BRITAIN^S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE AMSTRAD CPC 464, 664 AND 61 28 KIT mm W -4 ■yu 'fi i soun m-D MASTERGAME eaneacfion from Fir l^QBUST^PLAYING GUIDE you need to know about this R PLUS GAME REVfEWS • PJlGftlW • PAGES OF CHEAT MODE ABSOLUTE BEGINNIBS • BOOTING UP CP M / EDUCATtONAL SOFTWARE • NEWS VffWS • SPEClAi OFFERS • AND MUCH MORE :: ■k.^ hb. 1' hi 1* ' jissMm FIVE > 6KEATARCADE QAMESFORTHE PMCEOFOKE IT MUST DE CHRISTMAS Imagine Software (1984) Limited. 6 CentraJ^^^^^^ M^r^rhf^<t>^rM7 5NS Telephone: 061 -834 3939TeleK-'S69977 M AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 FRONT END EOlTOItlAL • NEWS • LETTERS 5ED-L[NES... 5UGARMAN Hew foces at the Old Bam. 6 REACTION Pour pages that you the F&ad«r wfole. 14AM$CENE Finger on Arnold's pulse, mcluding report on the Amstrad Show in London. DrcrTIZING SPECIAL MOUTH, EYES AND EARS FOR ARNOLD 22 SPEECH! No hardware -just Superior Software. You type, your CPC spoaks. 24 viDr Plug a TV camera into Amotd: (he video digitizer from Koini>o, ^! 23 A DAY IN THE LIFE How one of the KombE> teain uaes Ma Amjitrad: schoolboy Keith Wilson, who alao converted Gz^en Boiei. 26 SOUND DIGITtZER An amaemg TYPE-IN: put sound Erom an. ordinary cassetie into your compuier'a memory. 35 TARZAN COMPETITION Be & hi-tech Ape-man! Digitize hia yell and win the Martech game. SERIOUS SIDE REVIEWS • AKTICLES • PROFILES 41 SERIOUS SOFTWARE SHORTS Draw in 3-Dl Amor's Model l/iuveree. Rotate hem Proteus. Book: Advanced Amstrad Basic. 28 TYPE-INS Thr«« pa^es of ihoi\ type-ins - from r«ad«i8, 46 ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS - Part 8 Whafs WHILE- WEND? Neater thaji FOR-MEXT? Wilton's word to Basic beginnera. 48 BOOTING CP/M - Part 6 Wg tmsh off PtP and look at other utilities on your aygtom disk, 34 PROBLEM ATTIC & HOT TIPS Hints on cassette-loading problems. 53 BACK TO SCHOOL A look this mottth at progs for primary-school lads. ACTION & ADVENTURE OVER IS GAMES • MAP* • TMEP(LGfl(« 55 ACT/ON TEST STARTS HBREf Tout Top Ten Chan plus a FULL LIST of the gamea reviewsd in the neit 20 ptget - yet, 20 pagea this mottthl These are jusi the Raves... 56LfGHTFORCE A winooth-ACJoUin^ fast-actuui shoot-em-iip from FTL, S8 DRU»D Explore an arcane arcade from Ptj^ird in this month's Maieierganie. 66 TRAPDOOR Be the BerV from the new TV sezies for Idds - fall through the Ei^>Or laughing. 72TRAILBLAZER Another bouncing-ball beauty from Ctemlin. 87 PILGRIM'S PAGES The Cowled Cn^sdei Die* m ffom Wioboi with the latent ix\ the world of adventurea. 94 DOOMDARK'S REVENGE: MAP Our megamap of the 6,000-io elation epic. 98 CHEAT MODE More of your wonderful game-busdng ploys. :i|€6 THRUST: MAP Colour playing guide to the fiendish Firebird cheapie. i T08 MAIL-ORDER From your armchair, order software and save yourself pounds. 112 ACTION FORM The all-in-one Action Form for your interaction. ULTIMATE ACTION IN THE THIRD DIMENSION! F. Store of rhe on OD, 16 cofour groph ics^^^ pl^ Unique orogrGmmabie robots WHlHKB ifSuf M\STRAD CPC - £6.95 (rope) £14.95 (disc) I Wrslonsfof other micros coming soon ... ED-LINES ADVERTISEMENTS Mik« CuzoU, Richiird Stanimeis Eardley Hqiisc 182 Cutiipden Kill Rgad London WB 7AS PhOh^: 01-22! 3S9E New faces at the Old Bam FuJture Publishing will aootv have to raise a new barn if Qua population explosion psrsists. AmsHAd Action Gtarted 16 montlis ago with a staff of three. Today IB people produce three magazines here. Spealring of rising rapidly, hasn'l your new editor? Tin Jim Nagel, who joined two months ago as sub, and have now takqn over the chAir vacated hy Mstt Nicholson. Matt is still here -he 'a m the next stall editing the new PC Plus. He gets his own stapler this month, and won" t just be a supplement inside SOOO Plus, Riehaxd Montelro comos lo AA after losing his A-levels to AiTiold. He IS a\n new Technical ediiof. having gained hi$ expertise when he should have been preparing for exams. We were so impressed with Eiehard'e sound digitiaier when he came for interview (hat it's our cover-feature type-in. And giiesa who's our coverboy? Talk about fast fame. Andy WiJion has left Eomerton for the metropolis to get his name in lights; you "11 e«e it in the Amgtrad section of Micronet. He's a techmcal Writer there- This is one reason our Prestel mailbox - the numlxir is on this page - is getting more use now. Andy's articles for Basic beginnerB wiU continue to appear in AA for the next month or two. Upstairs at the Old Barn, Klxn Bale has joinad the art team. She's a graduate of PlymouEh Poly and formerly worked fieelanoe from homa in Sherborne while looking after a baby. Now fattier freelances and teiid* tWO-year-oId Timmy. Kim replaces Oeor^^ Marphy, who departed (he drawingboaxd for the blight hghts of Bristol. A*t Who was on show? Our siand ai the Amstrad Show last month (sec reporl in Amscene) was ofton overcrow- ded with avid readers of Amstrsd Action. It was a pica- sure me&tlng you all, and I'm sorry (here vras not enough time to chat to everyone. Well, we have discovered our leaders come in aU sizes, e^apea and ages - and t suppose you dia- covered the same about us! Game to help? Am^//ad Action is loolong for an assistant games reviewer. The hght peison must Uve near enough to Somenon to be able 10 call in &t the oftice ai leasr onca m we«k, and must be able to write to the exacting stan- dards of AA English - remmier- ation accordingly. If you think you fill the bill, send ib.^ editor two sample gatine reviews, Checii^ yourself And dep.ed. Bob Wade asks Edlinea to remind you yet again that Cheat Mode cannot answer individual la tiers asking for help with games - even il they bribe him with a stamped envel- opo begging a reply. We wouldn't want to spoU the fun for you, noT would we have enough month left to make yom megH-mag. This month' 9 cover is a magic by Trevor and team, don't you (hirtk? It was done by fiisl photogiaphiftg Richard with an ordLnary camera. They put the resultrng colour transpa- rency onto a lightbox and focus- acd a video camera on it. Thus two identical images were pjo> duced, one analogue and one digital. Wesseic, oui colour originators, then blended one into the other lor the final result you see up from. We'd like lo thank Bnlish Telecom at Bristol for loaning us Itio Auralile headset you see - also Thom-EMl of Wells for ano- ther one you don't> And Linnet Photographic and Technical Services Lid (Midas Audio- Visual) of Langpoiti Someisel, for Ihe video camera thai did the seelng. Dtgttol conju''-ng on th« cover bit of JLmstrad Actioit Fatnte Publishing liitiited The Old Bam Brunei Precinct Somerton, Somersat TAll 5 AH Phone: (045^)7401! PresteVMicronet mailbox: 045B740U Coleui^ OriglELhIian: Weneic FepiwiiirAwu, 3SSr WbILe Koad, Bitxtol SS4 OOL FriBllD j; Red-mood Web Oj£iel, YvDiaana War, "^itrvibhdge: , WAtn. J OiililbDlioii: Se^mouc Pita*. 334 BjiKlon Kia«d. LctitiDr, SWI TAC (Dwtriliwajm 4 *ilb«enp<iMyi kn th*N*!h*tl*ji«))(^ tNFO DATA COMPUTEBS, Poatbua ST. SeOOJUt Ain«r«t04l. Tiatiia: 0133-630167 Retail piico: H£1 7.^] Vera Cnuz winners Five readers have won copies of the whodunnit game from In- fogram'as as prizes in our Sop- tembar competition. They are P Dov/ling of Maidenhead, Andrew Gray of Manchester, Paul Sweeiman of New Maiden, Arthur Maiquez of Leeds and PA lodgers of Ro- therhaiR. Another long list of lunners-up will receive £3 vouchers. <i&rwB«FiiiiBiM»gtiwii»ats« AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S The Old Bern's postttag i$ bmrsting agatn rhrs monfh. Thanks for the effort you put into Ihesa epistles - weVe only sorry we can't print more. Thanks too for your comments on Ihe mag and suggestions for improve- ment: you might be surprised next month to see some of your ideas in print even tf your letter doesn't appear here. Keep *em coming - and remember, brief Is best. Brummies and soldiers form Amstrad groups 1 am in the process of forming a uss'ra club in Biinunghara. CouJd those inta rented pleasa write to me? We hope we won't have to charge anything to join. We a]«o hops to have access to ft uuivccsiiy which ae&s 61,233. JehaB Woods S4 teckwood Rc»sd ?fcn-thfiMld, BimlnghaiTL B31 IQD I wotidei it I Tnight use your pages to let Armed Forces ArTLStrad us«ra Icnow gf the fQfmation of the Services AitLditiad Society. Reoe^it ir- seardi shows (here axe well aver 5,000 privat-eiy owned Amstrada iti UEe in the three services, and I suspccl the fi- gure couid be nearer 25.000. such IS the success of th«o out- standing Ftiachines. Thi: Services Amstrad Society will bring together all thie uaera sud provide a forum for the ^^cch^nge of ideAS, help witb problems, and a united T(»ic:« to deal with softwre houses and our own masters. Any serviceman requiring fur- ther details of the society shouM write to mc enclosing an sae, The Services Amstiad Society i? being run by aervicemen, for serwicoiuen, CMJoiatfLt-CoO Services Amstrad Socielr Iieioc Tit Centte, Sturry Road Canterbury, K«nt CTl IHS Why not small ad*? I have 8ub3s;ribed to AA aitice jsi^UB 1 snd I thinJt it's pure genius. Gould I make one small helpful suggestion - ilwt you 6 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 19S6 reserve one or two page« per month (or s. s<:lcchoii o( readers' «dvertisenients. Fox a small charge (or if you're really gen- eroiiB, free) readers could ad- vartise diings they want to swap or sell A lot ot people can't afford t2Q0 foi a priniex or £100 fo; a disk drive, For example E would be willing to swap 10 lo IS £10 AA- Rave games - .original, un- copi^d - for s CPC 464 printex or disk dnvG. Peter Day a Drummoad Road Birmjagham, B9 SX| Ai ti\e momsat, Pet^r. wc hav67\ 't got the staff to cops with ihe sdimin it weald entail. Also, smaU sds foi swapping sOitWATS op^n vp temptation for UlegA} copying'. Like other Jtiagazines, we Krant to avoid that. As tor I haidware, we're pnnting your a(tdf999 ihia time. 3 chleRs for tape Yds, you have got a great mag, bul so many people must have loid you ilmi you're going to get big-headed if you're not carelul Why is everyone so ama- oua to 0ve the poor old cassette the shove? The hardware is ohoapoE than a disk drive, a cassette is cheaper than a disk, and moat of us lesser mortals can't alTord the prices. Maybe you could do a censue to find oui how many of your readers do own disk drives, And csn anyone come up with a poke to tur^ that blasted music off in EUte? Alex Gough Hasilugs, E Sussex We make loguiitr use of a Har-' vey Headbartger hat to kocp qvf sff^s Iroitl 0Ver-expBj}ding - though thsy have good cause. CsssottGS sxo Blow and unr^ll- shle> that '^ why, Wa agree, they ATS cheap. Bttt the price of disk drives is coming cfoK'n ail the dme. Uyoa csji'i beaz th& music, iv/iy don 't you Just uso this vol- uiuB cotitrol? Loader iainant I }om the multitude of people complaining about foreign loader!- I ajTi not too bothered about iiead«rles« loaders because on my system (€128 and tape-recorder} tnoal head- erleas programs work. But the Firobird loaders are terrible. I have not ye( got one of them to worlt. I have Thxast, H^r^ey Headhangei axvd Spiksy Jisrold, and you can't buy these progiamfi an disk, It is #11 rtght if you have a built-m tape but ii not It's hell. J know they've got to keep ahead of the pirate, but does it have to be at the expense of us? Could you please say in youi reviews if thaee loaders cau^e problems on a SI 2B or 6S4? JtnthfiBf Beck SDuth Humberalde Jlie problem Mes m'th &e azim- nth adjusaneiti an your tap&d- eck. Firebird's ioadci Is parti- cul^iy iinicky- See this month's Problam Attic, page 34. Whodunnit? I have seen the Fotirth Protocol game reviewed <October AA) and I like the idea of h. But I have read the book and I won- der ^ will the characters whod- unnit in the book be the same in thei game? In other words, will I know who it is immediately? Axnyaa Stapbaai ramJtuti, 5ui3«y To bo hottest, wi> don't know because none of US httve rajef the book, Bsit even if you iiavc, you will still find the game ^ chsUenge- Leaderbaardiess What news ol the to-be-released Ijeadei-board for Arnciid? US Gold was rather noncoramital at the PCW Show, despite the flashy stand. The Amstrad ver- sion Wasn't evaiPi on the pricehsl. Feter Newman Co. Tyrone SriSt waiting tor if, stiti vrorking on it. A tschnical hitch, appsrently. It*$ even simpler Ailer waiting ages to get the disk version of Viper'sJ^r- Lesgue Soccer U from you P^ecause d delays at the soft- ware house) ii fina,lly arrived. However, there was a seilous problem: the 'Save game' op- tion doea not function. I have tided all ways - so have others ~ but it is no good. A? you prob- Penpals, please ^ Michael Meliin, 4 Camden St, ItTelson, LadCt, BBS OBL. ^ Paul Mackenzie, 39 Mil- lerasneeb Ave, Lien^ie, Scot- land, GE6 SHP. 1^ Robert White, 1 Sunnybank St, Ossetl, Wakefield, W Yorks, Wr5 8PE, is 14 and has a eiaa. ► Cllris Bdrbon, Caietakera Rouse, Whitstable CJ Scbool, Oxford St, Whitstable, Kent, CT5 2DB. IS IS and has a 464 v/ith Ughtpcn. k Jonatban Eland, 3 SHaanaiKl Well Drive, Horbnry, Wakefield, W Yorks, WF4 GBN wanls lo oiganize 'tho country's . bttestandgieatest penpal club'. ' ► Wayne Col, 111 Saxon Dr, London, W3 ONY (01993 SSSl)' would love to know Arnold owners in the EaUng-Acton -Iff^ REACTION ahly realise , unJcsa you keep the computer on for weska, the game is much I^a enjoyable foi me, lei alone the kids - impa- satble lo fuush- Jenny R&D dlea Waningtoa, Ctaetliir* Th9 piei}!eni in the disk rersiott ciEoccQi U IS an quot In Iho iastmctions, sccarding^ to i Vipet man. Don 't Insert s blank dusk' Of 'lh9 saved-game diaJr', Simply use the; same disk the proqram i$ an. Pre-Arnold peruser ! am veiy new to the vvonderfiil world of the Arnold' In fact [ haven't even bought it yet. I am gomg to buy the 6123 in a couple of motnths. and already 1 am sreading your great magazine. When are you going to do a review on the Giaphics Adven- fuxe Creator PJas? 1 think this might be 1h« flrsl prograiti [ buy. A Euggeetion: Why don't you devQit; a page of the mag foi Amold^ViS to 'n^rite in ss\4 is)f. other {i9«rs fot tmw-anted games etc, and also advertise [heir unwanted software and hardware? Sonie users may want 10 sell some games or eiren swap them. Mane j Mistry L«icesrtef We Ipat foiwixd to pabJishing your typg-ins iith^n you fmaliy do gel your machins! Watch out for the Pilgrim's cojniaents on ^JUwe^t? GAC-. He looked at the on0iisl version in JanuAry. As toT small-sds, s&& the Jtext letter. (Apologias, by the way, MM. ii w&'ve misspelt year nAme. Jfo hassles trading she rest otyour very a^it hitxdwrMng. but yaai sigiatturB stymied us.) Remind me Why cannot some expert pro- duce n list of memory cost foi each 6^38 conunand as was done for the Spectrum? Oi am I ihe only person with a S123 who did not p&Y the inflated price just lo play games? dive South ee Baiingstoke, Hantc Two books reviewed in the Noveiab&c: issue contaiR jtist the sort of able you 're ait&r. Getting back up I srx once again annoyed to find 'Booting CP/M' and 'Absolute Eog««icJ5' plus the music ait- icles (October) piinied baek-to- back. This fouls up nty system of taking out these articles for re- ference: they can't be sep- arated. Why not alter the layout to split them by a page of ada, as nvoffl other magB dO? This Is the only real mo^tr; \ hove about yotir mag^ which more than cov-era -everything an Amatrad owner needs. Con- grats on your new mag 3006 Plus, which 1 ordered this morrting, John Wallyf ork Warrington, CheslliK Tovr new ed sctuAllj tried to please you this issiie^ keeping AB and CPM separate. But then along came eight more Ijist- minute jcfage* and an unbeliev- able repeat performance oi jug- gling colour pages, ads, se- quence, Jaft va right. John, VU send yoa 3p to photocopy the hsckofone p^g^- Carve name in stone Isn't ii amazing how dense you can be if you reaUy try? J P Eldridge wrote to you (October) complwniitg aJjowt your review of Nuciear Heist and aaked you Eo print the author's tta»ie in a review. You repMed thai it's often diflicull to tell who wrote a gome. Mr E was writing to tell you who wrote (he game; he did. What he want» ia the name of the author of Gve review so he knows whose legs to bieak. The review se^amdd fair enough to me. Can we eee a oompreliensive collation of EUte tip9? Those of us who waited for the disk ver- Invid'ble bowl Could you pleajse teU me when Superbowl wUl be released? The game haa been advertised smcc Dcconxber and moat rec- ently in the adven 'Heroes and VlUaiiis' along with Itamtyo, 0st- maji and V. which are all avail- able It haK been oul for some time on the Spcdnati and Com- nwdore, and Ihe TWo-player game is excellent. It's a ahame that -s good software house lets consumers down by not releas- ing the gB3i3e» aidverlised tsU six months to a year later, I'm thin- kang of Street Hawk and Kiught Rsdfir. Dalrid and Miehaei Pidduok Bnadttaix*, Sent A spokssttian at Ocean said the iS)aretrsion hsd to be sban- doned J?ecause oi aaloresees snd tmsunnoontsble pro- granuning difficulties. You^rt* right about 'teaser' advertising; you csn belieye it's out when you read OUT review. We t^ke Ocean and all the others with a grain of salt. sion have just completed the first mission, are dangerous and are wondering how the Eecond mission siarts. I note that ano- ther nn^g &at still runs high- scores has claims for hundreds of (hous^Jids of crodils. Is there any point pursuing cash oi trying to keep e clean record? I thought the rating depended purely on ihia. D J Edvrardi Leeds Some programmers might not want their nMmes curved on AA gSavestanes, But in lutaie we'li include an auUior's name in s review if it's printed on the package (as Jone Paul's was. spelt like Efsflf, now thsi w^ look). In moet esses nowsiddys, however, there is no one name. Often it's s team rather than an individual. Frega0iitly Ajtistrad games are conversions from other machines: the original author has never touched an Anxsir^d. and th^ t^opvertiiig programiTter h^s never had an original thought Pets for sale We have bought a new big memory-fast Ametrad, and the difference is remarkable for our vast range of bridge administr- ation programa. Anyone want a Commodore set of working kil? Ifo reasonable offer refused for the hardware and extensive software! Comrnodore 303Z with double disk drive and tiaclor printer, 4032 with single drive and printer - £730 the lot. Bernard Brighten Sheffield Bridge Club 7 Thornsett Road Wslcome to Ametrad Action. Bernard, Something telis me, though, you're advertising in the wrong mag. Points for Re-actors: ► PRWr your name clearly if you wint us to speil it right. YoM, should *ee some of the signatures we gel! ^ A telephone nureibet- might be u£eful in case wc need to check sorr.elliiing before piinimg your ictter. ¥■ Pit ase don't expe ct irid;v- idual replies, espedaliy on games problenia v.'e get jast too many letters and vjQuid havfi no timsi left to _put_aut your favourite mega- mag. ►■ If you have points for various dRparlments [eg. Pil- grim, Type-ins. Subscrip- tions, Mail-order) please writ^ them them on afi-prirrite ahe«t,'j of paper. Some mem- bers of the AA leatri are free- range - they are not con- futed to stalls in the Old Barn. So if you expect ono bit ol p,!3pfir lo be shared round. ■ I'm afraid yoti multiply the diances oi it getting lost. Make auro your ramfi Am\ jddresfi ii^ on each, but you c^n post Uieiti iill in one envelope. Confounded comms 1 am impreaged by your 'Day in the Life' (November) and note one glaring omifiaion from youf magazine. You menlion your communf^ationa et^iuipment and its problems. However, despite scanning my past issues, t can- not delect one single word or article on the subject of conuns, With the widening range of modems and the software to run them,, it becomes more nece- ssary to the Amstrad usicr to ajC^fuire more knowledge about this means of talking to each other. [ use a modem because 1 am disabled. It beats CB radio ► AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 T RE-ACTION any day, d'espite Hie telephone bills. Actually, it coal3 eibout 50 pence per houi in the evenioig. That's rot so bad «vhen you conaidet yom cmhi talk with people adl i>ver the country and even the woild. You can get free programs and even inoie games. li I could Gnd your mailbox number printed in the tnagaziiie I cMuld have aeni this to you electronically instead of using the poEF offica. So how about a requlajr spot? Gil Matthews Rachester, Kent You'!