magazine it was in

The computer you are using Any error messages and the line numbers Anything displayed on the screen A printout of your listing (if possible) All of this information is helpful in an swering your questions about why a pro gram doesn't work. A letter that simply states "I get an error in line 250 whenever I run the program" doesn't give us much to go on. Send your questions to:

Commodore Magazine 1200 Wilson Drive West Chester, PA 19380 ATTN: Program Problem Have fun with the programs!

Q

HOW TO USE THE MAGAZINE ENTRY PROGRAMS The Magazine Entry Programs on the next pages are two BASIC machine language programs that will assist you in entering the programs in this magazine correctly. There are versions for both the Commodore 64 and the Commodore 128. Once the program is in place, it works its magic without you having to do anything else. The program will not let you enter a line if there is a typing mistake on it. and better yet, it identifies the kind oferror for you.

Getting Started

Type in the Magazine Entry Program carefully and save it as you go along (just in easel. Once the whole program is typed in, save it again on tape or disk. Now RUN the program. The word POKING will appear on the top of the screen with a number. The number will increment from 49152 up to 49900 (4864-5545 on the 128) and just lets you know that the program is running. If everything is ok, the program will finish running and say DONE. Then type NEW. If there is a problem with the data statements, the program will tell you where to find the problem. Otherwise the program will say "mistake in data state ments." Check to see if commas are miss ing, or if you have used peiiods instead of commas. Also check the individual data items. Once the program has run, it is in memory ready to go. To activate the pro gram type SYS49152 (SYS4864 on the 128), and press RETURN. You are nowready to enter the programs from the magazine. To disable the Entry Program, just type KILL [RETURN] on the 64 or

SYS4867 on the 128. The checksums for each line are the same for both the 64 and 128. so you can enter your 64 programs on the 128 if you'd like.

Typing the Programs All the BASIC program listings in this magazine that are for the 64 or 128 have an apostrophe followed by four letters at the end of the line (e.g., 'ACDF). If you plan to use the Magazine Entry Program to enter your programs, the apostrophe and letters should be entered along with the rest of the line. This is a checksum that the Magazine Entry Program uses. Enter the line and the letters at the end and then press RETURN, just as you nor mally would. If the line is entered correctly, a bell is sounded and the line is entered into the computer's memory (without the charac ters at the end). If a mistake was made while entering the line, a noise is sounded and an error message is displayed. Read the error mes sage, then press any key to erase the mes sage and coirect the line.

IMPORTANT If the Magazine Entiy Program sees a mistake on a line, it does not enter that line into memory. This makes it impossi ble to enter a line incorrectly.

Error Messages and What They Mean There are five error messages that the Magazine Entiy Program uses. Here they are, along with what they mean and how-

to fix them.

NO CHECKSUM: This means that you forgot to enter the apostrophe and the four letters at the end of the line. Move the cursor to the end of the line you just typed and enter the checksum. QUOTE: This means that you forgot (or added) a quote mark somewhere in the line. Check the line in the magazine and correct the quote. KEYWORD: This means that you have either forgotten a command or spelled one of the BASIC keywords (GOTO. PRINT..) incorrectly. Check the line in the magazine again and check your spell ing. # OF CHARACTERS: This means that you have either entered extra charac ters or missed some characters. Check the line in the magazine again. This error message will also occur if you misspell a BASIC command, but create another keyword in doing so. For example, if you misspell PRINT as FRONT, the 64 sees the letter P and R, the BASIC keyword ON and then the letter T. Because it sees the keyword ON, it thinks you've got too many characters, instead of a simple mis spelling. Check spelling of BASIC com mands if you can't find anything else wrong.

UNIDENTIFIED: This means that you have either made a simple spelling error, you typed the wrong line number, or you typed the checksum incorrectly. Spelling errors could be the wrong number of spaces inside quotes, a variable spelled wrong, or a word misspelled. Check the line in the magazine again and correct the mistake. a COMMODORE MAGAZINE

125


Magazine Entry Program—64-

The Magazine Entry Programs are available on disk, along with oiher programs in this magazine, for $9.95. To order, contact Loadsiar at 1-S00-831 -2694.