} now notice car PrSsi^J mSiiihQX numit^i on ihe Edhnes pAg&. Bat via it you wouldn't have got this /efter into piini, because Asvsn't yet bssn able to get text from thezc into ovr WQrdpipcessox without iitQrc work thA/} it's iPOfift. Bat slay tuned: we're prsctisin^. Cdpiured by oltens With Alien3: iha computer game Qn (he horizon , people are giv- ing second Opiitupn^ on the first game Alieit. 1 have many very g'ood gamoa in my colieclion, iticludiiiig MaispoTt and Herbert's Dtmuny Run, bat no- thing gets my blood going hke pUying A^en. People disliked il because it Wiisn't an arcade game or an adventure, il do&sn't even involve much strategy - just do whatever is necessary to kill the blasted ihiitg} Sut what it does involve is suspense and tensidh, Mter playing it 1 am a nail-lea® nervous wreck ready tp be strapped int^ my bed for (he night. It is tha best buy 1 evei made iot a micro: 2X31, Dragon or CPC, Although the film Aliens Wasn't a9 good as the firet an&, the computer game could be a nail-biter of epic proportiojis. [ hope that Electric Dreams is up to the task. Meanwhile t tfaanl; Argii3 Press and look forward to saving lovely Riploy from hordes of double -jaw3! Sebastiaji Jlstan Landon WZ Ah Action taskfbrce is blasting off to W2 to rescve Setsston irom cJte aliene forditg hiia to wfrite this, Abctndon&d Aberdonian tt is a constant disappointment that I can't get any o£ the current software you review, rm not just complaining about Aberdean, but also Glasgow and Edinburgh, both cities that! visit on 3 fairly regular basis for my work- All [he software advertise' menta are for companies in the Midlands and Ihe South of En- gland. It's just not possible to travel 3C0 to 500 milea south to view a new software program, including games. Could your magazirvQ help out on this? Do a survey of ^opa in Scotland and the North Ot En- gland and compare it wilh the Midlands and the South. WiUtam Snell Aberdeen This is surprising, in view ot this tnoatli s npfth^-thc-border cover feattir0. And if you feel far away, fust look st tftie a&ct ietler 8 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER iQSfi ' I Keep Ti-lrrJltjM& IT^ Jt^-^T f>^ti AW&HiTtrtFve- &i*M6 oti Kiwi kudos Wowf What a tassgl It's only the third issue Tve received, and I'm hooked. I've stopped my ACUs so I can get the Amstrad mag. But now the sad part. In New Zealand ii costs the equivalent of £3! It lakes three months to receive an issue [on the new- satands]. By the time st gets here any competitions have boon en- toredj awarded and forgotten. We mias out on any freebies. (Have you a spare copy of Covensflt going begging?) And finaJly, there's only a I'in-2 chance of picking up an i$$ue- Mo3t of these cannot be helped by AA, but you could make overseas competitions where vj^e have four or five months leeway. Sltane Morgan Auckland A copy o/Covenant is art its way down under. Shane. Aifd a copy of this issue Ait-iti^il so you ivon't itiisB s&eiisg your name in it- Sug us again in a fsw jjt^nlhs' time about your competition idea; it has merit. Tdke a butcher's Beef up the magazine I In the la$t stK issues Ihe re has beeti a gert- eial decline m the nunvber of pages. Do something about it. Jnlian Cater London SW14 Aye, Aye, sir! Editor report there are 11$ pages this issue. Part of the reason foi drop in psge count tivo and throe months ago wi$ ihe departure of Joyce to her own iitl^, 8000 Plus, Now. even though Amstrad Action is devoted ox- ciusively to Arnold, only issue 7 Out-b^efed the one in your me^ihpdtks. sir, Hafipy reader offers goodies When 1 (Ltsi got my G12S I took a quick glance at the 7-niillLon- page manual. I quickly found AA and read it instead. My €123 no longer seemed like a UFO - more than 1 can say for the two other computers (Texas Instru- ments and Sinclair Spectrum) ] had before. 1 hope you keep up the brill work- To show my gratitude, any reader wanting a poster and wradow'sncker or two (free!) from various software houses should write me. the day I le- ceive a large self-add resssd stamped envelope is the day T will send the posiexs dE(. RjeaderB in the northwest of England will know me as Soft- Byte Enterprises {as seen on Granada Reports). Colin Rickwoodi (age 15) JS9 Skipion Roa4 Colne, Lanes. BBS ONY No sleep on Mars After drawing a large map and spending a lot of time blasting sept warrtoiTE, t am stuck on Marsport. Many of the new pro- blem areas that [ have found are proving too much lor my single brain cell. I wonder if you or any of your readers could please tell me how to enter the chemists, plant room, hothouse, or how to enter (safely) the dan- ger rooms wher* sonic j^ooms and radiation bombfi are acti- vated. 1 wcufd bo delighted if someone had the solutions to these problems because I've been losing sleep not knowing the answers , Matthew Holley fiS I^Qsdowna L«ne Londan SEI flTN Better btew moro black coffee, Matthew: you won't get the so-^ iutiane from us. If wc snswer&d all tho letters we get sbout 9'ajned, we would spoil the fun ibr other readers, not to men- tion have no month lefi to ivrite a megamag. Buf your situation sounds so serious we are print- ing yoar address for a possible pen-pal to rescue you. If the name f Tits I was looking through the games at my local computer shop, Splitting Images was ^.^5 ^nd the same game under the tide Bplif Personiiiiies was £3.9S. Do we pay £3 foi a ditferent cass- ette cover? Can any mad idjot seU me AA i6£ues 1, 2 and 3? If anybody writer:, s^ate how much I have to pay. Michael Mellin 4 Camden Street N^lsorij Lanci. BBdOBL Domark had tO' vtrithdraw Sptitl- ing Images because it raised L with the TV puppets. The game WAS re-issiied Kith the revised title Recommended ratail price eiihej way was £& (less the ob- ligatory poh}, so if you sswitfor £6 your local retailer was offer- ing d bargain. The Old Barn still has back issues of AA J in stock, bat we're now out of issues 1 and 2. Questions in Eire "Cloaking device* m tip (Cheat Mode. What IS a the Elite AAIl)? What Is the meaning of 81 */» for J^ck ths Nipp&T? I would buy it right now eiccept for your rating. It's original, funny, witty, andyeiei%. Re-Action is slowly bat surely shrinking. Please stop. If flus condnuea, we'll be able to Eay nothing. To software marketing people: give Ireland a break I 1 live near the towns o* Mitchel- stown and Fermoy. I went into two sihops selling software; 'Sorry, we don't stock Amstrad software.' We have 1o uavel 32 miles lo Cork to get overpriced software at rip-off prices. One Irish pound is worth SOp ster- ling, and VAT here is 3B%. And to mail-order advert- isers: 'Europe 70p for post and packing' doesn't mean much to Irish users. Does TIE mean Great Britain or the British Isles as a whole? Mark DowUng Castlemairtyr, Co, Cork The cloaking device is some- thing you can pick up from a syjep/aj mission in Elite, to make your 3Mp in visible. At 31 % the kiddie psycho^ path got en AA i?av«J. What more do you want? If anything Se~Action will be growing iit future. We're even printtrig your letter, Mark (albeit somewhat shTuaken -but you did rather blarney on). If you can't persuade your Ii ■tEdr Ail -rue M*f Kat Trap is the winner of the "Crash Magazine" 'Genesis' competition. This game was selected out of 4000 entries and has been programmed by the top rated Design Design team, (need we say more). Spectrum 48/1 28 AmstradCPC Programmed by £8.95 STREETWfSE SOFTWARE IS A DOMARK LTD LABEL 204 WORPLE ROAD, SWaO, LONDON 01-947 ^m& An Amstra ^ heard It before. Introducing Musif Mflchine'The incredibiif new add-ud thflt transriirms ihe Amslrad inlu q powerful music comiiuten ^ host ur exciting musical Tealures makes Music Machine iN mast camplet«i Amslrad music package ever cr€ali<d. There's sound sampling, the latest hmi- word m rlpctrunJc mu^k that lets you record end \^hy any natural siiund at dirrorrnl pitches. (Use: the m^tcrophone t(j pick up anything from a whi'itlp In a iiarkini^ doii^). Eighl 'voices' created enttnely by Music Machine Includ tng drums, piano and synthesiser- edit them, or creale new on e> A puwerful drum sectinn with real sounds and a rhythm cdtlur And for huddin^ composira, powerful professional features WW. note and tune editing^ playable oilher frn he Amstratl itsellnra music keylioord. Enthusiasts will appreiiHle the aliility la link with nlh^;' instruments via MIDI [the professional mm'it interface) an I 4 '*J r . prfects like reverb and echo. Nun-musickiis will find the h^t moiiu driven graphk'ji allaw sounds la lie irealed and songs DoiTipgsed in minutes. While everyone will appreciate the breaklhrough price of just £49,95jindudmgan illiistmtpri user «itidt!, micmphone, headphones socket and demonstration recnrding, A eomplete AmstFitd music system ir^m arnund £50? Something eise we're sure you've never heard hefure. Kuni EltfEimnics (Reel) Ltd, Utvit )$, Redfieltts tndustFifil Fftrlt, Redfield lane, Chureh Cruukhflin, Aldcrshoi, Hams. CUlS (iHt Te( f02S3) 850088- PtssK fosh mt Music Mw^ini* fnr ttir Amsird. d Tspe ver^aui) h1 £49l95. D Dell vnsiiin al K5Uy5 vh, Add £1 p*[t (£5 ovprspasj 3 1 eidju!* a n NAME I I M f \ \ I 1 ! II bgiivDali- / / ADQRE^ POsrroojJE TIL 124 IhiM r [l(i«|i*l'^ ^''1 \"^^^^^ wtiMimd L'mlit Kutin (7 dd^^Jtr chetjuni, Music hiiKhinL' ii riill> mniliJiEi li]i» nilh Ihr .'\instrad Cl^ 4M, -664 iurt 61^1. Llhurch twikhain, WilpwM.Hs.nts. GUI! ORE. Tfi(t*»iidt»|li>rt*rqyir™sw(i[iniie f >^t::^f^ViJW .pftA-l^-£ m |l A- -to i I 5O*i0iieGf«> GAMES AT THE SPEED OF light:: n < LIGHTFORCEiJi fof VENGEANCE .... LICHTrORCEis Thf; Pumiihmtnt Arm of GaJacric TiqhXar Cormmand. When a Terran 3<sttled system at the edqc- o! the gaJajty i.? mix&d by an alien force, rei^engc comFjs m ih<; form of a Ioba LIGHTTORCE fiqhter LIGHTFORCE confronts alien in a dazzling battifi above Ihfc siran^ landscapes of the IcePlaoei.lhe Junglt Planer, Ahen factories anti ih^ impasKabJct Asteroid Bell, » LIGHTFORCE — at the speed of Light from FT^. * , 0^ -T-? »•» SHOCKWJIY RIDERS are Xliep;cic^f!|te • Htieet gangs ATHLETIC, AGGRESSIVE & * ^ ARROGANT '-as they cruise along the tuple-speed rnovinq walkways that cirelfi the great MEGACITYS-oflhe 2Ist Century. THE ULTIMATE AIM OF EVERY RIDER IS to go "FULL CIRCLE" -to do that.he musf fight off the Block Boys, the Cjdps and the Vigilantes - as well as negotiatinq the Speed Traps and Rid*i Ramps erected by the angry local raslients! SHOCKWAY rider is the mo^t ojiqmal arcade gam^ of the yfpr - THE ULTIMATE FUTURE SHOCK!! 1^- A W,.M UGHTFORC^ AVAILABLE SEPT. '86 ' SHOCK)A(AY RIDER AVAdABLE OCT. '86 * SPECTRUM £7.95 AMSTR AD & COMMODORE C 8 .95 KSTCtl^TH AH *l10lfT ft l faster than light, carter folus group of companies, SEOGELEY ROAD EAST, TIPTON, WEST MIDLANDS D¥4 7UJ. Tel: 021 557 2981 (4 UncB) RE-ACTION iocai shQps w sfQCk Antsirsd software^ insU-0xd&r rounds your best bet Finding i»ii whether Eire post is chsrgfd st the UIC rate cr the Etiiope tatti led to a lathsr irieh sit\i»Uon (or is the word Euracratic?) w/ten we mug the GPO in four di&erant areas. VVl\eti you ssk&d> letters coald Ijc posted to SQUthstJi Ireland at the inland rate, evwi thcugh it is not part of ihe UK. Eire, how- ever , is now part of Iho EEC. Now r^tes go into effect on 30 October, but GPO headquarters Itad not yet told its districte how much. H's most unJiicoiy they will bo l(i99, W<? agree mtft you tMt ad- vernsements coald he W0Xd9d m ore specifically. Won, but vvaiting Thank you for auch a wonderful ms.q. A i^pt^cnaj thanks to the Action Tes(. which is flJ^t^:la33, 1 will not ]:)urchasQ a gam€! with- out fiiBl looking ai ii Please CAXi you explain why [ have not yet leceived my prise from ih* Fightijig Fit compe- tition of July's issue Qf AA? I g^t a great pleasmie m doing all your comps, and ne7er won SKcept this- S Fowell Dageitham, Ess^k 1 noticed in jrour Septembei issue that I had won your FjfgJJf- ing Hf competitioii. Unfortuiiate- ]y there has been ifolhiRg through my letterbox to coitfinn this ~ ie. 3 prize, Do^ tlUs mean ovu beloved post office h3S oncfi Again muffed it or have you tiot s«ni Ihtm out yet? Rob Mundin portfimoiith We confess. The delay in sond- Lig the FF prises was cur fsait We sejit the list of mim^r^' ad- dressss to Mslbaiims Moass in. mid -September, who sent it on to their warehouse for ttisiling, iTou should hare received your kun^-fu disk by the n>n* yoa read this. IVe're tikiag action to m^e ouF ^dsiiitt ss tvonderfut a? Acnon Test. And for the heads among you avraitmg your Harvey Head- banger hate. Fiiebird is seeing toil. Parallels multiply I read with ir.isrest Mr Tyte's letter (ReactiDii, Oeiaber) about the supposed sutulanTy b^- ivieen Maistertronic's Sadzone and AmsQift's Scout Steps Out. I really don't see why he picked ati th«se games. Has he novei noticed any similarity heme en gajiiefl snch as Alien 3 and KriighUore, those in Amaoft's Roland series, the Wally saga, eivd of couisc aU the recent Msrhle Ma dne^s clones? I actually own both Rsdz'Oiia and Scaat, so I am not JM9l 90ing Irom sdieen sihaxs. None of the 13 scieens of Scout are rs- poated in Eadzone's AZ screera, TLOir ate any of tho tunes aintUar. Radsotie also has sprite-plane effects, r^derinabls k«y«, bair- graphs etc. The only Bimilaiity 1 can see 13 that both have the 9^une djet- InctivQ graphic atyle, and that th(3 authors' amn^ are the sarnel Dean Covil Design a d9$k I have owned an Amstrad CPC 4€4 since September 1934 and am very happy with it. As time went by I decided to expand the system. Now I have th^ cnicro and green screen plus a light- pen and joyaljck and DMP 2000 printer- I ant having problems fitting all of this haidwaie onto the tsibla. So I need a new desk- 1 have looked around and 1 cannot find one which will suit Arnold. Moat of the desks which are auppoaedly Amairad com- pacible have the keyboard on one IgvgI and the monitor high gbovo. Now Arnold gets aji- noyed when hi? VDV friend is loo fax away, ed he pulla Out th^ power connector to spite the owner. The Amsltad really needs s, large Hat table for the keyboard and. monitor and S plinth foptiona]) for a pfinier - I enclose ai) example aketch, Could you tell me if auch a desk exis!s? TrevOx AtkLn Kexby, Lines Yes. Arnold is rather tOO atta- ched to the monitor. We houghi soma aiaeiteion cables st the Antstrad Show to make room tor serial interface, XOtK bOXes and ali the things that come between ihf^rn. Perhaps there's a wood- worker smong oar readers wiiod like to draw up do-it- yourself plans for an ideal Arnold desk, to be published in a later issuer. Tall me another I think you can scrap your hl- acora table. Don't you Oiink it's an opporhuuty just to let people lie? But you won'* listen so I'll (ell you I've madie 130,250 on Ciinfrighi and killed two gangs and two other cowboys, so print That. Richard Potter Telford, ShxopshlfH Soimeis Hka you've b00tt print- ingmoney. Moral is$ue - more Liara McMasler sayB (Eeactioti, October) that 'young children will play (he game, and so nu- c:]ear annihilation will become a casual thing,' He ends his loiter: Think about ill' [ wonder if he has aver thought of all the '^killing' and 'dying' which play such a laiga part in so many computer and other game 9, You alart the game with a certain number of 'lives' and then proceed to destroy or kill the aliens or whatever. When you make a mistake you lose 'lives' linli] 'Ho lives left' or 'Gairiie ovei" - ie. you are dtfad- Isn't this treating life and death casually? If a child id being brought up to respect and value all forma of life, he or she should regard this ae fantasy. Surely we all have a liking foi a certain amount of fantasy. Tin opposed to most forms ol censorship for adults, whether it be computer gaittioe, books, films or whatever. I'm not a parent <i'm a 44- yeai-old single woman - no children) but 1 do fe*l that pa- FSnta should do fhoif beet to bring (heii Children up to re- spect life {their o^vn and otheir people's) and things, and to teach their children to think for themselves. With the exception ol cheaa I don't think that young children (ie. under 12 or sO) ShOHJd play computer war games. Most chil- dren of this age are simply not mature enough io realise the implications of the battle they axe fighting, were it to be real. The thinking-for- themselves bit comes when their friends have the game - Thaafre Europe ox whatever: if they don't like it they should be able to eay ao and get support from their parents. Wo live in a nucleax age ao children tvi^ask parents and other adtilts difficult queaiiona - children have been asking Iheif parents awkward quesliona since ttme began! Id hke to add that I play a fairly wide variety of games on my CPC4e4: arcade, adventure, shoof-ero-up&. 1 also enjoy playing about with graphics and music, although t am no com- puter buff, r also oct^aaionRll^ play war gajnes. But my appzoach to the faw war gantes f possess IS more serious and thoughtful than to SiMrsfrike Sot Sorcery! Perhaps we a// should work out what we ihtnk about nuclear energy and weapons. Jean Benford London SVi2 I bet Liitm McMastei has sat at home and enjoyed watching films such as Rambo, Firefbx, The Third World War and many James Bond films. PSS does state in the iEistrudion booklet to 'Hipatre Europe that war is bad; the game wae made so as not to degenerate into nuclear ping- pong, Mr McMsfiter should ring C0S(X3) 66 G405 and hstenL Anyway, megasine, I find thai your Mastergame varies too much: one month an adventure, next a war game, then s shoot- em-up etc. Perhaps you should have a maetergame in each dif- ferent category. SHeaney Edinburgh There jast aren't enough games released every month to Aaw? jnore than arte Masts-rgame. There may be months were no- thing rates the title. So the award is for the one b^t gajne overall Besides, var/s(y is the spice of lifE, all t&xt and no shooting makes i? a dull boy, etc. Dummies l>lame Toot Cheat Mode in August printed a poke for infinite lives on fferberi'^ Dummy Rati. After typing it in and trying to load the game with no Juck, I deci- ded to look at the real of the pokes. 'Ahl' I said, 'a poke for The Covenant. That's strange; thia iooka familiar.' No wonder. It 'iVaa the exact same poke as the one for HDR. I typed it in and tried Th& Covenant. It worked perfectly. So what hap- pened to the poke for Herbert's Dartimy San. Please, please could you print it aa f can't s^em to get anywhere with the game. Eric CampbeU Wlriral, Mersey side Sorry, Eric. Toot was helping Trevor p^ste up that page and hid Herbert's dummy. We haven't been able to find it since. Duimtiies ar« we. AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 19S6 Games on the way from North Pole programmers Tou Ittclcy lot are in for a very hoX Christmas, Some of Ute gainea isippeenmg look very exdtiitg indeed. You thought you had seen the lol - you ain'r seen nothing yet. Ko Amstrad owners in (hsir right mind will warn lo miss HmaTtland - one look at Ihi3 arcade adyentufe from Odin and, at jusl imdei £10, you w^ be scioarning foi it. Absolutaly 49lomiclJng graphics and ,-. You'U j«s1 have to wait til] next iisaue'sijig leviev-'- Cluristma^ lirti$ !^ {TlQ'n de- {iniiely compllaKon tinMi. Several companies are oontend- iRg !hi9 year. Virgin's Now Games 3 (just tmder £ID agam} includee one oi the all-hme greets, Sorcery, as well as Codfeiujne M&t II and Keepjng up the tradilion is Beaii-jtslly wiUi W Computer AntStradCPC Hit? $- On this mighty cassette papk, you can f«id NsTberl's Suuixny Ran, On th0 ffuij and Cauldrcfn - something (oi everyone. Ii jufli wouldn"! be Chria- traas without They SoMa Milhoi} 3 (£9 95 CHSselte, £U,3S disk). This year's contents include i^ghtsi PDcf, Rarnbo, Ksmg Fu MststeJ' and Chostbuster. Now thatCMt'tbebad, MaatartronJc, not wishing to left m the cold, ie launching a senes of games , Project AmoS'ba, judging from the screenshot wo have, looks very promistng. Have you heard that Kuig Zub }ias had One of h:5 The Sth OihdftJ* Amstrsd Com- puiar Show was a larger sue- cess than ever, with people bus- tling in al) corneis of iho Novotel Bhowioom snile in Ham- itti&rErtuth, London.. It wa« hajd wosk ai times trying 10 get a fjhcjss look at the^ fitany vimind and ■^onderfifit produoU on oJTei. The Am^ttad aland was oveifiotTing v/ith enif]UJr«« on the new PC, Several of the IBM clones were on display that first w«e:kend of October, with im- pressive buflinees . eofwaxe packages ramitng - however, I di4 catch a glimpse of Miciosolt'g FSf^ht Simalaior !J on btie niadhine. " - As tifiual the show was dominated by hudware add- otis. phig-ins. dowhais - you get the general idoa, A lot of new bu3ine6s-5ofti»;are houses are creeping Into (he picture, what ivith the 8000 rang^ and now the appear anco of the PC, I noted that much oJ this software rujts under CP/M Plus (vstsion 3.1) and wUl therefor*^, possibly with Honie reconfiguring, work OR 6 1 £8 madunos- An Amatrad show coaldnV really be called an Aniatrad show mlhout the noify AJhgaia stard. True to fonn the crot^ from Shoifi'Sild, weie showing their latest and ptisi greatest at full blast, Eesidos^ lniej!ce|]^or, the only other gamea gotiwaio people present were Design Deaign - Tm dure a Jew more big 'rocireation^ 'software houses at the show would be welcomed by the Antstsad- u$ing public. DK'Tronica had a very smartly attired btinch of people from Gfoal Yamouth - all in black t-shirts ipocting ihs com^ pany logo. Their stand, wiOi matching black background, showed of! all their previous products with a fine seleqtion of the new -^ such as a, gadget that fuxn? your tnomtor Inio a t«levi- xiotL. (A colour monitor C4m re- ceive colour pictures; gioen- aciecn ugcrs will got pictures in green-and-,..uni,,, green).. All this for £70, It's not cheap, but th«n picture quality is fairly ex- cellent. DK'Tronies' othor pro- ducts are aimed at PCW uaeta. Among these were a dock «ard and a programmable joyetick intenansc combinod wtth a sound generator for the hitherto voiceleaajoyee. With alt the roHi-boardsf available, not to raention kits iO laskc them yourself, yOu would think anyone trying to promote a new board has either cracked wp qr has produced something quite astomnding, I think the lat- ter is correct for Brit&nniA Soft- ware, With some very clever address fiddling, this Cardiff firm has huil! a board that allows an amazing H roins to be irv aerted. Only ownora of the 46i' will appreciate [he wonders of this board, as it was originally thought impc>Kslble to have mere than sever roms plugged into those machines - it ii; a fairly simple mattor on 664s or 61 29a, Britaftnia's boajd. at £40. iR not ths cheapest around, but it has tli(i most to offi^r. Ainor will have Mede^l Uni^ verse ready very shortly. !l ia a three-dimensional dt^wing sy- stem that can rotate 360 <ie- grees, «Jom in or out, and use any of 27 colours. It is compat- ible with the AMX ntoUfte. IM,^; eluded in the package is Gate^ raattBi^ a stxAtegy game. Amor, from Croydon, besides demonstrating its rom- based wordptocesaor Proiext at' the ahow, had another rom tip its sleove: BCPL is coming very soon, SCPL la the Jnnguagei that formed the basis for C It i* bJock-stnictiired into proc«- duiea - sjmiliir to Pascal. It gen- erally gives good machine ac- cess: the stack, for esEampie, is easily matupulated. The Electric Slcdio of Letdb^ worth. Harts, had vahoua new produt^, nso^tfy a)ine<il at Uw crown jewels stolen? Awful tiadgedy. That's why Private ► SFUNHLLEDGAMES^ 14 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 Zub from 'the glorious army of Zubl' is sent out to reitieve (hem. Confused? So are we, but that ujifortunately is all th^re is go on at the moment, Sepulcri (odd word) is the htle of the next ottwmq from Ariolasoft. The closest thing my • •. ■ ». mi PCWs. There was a Ughtper, mou5@ and video digitizer. The video digitber comes in two mode3a, 0110 for *e PCW and the other for the flias. The Gi2B vcraion uses the extra memory. iiEd conaequendy can display i»p 10 12 frames » E^csnd (the sgr^en size te underaiutdably half tiormal size). This kind Qi technology will set you back ElOO. KQmbo, from LivingBioti in ScoilAnd. WAS also demodtstrat- ing d video digitizer. We look ore h^dt tc Somerset with ufl id do the cover of this issue. It's reviewed on p^g£:s 24 and 35 - wa liked 11. Thinking of getting a sec- ond drivfl? Silicon Syistems of Mar.chester offers a choice of rrno. One of therrt ia the £90 AmdrivG. This unit is ideal lor S64 and 61 SB owners *s it's de- signed to fit neatly on top of the built-iiv drive, Ths second of ihcse drives jg the M^ga Drive. At £.229, As th@ n^me suggests, it has a million hjimi of <jisk capacity. It uies S.BS-inch disks and can format BO tiaclts, doiible-sided. R4&m«iri)>er the teifolution- ary oxpansion torn thai the G*r» man firm Vortex biought out alMut A year ago? Well iheyVe ceitaiitly been Haissig in ih^ BiAck Far^t, ctonstaivily sirivLng to produce b&itiehr. more powef- tul hardwire device* tot yoor Amfllrad, They nuukie!: in ihe UK through Viglen of HanweU, Lon- don. The iin of ."tdd-ona is so long and umprcssJTc that I can give onty a quick descriplion now of some of the products and promise a fuller look in a later issue. To whet your appetite, the new Items from Heuenstadc inc- lude both S.SS- and 3,5-mch disk drives. (It was thought that S,&- mch disks wei^ impossible on th« CPC machines ^ ageiin Vor- »x has prf^ved th«) textbooks vfToag.} These can be eilher suigle or dual dri'vea, giving Hardware showdown AMSCENE Another very exciting graphical aircade adventure will shortly hit the sireets: Flrel^Fd from Hew«on. There ar« 800 beautiful locatiotta, *et in (his medievBl land of 'Toioi'- Y4U take the role of Six Calahea^i;, who musi rid Ihe land of aft evU. (Now whiGia have T heard thai before?) It looks good, certainly ivot something you should pa$9 by. 1987 s^ns po^t to the Roysfj^n^mtJActJofj ctxnpU^shdw. 70Sk and l,4M fojtmaLtted oap^ac ity. A SO-mega^yie hard disk ia also on the shaves. Ueere of the SitB must have been envious for a while: 513k availaJble for both the 464 and 664 while they vrere left with IZak, Sulk no longer; there 14 a special rarr.-oxparLSion bc^rd jusl for 7qu. But th&rc's a prico: £139. Vortex product may be eKceptJoJi.ai in purformance, but they ako havei exclusive pdcesl It wa£ certainly a jam- padccd show, with many new exhibitors - I ined to ge; round to aJCi bu; ume was not on my side. Judging by the support and cnthusiafiin shown by everyone, the Ajxistiad ma- ohiftfts have a Icsig way (o go . 51 ..wrecker suggests is a bur- :i: z: : -r.d or grave - Bp«lt 'sep- Dlchifi'. Sounds cnricing, does it not? I'm sure you'll Jorgive them !he error of their ways - after all 11 ^ an American company, Airolaxofi comes up with soirie very exciting stuff m the next few monlhi. including The Ce-ti- tOTiins tiad Use Challenffe ofUto Gobott (Gobots go botty - ycahl) The Edgv (nothing to do with VZ}, is all set (0 release the follow-up to FAirlighf - with the original dile FaiiUgkt B. This begins where the prequei f?l left off. Ii'ft all outdoor scetiery in enchanted forests. sear<^hing for the Book of Light. Patitron should be on the etalls soon. Programmed by one of the GOF, is's bound to be fantastic. As you can see by that im- pressive list, there can be no cause for tears^ this Christmas, The gamea market for the Amstrad aeem^ 10 b^ at an aJl- lime high, and the standard of progrants is getting higher and higher. Are you a champion? The (Ime toprovt yoxif wii5 suing prowess is neanng-. Mikro Gen. ifiE organi^r of the National Computer Games Champion- ship, holds the final on the Guy Fawkr:a Dfiy, F5 NowRiiibfST. ai llit Savoy Hotel in London There will be a new game at the final, which me.in.3 r.o out will haTe an unfair advantage: Tbfct nij.rr:faer-orre champion will receive a copy of all the Mikro- Gen games, an impj^ssive trophy, a healthy £200 in the bsnk and national fame. Can you resist ihc cha] Ifilige? Gfii yoiji oifl s^iOOf^i-T ups from Tiitder the bod <ind i?(:l!t h-lr-jstirry. WllO kiiOWi;, yO!j may be the next hero AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 IS K V COMC£fdfj FOR ti :iMiii: OTHERS; 36 ;- -(^'%i^s^y'. m ■^^g'^e'jjfttr^'t* Y MiTATCKfuJ-- _ . . INlTflTCKf WILL Officially licensed coln-op game from Nkhlbutsu. Follow up to Moon Cresta. Now for your home computer. Pilot your space fighter over the planet eliminadng all alien life forms on its surface. Build up fire power on board as you dodge missiles launched from land silos and undet^^a bunlcen. Face the giant Death Star at the end of each orbit. You will need nerves of steel to pass this testl Imagine Software [ 1 9&4i Itnlted ' 6 Cgmral Street- Manchester* M2 SNS^Tel: 061 834 3939_ aEATE YOUR OWN DESIGNS .IN THREE DIMENSIONS WITH ' * '.■ ///Arnor 164/ ■m^w ISJONAL HAt""" [S>!''«-- ■.3tDms V<^^ tViir. ■■%? *ij!i; I. jyjlJiJ.L- ,:■ MOUSF/' lOVSTiCK OR --JARl 13' \RNOR Ltd 118 WHITEHORSE ROAD CROYDON CRO 2JF TEL 2^r. 01-684-8Qdl YOU! Serious Software Is now devoted totally to the CPC range, and we need your help! With our new mogozine 8000 Pfvs beingi devoted totaUy to owners of the PCW S256 end B512, we on AA can devote «ll ouf pages to the CPC ronge: the 464, 664 and 61 2S. This means that changes ore needed to Serious SoBv/are. Although ihe PCW became the star ol Serwus S^^frware. this does not mean thai Amstr^d Actioa is purely a games mag now, Serious Software still covers what business packages come oui for the CPC niodula. but an devole more space lo other aspects of home? computing such a progfaminmg, type-ins. hinta and tips, comms, giaphiCS and. masic. We would like youf help with Serious Software; after all it's your mag- Send us your Type-Ins. We arc looking (or quality lisimgs that show elegani use o£ Basic or even machine-code. We will prim them if they are worth typing m. Use the form on page B€ and remember, we pay tor wtiat we prm«. Having problems with Basic? Can't perauadc your printer to print? Wonmd about WordStar? Then wxiie to Problam OUR ADDRESS Address your cpirespond^nce to TypE'lDs, Problem Attic, Hot Tips or A Day ixi the Life Attic, Ajnstrad Action at ih» Old Bam, We will print What problems we can, and if wr can't answer Ihem ourselves then maybe one of our multitude of readers can and if they can't they might like to read the reply. But please don't ask us for solutions to games, if wo printed those U might spoil the game for others, and tliere might not be room in AA for anything else! Send us your hints and tips. If you've found any neat tricks to use in Basic. WordStar, Graphic Advefiture Creator, Ouili, dBase!!, or mactiine-code - or just want [o show off - then send youi lips Id Hot tipt, Amstrad Action > at the Old Bam. And if you are USing your CPC 1o conlrol youj tram set, run your business, play in a rorkn'roU band, or anything else that you might like to tell us about, the address is R Day tn the Life, AitLtta^ad Action, at the same address. The aeries kicks off with a look at how we produce Amstrsd AcUO-p On Arnolds, but we would rather hear from you, TeU us what you are up to in anything from live to SOO words, and we will let the cat out of the bag. Please include your phone number too. so that we can contaci you should we need more details. CPC owners, this mag's totally lor you! AmEtraid Action , Future Publishing Llmitedn Briuiel Precinct, SomertAn, Saxneisflt, TAU 5AH SERIOUS SOFTWARE TOP TEN The chart created by AA readers | ■ This ■ morm mon!! 1 %(^W{«S Ti-Jb SolNViire hwj59 H 1. 1 27.4% GRAPHIC ADVENTURE CREATOR Incentive 2. 7 10.4% EASI AWISWORD Amsoft 3. 8 6-870 MINI OFFICE 11 Database 4. — ' 4.2% DISCOVERY Siren 5. 3 4.0% LASER BASIC Ocean 6. 2 3.8% AMX MOUSE AMS 7. 4 3.5% TASWORD Tasword 8. 6 3.0% MINI OFFICE Database 9. 9 1.6% THE QUILL Gilsoft 10- 10 1.0% ELECTRIC STUDIO LIGHTPEN Electric Studio I 1 And Gnphic AOvoftrufe Creator h sttt at numbetr one. wttti fm not goiftg to sa/ anything ebo about East Amsvmrd. over quarter of you out Ihem reckoning It to be the best there doosn't seem to be a kit of point But Distsovery thing since sliced bread. What is happening to all Ihese h,^ certainty daahod in there, in the nurnber four adventures then? TetJ us, please, what you are creating pcssition. If you want your vote included in these charts:, on G^.C and we wIlE let everyone else know. use the form on page 96, AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 19 omof oress.^' AMK Pagemaker puts you rigfitat the heart of tfie desktop publishing revolution. At long last you can produce newspapers, posters, leaflets, notices and handouts in your own home, office or school. We're not talking at)Out amateunsh resuHs, bul extraordrnarity prof€SSionaf work with crisp text and exciting graphics. If s thhe sort of 21st Century t^chnolo©^ that's turned Fleet Street upside down and is pan of the most exciting advance in publishing since Guttenberg and Caxton. You can type directly onto your screen with a choice of 16 typefaces or, if you really want to be creative ^ you can design your own typefaces, and, just like the most advanced computer setting, you can centre, range right, left or choosa literal justificalton. You can even have full pixel control over character size and spacing, Alternatively, you can load in either word processing or standard ASCII text tiles with fully automatic on-screen text formatting. EXTRA! EXTRA! Using the pafiems supplied, you have outstanding graphics facilities for drawing, sprayjrigand painting, or you can achieve some incredible results, using your own pattern designs. The cut and paste options include copying, moving rotating, stretching plus a fantastic zoom facility. — ZOOM ON AMX PASEMAKER — A mode conversion routine allows you to load in screens and digitised pictures from all Am strad graphic modes. HOLD THE FRONT PAGE! The 'Preview' facility gives you total controf over your work t^ allowing you to view a page in miniature at any time, while also penmitting the viewing of diskj>ased pages prior to toading or saving. A wide range of printers inctudi ng the Amstrad DM P-2000, Epson FX/RXJ LX/LQ, Mannesman Tally MT80+, Shinwa CP80II and Star SGIQ'IB are supported. AMX Pagemaker is supplied on 3'^ disc and includes a comprehensive illustrated manual, while costing a mere £49.95, Your gateway to Desk Top Publishing is present at aii good computer dealers or by mail order using the FREE POST order form, AMX Pagemaker - your opportunity to publish and be damned! — PREVIEW YOU RPApE - ^LWS~5H ME POST FREE ^CH INSTAM ACCESS^ViSA DIDDERS TELEPHONE 0926 41350J .'?^:i „({hi|ir%J fMt PAGEMAKER PACKAGE'S AT £49,96 aedi INCLUPING VAT AND P 4 P ( EfJCU3S£ CH EQb'bK feTAl ORDER TOfiK „ OR DEBfT M¥ gjACCESS ~;Oft ffP| VISADflich as aporcpnatej CARD No. EXPiRV DATE Sl<5 NtflTU RE MAV-F {Rlrrk fjipitals RsaseL ADDRESS .posTcooe. IMACJJMATION ,'\ T YOUR FINGF.RTIPS £EH[JlC.ftOV.^^NCE:>M E'■1.'^,lHVS^■'SI^M^ . :|J,,FRE EPOS T . yiVaRRlSG^TOWWAJ 1 B F5 ADVANCED VIEMORV SVSTEMS LTD' I66:i70 WILDERSPOOL CAUStWAV ■ WARRtNGTON WA4 6QA - TELEX; 628672 AMSU SupA Soft Discount Software DuA l-<«iu<|Ovi,,.„„ ii,m m.n mmteriKDw^.^, uh (;»4' Rj*' net ll11iHniDQuainMt^^>'-*t M^rorllVAU., IIS *ti UiM Ulilf [IVIVI^.^ .,^.,„,1t «« •u f Sr T4 ■ «• ,|0^. IIM >eM ^SfluAUCaWTI. ......*••• It.H Hu(£ lutltl HlHl. .-.t**t <jnFLUll|ifl IK, ?li «gfviu JCCDWWI ' ,-. Il* •• 1 I* H Shun r.> uu 1* iDibi,... . 1 1 H ifl til "jsmiiii m aia ...laii 4f.H miTM. ■AS'miiMi ... in »n "SFiiUfnvKeu...-. .••*• H H ri4CA.iWTt jkA teBiiiiuvil|]OK.L.,iH H "ace mruvLov: F4t«*it<.H ci«ic<»n« Mm 4KTma40,. . fM ^Tt n3>LJvi>i>^H<:«Ki..rHia in H C«tMn* juat *prtt*t^lP»«., - _HM I»f4 C^re^rivNL •«** ntl Oi-uw „ ..^M bj^ ..^-^ ttjM irn cir cHtr «■• i)<Ti> . Mtt « H "e i^Li ^jh ,^jt Tai LurjuTj*m ..Uf* 4 *i nvuf .„„jia.n .f<«t ■»•! _«j« rjt Tnnn-B fc'T* TKi»«ii«4ft ...ft.it «.« leuici'^a-. ,U.U i4K TMM«u.nH4h ^-.....itJA tfia DitHin* '. iw L5fi TMC.wr|iruk .....fcK »u bK-tr«Mi w«LTlm» V ...,.,.„ * ** 1.19 T»*»**#l*Pt. . tl.U t«) «»«^ir««i™«^TUm» •uf I mm f... ^...^BH i.n uk^vbC ^_^M>t itH Knoucui^tioili^L. >f M- HtvittcMAitmii^—ii-m tm LutaiHC4Mq.„ hh ivii »«i»i >-,>'[. rtMtu..n.H. KiriUH RH US LlH>»^nlh__ ^H.M 1UH MugcTUIItLMj.. kl M. •lH T.il UKaK:unjVto4>l ...J4.H ItLVt Mm ram >^] ..il.Hi l%to eA««i** f (<!• 0*y4M to QjUSOnl SoHwini (Starlni (ir4y) indtand to It H .11 ii BEST BYTE SOFTWARE AFfW*-4C<V^, ,. **'1TU50*S»,D'| H>S» xlfifrl '...^.^ ':4.tBfi[w 1. uumutinwH' — «w^Miniom»-„... sow >rti I RMqt - ' ■ lifn PftiS-HNTI'^,, rgig^BMHT- iS*lV«»i a nrn wom.,™,.™ ■ .,\i,n _■« ..BJfl .14.M. .■» ^•) „*H -l.ll HfTE ;j>.fi 7.W ><.5a T» r.» 1.19 'J* len • u t.*> ti« tK .LUkTHIC /.yi CnCAMJH ■■*rKrni> -■n-LUMBfcH „.,„., -i;cNjein ' .^„.., 'MP03!m * H4WIPN ' , ihMrHfTtnC-l "„,,,.—,- i-S*Ri*S»50T,.,„ JiC-l TUt MJPIPI ■ KtnViiKtJCM. kUOH r T Al|„ „ ., ,- M9MH***/.. , .... umittUtQ- UESACAIK'J.X ' L4S4H «t.lNt;V % . ,- iwfl rsm^ r_ .. l.t) .. l.tl -. ,»** **» .. J» .. I4E4 ...J*J _ttJl ...Vtit -ALH 1IIM4MIWMRM-. 