10

PRINT"[CLEAR]POKING

20

P=49152

:REM

-";

SC000

(END

AT

1033

DATA

91,91,0D,20,20,20,20,20

1034

DATA

20,20,20,20,20,20,20,20

1035

DATA

20,20,20,20,20,20,20,91

1036

DATA

0D,51,55,4F,54,45,00,4B

1037

DATA

1038

DATA

45,59,57,4F,52,44,00,23 20,4F,46,20,43,48,41,52

1039

DATA

41,43,54,45,52,53,00,55

1040

DATA

4E,49,44,45,4E,54,49,46

1041

DATA

1042

DATA

49,45,44,00,4E,4F,20,43 48,45,43,4B,53,55,4D,00

1043

DATA

C8,B1,7A,D0,FB,84,FD,C0

L=ASC(MID$(A$,2,1))

1044

DATA

09,10,03,4C/84,C1,88,88

50

H=ASC(MID$(A$,1,1))

1045

DATA

88,8 8,88,B1,7A,C9,27,D0

DATA

60

L=L-48:IF

1046

13,A9,00,91,7A,C8,A2,00

1047

DATA

Bl,7A,9D,3C,03,C8,E8,E0

1048

DATA

04,D0,F5,6 0,A9,04,4C,CA

1049

DATA

C0,A0,00,B9,00,02,99,40

1050

DATA

03,F0,F0,C8,D0,F5,A0,00

1051

DATA

49900/SC2EC)

30

READ A$:IF

40

A$="END"THEN

L>9

THEN

H=H-48:IF

80

PRINT"[HOME,RIGHT12] "P; IF

H>15

OR

THEN

L=L-7

70

90

H>9

L>15

:PRINT"DATA

H=H-7

THEN

ERROR

110

IN

PRINT

1052

LINE";