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TOE AMERICANS CUP w«« Americas '9 "" ' QJP Chaii&tge Oi'llClAL AMERICA'S CUP • vOMPUTFRCAME \ APACHE GOLD by Peter Torrance Lonesome Cowboy XUKE WARME', not a Dime to your name and only dreaming of riches. Bui there Is a LEGEND. A legend ofgr^at riches in an Indian Burial gtound. The legend of . . . APACHE GOLD! S^«^''* AviUaUe from aUi leading retatlen, Ordir^C't from: INCEMIIVE SOFTWARJE LIMITED 2 Mlnerve Hpiise. Calleva Park. AJdcrmasion, Berkshire RG7 4QW. Telephone; (07356) 77235. PRIORITY ORDER FORM Please r«sh me for my Spectrum D Commodore 64 D Amstrad CPCQ . ipaOic Gold£7,S5 3 Wtmcr Wondetland £7.95 D Gfaphk Adventure Creator | ^^^^ g*|| ^ I enclose cheq«e/PO Of please debit my credit card No- _^^_^ SERIOUS SOFTWARE t My lordSr ladies and gentlemen! Speech with no hardware requirement? There ntust be a caich somewhere. Not one but several, oa \ soon discovered! Being ralher impatient when some new software lands on my deskn I tend to shove the disk (in ikas ca/se) into the dnve and connmence loading without further ado. Wol!. you can imagine my surprise when IQ frustrating minutes passed and speei^h had still lo reach my ears! Okay, time lo ail down and read the ingtTucHons- Before long, I came across those fatal worda: 'For the Amalrad CPC 66* or 6 1 S3' - aargh! VThy do software houses insist on alienating part of the Amatrad computing fraHerivity? This is a definite thunnbs-down in my books. The reason for this incompatLbility is sheer laziness on the part of Superior's Mr Patorson- A brief explan- ation is in order: Locomotive Basic version l.O aa seen on all 464 machines has certain differences from \fer8ion l.i (on 664s and 6] 289), With versiot^ 1,1, strings cajtv be used directly in CALL state- ments and resident system ejctenaions (ESXa); these are com- msu;«ds preceded by the bar (' | '), Version 1 .0 does not allow fltrings to be passed in this mannei, but requires a twO-sta^fg prooese, For e^cample, in version 1 -0 you would type; compared to just this in IJ : Although version 1.0 Uses strincr variables in a slightly more cumbersome way, there is absolutely no justification for making Speech*, (disk version) incompatible with version- LO machines. Tape owners can be thankful the program will run on all CFQ ittachines. The cassette Ims foU instructions for transferring to disk. The inBtnictiona accDmpariying the software axe very con- ciae. I do recommend tlial you read through them thoroughly, as it will save time having to conetaRtly refer back. There is a auite of six programs on the disk or tape, each having its own part to pUy in allowing; the user full control over software speech, 22 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 Starting with tbe firat of the programs, tilename SPEECH, you soon discover six new commands available for you to { manipulate. All are i^uad with the KSX bar prefix: | SAY, SPEAK, I PITCH, j CENTRE. iLEPTand (RIGHT. g SAY will cause English words following in quotes to be I converted into phonemes or what Superior Software calls 'epeeoh panicles'. In other words, it wlU literally say (or attempt | to) whatever is within the quolation-marks. Adding a question-mark at the end of yotir sentence » within! the quotes, will raj;3e the pitch of the last word. A full-stop has] the opposite effect - it lowers the pitch, A comma acts a& a| pause, I SPEAK is more EleKible than I SAY as il aHowa the pitch ofi the vowels to be varied. This is miplemented by placing al number between ] and & after the vowel. Using this trick irj conjunction with commas, full-stops and question-marks pveEJ you eKcellent control over stress and intonation. To change the overall pilch of the sound, there is a iPtTCHi command. The parameter following it ranges from 1 to 20 ~ if chooses (he lowest pitch, SO the highest. The final three commstnds axe for setting the chaiuieli through which the sound is to be played; CENTRE, | LEFT and| I RIGHT, You may feel that these coimnands saiisfy your desire \c hear Arnold speak, However, there are several other interest-] ing aspects to Spssch! - the other programs on the disk or tape. All Of these programs except NOTES nltlS! first hav4 SPEECH loaded into memory, otherwise 'Unloiown command'] Will appear regtilarly on the screen. DEMO gives the user a general idea of the program'i capabilities. It may be wise to switch oil at this point; however for those still plugged in. the demonatration shows how each command works and the efiects of changing certain parameters^ Next on the list is SPELL. This is quite an amusing and at the same time educational game. The program is a simple spelling test. The computer speaks the word to be spelt and prints example S6nten.ce on the screen (with a blank, of course) to pud the word into context. There is an option to change level oi difiieulty, AtoC. EDIT is available for adding to the data dictionary, dictionary allows English text to be translated into a phonet form before it can be pronounced. The routine called Translato^ scans through its input-buffer and produces a list of phoneme codes in the output-buffer. Among the other programs is SAYFILE, which alio we tes files lo b* spoken. If you save a letter wntlen with T^tswoid. assembly hstmg from MsKsin Or tven a Basic program with i 'A' option (saved in Ascii form rather than tokenized), SA'^ will churn out whatever garbage it manages to findf The last of the six programs spews out a 2?k text £le either the screen or pnnior. It's a detailed desctiption Speech!, how it works, how to incorporate Oie prograit^s inu your own masterpiece. It takes the user through basic puj gramming right up to machine-code level - in fed there nothmg hidden', aU is readily got at'! (I do not reoommerd word-processor the author used for typing NOTES - it seems t^ have done away with the last character from every line.) Well, with all the speech synthesizers currently available, am in two minds as to recotnmending this piece of software. £IS on disk and £10 on cassette, it's not exactly cheap: paying double that amount will get you a iairly decent hardwat speech synthesiser, which wiU not only give 'superior' spe but also stereo sound output. On the plus side, Superic Software's Speech! gives you a wide range of control over sounds actually output and 0ves you the opportunity to corporate Speech! into your own programs* SEmOUS SOFTWARE h Kftith Wils«n of lowlond ScotEtirid one of those rising software sfars? Twd A A Rove games or* his work on th« Amstrad. StDI at school, he's one of rhe programmers behind (and in Front qH) Vidt, Rombo's video digitizer. A day in the life: Keith's partner Arnold JiiBi over five yeari ago I muuuged »e Kiape up enough money to puichase my very Ex»I computer, * ZXai. Little did 1 guess that now I would be writing numb«r- one computer games like Ym Ar Kuagt-^ md Cre&n Best&t If there had been lots ol stunning gatrtes around for the ZXiSI l<ta (here Are now for othc^r computers) 1 don'l think t would, hav^- ^Tfiir qifl r-atind to wiriclrtg my own programs. Eu( S yean Ago there wasn't much else to do on a home com- puter. So I syat'&ma.licaUy wtjrked iny way ihf ough the Basic nianuaJ (meaning I «f Arted somewhere in (he middle and lead ihe whole thing baokweida> and began deveV Opmg my v<iry own gjurtes. IVIoflt of thJem cotisisted of ^ iioiizont^y moving boat/spEicecrUlj'AeropIane filing depthchaiges/rockets /bombs At a hoiisont- ally moving sutenarine/aliwn/bird and they wer* all very simple, but ihey involved a lot o( techniques Vi^hich are standard in mo^l games. Creeting sluQ' in Basic is a good way to learn iiow to prQgr*ni!i. But gJtqr i while J begiin 1o gel fed up with the J:ack <A sp^qid and doctded to enter the mystic lands of assembly code. These days avi^rybody seams to havf» anu-assembly complcixes. Machine -code stfcli isn't lEisilty that complicated, the knack Ite« in deciding exactly what you*re trying to do and how yqu'te going to gf> about it. Anyway, alter a whiJe 1 found that I didoH ■eem io be gating anywhere with as- nmbly. I padked it in, fhloiking that I h&d Still a lot to leari^. As it lumed out, I knew mwi of it already and reisliaed that machine-coding wrasn't so bad alter all! The neit gieat step m computing his- sory was the ZX Spectrum - 'the world's b«et p«isonal cCmpulec f^r under £500' the adx said I eventually bought one and reap^ phed myself to machine -code. 1 also began 10 get ideas abotit making aomtt money out isf my hobby. t decided to write an adventure uaing The OuiL' Entitled Tiie Lost Orh, ii involved a ^ryvtsl orb (surprisingly enough) which j&s had to find, Once the gome was wiitlenf t iSedded to have a go at celling it. Evetiiu- iQT ! tokl quite a few. The price was low, b«i xi mad« me »oiiite mottey «!d I w«* reeionably happy. I began nrymg out all kinds o( Ldea* in TnachLn9^!x>iie and I had pimu for develop- ing arcade games and other advenrorea. But then there were rumours about a now cobur computej with an amazing apecific- ation, and I began lo wonder if it would flood the market. The Arnold turned o^t to be all It was promiaed [and on time ~ uidike the ZX8i 01 Sped rum?) and yet again I changed computers. Things realty ata;i«d happening when 1 met a guy CfUed Oeoige Wright We had ■imilar ideas about writing software. We got logethei and tvcgan ussng a Commo- dore 64 with White Lightiung, which was fast and much more fun than aj*eml?ly Working together (urned out to be very succ«aa[ul and we began developing a game, whic^ foi vorioua reasons never ^ujte wa£, [ncidentaliy, onA of my great prograiiuning secrets a to drink lots and lota of lea which was (and aliM is> regularly supplied by George's wife, Linda. If you are using youj CPC to control your train set, run your business (the Big Bang? the army?), play ut a rock'n'roll band Or anything else yoti might like to tell XiS about, the address is A Day in the Life, Ametr^d Ai^rion, The Old Barn, !Somerton, Somerset, TAll 5AH ft was ai^iund thin time that t became seriousJy involved in Amaitad progrAmm- ing, Marcus Sharp (of Rombo Produdiona) was desperately looking for an Amstrad programmer lo help Wm finish o5 a game conversion. The game waa later aban- doned, but I aoon found myself working again, this time for Imagine Software. My task was to convert the oomJEjat game Yie At Kurg-Fu from the original arcade version by Konami onto the huii\ble Arnold, 1 reckoned that 1 could manage it and with the help of a coUeague. I did, Yi» At became a very famous game and il opened up a whole new avenue of oppor- tunities for me, Imagine was keen for me to *tay The firm managed to perauade me (fl do another arcade ^ronversion, CsfaoR Bsret. 1 wag getting a bit stuck for hours in the day by this time and I waa vary suiprised (and pleased) when George offered to do the graphics Jor Bsr&i. You can judge the results for yourself, from start to finiah, the tape version of Green B0r& look sibout three momhi to write. The graphic* ar- nngement worked splendidly. We often brought the two computers together to work on - it was great, 1 wrote code and George designed graphics. We argued, drank aome more tea and fixed the problems- I then took the graptuct and slotted them tmo the program while Geo- rge worked on more graphics. It was hec- tic, but we often got more done on those weekends than we sometimes did in endre weeks. One advantage of writing your own game ia that If an idaa dQ«an^t work, you can ;usi scrap it You can't do that on a canveraioa; you have to work round it in some way. Take tureen Berefa sczoUtng for example. The arcade maclwne ItAB cont- inuous scrolling btii i1 also has « 68Q00 processor with pSaaty of memory and hard- ware. The CPCs just can't handle moving that amount of acreen by software alone. And if you used a hardware scroll, the score information at the top and the weapons at the bottom have to be softwaxe^ scrolled back to Eheix corrett jjosition - not to mention the wa.y the hardware scroll mesfles up the screen addressingf Hence, we had to use the 'burst' scrollmg teqhni- qpae. whtch looked very jerky to me at the time but T fust had to accept it. At least it gives you a bH of a rest ftom the hectic gameplay! I am now working on an original game called Moonstadow with George. It is a large muiti-acreen game with a combin- ation of fantasy and space efernents, to be leleaaed on the Ocean label for the Artistrad, Corttmodore and Spectrum. 1 won't give loo much away just now - yoy'U jual Have tO wait untU it's reJeaMd n«xt yeax. George and I recently set up a com- pany calJed Vega Graphics to handie Moonsh^dp^ and anything else Which comes our way. We are also looking tor a local Spectrum progrartumei of proJesalodnal gusJtty - anyone in the tothi^n area who is interested please g«t in tottch: (090^) 41 The future? Well, I'm working on digit- izer software for Aombo's VidS, and I've got plans for some serious software - aftsem- blers, art package etc - as well as a few mcjd g^mes, I also hope that Vega Graphics could develop into a form, which WDidd make it poasible for us to morkel some of our own products, an area which we ieel i« betier handled at the moment by the esportt »uch a« Ocwui or Imagine, But who knows ,,,7 I have found that 1 enjoy computer work. When I fmiah my education (I'm presently doing O-levela at Deans Com- munity High School) 1 think that Vaga would be an Ideal full-time occupation. Oh, I almost forgot to mention. E am iUl y»aia old - in binary, of course. i^ &pHisampw.'ga^UK ciiCMD«Mal AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEE 1086 23 SERIOUS SOFTWARE Video digitizer comes, conquers our reviewer The Vidi video digitizer Hombo Prcrductioiis, (0506) 39406, all CFCa, £as.9£ii Could this be the addnoiv cf tli& century? Judge for yourafilf! Vtdi, as It's aSg^^onat^ly termed, is a video digitizer. In la'^nan's terms, it's a black box llial wiU '^rab' im image seen through a television came'ta or even a picture from your video recorder and store it as rmntbeis in your Amslrad^a memoiy. From titter* you cati zeproduce it on your monitor. The people lo thank for (his ingenuity are Rombo Produc- tions of Liviiigston, Scotland The same amaU company - Golin Taullaier, Mamts Sharp and Keith Wilson - about 18 months ago brought out the highly successful romboard called Kombo - in my opinion the best one available. Vidi is very Biinilar in appearance to the Sombo. It comes in a neat black box with a length of fibboti cable aUowing lor easy connection to any of the CPC range. There are two through- connectors: one is at the end of the ribbon cable, and the other is on the circuil board inside the Vidi. This lets you use other peripheral devices that don't have through -connectors (and we all know the guilty party concerned). Mote imporianiiy . what do^ it do and how? Vidi contains itt own GET (c«ithod,e-ray tube) controller. Arnold contains art idenheal one. Among the Vidi's circuitry are two banks of 3k ram (random-acoa^. memory), giving 11 16k of video ram. Tim enables Vidi to obtain a single frame of animation from either a video tap* or video camera. On completion of this grab, the Vidi ram is read into the computer'^ own screen ram. Oporaticn time for this is apprortmately 300 milliseconds. This gives a sequence of three pictures a second, which is more than adequate for mosi applications. Software to enable the grabbing or digitizing of video pictures comes in various formatu; rom, disk or ca&iette. The software is supplied as RSXs (resideot system extensions) or rom (read-only memory) external commands, which allowa users to customise their Vidi setup. Fight, let's connect up! The edgci-coimector at the end of the Vidi ribbon cable is attached to the Amsirad's expansion port. Take care as it is iiot impossible to insert it upBide-down. K you possess a romboard, plug the Vidi rom into a clear socket and switch on. Alterna^ lively, load the software into memory - you should be ready to roll I A cable included with the Vidi frame grabber is fitted with RCA (phono) and BKG {video) connectors. The phono end plugs into a socket on Vidi clearly marked video ift". Likewise the video plug goes to the 'video out' socket on your video recorder or video cameia. la. case of difficulty, this nesct paragraph may be of some help. If, for example, you have a problem with the connections (ijn. other words, if they don't tit), check that the Video Out is actually composite video and not RGB or modulated RF. RGB signals can be converted to composite with & suitable patch lead - this is where your dealer comes in handy] With RF signals, I'm afraid you are stuck, as Vidi cannot cope with these. Several makes of video recorder are fitted with phono sockets rather Ihem BNC for Video Out - no problem here, for the correct cables are readily available from hi-fi shops. (Consider yourself iBcky with a phono plug rather than BNC; the latter tend to lose their bits and cost a lot.) 24 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 Hopefully you are by now correctly set up land ready play with your new toy. Let's look at the software. You should £md several new commands at your dis} These are accessed via external commands, which are prefixe by the I symbol (this is attamable by pressing Shift and [a\ There are a host of useful commands, the ixiost comprehensi\ being VIDEO. Typmg this command should have you staring at a mode screen from your video camera or recorder, h's bemg contin^ ally updated, approximately three times a second. The smooj action on an ordinary televrsicn screen results from 50 scans] second, so the effect of Vidi with j VIDEO is rather like a dia ujider strobelights. At the bottom of the screen Lb n status line showing varloi^ parameter settings: Cor^7 Br J 07 1^64 Mode 1 InkJ^^-^O Sav Prt One of these wHl be highlighted with a cursor. The cursor easily moved using a joystick or the arrow (cursor) keys, *Con* is the first option. Con varies the contrast throughl SERIOUS SOFTWARE range from to IS, Zero causes the greatest diSgrtexiCO between light and dark ssigrt^. To alter v^iiea fbr Con and its asaodates, move cursor keys oi joy slick up oi down. 'Bri' stands t<?T Brightness, A valuij of sero displays much of the picture in dark, while 15 has fhe opposite eSect. Hardware analogize oomrols supploment Con and Bii: there are tiny variable f effiatoia osx the circuit board, which you adjust with a small screwdriver. However you should not need to. These controls do not actually modify the video signal, but rather the samphng width and sampling level reapeclively. Televiaon and video use 'Lnterlaced frames' to produce an intage on the screen, With this system 6^5 lines are displayed; the pictures are actually produc&d by successive scans ot 312 and ^13 lines, or odd" and "oveii' fiamea. On the Amstrad CPCs, only 200 lines may be displayed. This probleim is overcome by windowing' oiilo an area of Ihe image produced by the video camera or recorder. This, window is set by the vertical position indicator, 'Vpos', The three digits following are fhe number of lines of&et at the top of the picture. Moving along, we enounter 'Mode', The modes available are 0, 1 and 2. Selecting mode appears to have no effect - in tAci it will display as mode 1 until either a 'Sav' or 'Prt' command is issued. The reason for this is that Vidr is designed to grab frames in modes 1 or 2, Thus lo obtain a mode tmag^. several screens in succession must be mtegrated to synthesize the picture. This is done by reading 16 screens in mode 2. Each time a screen is read, the brightness control is increased. By taking note of the brightness setting, Vidi cau switch on a gioup of pixels, hence assignmg a mode ink to it. One drawback of using this method ia that the required image must be perfectly still. Otherwise a blurred picture will result, Vidi was designed to work in modes 1 and 3| the mode routine was included because, given the right conditions, excellent printouts can be produced. 'Hiis would be easy with videotaped images. The ''Ink' command will do the obvious: alter the colour in any ink pot. If the ink number is moved up or down, the relevant colour number will be displayed in Ihe next bcx. Moving the cursor to the boK displaying die colour number lets you alter its value - a range from to 26. The ink numbera xeflect the mode chosen, so in mode 2 only inks and 1 can be used, and in mode 1 only inic$ 0,1,2 and 3 aje changeable. 'Sav' saves the screen image to either disk or tape. It is passible to save screen images in rapid succession. The filename you select will have a number following it, incremen- ted with each successive Save, The Trt' command will grab a screen in the curicm mod© and dump it to a dot-matrix printer. Epson-compatible printers and the Amstrad DMP30OO are catered lor. Mode 1 and 2 screens are pruned normally across the page, whereas a niode image is turned 90 degrees on the page. Pressing £scape at any time will exit you from I VIDEO. AU the parameters set while | VS)EO was in operation will remain ittiact even upon re-entry. The other bar-commands perform essentially the same function as features available from the | VIDEO menu. I VGRAB, as its name implies, gets a auigle frame using the current settings. The scre&n mode Ls no! reset, thus allowing ilie user to use this command repeatedly without screen blanJdng. One thing to beware, though, is thai ! VGRAB works on absolute addresses ; therefore the screen should not be scrolled. Ker€ is a list of other bar -commands a( your service. FqUow them with a comma and the value you wish 10 set them to, 1 CON , X s<et contrast (x ranges from to 15) I B H I , X set b rightness (0 to 1 S) I V'POS , X set vertical position (0 lO 137J I VMODE . X set giab mode [0. 