1053

1000+INT((P-4 9152J/8):STOP 100

B=H*16+L:P0KE :GOTO

110

IF

P,B:T=T+B:P=P+1

30

TO86200

THEN

:PRINT"MISTAKE DATA 120

IN

PRINT

DATA

—>

CHECK

STATEMENTS":END

PRINT "DONE": END

1000

DATA

4C,1F, C0,00, 00,00 ,00,00

1001

DATA

00,00, 00,00, 00,0D ,00,21

1002

DATA

Cl,27, C1,2F, C1,3F ,C1,4C

1003

DATA

C1,EA, EA,EA, 4C,54 ,C0,A2

1004

DATA

05,BD, 19,C0, 95,73 ,CA,10

1005

DATA

F8,60, 60,A0, 03,B9 ,00,02

B9,40,03,F0,E6,99,00,02 DATA C8,D0,F5,20,96,C1,4C,12 DATA C2,A0,09,A9,00,99,03,C0

1054

DATA

1055

DATA

8D,3C,03,8 8,10,F7,A9,80 85,02,A0,00,20,58,Cl,20

1056

DATA

8 9,C1,20,ED,C1,E6,7A,E6

1057 1058

DATA DATA

7B,20,7C,A5,A0,00,20,80 C0,F0,D0,24,02,F0,06,4C

1059

DATA

A8,C0,4C,CE,C1,C9,22/D0

1060

DATA

0 6,20,8D,C0,4C,CE,C1,20

1061

DATA

BA,C0,4C,CE,C1,A0,00,B9

1062

DATA

00,02,20,74,C0,C8,90,0A

1063

DATA

18,6D,07,C0,8D,07,C0,4C

1064

DATA

EF,C1,8 8,A2,00,B9,00,02

1065

DATA

9D,00,02,F0,04,E8,C8,D0 F4,60,18,AD,09,C0,69,41 8D,09,C0,38,AD,0A,C0,E9

1066

DATA

1067

DATA

1068

DATA

19,90,06,8D,0A,C0,4C,1C

1069

DATA

C2,AD,0A,C0,69,41,8D,0A C0,AD,03,C0,6D,05,C0,48

1006

DATA

D9,04, C1,D0, F5,88 ,10,F5

1007

DATA

A0,05, B9,A2, E3,99 ,73,00

1070

DATA

1008

DATA

88,10, F7,A9, 00,8D ,18,D4

1071

DATA

AD,04,C0,6D,06,C0,8D,0C

1009

DATA

4C,EF, C0,E6, 7A,D0 ,02,E6

1072

DATA

C0,6 8,6D,0 8,C0,8D,0B,C0

1010

DATA

7B,4C, 79,00, A5,9D ,F0,F3

1073

DATA

AD,0C,C0,6D,07,C0,8D,0C

1011

DATA

A5,7A, C9,FF, D0,ED ,A5,7B

1074

DATA

1012

DATA

C9,01, D0,E7, 20, 2B ,C0,AD

C0,38,E9,19,90,06,8D,0C

DATA

C0,4C,52,C2,AD,0C,C0,69

DATA

00,02, 20,74, C0,90 ,DC,A0

1075

1013

1076

DATA

1014

DATA

1077

DATA

41,8D,0C,C0,AD,0B,C0,E9 19,90,06,8D,0B,C0,4C,67

1078

DATA

C2,AD,0B,C0,6 9,41,8D,0B

1079

DATA

C0,A0,01,AD,09,C0,CD,3C

1080

DATA

03,D0,20,C8,AD,0A,C0,CD

1081

DATA

3D,03,D0,17,C8,AD,0B,C0

1082

DATA

CD,3E,03,D0,0E,AD,0C,C0

1083

DATA

CD,3F,03,D0,06,20,CC,C2

1084

DATA

4C,4B,C0,98,48,68,4C,CA

1085

DATA

C0,A9,20,8D,00,D4,8D,01 D4,A9,09,8D,0 5,D4,A9,0F

1015

DATA

00,AC, A9,C1, C9,30 ,30,06 C9,3A, 10,02, 38,60 ,18,60

1016

DATA

C8,B1, 7A,C9, 20,D0 ,03,C8

1017

DATA

D0,F7, B1,7A, 60,18 ,C8,B1

1018

DATA

7A,F0, 37,C9, 22,F0 ,F5,6D

1019

DATA

03,C0, 8D,03, C0,AD ,04,C0

1020

DATA

69,00, 8D,04, C0,4C ,8E,C0

1021

DATA

18,6D, 05,C0, 8D,05 ,C0,90

1022

DATA

03,EE, 06,C0, EE,09 ,C0,4C

1023

DATA

CE,C1, 18,6D, 08,C0 ,8D,08

1024

DATA

C0,90, 03,EE, 07,C0 ,EE,0A

1025

DATA

C0,60, 0A,A8, B9,0F ,C0,85

1026

DATA

FB,B9, 10,C0, 8 5,FC ,A0,00

1086

DATA

1087

DATA

1088

DATA

8D,18,D4,60,20,A9,C2,A9 81,20,DF,C2,A9,80,20,DF C2,4C,D9,C2,20,A9,C2,A9

1027

DATA

A9,12, 20,D2, FF,B1 ,FB,F0

1089

DATA

1028

DATA

06,20, D2,FF, C8,D0 ,F6,20

1090

DATA

11,20,DF,C2,A9,10,20,DF

1029

DATA

BC,C2, 20,E4, FF,F0 ,FB,A0

1091

DATA

C2,A9,00,8D,04,D4,60,8D

1030

DATA

18,B9, 08,Cl, 20, D2 ,FF,88

1092

DATA

0 4,D4,A2,70,A0,00,88,D0

1031

DATA

10/F7, 68,68, A9,00 ,8D,00

1093

DATA

FD,CA,D0,FA,69,END

1032

DATA

02,4C, 74,A4, 4B,49 ,4C,4C

126

JANUARY 1988

END


Magazine Entry Program—128 5

TRAP

200

10

PRINT"[CLEAR]POKING

20

P=4864

:REM

$1300

-"; (END

AT

5545/$15A9) 30

READ

80

PRINT"[HOME,RIGHT12] " p;