1 or 2 only) JVINK.X.Y nef ink x to colour y jVPRINT print hard copy m current |VMODE There is one other command. | VCONVERT. With it inks Z and 3 swap colour. Us main purpose m life is fox prmt«:i or graphic routines that expect shades to be in ihe order 01 S3. As a result of its hardware coniiguration Vidi picks, up shades in the order 0132. with the darkest and 3 the lightest. Some print- dump routines can not cope with this - thus the command I VCONVERT. Enhancements are on the way for the Vidi software, Rombo progiammers said at the Amstrad Show: • true colour, which will work by taking a series of frames through red. green and blue filters • mode from mode 1, thus greatly speeding up synthesis time • series grab, enabling 6 1 Z8 owners to grab a series of frames in the extra bank of ram before saving - animstion sequences may even be possible! U that wasn't enough to whet your apetite, within the next few weeks the hard-working Rombo team has promised to make screens oompatiblie with l!aiJtbiitd''s £20 Ait Studio (last month^s cover feature). This will unleash untold power to your disposal - imagiite the fun you could have distorting facial images! The most excitutg is yet to come: using a smaller screen size, they hope to have Vidi producing 10 frames s second. This will give much smoother aitimatlon and will really push Arnold to his limits. You nnay have gathered I am head-over-heels with Vidi. It opens up a completely new area for experiucnentation and enjoyment. It's a stunning new product. GOOD NEWS B AD DEWS 1^ Digttiis up to thtes Irstnts s •■ Vsu will need a viAbo sKunfi retni-iicr or c^nrnta ^ CoIdut, ifiodB, i:DntrastundBt P Can't receive lets vision tiifj ussrcontrfKl iiriApeslRF jigiiab) ^ Encs 1 lent p ri ntar-du mp ^ Tshes lang timn tn gnnfij'^iTA raulin« ittcludtd inn He $£ii!en >■ WsM-iMrittart. easy-ta-f allow ^ Will keep yaii jMiay Frcni maiKifti WQrk ►^ Only £30, »■ Costs rsto AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 25 A Ion of type-ins fhis month! On« ii long and poiiibl^ loud; the rest ore short and spectacular. W^ hope yot like the section's new look. Keep them coming. Ears for Arnold I * k SQVND DIGITIZER by Richud Monte iia With this amazing liating Arnold can apeaje with your voice - or inimiD Ftarikie Goes To Holl|rwood ■ or lepioduce any Eoimd a, microphone can record on an ordinary cassette. The program is a simple sound sampler, Wheix you play the audio tape on The *S4"b datacorder or a tapedeck plugged into the 6S4 or 6128, the sounds are converted to the digitized form Qui Arnold can reFnembftt. With a simple command yoa can reproduce it out of his speaker, [magwe what your computer could say at strategic pointe^ in your games. (Don't be too rudfi, now!) A lot ol hard woik is in aioic for you with all this typing. Type in the Jisting carefully. It's best to get a friend to dictate while you type - goea more quickly saves losing your place by looking bagk aihI iatih from paper to screen. The data statements actually coneist of machine-code pro- duced iis.LAg the Maxan ^iBsembler, You won't need an aa- aembler because the Easic piogisum sicnply pokea the numbers to memory, starting at location 49000, The listing contains an elementary checksum roulinei all the numbers have to add up lo 57071 or you have made a typing mistake. It may help to realize the data is made up of hexadeci- mal numbers, so you shouldn't be typing anything other than the numbers to 9 and A to F - always two digits, coimtia, two digits. Save the program before you run it, or you might lose your work! Instruclionfi for saving it are tagged onto &te end of iJie listing as REM stacemenfe'' You naed not type th«se in, but it's not a bad idea to keep the directions m the progrram in case you can't find this printed pa^e in a year's time. When you run it, oms of two things could happen, U you get the message 'Error in data,' it's back to the start and check all those data statements again, If all is correct you will see 'Data OK -well done' and the cursor returned for your control. You wiS! now ^tlBnwsome new commands to play with, JA8ne<i trla Resideint Sjqif^^Ktenaions (RSXs), commands pre- ceded by Ihe bar. ' ■^^, whio^^iares a key with 'kj '. (Yes that's ighi, baicommatftda; two pin%ol lager aa4 a pi^okot pi enspa, pleatc ' ': |^ :ESOl'ND luLs to^^^B^e sJt^eral comm,aj and nurnbeitt following :[. - paiamelers - to Itistruct the program^ TtiartTr cOUi'i^e ofaotioti. 1^ comwter needs to j^^iv^^ \d Jsnglh: Miure tn m^msy to Iqui the soui^ i^^^^ much ofii '^i^; t^'.^«i:pari4etera roiat be prei^^t' the noisy r.iessage Parameter error* o^OM^anaJble co-:rol3' s^i&ed 2$ AMSTRAD ACTION PE( lilt^lfrA Ssfoxe deploying this comisand, insert a casseUe wig music, your voice or any other sound, into the datacorder, message will surface asking you to 'Press a key.' Do requested and the sound data will load. The fomvat of command and the other commands is shown below. PSOUND is similar to iRSOUND in thai the first parameteia must be present. Hiat ia whoro the amulaiity ei as 1 PSOUND instructs the computer to output through Amsirad's internal loudspeaker any data it may have picked during the eKOCUtion of jRSOUliD Again there is a thir possible parameter; this time it controls the loudness at whic that sound wiU be output. 1 R and iP are identical to ESOUND and IPSQUHD. The are fox all incredibly la^y people Who hate long commands amjust too kind! Due to the programrrMtg technique employed, it i» m powribl^ to speed up or slow down the rate ar which the eou data is Qutput - this is constant. You will get that type of el only ill vvhen recorduag into meinfl^ijjusing [ESOUND or you alter the third paramel.eMTori its default value of 13^/ number can range betweeninuRt^Sa. The larger the the slower the sound dat||^gJlbe read into the consequently when playS^^MifeK" {using either |PS 1 P). the sound will seem to have bee "speeded up. This may »oundirath**'i3^nmtttg^PQn't worry fiiUy grasped Wi' &nm^n: trial-and-eurar Sd of teaching youTKgtftS:' r-iw ^ follows the promawd layout of thn: ^oimnand*:^ jon/gmgtls rateefddits en itfoncanbfebetw&an Qand 66533 (8JTt¥j i?iigrih e,i .'/(Jen and 65536 (&FFFF) tm ofda^ i-j.. jy s'dr. be he'iweeai 1 and 23H jd^ ess cart p a- bet.v taa i |y34 ,15 (5F); 15:5 I i;l6b^Mt: '7^' ^^^ p* ■• •'■•'.■'. Pe m direct rrti>ifeJ^|flSijy,i,(j „ ^^, .^^. ^ N^ When "Ksadir" aboeara f^ ^^ 'fH^»*UJi) "^ appears, type: r^Clr^r. ,:..,.,, , S. Wowl , ■ '■ ■ ■ " j(3 CATA ,23. 1B •3E .M ,7A,lft3.23. 'BC.C9.cr- A7.BC O^tJ DAI A ^^w£P^»^>**^-^°' — — Slf CATft 6^ 66*3 CAT.^ ?A. eaQ DATA &2 7pa DATA '/<i 72^ t-ATA iO Ik. I 57.4^ . .44.49. .?A,ZA .{JA.&0. A.rj.sy.'i' C,^5 20.31 4e,4? 2(J,2A. lA^.lB.ptJ.iSA. 43,4F.&2,'1<1 .3f),9A,PA.A4 Aft .'1-3 . '^^r 2A,2A.2^| 41 .52.5*1 d9,4t.4T 3i\,OA,.07 ", IS eesenljal Uiai vou r„» .i. .^,jA»?*R^D AcTrON DECEMBER 1886 ^ 44'; ( ■: TYPE-INS your program: If some one enlerg an incorrect code, a harsh roice Cyouis) comes isooming through the epeaker teUino him to'GelLosH Or you could set up keys to say theii: name when piessed - might be usehil for verifying input, or for ieachmg a loddler to recognke numljers. The possibilities are encUeas. Ufft 85 1(3 ' Sour.rJ Eorrnj'ar- 2}5 ■ (c) Amat'ad Acf-lon 30 ' 6^ np£^jCiLT"y ; MEMORY S-lFFF ij0 KODt !;1MK 3,0;BORUFR Sil'iK \ .2^ 80 GOSUB ''.4P-.00SU9 210 9fl END 10$l ' err-nr no cyfie fajnd 11^ PaiNT-OtUmZLK coot HAS ^0T ". t33 Sl&P 1&(J PR1MT"S0UW 5Art?L.EP" lag PRIKT t'RlHT"S -' to sjmplo acund" I7p PRIMT P - tp pUy back sfttind' ^60 PWIMT"! -- XrO save santpl^d somd" TSa PIliNT"] - tQ 'icfid Fiampitifl sounti" 2W HfTUfiS 26(J LOCATE l.ipiPniNT srACfcM20O5 25fi PftlM SPACEI(2^P) 27P LOCftTE l.t.PRIVT Cftn^ 1 7) : GOTO n^ 2&iJ ' sanplG EOunO j!SC! L3CATE 1 ,10;PRI^]"TtJS£HT "i SEiJ* FR1HT-CASSETIF 1J*10 TAPEDECK" 3TP PHI NT-PRESS A (tEV (1 TO 3) " : yiQ PRINT"TO SAMPLE SOUNU" ■m fcS'INK€Y?:lF R*""" THE^S m 34P aw nS1iir'2'J",bSJ Gyr€ 3^0-360.360 3b0 |jOT3 sag 37t^ 'R. Teds'! 5)30 410 FKINT"PP,FSS A KEV (T PC 3) " . i,l<i PFirJJT"Tp PLM 3ACK SCUNU..." Ai^ .g^IUKEYt IF C*-"' THc^J 413 44e OH HSTftri^S-'.cS) GOTO AmAm^^f^^' 4f;.0 COTO 430 4E1V loc-(VAL(e*)H10'?!f)+al?00 473 'P.irj«,S<'i3C'0 J8p RETUSM -isa ' SAVE SAMPLE biSP LOCATE 1J0:PR1"*T-SA^,'E ^ R1H FRIfJT"WHTCH S^WFLE (1-3: ■" b5fl d^-lNKEY^^li- rt^-" THEN B2J 333 CM \%SJH'n7'.m GOTO 65(J.5:3ia. 55# 64p GCTU r^20 !i/3 RETURN 5!J0 " load s&mpl<t W^ LQi;ftTE Uip^PnlMI-l-OAO -. Q'a PRINT' WHICH SAf'PlE n-3h ■■" eia eSMWKHYJ IF sJ-"' THEN Q10 eaS OM n^siR{'i2r,flS) goto 6ie,fi4«!,e43 use Sfcro feio 660 HETUP^i 2fl AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 a Motor control Here is a Hating that iwlJl add two RSX qonunands, provir especially useful for users of the 6S4 or 6138, Depending on t^ tape deck, some have to type i TAPE then CAT juat lo be able lewiiid a tape ^ all a bit awlcvimrd. Alex Aird of BiJntiingham lias come up with a helpfJ •oloution to this problem. Type in the listing, and il all has 1 entered correcHy, a message tC'lling you that you have 't.... commands available' wiU appear. These extra comrnanda ai I ON and |OFF, Their action is aimply to start ajid atop the cassette motor | nice and neat! 1 ' NqTOI CO'^T^OI 2 • Al0!< Ai*-d 3 ■ AiBstrad Action [)BC B6 10 MEMORY 4fi^i3 20 FOn 3-42603 10 4203? READ h« 30 l?^-\<AL(-&''*bS-):^KE a.b.^rNEXT <^ii CALL 41W BP PRLMf'Nsw nodiif finds | Oi*! arirl ; e« PRINT"|!)FF rtO>* ava^ltiil1&" ,■0 ■ SAVE ■'o^of^.oi■>^^>.42(»^0.33 8U DATA 01-^0.A4.?-«J9.AA.C3.D' 93 DATA BC.ge.PJJ.SO «0'25,A4.C3 1W OATA 2B,Ai.C3,2e,A4,4F,CE,4F 11(3 DATA rt6.Ci3/3S.C3,6E.BC,C3 71 i2t^ DATA Bt _ / Kaleidoscope Alex Gough of Hastings, Sussex, has sent a mirvellAus iistina Theie are virtually endieas variations of panerm. A great (id can be uaer-controlled^the beat idea ia to liy di^*fer«jnt patj meters yourself. Trymg to explain what each option coi^d would taJce a lifetinic. Once the pattern has been completed, the computer *;] beejj rudely at you. Pressing N takes you lo the be'ginnirij^iof i program: S vriU. save the screen piclyre to tape or dlski 2 ' Altx 5 ' Anst Go ugh rad Action D9C IB IW *1CDE 2;: INPUT iO I'^ifd' 79 IMPJJ- ;,iNK 14,5;!^^ 15.2 ■■GRAPHICS MOOE(ft 1 cr 31 - -OVEPAU SIZE 1^-301: ^;' -MC. OF flbPETlTIONSr " :9 •■tJO OF SI2E INCREMEi^TS: ^l3 OF LlNfS P=a BlOCK: lENGTH OP LINES : <; I ll ' ;« ';9 ■:d =i &0 PRIHT '^HP^ ;23; J"hiHivF-i &^ MODS 3; ORIGIN :Mi.2m 160 C1S:F0H ^-l TO c;FOR a-T TO g ilfl KMHT(R»!a*f)*a-.yI*IT(aHCTrs 120 Ki.-INT(RN0*f)*a:yif-INT{BNI>*rr3 i:i0 o-IfiHRHD*iS>*1 m;3 I^GR b-1 TQ d 15^ PLOT **ti*c.V*kJ*<:-P 160 DflA'* xx^b'K.yyb'C 170 PLC" -le-b'c.y+b'c I9p DRAW -XK b'c.yy*b*c ■. 5g PLOT ii*b'c,-)i b*€ 7 1 i .'1 -y^'b*i; ZHJ Pl-OT Jc-b'^i -y-o"f; 22ia DRAW -«K-&'c -y-y b*C 230 NEXT MEX'iKExT 24y SO'i^D - .it00-2O& 7 253 «a-^"WHUb ;,?--" ;ii*-lNKEV*:WEN[ 261t IF L0WERM8S)--E" THtM GPTC 2SC 2;<3 1= La^EBS-;aS)-"T' THtK ftUfw Z80 GOTO '90 2fte SAVE"tPIC',l>.tC0&&.4^P00 3;^0 LOCATE 3,12 ;PP INT 'RtADY- I^HJ COP 3-1 "^0 t5^:MEXl:auN s!^" Pattern; TYPE-INS flii mteiMling program from Mr PTmBtalld^Kt^siun-a^'w „ . „ ^vtrtt ^«ii T 7^^^ ^^^y ^^"9 *«^^ 'o execute - ampl« time to *e »mp„,« r^diir draw. ^^pJailiS^Tr^JL'Sr.''- 1 3 13 p P Tufistail Aftsirad Action MO&F 2 BORDER IHK JJ.^INK l.U 20 FPINT -Enter Pattern Factor (p.S 3? INPIJT'to 4.5 fo-^ best p^i.ce'-ns). 40 CLSiOHlGIK 32^,2^0 J. e39.4&&.p 5P FOB x'3 TO 13P STtP n:y-2,&*»t B0 INt^ 1,(X/1I21 ,{J</T0) m NEXT 5i.;G0TO ?U «*0k your Iimch and eat itf Nevertheless, this is an mterestma gmgjvorfllir to b^ typ^ in. It .hows good use nf^e^PC? functions and what they are capable qL B A Knight Amfltrad Action Dflfismber T96e T(J MOOF 2 IWK i*.(J.lNK 1.26;B0RI>eft 20 FOB s-eF^ TO &&? STEP 1^ ass y-20EJ+12S*COS{s/639*Pl*41 49 ORiGlN B.y 60 z-75*C0S(a,/639*PI'6] 60 GOSUB 160 70 Mt;tT a fiU hOft b-320 10 639 STEP ^^ i»0 ORIGIN b.y njS ?-7&'COS(a/639*Pt*e) 1 2 (J NFXT b ■J^ PLOT g .y MO PLOT h.^i ibp <J0TO 1!>0 16^ FOH n-1 10 3&0 WO ;«-Slfi<n) tB0i y-COSfn) 190 PLOT z'x.a'y 200 NFi(T n:(4ETUnN i- dpi>A/rf 13 a ^HTiajn of 5pirai«, The Imes listed are the onlir ^ihat aeed to be altered. I ' Spirald 20 POR ^-np TO 53a STEP It* ap FOR l>-32SS TO 625 STEP 1(S II (J ?-7^•SI^{a.'6'J9•PI■6l j' H^BlHinBiblQ^ ^f^^ed a listing which ia '}r^' Aimtrad Actoir is rot ^tultirtg to readers through 1 2 i 4 29 Hypnotic Sminr Tully Decfimbai" T&Sfi -1 .1P6>h1P.i "ifP FNT 1 ,40,-1,3.40.1 ,3 EMV 1.1^. l.tflP.iP.I .190.10 ]0 ON BREAK GOSUB 5F»P 4P OEriNT a.DiMOOr QiOfilfilfi 3?p,20P 50 FOB a-a fO 15: INK a.2e.NF!tT tt0 C'0:iNK 0,0: BORDER Q 7P WINDOW #1,^,1 .1.2b B(» WIMDOW 1*2. 4^.40 J. 25 a^ PR IN r#V, "WATCH CLOKE^Y AMD VOU" t0gi PftINT#2."WUL SOOH BE IM MY GMSP" np FOR k— 4 TO 2 STEP 0,S:C-c*l 120 FOR f-0 TO 4*Pl STEP Pl/50 130 ;,.2y*f'cos(r ic)-v-zy*r''&''JU-J<J 14(» IF f-(5 THEI^ MOVE X.y ibO DRAW i<,y,c ief> NEXT f.k:FOR a-0 10 c:IsiK a-0:NEXT 170 CLS #1.CL5 i^2:0H SQ(n GOSUB 530 UHILF 1 if'OR a-c TU 1 STtP -1 IF a-c THri« INK 1.0 ELSE l»4K &*! .fJ CALL &0D19;IF a*c THEN INK 1 >■? INt a+1,!J.lNK a.ze FOR b-l TO 3& M£X1 V>,a;WEND SOUNO 1 ,6f3p,46J«!ip.l6,l ,1 OH S0O> GOSUa i30 flETUfiN IW 1.?fi:PCN 1 :MODE 1 Stained ^lass Thia mm offering from Al^stair Scott of Grangemouth, Stijiino- slure shows off the powerful Fill comin^d av^afale on vex3o« M Of Looomotive Basic (6S4 and 6128 owners only, I'm afraid) The program iiseif takes several maiutes drawittg evemhina ap; the wait ia well worth it. though ! Stained glass Alflstni'' Scott Awstrad Action ■ - 664 AUG 6123 UtiLY 09C ee I 2 3 ^ ' 10 DEFfWT a-/:DeC PAM0OH!?£ TIME 20 MODE 0:eOPDER ^:INK 0.fl a^J ORIGIN 320,2?IO 4i3 FHR fl-O TO JB0 STEP 'Z9 5^ MOVE 0.0 1t^ fOR b'P TO 36(^ STCP Tfi 2ta 230 ?40 25f» 7p DFAWa 3^*F5IN(a*b).3B»COS(a+b).1 6$^ NEXT b.h 90 FDP a-0 TO 380 STEP 12 ltS{5 FOR 1J-fl TO 170 STEP 12 110 MOVE b'SINta).b'C03(B) no FILL lNT^RN0"H) + 2 ■) 3ii NtXT ,to .-IJ 14« LI CAR INPUT: WHILE IMKEYS^^CHRSp 3} 1^3 INK iNTlBND*14)+7,INT(HND»2B)-l 16^ WFNO:NOftE 1 : CAL L 8iBCP2 Lun J AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 29 1 KHRRL A 100% role pfaylng game... Come down fnto the fa^cfnatlng and devfJIsh world of THULYNTE, Whether you are a warrler or a dealer, you will have to fight against terrible ennemies whose only aim fs to destroy you. A mdnwdzzdxi 95 Forget about soapy characters and flying witches I The most fearsome of all anti- socials has got one mission : to get the president out of the prl5on-ilke MAWHATTAN. Blood will not be spared I 1991 : The ytar of all dangers, motorways have became btoody battle fields, full of looters of all kinds. Your mfssfon Is to drive an artfc-lorry changed Into a tank and to carry your cargo Into safety. When there Is no space left Jn hell, the dead are coming back to earth... Your fast possible Issue Is : a supermarket where you get down^ body and soul, piloted by an ICON. I . Voie F^iix Eboue 94O00 Cr^tetf - France TEL. 0.1033.43.39.23^1 0UT0N17THN0VJ DD no DD OD PD DO DO DD DO OO . DD DD--DD ODx DD IT IS THE YEAR 2075 and the first Strategic Defence Initiative Satellite is in its provisional stages o^ development, tt was found to be impo&sibie to tesllhis wea^ori'without staittng the war it was desigfied to ^- prevent. So the chaps f ror^Jhe.— ^ ^^ ? department de*lSedl to -"^h'piWould exan^ine aM the ci|-€uit boards an(( J ccknponents of th^^arn f \ i^bnkjuter by travellii>q inside It' / - - r^r Now you must c©fitr6l your robot through this satellite without starting something you may not be around to. - finish! \ t '% It*'- SPECIAL FEATURES \ ♦ Devious puzzles! ♦ ♦ Over 250 screen^*^ ♦ Isometricjrt^w ' ♦ Printout' opjieffffor mapping ♦ Dif|fif^t room sizes ♦ Mfl^ltichannel music ♦ AMSTRAD 464/664/61 21 £8.95^ C14.95^ Ariolasoft^^ 'n OniNtHf CA^t OF [ilHI<;UlTYblNlJ'f<JllhU,>i'.)Vjl-L>t.H(-,aUf f>Cl WAOt "•nrti^ 10 AHUJLASiOf Tf'O BOX ■till lONOOISi-NWUHB TYPE-INS Double height Great stuff from Leighton Detrick of Port Talbpt. He has shown that it is posaible to print double-height characters using ordy Biisic commands - no need to revert to machine -code. Well done. Unfortunately it is rather slow, bur then ihat'a Baste for you. Following Leighton'a offering i$ a machine-code alternative - note thp speed difference i The message you want printed in double height must be inserted within (he quotes on bnea 4D and 1 10. The number 36 in line 50 indicates thiit the characler(s) to be displayed total 13*3; therefore iJ your sentence comes to 30 characters, the number will be 20*2 which w 40. Following the 26 in line SO are the symbols *!'. The figure after the multiplication sign {'** in Basic) will have to be altered depending which screen mode yoy are using. As it is set up, it's ready to use in Mode 1; changing the number to 0.3 wiU allow you to use it in Made 3, and a 2 alj o- ws use of fAod^ 0. 1 \ ■" CduL le t^eT^rit :} ■ Leia^ito"' Derrick -J I AnaU-^iO Action D^n 36 Following is the machine-code double-height routine. Type il in. tf entered corr&ctly, a message will be returned in double height; otherwise you get an error message - in normal heightl The letters yon wish to print in double height must be hold m a string (for example. aS- "WELCOME TO DOUBLE HEIGHT"). Follow this with a call to the ma chine-code program which prints the contents of the string: CAL^ &3t50v}, fa^ in line 60. ^ 2 10 FOP a- ft pa Afiatrad Act'un Oct 66 3$ I'OK^ a-VAL( ~ Sl67g THEN ?fttl^T"EflKO*l- SrrP 79 DMA 00.66.01.00 BE, g^,7E.F5.at. ,24. PAPER fJ-fl^BWR ^ 1 ,15,1 ■■3 :mk ^,P:I'4I< 20 CLS:TAGPLC 5,0 FDB X-0 TO ra*2€r^ 60 K'fi V-1 TO 16 7^ IF TiST^X, ¥1-0 THEN 90 m PLOT 1 -,^ L^:PHlNfDO.IELr MQU^I 33 ^' no ie^ 1713 ■ea 193 5W3 ATA 2e,Ca.23.t6.7C,"3'.; DATA ?a,CC,A6, S3. 0^.21 CATA n. 23.-1? F"^>-'-^; OAIA 21 efi,89.CD.AB.B8 DA-4 a^.cD.fte 9a.3f.FE CAIA 0A,CD,6A.eB.3E.^»8 DATA f-f ,C0,bA.BD.3^ OB ■ tnHii CAL( &aooy S:fl* .aE.FF,2t. .CO bA EB, CD.fiA.BB, ab "i e . -eg Arrows and Kats, we made a hash Do you have a problem with youi printei giving £ when you want ^? So did we. Line 10 of the first listing in Problem Attic last month tiiat came out sa £0 in two place*. Eagle-eyed editor noticed il at 3 a.m^ and printed out #0 on twa itay-bitsy papers to be stuck over. Unfortunateiy at 4 a.m. Toot pasted one of thetn upside-down. So 3/^ should be #0, CPC Basic uses the # - in compute r&Be the sign is called hash to mean the following number is a "stream director'. Try looking that up in your handbook's handy index. Ha, Streams 1 to 7 a,re screen windows; atream is the full screen. Stream 3 is t^e printei and 9 is a disk or cassette fitc the system assumes unless you say otherwise. So the function PCS (#0 ) in that Problem Attio program tells which screen column the cuisoi is in. In assembly lan- guage # is used to mean the following number is a value rather than a tticttnory location. The ' and ' cause slmiJar confusion. On CPC keyboards it's the key shared with £ (the pound sign) tvin e»st of the zero, (On the PCW, after a half'hour'a nu^ssing about, you c^n get it by pressing B^tra and i together. Not very friendly, J Some printeia -show It aa " (called caret or circumfle* or even hatj, Saaic Understands both - they have the same Ascii code - to mean index ot expo- nent or power, fiy hand you would write two cubed *8 3^ = 8, and on a steam- powered typewsnter you coald roll the paper back a bit. Neither is possible on •creen, so you use the up'^rrow. Now, if ill this com«s back correct itorei the typesetter, 1 think we hava perma- nent! y licked the problem. And AA listings Some Axnstradt Actitj^a Type -in guidelines One daunting task confronting all type-in freaks is that of deciphering listirigg. Tq make matters simpler for the typist - who is probably not an Bxpert pro- grarrtmer - we have set out a few pointers on style that we would like you to follow if you plan to send a type-in listing to Amstrad Action. Setting out your listingrs m this way will give you more of a chance of scoing your masterpiece on Oiie of thtjse pages. 1 Most important of all. is sensible use of variable names or ielters. DO use lower-case for variable names, rather than capitals use short but modningful vanabld names use integer variables (for example, ii%) it you want to speed up execution time DONT K u«e letters that can be confused with numbetis. Especially avoid the smal! letter in futiire will be much cleaner in ap^ pcaranco than was possible an the dot- matriK printer. • We neglected to mention in the Simon listing (November Type-ins) that il was for the 684 and 6128 only. Apolo^es to any frustrated 494 users- • The OICO program was correct as listed (dolober), but dozens of readers wrote or rang with problems The most common mistake wa$ conifusing the number T with a lower-case T used ^^ a variable name around line 330 - our now style guide wil) avoid this in future. Data atatements had other pitfalls: typing fuUstopa instead of commas or ntimbers larger than 255. '1' or capital T and both small o' and capital O' Even *B' can look like 'S" on some printers. K use variable names identical to com matvd words (you can't) Z it IS very useful to have adequate REM statements in the listing. FoT one thing, it makes it easier For human beings to read. Si)f months later someone with a pile of tapes can lemember wliai any one is about and where to and the AA artide about it. DO ■ pur the program name, source and di)tf at the beginning of the program put a REM statement before every sub routine to outline its purpose DON'T X go mad puiiuvg REMs after every line X put your life story in REM Statements 3 Avoid long miilii-siaieinenr line^i They are diTficult to ioilow. and just mvite typing errors. $hort lines make debugging easier too: 'Error in line 432* is only half helphU if line 432 is half a mile long, DO .. spill up eompJicated mathematical 10UIUl«B <• keep lines short 40 characters is a good maximum DON'T K have long lines of DATA statements (keep 'em short) -< put command words and REM state- ments on the same line 4 Structure your programs - divide them into sensible procodures. This makes it easier for us to foUov/. easier for you to debug, and in the long run will develop your pMtgranuning skills. And need we say ... If you send us anything, please make sure your name and address (in hunun-readable formi) is on every single piece, especially the label of the cassette or disk. And keep a copy, AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1^36 33 SERIOUS SOFTWARE yook LOfmsr ooeswN ^A)S6J6R6D. PROBLEM ATTIC Jhh montfi the Attic is flooded: with pleas, requests, death tHreflts and blackmail notes for hel^ with cassette loading. We'll deal with the moln body ihh month, bul you will have to wait 30 days for the rest of the story. Messages, messages - the errorreows type Cassoiic users sec those familiar read or write error messages laihsr too fiequeniiy. Message pops up, system crashes. All very ;i\fiirieit;itg, Here is ai\ ar^alysis of these errors wticn they occur and why, Read Evror a: Tht: dat^i bit read waa too long. This occuirg if the cassette is halted during lOfidiTig or qaTaloguing. [t may even happen .f there is a lot of wgw. {'Wow" aounds like what it inedLiia; tJie lape motor tunning at ai\ uneven speed.) Read Error b^ There has been a CEC (cyclic redundancy check) fail. This is the moat common ottlie errors and can occur tf there ;s dust or a defeci on the lape surface. Read Error d: 1 tried desperately to attain this error message, hui failed lO do so. Tt indicatee that the block read waa [oD iong. The orily way to qui ihia error, it seems, ia to program it deliberately. Wi'ite En^or a; 7h« write frequency is aet too high. This again can only be piogrammed intentionally- So you slioiiidn't ever encounter this aitd the previoos erioi message. .4^ 'We have — but don4 want Read errors can be caused by dirty tape heads or pinch rollers - this could lie mth any tape deck. In i^riLSirad 664 and 3138 r^achincs, the problem could be with improper setting of volume and tone controls. Owners of the 464 don't have this problem as these levels are preset. Tout recording heads could do with a good clean fairly ■often, - especially if you frequently use low-grade casscttOE- The beat way is with cotton buds dipped in methylated spirits [or similar). Definitely do not use abrasive detergents or sharp objects Ensure that the head is dry when you finish. As well as the head, the pinch roJlGr [nEually rubber, to i. one side of the mechanism) should bo given the treatment, llsi nq a " cleaj^mg tape' , which you can buy from a hi-fi shop, will give the best rcsuits. Dirty pinch rollers cnn be the cause of many a problem: they can malre the tape speed vary qx, even worse . they can eat o r crease your tape . One final step to improve the performance of your ca&sette deck is to ahgn the tape head the asrcvwth angle. Azimuth, from Latin, meana degrees qf arc abovi? the hon'zontar. In the case of ^["^ cassette players, it means the angle of the head relative ^^ to the horizon - the magnetic tape uiside the cassette altelL There are VJirious cornmeicia] azimuth aligners on difi market, U you are considisiifig getting one of these package*) Interceptor and Global Software are but two of the man^ m^anufacturers, On the outside trying to get in? The ?S4 and 6 1 33 machjjies need an ewteriial cassette record*^ if tape programs are lo be loaded into memory. Naturally, ■>, new $et of problem* is likely to come into play. 1 Posiiioning of the cassette deck and leads can be crucial fo saliefactoiy loading or saving, The recorder should not be Ux close to any magnetic field - such as the monitor. Likewise, lh< leads shouldn't run parallel to mains leads, or close to ma^grneo: fields. The reason is that liny impulses in the casaeite leads ca; easily be distorted, (And of coun&e tapes or disks should nevfe be placed on top of the monitor.) Whenever possible, use a lape deck that runs from mair^ electricity. Battery-operated decks are prone to Quctu3!in| power signals . which causes a degree of wow. Everyone's favorite now; tone and volume settings. (Men ones from my Speetrmn programrrung days.) Being the haxdes and the most annoying to set correctly, they aie the mO^ oominon cause of data loss. The volume should be set taii£ high. However, if it's too loud, distortion res nits - poor ^ Arnold will get an earache. The tone should be set betwsr three-quarters and full, giving a high (trebley) sound. If you go carefully through all these procedures and yc still have read/write problems, there is either somethmg wtok with your tapedeck or the software you are trying (o load ; fotilty (ie. the tape has been corrupted). KcKt month Amsti^d Acd&n will feature an ingenious listit from I Keneally of Exeter. His program actually checks di health of your tape drive - 'not for azimuth but for defects in tf mechanics.' Sounds intrealing, doesn't il? Well, 1 ean tell yf that it works it certainly does what it claims lo do. Enough, yt will have lo wait till neart i^ue. Firnnly in deep Having recently purchased the DDl firmware manual lo go willi the disk drive, I thought I would be able to make use of the routines in the CP/M rorn. After days of desperation, you are my laft hope. Please could you ditplain how ! should go abaui usmg the 'Read sedor', 'Formal track' and other BIOS jump- blocks? None of them seem to work I; RobiA Mathews Wokidgrham, Bcrksbite Toil may ive/jf /wine jumped ia i the dcop end with this oA' Howc^vcj, I am a^araing ye have Mil 3ssemhlei and a h, ksiowledgs of assembly tap gisAg^. t knovr of villous stun: blmgblocks mth the DDl Hni wsie msnaAt - the main » bemg that it ts wrong m cejtMi p/see*.' I'll use the 'Resd seao: expended BIOS conuirand as je example. Thi$ actuaUr ^<* jroa to read a physical sam hom a disk, and place the dv' 34 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 SERIOUS SOFTWARE yooR LOfTiesir ooesno/v A/vsweReD. PROBLEM ATTIC J 7 store (buff- er) of jfluur — choice. Using the legal (reco- mmended) method lot sccessiag (hesB extra cammsnds, yaa must load the HL register psir witii the sddsess Stat points to &e command number- 'Bead Next, a call to &BC3D4 (El Find Command} will retam, in the HL, the rautine address whila the C segistex contains the icm immh^i. The CP/M rom itsuaUy positions itself in slot nuntber 7. You may well have got this fer, only to End it iiasn 't worked correctly. The reason is that the CP/M rom is classed ss a fore- ground rom snd consequently has to have 129 (&8!) added to the conmiand namber. This means adding &81 to the 'Read sector' coimnand namJ?et, giv- ing a new value ofl3S or &B4. So far so good. We must nowr Etore the register contents in memory, as we shaU need them shortly. The rest is laiily simple. The re0sters must he set up as descrihed in the manual. 7^ is is foUovfed by s call to the correct rom address (using the EST 3 isstructioR). The example below will losd the lirsl sector of tisck iato memory locatiojt &4000- The disk is assumed to be in Jwst a second? Is it passibli» /or a second diive to work on a 464 wirhoui the firsr? Cialg RtctEaby Newton Aycliffe, Durham On lirtt reading, your question sounded doubJe-datch. But now tve see whst yoa mean. Ajid the answer is: Afraid not, Craig. The reason is that the first drive also has an interface sttsched to it (which is why it costs more). This is what yoa have to plug into the back of your computer - it allows the computer to com- ntiUiii^te with the drive and thus pass informatioii to and fii>; not oniv fhaf_ i>STt of th^ CP(M Operating system is contained on the rotJi inside the interface. Poetkaify put Frustration is gieat, tension is high; if you can't help. Hear !'U die! Reference, of wjujse, to the firmware guide, I cannot think wburc; it may hide - is it av ailah TR on thia date? Please help me worlc my 61 28! Jaha Thompson Paisley For a pair of tenners (less a bob) Arrisoft (Brentwood) will gladly lob i^s book in the post for you. Multiple help! Is it possible to producse scrol- ling messages from right to left in Basic? Is there a gadge! out which wil5 convert Anr«trad monitors matter of changing the hyte WOTS, with a green monitor? held in the C register to allow Which iape-ta-disk lom rmding of CP/M or iSM disks. cartridge is the best to buy? ORG Mm ^^^^^H t D Ml .coffl.TrSRd '^St ^^^^^B CAI 1 &rc:t4 LO HL.sC'Srii? LO A X La (s^qrel ; A LO HL.8i4OT-;j t}U"^ffir tc lead sector date in E,0 urive nuri^'^jr ID t' , » lr<it< 'miir;>«T LD C,&C1 Sector nunti^r R£T 3, Store jtifflo to tc-v. address PfT DEFB Sfi4 {■FHw mm C'ErE m ts It possiWe to save ptograms onto disk in data for- mat rather than system foimat^ Why do i Jose coniroJ when \ play grimes with two joysticks plugged in? SLaw Littleborou^li, Lanes Welh Mr Law. you do ask a tail order. Answermg your questions sequentially: Yes, we hope in the next issue to publish a type-in ex- plaining all. Arabic scraUmg, you might call it There are TV faners on the market: one frona DK'Tronics (£70), the other from Screens (£78). A colour picture will be colour monitor; green-screen users will be stuck in shades of greenf In our opinion the MuIMace n is number One. Watch om for next issae. we should have a comparative review of tape-to- disk hardware. " Quite simply, yes: either format. Sounds ss though the ti/vo joysticks are shorting one ano- ther out. Try using different joy- sticks. Otherwise yoa nmy hsve a problem with your joystick port. Bingo I lun a weekly bingo session, and was wrondering if you could write a short program to gene- rate a random, niixnber betiveen 1 and 90. The numbers gen- etate^i should be printed on screen along with a count of nuntbeis called. D R Brown Iiaiiidon, Essex And no number should be called twice. Over to you, re- aders: a problem to ponder in your attics. We'll piiblfsA the best one next month. Have a Jocik ^( the' ncw^ style gvidetm&s printed ia the Type-ins p&ges. Rodiocicfivd Arnotd I would like to comment on Jdr T Davies" piotJlem in the Septem- ber issue concering radio m- tcference caused by Arnold. It is my conaidered opinion that the interference is caused by magnetic Tadiauon. For cxam,plo, if yoa lake ah ordi- nary calculator and pkee tt close to a potiabSe radio, Ihc; radio can Oien be tuned into the caloilator. Ptessing a buiEon (on ih« c^lcuUlor) causes a difftif eni-frequ^ncy note Cnois^) to be emitted from the radio. The only vsray to remove this inieteience would be to acreen and earth your Amslrad - not the most practical solution . How$v*T there is no need to worry as this radiation causes no harm. and. is around us at all times. Lea PhSlUps Rhondda, Mid'Clam organ Seeking Oasis 1 am. writing this letJer in de- speration. TWO months ago, I Genius. My problem is that the program seems to have a bug. When assembling or disas&em- blmg to the primer, canrjage- retums and tiiiefi?cds arc occa- sionaHy missed. After writing to Oasis and stili not receiving an answer, I am sftick. Please help. MB Smith Bxidg«ii4, Sontlt Wal#s Unlortanately, Mr Smith, Oasis Soiiwurejust recently went bust. Ocean, which have comissionea Ossis to write sever^ progranis, is nncertain whether to continue support for Laser Genius. I'm afraid all you can do a i present is wait and see. Pa£«oil Qt college Hia'/ing lecenlly sti^rled college and A-level computer science, I find we need to leaxn Pascal. I own a 6128. Could you teU m« what versions of Pascal are available, and how much they cost? Keep up the good work at t futaHy arrives (iQ. I shall cerfain- Sclston, Notts Sight, JuJidn. her« are a few stiggestsoRs: Tiirba Pascaf 3.0 (CP/M 80) nt £57. m DE Psscal/MT^ df £50 from Digital Research: pro Pascal Comptier by Prospero Software. In the September issue Andy Wilton reviewed r^c others: the P^scsl SO CP/M com- piler at £40 from Hisofl .md Oxford Pascal by Systems Soft ware (Oxford) Ltd. st £2B. • AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEH 1986 35 SERIOUS SOFTWARE t Welcome to this new secHon, Have you an astounding new hint to pass on? A trick youVe discovered Arnold can or can't do? Share your tips with the world. This is the place to send them. IF lESE n 3 TO ^m xSET n END IF 3 IVa ^ RESE 1 END In plain English the Si?! line says, ^tf| marker n is reset then put object 3 locatioit nmnber deOned by RND i (wherel xisa. nuntloer sqasl tp ox less tlLan Oie totall number of locations) and ttuen set insxk@i| it'. Tne sesond line cheeks ttiat oij&cl 3 ] not iinished up in locatiDn (liinbo room}^ : so majker n is reset so that line 1 will executed again. Miclc EUIck fiadlsea, BxiEtol It is not possil^le to have two or more greatei-lhan {>} or less-t^tan {<} sigits one comiKiand line using GACl Smorff The WArlock S,ccring1an, Lanes DazzUns border Socket to me, said the Spectrum to the Amstrad This little hBidware vridgat allows you to use siie output troin a Spectruirt and display it on an Ainstrad nvonitor. Follow the in- structions carefiilly and yoii should have no First, go and buy a six-pin DIN socket (siniilar to Qie one picitired in youT maniial), and a couple of resistors - 100 ohms and 220 ohms will do. Connect vviie [rom the 'Sigrial oui' of the Specliura to the "Signal "jn" (or aerial soclfetj of the television set< ther. cut ofl the 'Aerial in' socket and cajrry out the foliowing steps; 1 . Remove centre pin (6) . S. Link pins 1 and 3, using ona tail of the lOQ-ohm resistor, keeping the -write close to the pliagtic, 3- Push the free end of this resistor ttirougti the hole in pin 4. 4- Wire the g20-olmi resistor across pins 2 and 4. Heie is a quickie for yon: 5. Connect the core of coasia.1 cable to pin 4: E, Cormetjt the ahicIdirLg to pin S. Bryan D Azchez Kifkcald^ If FCF --FS LO 7g OUT &7F00.t le >JEXT z.GQTD -fl Blast the bankman Sorting colours on the Grofpael When Uie Grafpad was first released, re- views said, "Good piece of hardware, but no indication of how to lise your pichires in your own program,' III faci, this is very siinple. When saved, your picture is 17k long and called 'ffl&name.pic'. One thing to note, however, is that the deiault colour CI on the Orafpad and the colour in Ink on the Amstrad are not ideiiticBJ. I have written a short progiam thai will allow you to load a Grafpad picture using the conecl colours. } REM ftwSlfSC Att-Dn Dec8B ■\^ HOOF 1 :nk ^,^:30fiC;E« 2<^ LOAD" FiLENAKE. PIC 3^ WHILE I'JKEYS--'- WE^JJi Mick Ellick Nails«a, Bristol Tofe told It is tiOKf oSiCial^, Fl<m\ Amstrad hssdquar- ters comes this astounding piece of mformstiori: Tour 464- is known as Arnold (yes, I know that is common knowlege). The rare 6fi4 breed are called IDlOTs {Insert Disc instead Of Tape J, and the joUy oM 6 l£Ss tire called BIG OIOTs (I'm sitre you can wrork that oite our for yourselves}. An Amstrad OfHclaJ Scent w9od, £&?ex G>4C busters Fairly simple adventures can be rnade dif- ferent each time (he game is played by putting certain objects in randomly ielec- ted locations. This can be done with GAC (Grsphic Advennire Creetor). This example deals with object number S: Select the 'object' option and define as uaual, placing in any location. In th& 'high pricdty' mode insert the following lines: After several sleepless idghts, 1 have Finall; found a way of incorporating the Baiikmani 3ger routine into your Basic hsting. aifoids the need to load Bsitkmsmaffe before nitming' your own piogram- Jast insert the short routine soniewhsiti into your own listing: ^G& GCSUR 139 11® ' rest of your' FJrogr^B 120 Ef,D 130 ' bsfifc user rcLiti.'^e 140 x-HI«E«-1G:rtEt^0RY *-1 1513 RESTORE 22^ 1§9 rOH y-x 7X1 x*15 17Q SEAO aS POKE y . VAL ( "i'+aS) 13(3 NtXT a1t-Ci:.CAH. K.iail 19^ f.t^OftY j(*1&:x-HinE'« &624 2(3^ KEiORV js-liLOAD " sank ^ar. bin" x| 210 CAL- x;:EAHKOP£H,e RETURN 220 DATA <3E FF.CD.1&.B9 EB.r'D.66 3 30 PATA 311.00. eE . 3a . ? 3 . 23. . 7 2 . C3 f Andrews (by telephone) Printer dump for Scre&n Deslgnt I encJos? a poke that eaiables scr&erJ drawn by Amsoft's Screen P&sigmer to dumped to a printer iising any scieer dump package (Tascopy is my preferencejj FoUovr this procedure: 1. Run Tsscopy(oi equivalent) 2. Run the program below 3. Follow prompt?, and insert cassette wid The picture will load a» normal, compiedon. a copy wiU be dumped lo it piintei. 1 ' A'flStrad Action D^CBG Ifl ' 'JasssLlt^ 0wn3^s only 29 HEM^flY 1224/:W0i 1 %^ fni^T ■U££RTCASSrrTE-PRESSA<i 40 LOAD '-iKJKE 124^3 2SS CALL Ml* £0 (COPY 6i^ ' TASCOPY us«6 th1« ccftivsrd 7p ' CO duqp £ sc<'flen to the print* Pttef Walkl»11 X^tqchora, Fife 3B AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 XXX XXX xxxxxxx XXX XX.^AXXXXXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX X XXX XXX XXXXXXX XXX XXX XXXXXXXXXX XXX XXX XXXXXXX # .:ev up mir engine and take to the skies to saveyoo^ountry. Hunl down the enemy and build uj^^oar log of kills as you rise ttffougt) the rmk$ to the elite of the RAF, / AmsfradCPC £9M (disk from AmsoH) Atari XVX€ £9.95 tape. £12.95 disk Atari ST £24M Commoitore 64 £9.95 tape, £12.95 disk I^SX £9.95 tape Spectrum 48KfmK £3.95 ^if^^^SRHHI^^^^ m A COLOUR TV FOR £69.95! indVAT FACT NOT FICTION, THANKS TO SCREENS ENGINEERS AMSTRAD COLOUR MONITOR OWNERS CAN HAVE A TOP QUALITY COLOUR TV FACILITY THROUGH THE SCREENVISION TV AND ViDEO TUNER ! mi if'' SIMPLY PuLG IN YOUR MONITOR. ^J0 MODIFICAT'ONS, ALTERATIONS OR SPECIAL CABLES NEEDED AND VCURMOMITOfl HAS DUAL PURPOSE, A3 A DEDICATED COMPUTER MONITOR AND FULL COLOUR TELEVISION V. * SUPER SLIM MODIFIED TV-VIDEO TUNER OF MOST MODERN DESIGN 4 SPECfRCATIONS * BUILT IN AUDIO AND COMPOSITE VIDEO OUTPUT * PUSH BUTTON CHANNEL SELECTION ii- CRISPCLEARPlCTURESON ALL CHANNELS ^«utTi»«i»iMj«Eu * LED STATUS INDICATOR ♦ IS0UTEO240V AC POWER FOR COMPLETE SAFETY * SEPAflATE CONTROLS FOR BRfGHTNESS, COLOURS VOLUME * ON-OFF SWITCH SEE THE AMAZING SCREENVISION AT SCREENS TODAY HOW TO ORDER □syaiT opffiPK ELD* rm nee [* » mt iM ton u ALL OFFERS SUBJECT TO AVUUBJiJrr SCREENS MICROCOMPUTERS & ELECTRONICS MAIN AVENUE, MOOR PARK, NORTHWOOD, MIDDLESEX. ENGLAND TELEPHONE: 09274 20527 TELEX; 923574 ALACOL G FACSIMILE: 0923 40402 PRESTEL: 927420664 ^mmmvrrfmwrfrrf^ mi m m. o m UJ; m m ^msmmmmmMmmmi ■mMmmm^^^^ TAPE TO DISC AT THE TOUCH OF A BUTTON WITH THE PERIPHERALTHATALL AMSTRAD OWNERS HAVE SEEN WAITING FOR THE niRROE IflROER •k FEATURES: * Ejttremeiy easy to use Transfer ANY program to disc t^r laf« at the touch of a button Fully avitomatLc saving of ANY progfam onto disc or tape Freeze ANY game at any point, save it, ancf restore it lat^r Menu driven with prompts artd single character Caminands User friendly and fully error trapped Consists of hardware only no additional software required * FEATURES; *r * Internal Bk Rom ar^d Sk Ram * Very powerful and efficient, compressir>g to use MINIMUM space on your disc or tape * Tfirough connector for adding other peripherals * FAST. SLOW t TURBO speetl options when saving to tape. * Handles expansion Roms and all paging modes * Can be used without disc interface (CPC 464) * Otspley colours can now be set up as r>equired. ' The display window size can be set up to suit any program The Most RevolutionBry and Exciting Poripheral for all Amstrad CPC464, CPC664 and CPC6128 Owners. *The Mirage fmager must be the smsrtest peripheral yet'Amstrad User. "Very simple to use and works every time '^ Amstrad Action In case of difficulty order directly from: 24 Bank Street i. MIRAGE MJCfOOOKTTputers Braintroe E9sex CM 7 7UL (0376) 48321 Tfadpenquirieawelcome Available from good retailers everywhere foronlv £49p95 {61 2B owners add £4.95 for busextender lead 38 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1&86 DISCOUNT SOFTWARE 3 STATION CRESCENT • WESTCOMBE PARK BLACKHEATH-SE3 7ER Access orders/en quIrJes lei: 01-305-0521 ALL PRICeS INCLUDE FHil^ Mi7 DkUVi^HY !iV THE U.K. ONLY. PiBASEADD TCP PER TAPE Ofi EUROPEAN OftDHFISAi^ I.OCELSSmiEHE. Newtlltes arriving every day, please ring for details. haHlli KuiluCo, .H.*l Il.«9 Kunal-'vM«tit^' ,.,Jl»S f.»! eitwiuwii, ..».»J 7M rAwliWiighftii A4^ T.ift Jatt. nmhtlfiMt ....All T.i* v™ciui. „ „JltJ Tit mritv*.. _.At( T.«6 T'hWiinil. . .tt«S tlM imttttaii. .,..MS rM omthK.,...,. .,..««» T.D* g.OnctiCiiaM ....MS T.» JVettriawi..., ,.. S.M T.SR I>ilc*«l UKJoh.... 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TIH* IfU^... _i*3a !1.» ....4i.ii u«i ^>m/^ml\ln^t* „. rWlAi*. ,. ... 4*tS U« f-fif<htA..,„.^,.., _.n.« 1I« ^tale^1*•:*JCC■B^lii. .._.. »« crnd-Dhftu. ..,..^ ..,. ^.un 1*.» aai.iiiigcfi4««. .... *u» satDi^AEirTnLEi TtuTuiEiVJMjjaLm tHrntJH niTiHr mAMrmartm ca/natanttt WHY NOTCOWE AND PtCK DP TOUfi SOFTWARE PERSOHAU'V FROM win DISCOUNT SHOP AT J STATION C«tSCtfJT, WtS rcOMBt PARK, BUCKHEAtH. LONDON 3 E3 76 H. RIGHT OU TS) □ E WEETCOW3E P ARK R ftl LWAY STATION ON THE BOUTHFRH RfTGEOK. OTFN SATySDAYS ONl.VrFtOMlO M'TIL tOOPM iscount^ H^rJ . f AT . U - ^0 'A t a 3 . 3 (.p.». Aio.! Ucfjl AA,ffiVDn Uoj^ P>tiC«i(90ti<Kfn*Ql4,W*ltS(illlll 1 t ir^^iw UicauHhiK) tor I "Uylbft'lO iJCt^'tHniit Men Qliemitil r -rr-rr I I i i i i i i r f t i itCOHiSS . WJSTCOUt DATE ag^ PRIORITY OHDER FORM F^ Please niah me for my: Com modore &4 G Spectrum O BBC B D Anistrad CPC D WINTER WONDERLAND «7,950 Apache Gold except BBC) JCT.SS D Graphic Adventnr. Creator { '5S^|p;lg J enclose chequc/PO or please acc&pt nay credit card No, -- - Name -- Address A MISSION YOU SFECTHUM imagine Software 1 1984) Limfted 6 Central Street Manchester M 2 5NS Tel:061 834 3939 Telex: 66997 7 SERIOUS SOFTWARE Tape to disk with a touch of con trol Discovery Plus is a revamp of Siien's original Uip^-to-disk Discovery There have been vast improvements concerning ease- of use, presentation and general perfomwinje of the aoftware, Included on the disk are Tape Disk', which was previously eold oil its Qwn as a headerle&s copier, 'Tape Disk \\ a. revolutionary mmlh-copier program, and Splock Trans', which deals with the DJL Speedlock loaders (a protection system u^ed by aome aollware hoy-seg). The original Discovery has also be^n put on the dLsk. We reviewed this in the February issue; suffice to say that Discov- ery transfers ordinary block -s^ved pragxamB from cassette to disk. It will rename or relocate the files to make them compat- ible with ihe disk operating system. Siren's new imp roved Speedlock transfer program (soimds like a conunereiaJ for aoap powder), called 'Splock Trans', w.iE. need approximately 52k of free disk space, as ic has been configured to handle even the longest of programs. This routine aeka for a name under which to save the program and proceeds to load the game as normal. Once loaded, the di^k motor wiE start up and, hey presto, it's on disk - magic. After the transfer has been completed, the game will start normally. For thoso awkward headeriess files on cassette - another conunoTt lona. of protection - 'Tape Disk' ia available to transfer them to disk. However, they will not ntn independently; they must be run from within the 'Tape Disk' prHsgrom, which is designed to discourage piracy. Tape Disk T is a most amazing piece of programming. It traafife™ software to disk; at Ihe touch of the Control key. The program loads and runs the game aa normal; as soon you proas Control, the game is on disk. It is similar in principle lo the various hardware devices on the market - such aa Mtiltilace U by Romantic Robot or the Mir^g^f^ Imagcr. It has its luTutations obviously. Although many cassette software titles are easily transferred especially those with loading music - 'Tape Disk 1' needs a oompletiely free com- pgtisr: all expansion Toms and interfaces must be removed {willi the exception of the disk mterface, of course). Programs saved using this method need the onginal 'Tape Dak 1' program present on the same disk. Furthermore, whatever was saved on a 464 will work onjy On a 464, what was saved on a 664 will run only on a 664 and so on. Discovery Plus musf be the most advanced, and probably the most e&icient, tape-to-disk transfer utility to date. You do pay for the privilege, though: £13 is nothing to sneese at. It must be noted that this progrann takes steps against piracy - particularly that the Discovery file must always be present on the disk. GOOD NEWS ► Will transfer lots Df programs. P- Easy to use and und&rstaod. > Takes steps aiiainEl pkstv BAD NEWS ^ Mortgage your A mstrad, 1^ Can't cdpv everifthing. s n o 3 a vt vt o t (p t*t to D a Manage yovr disks with delight Siren has come up with another marvellous piece of software. This is a package to give the disk user a wide range of 'housekeeping' utilities. The thing thai -immediately strikes you with this product is Ihe new packaging and layout in general - a much more professional touch. This approach is continued with Ihe program's menu systems: all prompts are very user-friendly, and confirmatory messages appear at appropriate stages. On loading Hindy Man, you are presented with a fairly impressive hat of opdons. Some very original and technically brilliant routines are available. These include a 203k formatter, an option to save the entile contents of a disk to cassette, and a very aseful search roattne for finding ihose Ascii messages on disk. One ophon causes an eight-page manual about HAXidy M^i\ to bo dumped to the printer. It's all very well if you have a printer > but what about those without? Not io worry; another option lets you read on-screen instructions for any routii^e. The 'Superform' routine has all tho fan^ties lor formatting the usual CP/M, data and IBM disks. The fun starts, though, when you are given the extra choice Of 'Sup 202' and 'Sup208'- These give 202k and 209k free disk space • about 24k more than standard formats. They work by wrlfiiig a file in ordinary format onto the disk; when executed it gives you all thai extra disk memory to u&e. It i$ ev^n possible to use these formats under CF/M, a$ several COM files have been supplied - great stuff. Suppose you wish to tianafer Files from a data-formatted disk onto your new 'Sup' formatted disk. A program entitled 'Trans File' will do the job for you. 'Trans File' can cope only with program lengths of 3@k or le^ - so unfortunately you are stuck UTiless you are in the know. 'Disk Release' has two options. One allows you to 'release the disk' while the other 'restores the disk'. Releasing a disk will cause its contents to be wiirten to cassette. You are prompted for a disk name as well as the date (very handy, as these are quite easily forgotten). The data will be written at ^XiQ band in 4.^ blocks. Therefore at least 30 minutes of tape will be required, as ther« can be up to 40 blocks, each taking 25 seconds to save. Restoring a disk will require an unformatted disk, or a disk whose contents you do not mmd being over-written. I^e process is the exact reverse for releasing a disk. Those two options sre eitcellent, especially when disk space is at a premium. Searching a disk for a particular siring (even control characters from to 31) or a group of hex numbers couldn't be easier than with Disk Search'. Enter the string you wish to find, and the program will search each track. When it locates the string. Disk Search will enter its edit mode, allowing you to alter the contents of the sector being displayed. Thti search can be continxicdi by pressing a itunction key. A maximum of 25 Asdi characters or 10 hex numbers maybe searched for - more than enough for most purposes. Pile Search is a small offshoot of Disk Search. With this option, you can eiiter a filename and be presented with a hex di^mp of the first sector of the fUe, ready to edit. You can easily step on to following sectors. Menu Maker' is the final program iri the H^mdy Man suite. This copies the Qle *Menu' onto your disk. Run the program lo ^ee its effect- It is actually a disk tile manager, which allows 'selected' files to be displayed, giving the option to load or j:un any of them. Using 'Select' and 'Unselect' is handy :f you select all loader files, and unselect all other subsidiary files. In ihis way, every time you run 'Menu', there is no confusion about which files can be run. Handy Mtm do^ take the drudgery out of disk management. G NEWS ►- Very us«r-frfendly. P' Disk IWflnagm»[itbeconitS9 ¥■ Afliazing new 2D8l( format, ^ Surdi option is <ir<i¥f«at BAD NEWS ► 'Trans file' does not copy fiks Jatfisr flwn 3Sk. AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 41 BOOKS AMSTBADS AND ,^_„_, bv Patrick Bftll Sigma Ftess p t™ ISBN i-SBOSB-osa-a 77:v^;?^:SS^Sn?i^ '_'.'.'.*-■. "^wmm ■.w:'>:r»:v»yyA^»»:- '■'■'. ■.'■v.'.*. 'I'Xv. ***>*> *h ■ >?; Not being very mtere^ted in all the newspaper hype about ardflcial inieliigence. my initial reaction was to snub this book. However after $iitm9r down for several hours, with Gie ijisention of merely scanning the pages, 1 fovmd mysell deepJy engrossed in the subject raaiter. Patrick Hall certainly has a knack for keeping the text lively and flowing, I caught my§clf giggling at various stagos amusing results can happen when using computers for this purpose. The book starts each chapter witii a brief history of Al during a certain period in its development. Following Ms is a program for the reader to type in. - it u$uaj}y has some relevance to (he text before hand. Starting from the beginning, Mr Hall Introduces us to A! with a program that composes music - and which more gen.e rally is- capable of simpit; creativity. This is illustrated by Ode, a simple program that generates verse in rhyming couplets - the output can be a little short of hi^anou? Each program is dl^arly written, with every subroutine distinctly iabellad. The 'commentaTy' on the routine? is <|Uiie xmbeiievable: practically every line is deah with $epajately> giving detailed desoripiions on what !ask they perform. During the Second World War, computers were used for breaking codes; eventually from these hmnijlo beginnings rose the iransiators. These programa attempted to trartstete one language to another, Unfortunately all kinds of problems crept in here, as demonstrated by a program ttiat iranslates German into uproarious English.. Many such topics are discussed in Amstrads and ArtiUdil kitcMigence, with practical prcgiams that are substantial pro- ductons of landmarks in Al, Some are actiial recreations of great developments witin this field. If you fancy a good relaxing read qn a topic on the frontier of today's technology, without anything too technical, then this is a must. 1 lusi wish there had been more to tlte book - my desire for knowledge had not been quenched, The history side of things was rather riished. with program lisitngs and explanation taking up seventy pe r cent of the text. GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS > Enjoyabb reading. ► EMceUent dcmanstration ► Perhaps too Utile tnfofinatJon. programs. 1^ NDthingitchmcal. ^ Tasfliany listings. ADVANCED AWISTRAD BASIC fy I« P^cl^d Melbo™ Hcu»e p*P*rba«k £12.95 BBM 0-861 $1-202-7 m Has Melbourne HouBe gone mad? How can a publisher have the audacity to charge £13 for such a book? Some of this author's previous efforis from the same press have been almost twice as Ihick for hardly half the price. Apart from that outbtirsl, 1 have only praise for this publication, [t is writter by a very talented man, Joe Pritchard's previous book. Ready-made Mii<simte-Langusige Rouimes ioi 42 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 f/ie Amsti^d, was one of ray fiavorites, and most certainly helps me with my assembly-language programing. Advanced Amstrad Basse asaumee you have a fairlil thorough kn«?w^edge of Basic, with a minimum amount assembler - which is only lo be e>epected, otherwise it would have a different titlel Chapter 1 starts wifli graphics and animation. There clear listings, showing you how to print characters of any si^e . any angle - even muftiogloured. Each roudne is clearly plained, encouraging the reader to take tlie buH by its ho£ and alter the programs lo Suit his or her requirements. r was impressed with the graphics routines, which m^d^ use of 'txansfonnations'. A shape can be transformed bi carrying out mathematical operations on it. Here matrices cam\ into play - 1 always wondered, while sUving away at my mall homework, what use they would be in the real world. The boo goes into just enough detail, giving plently of short routine without putting (he reader to sleep. Sound is the following tf\apter; thia covers all the sounf commands available to the user under Basic. Especially dE tailed are the sections covering tone CENT) and volume (EN'. envelopes. There is a section on playing music under interruj using the ON SQ instniction. It is a pity this was not covered greater detail - even a small section on how to produce desired effect vis machine-code would not have gone amiss. Mr Pritcihard has steered well away from generating sounj using machine-code. The reason for this is that Basic gives yc 30 much control over the sound chip: even producing a bu2zing noise in machine-oode is a very tedious and drawn^jn process. There is a useful section in the book that shows how. wher and why Basic lines, variables, strings and so on arc stored iriemotY. By poldiig the appropriate values into the correij memory location, Basic programs can be altered dtiting time - it's all detailed in iJie book if you care to discover Included is an explanation on how to create faster-rurmmg Ba^ programs; this entails integer variables, multi-statement line and removing R£M hnes. Directly following is a large ehapier devoted to e^l and using RSX routines (resideivL system extensions - be commands). Using this system, variables can easily be pass (o machine<;ode routiries. There are a number of inteTesti programs for the user to [ype in and modify, including enltanced catalogue, a piiuse facility and even a routine inspect data from aity roms you may happen to own - aU used via RSXs and should really get you to grips with the and control of them. You are taken on a guided tour of the screen, with gc ej^aiTsples on manipulating it. It ia about time Someone made] decent attempt at unveiling the mysteries or rather complexity of the screen. A lot of effort has gone into this tiny infoimalive chapter - included are notes on the CRTC (cathodi ray tube controller) and I he registers, what they do and wf"! happens when you alter their contents. The final section in Hie book is programming tips, Not onl ia information provided for tidying and struclurmg yo( programs, but hints on error-checking, debbuging and cleii use of command words are also thrown in, One partioilar good aiea covered v/aa cassette systems and ways of elirai ing loading or saving errors - there doesn't seem to be a tn^ passed by. All in all, a very well writtenj eaEy-to-follow and enjoyah book. The effort the author has taken to pal; across idea^ fsxc&ptional. rm sure thai after reading it many of you will only too eager to jump into lower-level prograiruning la guagos. Thoroughly recommendedl GDQD NEWS ^ Weil wrktsn-Qasy to lollow. ^ Gobs into detail on obscure subjects ^ Will develop ^dli prDgramminy skill no eiul. DAD NEWS ^ Fiir Tqq expensive. 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The rngger finger fire button provides ease and comfort for your finger and the top fire burton i& oonioured to fit your ttiumb for sure tire shooting. The bs&s fire buttons are po&it>oned for extra cornrol and^ two nand firing whel^iej- you ar^ right or laitt fianded. A buiii in auto-fijre switcli provides continuous shooting at tlie loiich of a fire button. Including SpectrLMn+2 Selector Connector. Ihs 125<50JTies ooitipteie with a lull 12 months waJ'far>ly Pnow ifi^^ide VM, owiXtftt ^ IWIit^irvii Dvlirvry norpially 14 days. 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M dc hi -i-Joy stick compatible with;* Sinclair ZX Spectrum i6K.48f<,t2BK.+2 • ArTTSlrad computers •Commodore 64 & VIC 20 Compittefs • CommiOdor« C16 & Plus 4 Computers (adaptor sold separately )^ • USX Computers • Atari 26 QO it Atari 5200 Video Game Systems • Atari Home Computers PT>«#l.ilKl|idfrVAT.^«ii»gE ft picking OtinV^tr A^fRiallr I44*y<- E'l^O't <)'^*'^ST rQiiir4,tQ|t Dc«l«f •AqumHI W«lc«m| {:Fn«ljho't>duStt4*tita|M PrMntvancrtnial EMMAfl'S Vi M SM I f t1 # M.gA Jt S« w*t Htd all gaaa^ominilti uvofts CHEETAH tAARKFTING ITO 1 WILIOWSROOK SCIENCE PA^K CftlCKHOWELL ROAD. SI MELLONS, CARDIFF TEL; CARDIFF (0222) .?7?337 TELEX: 497*55 FAKL0223 779A04 SERIOUS SOFTWARE Last monlh we saw how we caji make o«r initructicnw to Arnold conditional - how we can teU him to do O^^ task or another dep^ttding on circumstances. To do This we ti*^ the commajiiclB IF, THEN aitd EISE, which aie used like this: 3p IF ;ji.g THF*. PBIMT "V*,.* car ' t divide oy zero" ELSt PR^JKT a:" dvj-td-d tv ■ bi* #ri«"rtH "..i/h When Arnold comos to a line tike llus he works out whether the condition - 'b^O* in this example - is true or faise. If the vartablo 'b' has the value zero then Arnold obeys the FRMT command between THEN and ELSE, but i! "b' has any value othei than zero he'il obey the PRINT after ELSE instead. Conditions like that 'b = 0" are the heart of [F THEN-ELSE lines , but ihai's not all they're good for. The commands WHILE and WEWD also use conditions. WHILE-WEND LOOPS Let's look a: a simple program to move ;i square around tlie screen. It's very much like some that we saw earlier on tn AB. when we were looking at vaji^abtes and expresaioiu. T? MODE 1 20 fOn B-.17{] TO {J STFF \^ JP CLSnOVt 310. a &0 DRAW 330, a '20 7a DI^W 31@.