100

A$:IF

A$="END"THEN

B=DEC(A$):POKE :GOTO

110

IF

110

P,B:T=T+B:P=P+1

30

TO59382

THEN

:PRINT"MISTAKE DATA

IN

PRINT

DATA

—>

CHECK

STATEMENTS":END

1038

DATA

45,44,00,4E,4F,20,43,48

1039

DATA

45,43,4B,53,55,4D,00,C8

1040

DATA

B1,3D,D0,FB,98,30,04,C9

1041

DATA

06,30,IE,88,88,88,88,88

1042

DATA

B1,3D,C9,27,D0,13,A9,00

1043

DATA

91,3D,C8,A2,00,B1,3D,9D

1044

DATA

00,0B,C8,E8,E0,04,D0,F5

1045

DATA

60,4C,5C,15,4C,C5,14,A0

1046

DATA

09,A9,00,99,06,13,8D,00

1047

DATA

0B,88,10,F7,A9,80,85,FD

1048

DATA

A0/00,20,3F,14,20,AE,14

1049

DATA

20,0D,4 3,84,FA,A0,FF,20

1050

DATA

67,13,F0,D8,24,FD,F0,06

1051

DATA

20,8F,13,4C,8F,14,C9,22

1052

DATA

D0,06,20,74,13,4C,8F,14

1053

DATA

20,9F,13,4C,8F,14,A0,00

1054

DATA

B9,00,0 2,20,5B,13,C8,90

1055

DATA

0A,18,6D,0A,13,8D,0A,13

1056

DATA

4C,B0,14,88,60,18,AD,0C

1057

DATA

13,69,41,8D,0C,13,38,AD

1058

DATA

0D,13,E9,19,90,06,8D,0D

1059

DATA

13,4C,CF,14,AD,0D,13,69

1060

DATA

41,8D,0D,13,AD,06,13,6D

1061

DATA

08,13,48,AD,07,13,6D,09

1062

DATA

13,8D,0F,13,68,6D,0B,13

1063

DATA

8D,0E,13,AD,0F,13,6D,0A

1000

DATA

4C,1E,13,4C,3A,13,00,00

1001

DATA

8E,00,F7,00,42,41,51,57

1002

DATA

0D,00,0D,43,08,14,0E,14

1003

DATA

16,14,26,14,33,14,A9,00

1004

DATA

8D,00,FF,AD,04,03,80,12

1005

DATA

13,AD,05,03,8D,13,13,A2

1006

DATA

4A,A0,13,8E,04,03,8C,05

1007

DATA

03,60,AD,12,13,8D,04,03

1008

DATA

AD,13,13,8D,05,03,60,6C

1009

DATA

12,13,A5,7F,D0,F9,AD,00

1010

DATA

02,20,5B,13,90,F1#A0,00

1011

DATA

4C,6F,14,C9,30,30,06,C9

1012

DATA

3A,10,02,38,60,18,60,C8

1013

DATA

B1,3D,C9,20,D0,03,C8,D0

1014

DATA

F7,B1,3D,60,18,C8,B1,3D

1064

DATA

13,8D,0F,13,38,E9,19,90

1015

DATA

F0,35,C9,22,F0,F5,6D,06

1065

DATA

06,8D,0F,13,4C,05,15,AD

1016

DATA

13,8D,06,13,AD,07,13,69

1066

DATA

0F,13,69,41,8D,0F,13,AD

1017

DATA

00,8D,07,13,4C,75,13,18

1067

DATA

0E,13,E9,19,90,06,8D,0E

1018

DATA

6D,08,13,8D,08,13,90,03

1068

DATA

13,4C,1A,15,AD,0E,13,69

1019

DATA

EE,09,13,EE,0C,13,60,18

1069

DATA

41,8D/0E,13,A0,01,AD,0C

1020

DATA

6D,0B,13,8D,0B,13,90,03

1070

DATA

13,CD,00,0B,D0,20,C8,AD

1021

DATA

EE,0A,13,EE,0D,13,60,0A

1071

DATA

0D,13,CD,-01,0B,D0,17,C8

1022

DATA

A8,B9,14,13,85,FB,B9,15

1072

DATA

AD,0E,13,CD,02,0B,D0,0E

1023

DATA

13,85,FC,A0,00,8C,00,FF

1073

DATA

AD,0F,13,CD,0 3,0B,D0,06

1024

DATA

A9,12,20,D2,FF,B1,FB,F0

1074

DATA

20,8 9,15,A4,FA,60,98,48

1025

DATA

06,20,D2,FF,C8/D0,F6f20

1075

DATA

68,4C,AF,13,A9,04,4C,AF

1026

DATA

79,15,20,A3,15,20,E4/FF

1076

DATA

13,A9,00,8D,00,FF,A9,20

1027

DATA

F0,FB,A0,lB,B9,EF,13,20

1077

DATA

8D,00,D4,8D,01,D4,A9,09

1028

DATA

D2,FF,88,10,F7,68,68,A9

DATA

00,8D,00,02,4C,67,40,91

1078

DATA

8D,05,D4,A9,0F,8D,18,D4

1029

1079

DATA

60,20,61,15,A9,81,20,9C

1030

DATA

91,00,20,20,20,20,20,20

1080

DATA

15,A9,80,20,9C,15,4C,96

1031

DATA

20,20,20,20,20,20,20,20

15,20,61,15,A9,11,20,9C

DATA

20,20,20,20,20,20,91,0D

1081

DATA

1032

DATA

15,A9,10,20,9C,15,A9,00

1033

DATA

51,55,4F,54,45,00,4B,45

1082

DATA

8D,04,D4,60,8D,04,D4,A2

1034

DATA

59,57,4F,52,44,00,23,20

1083

1035

DATA

4F,46,20,43,48,41,52,41

1084

DATA

70,A0,00,8 8,D0,FD,CA,D0

1085

DATA

FA,60,END

1036

DATA

43,54,45,52,53,00,55,4E

1037

DATA

49,44,45,4E,54,49,46,49

END

COMMODORE M/V3AZINE

127


Tips & Tricks/64 and 128

ADVERTISERS INDEX

Continued from pg. 104

Reader

fact you'll be back in conference mode, where you can chat to your heart's content. To return to your message, just press F5. Chris McGuire Jeannette, Pennsylvania

Advertiser

64C and 128 disk storage: The slots on the rear of the top surface of these computers are convenient places for temporary storage of diskettes. Just stand the disk vertically in the slot; the slot edges will hold it there in a nearly vertical position. Since there are nine slots, each of which can hold three disks, your computer can hold up to 27 disks in this way. Tyler A. Rosewood Regina, Saskatchewan Canada Printer paper saver: Here's another use for those single sheets of tractor-feed paper, lear off the left perforation in the normal way, but leave the right one alone. Use scissors to cut into the right perforation at the top and bottom of an area that is to be come a "notebook tab," similar to the tabs on divider sheets you can buy in the store. Tear off the perforations above and below your "tab,'" and you have the world's cheapest notebook divider. By skillful use of the scissors, you can make a complete set of di viders, with tabs arrayed from top to bottom. Robert Burnet Islington, Ontario Canada

User group meeting places: I'll never forget our first successful meeting at the local Pizza Hut—we loved it and so did the res taurant. Restaurants of all kinds welcome any group of people, especially if they buy food and if they come when business is slow. This is good to keep in mind if you can't find a regular meeting place. You can start out at the restaurant, then move when a more traditional place becomes available. You can approach the restaurant in advance and ask them what nights they are slowest. They'll probably love to have you. When the meeting rolls around, be sure that everybody orders something, and keep the public domain library away from the food and drink! A.M. Johnson, Jr.

Response

Page Ho.

No.

Abacus Software

1

Acorn of Indiana

2

115

Action Soft

3

14,15

Activision

4

27,47

Adams Software

5

111

Berkeley Softworks

6

24,25,54,55

107

Brantford Educational Services

45

Briwal!

7

87

Cheatsheet Products

8

103

Commodore Business Machines

1,59,63

CompuServe

9

37

Computer Book Club

10

83

Computer Direct (Protecto)

11

120,121,122,123

Cosmi

12

43

Covox

13

103

Electronic Arts

14

17,19,21,23,04

Electronic One

15

97

Ennon Corporation

16

89

Epyx

17

29,53

Financial Service Marketing

18

44

Firebird Licensees

19

35

Free Spirit Software

20

105

K.F.S. Software

2]

61

Kasara Microsystems

22

117

Loadstar

23

C2

Micro Illusions

24

C3

MicroProse

25

13,51

Midwest Software

26

115

Montgomery Grant

27

85

NRI/McGraw Hill

81

Origin Systems

28

39

Pro-Tech-Tronics

29

95

Amiga screen cleaner: Sometimes when I write a program I want to eliminate the Workbench border containing the "gad gets." Tb do it, I make the window with an empty title bar, then set palette 0, palette 1 and palette 2 equal to each other. This easily gets rid of the border. Jesse Peterson Donahue. Iowa

Quantum Computer Services

30

32,33

S & S Wholesalers

31

48,49,91,101

Spectrum Holobyte

32

41

Strategic Simulations

33

2

SubLogic Corporation

34

31

Superior Microsystems

35

117

Amiga default colors: When working in AmigaBASIC, some times the system's default colors are changed to an undesirable combination. You can return to the original defaults by stopping the program then doing this: press the right AMIGA key and the "R" key simultaneously, then quickly press the right AMIGA key and the period key. If it doesn't work the first time, try it again, this time more quickly.

Tevex

36

93

Timeworks

37

9,11

Tussey Computer Products

38

6,7

Uptime Magazine

39

5

Jesse Peterson

•No Reader Response Number given at Advertiser's Request.

Cary, North Carolina

Donahue, Iowa 128

JANUARY 1988

3


THIS SEASON

MICROILLUSIONS' OFFERS: For Amiga, C64/128 and MS DOS: FAERY TALE ADVENTURE Today's honest game! /BLACK JACK ACADEMY/ ROMANTIC ENCOUNTERS AT THE DOME,

For Amiga and soon for C64/12S and MS DOS: LAND OF LEGENDS / PLANETARIUM / EDONSTAR / FIREPOWER / GALACTIC INVASION / TURBO. For Amiga: DISCOVERY and DISCOVERY EXPANSION DISKS / PHOTON VIDEO / DYNAMIC CAD / MUSIC X / DYNAMIC WORD.

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