« 80 NEXT a This draws a small square, drifting down the screen till it reaches the foonom. That 'STEP -10* tells Arnold to reduce the loop variable "a" by 10 every lime he runs through the loop, until 'a' goes below the second operand of the FOR conunartd - zero, m this case. Now that's all very well, but it's not quite the ^^ct I'm after. Really 1 want the square to gain speed as x\ moves down the screen, so that it looks as if it's falling. !n other words I want it to move down by a greater amounteach time through the loop, rather than the 10 units fixed by the STEP size. There's nothing soo difficult about getimg the square to gain speed. Edit lines 20 and 80 to look like \hx»: t^ bm b-4J TC 60 STEP & 8^ M£X7 o Now add these new lines, and then try the program out: This does the job^ up to a pomt. The square certainiy loolcs a lot more as if it's falling, but unfortunately it docjn't get as far as the bottom ot the screen. The problem is, there's no easy way to work out what FOR or STEP operands will get the square just to the bottom of the screen. When we had the original hstuig it was simple. The loop vanable 'a,' rcpresontod the height of the square above the bottom edge of the screen. We could use the second ope rand of the FOR command to stop the loop (and thus ihc' square) at some particular value of the loop variable: some particukr height above the bottom edge, m other words^ With ttie second operand of FOR set to zero, the square kept on moving down until it was just about to go off the bottom edge. Now, however, the loop variable is 'h\ Hus represents the Amount by which the square moves down each time - its downward speed, in other words, We can only use the second operand of FOR to limit the maximum value of 'b', so we ean*t tell Arnold that way the height v/& want to stop at; just the speed wo want to stop at. Either we work out how fast the square's going to be moving when it hits bottom (and who wants to do that?) or we spend five minutes trying different FOR ajnd STEP operands A BETTER WAY If neither of those two solutions appeal to you, don't worry - there's a better and simpler way. Edit lines 20 and 80 so that the 46 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 Absolute Looping the loop this month; Basic novices, wend your way in Andy Wilton's crash course whole listing looks like this: b-t!.»ft 13 muf 1 15 a-370 2-3 •.?-7. unu E Jl<-OjZ 33 as MOVE 3t0 a 40 DRAW 33<P t1 SJJ on-i^w im a*20 6? ORAW 310 ti*?ii 7P DRAy 310. a 75 a-a-b 8P jfcFND If you run this you should Eind It behaves exactly the same as did before the alterations. En other words lines 20 and 80 form loop which sets "b' Co 0, adds 3 to 'b' for each time through thi loop and then slops when "b' goes over 50. IT you look at line 20, you'll see that it breaks down inti three separate commands. The first and last of these ar^ familiar: 'b-0 sea 'b' lo while 'b = b + 3' adds S to 'b'. Th means that 'WHILE b-^ =^50" and the WENP' in line 60 form tii loop, and slop it when "b' goes over SO. From tins you should be able to see That WHILE and WE aie riather simpler than FOR and NEXT. TATflLE-WZND loo don't h&vs loop variables: in the above example, 'b' is j different from any other variable. The only thing WHILE-W loops do have is a condir.on: 'b-. = 50", in thkcaae. Just as with IF-THEN-ELSE, this condition determines whi of two things Arnold does. If 'b' is less than or equal to 50 th the condition is true, and Arnold repeats the loop. If 'b greater than SO, however, ihe condition is ^Ise and Amol stops repeating the loop. This stiU doesn't solve our problem after all, it only d what our program already did with FOR and NEXT. We c soon change that, though. II you remember, our problem wil FOR was that you could Umit only the loop variable *b% and wanted lo limit the height a" instead. There's no such probiei with WHII£, There's nothing special about any of th^ variabli as far as WHILE is concerned , At the momL^ni Ihe WH]L£ condition )usl tests for 'b' go; over 50, but it could just, as easily test for i^ything you can wr, a condition to test for- if we change line a> to tilAn Arnold will carry on looping until '^a' is less than zero, 1 means thai Arnold wiU stop repeating the loop only when square is about to go off the bottom Of the screen - and thai I just what we were alter. WHILE-WEND vs FOR-NEXT We now know two diHerent sets of looping commands, Le^ compare what they do. In a FOR-NEXT loop, Arnold sets a variable to some Start value. Each time he repeats the loop he adds a fuced numberj th€ step size to this variable. He stops repeating the loop or the variable goes over some given upper limit. In a WHILE-WEND loop, things are much simpler. Arne doesn't set or add to any variables, unless you give separate commands telling him to. He just keeps repeating loop, and does nothing else. He stops repeating the loop wli the WHILE condition atops being true. SERIOUS SOFTWARE To sum up, FOR-NEXT IfjQps are more ccmplicated and do a lot more work for you. K you want a variable wJiich inc; (base's (or decreases) by a fiKed amoitot each time through the loop for use insidQ the loop, and if you want to stop alter a fixed, niWber of times or when the loop variable reaches some fixed value - it comes lo tho same thing - then FOR-NEXT is what you're after. If you want more freedom, WHILE- WEND might well be what you need- You hayie to do more of Lhe donkey work yourself, mind yon. If you want a variable increasing by some fixed amoant each time through the loop, you're going to have to fijt it yourself. The 'b = b + 5' in the new line 20 wasn't necessary in the old Une 20, because FOR and STEP took care of that for you. When you need to decide which type of loop to use, just ask yourself (a) do I i\eed the loop variable? and (b) when do I want lhe loop 10 stop repeating? NESTED LOOPS So (ar we've only skinurted the surface of whal loope can let us do, Our progrann draws a square 'fialling' towards the bottom of HiG screen, but you could do much more c;ompI|4:ated things with it if you wanted to. Using just one loop or even a series of loops one after another doesn't get at the real power of looping. Before we get any further we'll have to gel rid of that faUing-^quare pjogram. We'll naed if later an though, so rather than typing NEW straight away we want lo save it. It's a good habit before saving anything to label it by tacking a few REM statements to the lop of the program. Six months later with a heap of cassettes or diales to sort out. you'll be glad you did. 1 ftEM Fall tt-.g squares 1 HfcW AbSDiutfi fio^-jifincrs AA OvC. 3[j Ufpw \i you've got a disk drive you've got things easy - just shove a formatted disk in the drive, type SAVE "square"' (return), and after a few seconds of whirring you'll have your program safe and sound on your disk, (If you don't know how to format a disk, checkout Matt's Boohng Up CP/Mloi the details.) If you've got a drive-leas 464. just put a cassette ir, the data recorder and type SAVb "squiire" just as you would for saving a program to disJc. Arnold will then lell you to 'Press REC and PLAY then any key'. Do just that, and he'll save your program for you. It'll take longer than a save to disk would, but for a program of this length it's probably worth the efiort. Now that you've saved the square-dropping prograiTi, type UST. You'll find that the program is still quite unchanged. Tho SAVE command doesn't move the program onto your disk or cassette: it just makes a copy th^re, leaving the original intact m Arnold's memory. Knowing that we've got a copy safe on cassette or disk, we can use MEW to get rid of the original. When you've done that, try typing in this listing: nak«s 'i&'a This )UBt prints out the Tiv^tjmes table - hardly exciting atulf, I'm sure you'll agree, Kow, modify line £0 and add new lines: Q and 35, so the program ends up looking like this: 5 FOP b-1 TO 10 10 FOR <S-1 TO 1^ 20 PPINT h." tlmiwb ' a, m^ti " b'H 30 NEXT e 3j NEXT h Try to guess what this is going to do, Then run it. to see if you were right. 1^ f'Dfl a-1 TO MS 20 PFliVT " 5 tirnes ^0 NtXl a LOOPS WITHIN LOOPS Now you know what the piogranv does, but the questior* is why? Well, ^ink about the loop formed by lines 5 and SB. This tells Arnold to repast all the hnesi in between - lines 10 to 30, in other words while stepping through values of *b' from 1 to 10, We know what hnes 10 to 30 u«ed to do befoia wa modified line 20: they just printed out the five- times table. The flange to line 20 just means that they now pnnt out the b'-times table, whatever ■b'ia. The first time through the "FOK b ^ 1 TO 10" loop, 'b' has the Talue 1 so lines 10 to 30 print out the one-tintes table. The neit tune they print out the two-times table,, because 'b' is now equal to 2 - and so on until "b" gets greater than 10 and the "FOJS. b = 1 TO 10 ... NEXT b' loop stops repeating. Our program has two si^parate loops, one inside the other. There's a special term for loops like this: we say the^y'ro nested. The outer loop - the one that starts first and ends last, in this case the TOR b' loop made by lines S and 35 simply tells Arnold to repeat the lines in between. These lines include loop commands that form an iimer loop - the FOR and NEXT commands in lines 10 and 30, in the case of our program. As you know, (he TOR b-1 TO 10' makes Arnold run through the outer loop ten limes. Each one of these ten times.he repeats (he inner loop ten timea. In other words the line inside the inner loop - line 20 - gets repeated 100 times. All that printing scrolls off the lop of the screen pretty fast, but the program really does print lOO separate messages - lake my v/Ord for it. Let's try another program that makes this a bit clearer^ NEW the times -table program and type this in instead: 10 PRINT 'Line IB" ?0 Ft)fl y-l TO 3 33 PRINT "Line 10; a-";a A^ MH h-t TO 4 50 ^RIM "Line 50: GS3 my.-^ b 70 ^niKl "Lina 7g; a^J WtXV a 9^ fami ■Lirt* SB" a^-.a;" b*':b 9-":a You should now Iw able to see the dow' of the program - the way Arnold repeats lines according to the loop commands - by looldng at the messages he prints up when you run it. GOOD AND BAD NESTING Loop commands come in pairs. They tell Arnold lo repeat all the lines between the start (FOK or WHILE) and the finish (NEXT or WEND) of the loop. If these repeated lines include the start and finish of another loop, that's okay - we just have a nested loop as above. But what happens if we have this second loop starting m the repeated lines and finishing a/terthem? Take a look at this liating and you'U see what 1 mean: 2^ PHIl^T a 2^ "OR b-1 "0 fi 4i5 pRnr b [■IS N=XT 3 ^^ NiXT B This 13 called bad or improper nesting, and Arnold can't cOpe with it. He's tiot the only one - 1 can't sae what it's supposed to do eidier. This kind of thing happens only if you're careless. H you'^re nesting loops, make sure the inner one is completely inside the outer. That way you'll always be okay. AND FINALLY.. Nesting isn't jiASt about puttmg FOR-NEXT loops one inside the o&er. You can nest 'WHILE-WEND loops, put FOR-NEXTs inside WHILE-WEND B or vice-versa ► Reload the 'falling sqpiare' program you saved earlier. If you're a disk user simply put the disk onto which you saved back into the drive, lhe same way up as before, and type Loed square '. The disk whill whirr. yona'U get lhe "Ready* prompt and, when you list it you'll find you've got lhe program badk. Tape tiserift will have to rewind the tape and then type LOAD "square ", Antoid will tell you 'Pieas PLAY and then any key." Do this, and your program wiU load back in. No'w you can experiment with your program. Try putting an outer FOR-NEXT loop around it to make it Mi repeatedly, You could even use Lhe loop variable as a sideways coordinatet so that the square fall* slightly further over each lime, AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 « SERIOUS SOFTWARE i MoH Nicholson in previous issues gof to grips witli the intricacies^ oF thB CP/M operating system. Technical editor Richard Monteiro now tal(es over the series,, with a closer look ot «ome of the utility programs »uppti«d with your system disk- Some are so awful and user-hostile (come to that, not much use either) that we'll gladly pass them by. Mote to PIP than meets the eye? After reading through previous artiqlg; on Booting CP/M, you should be fairly happy with PEP and the various things it tran tio. One unportant point that has not been mentioned is the posaitolihty of liaving extra par amq tors following the PIP cominarid. Well, as promised last rtionth, here is a briel rundown oti the more important: of these parameters and their functions. You'll remember thai Pip uses the star as a 'wildcard' - sO * . cur means any filename with OKtension '.com' and ' * means any filename, any exlensiorin To copy all the Hies from the disc in drive A 10 the diSc in drive B you would type whi^ IS very handy. However , using the extra or optionai parameters available. 4;ven more control iA available 10 you. For Example, type directly foUowirtg, kke this iV PtH b:-A: I VI and all the copied files will be verified - the system will check that they have l>eeiv copied correctly. Other parameters include: [C] Confirm (in CP/M version 3-1 only). TWi3 will display a message asidng you lor confirmation before copying each file - esped,- gJly useful where you have given anUsiguous Jjlenames (for example *.*). You will be given the choice to copy or not to copy, [E] Echo an transfers to tlte screen. Mes- sages 9uch as 'Writing to drive B:' appeal to let you know what is happening. [LI Lower-case only. This will oonven all capital letters to fowefr-case. [If] Upper-case. Thds has the opposite effect to [L], in that it converts all lower-case chaiaclers to upper- case ii?- rapitals. (The terms come from the days when printers set type by hand and sorted mdmdual metal or wooden letters into two cases, an upper and a lower.) [H] Hejcadecimali characters ^le assumed. All characters in the file are checked to be hexijdecimal; an error message results if not. [Pit] Page length n, Formfeedg sre inserted (a new page is started) after every n lines of text. The default a GO - useful if copying to « | printer. {Qstring^Z} Qvau A fiJe will be copied until j the specified string of characters is encoun- tered, and then closed with an end-of-Olej marker. For example [0ajea|2] will copy everything up to, but not including, the word 'area', (fie sure to type t^> wihich is CF/M's end-of-file marker, as Conlrol-Z - not as lhe| tw^o Esparate characters arrow and Z.) [RJ Read system file^ls). Sya files can be I copied easily with thi« option. These files are hidden Irani the directory - see the August and | September articles on STAT, [SslringfZ} Start. A file wiU be copied from I the first occurrence of the strmg, unlj] (he end of file. ThiiB, [SknowiZ] will start copying the file from 'know*. The string will be included u:| the copy unlike its counterpart [QstringlZ]. [V] Verify. As mentioned previously, Ihisj verifies the data between source and destin- ation fileSt checking that a perfect copy was| made. fX] Copy. Mon-Ascii files (for example. Basic and binary files) can be copied using lhi$| option. Watch the syntax of these extra para- meters. If tising more than one of (hem, the J correct form is: PIP 1ST -I5FM0-TXT[U P57 QtteTlof^J This command will send to the printer the filt] PEMO.TKT in uppercase, inserting a for- mfeed after every 37 lines and Ctniahing on the I word 'hello'. Eton't worry if you have not quite I got the hang of it, Trial<and-«rror is the best] method of teadting yourself! That ends the list of the more useful ex-l tended PfP paiamelers. As you can judge fori yourself, PfP is a very versatile program, It I may not be the most user-friendly, but therj CPyM itself vraa never renowned for that! Other programs on fhe system disk The rest of Booting CP/M this mo!\th will be| devoted to explaining how, why and when tc use the nuitieious application programs on lh»| system disk that came with your computer. I'll tackle Ihe simpler of thtse progra first and gradually climb the ladder, till (he worst offenders have been properly dealt with ' Dhcco|>y.cotn and friends DISC COPY, as the name implies, will let you copy diskE - in CP/M. data or IBM Jonnats. This is only useful for single-dtive syaieins. If you have dual disk drives, you also have a program entitled COPYDISC, These files are available under version 2.2 ol CPjM. DISKIT3 is a useful file to have around with CP/M Plus instead of Disccopy and Copy disc. It allows copying of a complete disk and also caters for formatting disks in system, data or vendor format, (If you desire IBM formal you wiU have to use FOftMAT a£ found on version 3.3 system discs more of dial later.) DISCIGT2 is another version available m CP/M 2.2„ which works with only a single bank of €4k memory, as opposed to Disckit3'S using both banks m the CPC ^12& Disckit2 is conseq- uently slower. If you need to verify that that one disk is identical to another, thett uiae 0ECCHK (for 4S AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 Part 6 single-drive users) or CTOtDlSC (dual drives). We come now to copying individual Gie^ Useis of two drives should use Pip (which tiasj been dealt with in great depth). For those withj a one-drive system. Pip wiU prompt you wheni to swap disks if you have CPfM Plus. The! foilowmg utility is supplied fox single- users with GP/M version 2.2: PILECOPY will copy only Ides that have a| R/W and DIR status (road-write and director status are explained in previous articles), "fo^l type: rfl.rCOPV fiieaave You can copy more than one file tf you use thfl '7' and '*' wildcards. Copying cassettes to disk Included on the system disk are a couple programs called CLOAD and CSAVE. Cloa^ reads a cassette file and writes it to disk. Csa-v quite appropriately reads a file from disk ai;d outputs it to ca«$ette, Cload [i«eds two pHTamfllers, separated by spaces or oomnta: The c&ss6tt« lUenaiTte to read is enclosed in double quotes (") if a filename is not present, tjhe Htn file on caaaetle will load. If a disk GJename is not set, it will he saved, to diEk under the S$imt name 3S that o[ the cassette EilenAme. (This m.ust be a maxiinum of 8 charac- ters to be compatible with the CP/M operating system). Tile programs transferred are saved as Asdl flies, so don'T expect them to work correctly without modification. Another point to beware is that protected fOea can not be transferred. CSAVE is very similar to Cload, but there is a third optional parameter to deal witli this time. The first two behave in precisely the same manner els Qoadl's, The ihitd deals with cassette write Speed: a '0' for lOOO baud and a ' r for 2000 baud - makes sense: That ends the copying eega, and the vari- ous files that will do the job. Formatting - as simple as 1 r 2^ 3 FORMAT, supplied on CF/M version Z.2 dieCS, has the aljUily to forma c a disk in any of four ways. These are System, Vendor, Data and IBM fortnat. To select a particular format, type a para- tneier aJier the Formal eomm'^d: S. V. D or I. For example PCRNAT D causes a disk to be data>formatted. Just typing Format (and return) mil t»e Sfstem torartai as default. A system-fonnatted disk win have two resented system track* copied onto it. These contain part of the CP/M opera ting system. DISKIT2 and 3 also have functions for formatting a disk, but make no provision for IBM format. All formats are selected from menus when iising the DtSKlT programs - very nice and simple! To SETUP or not — is there a doubt? The selup file allows users to configure disks to meet their particular basic requirements. These parameters or setup values are held on a special sector (oonJiguraiion sector) on the aystem track. A few o[ the items SETUP allows you to modify include the ^ign-on string, keyboard tianslations, drive characteristics and baud rates for the senal interface. Typing .ser ip will invoke several mes- sages, most askmg you whether to change an option or proceed to the next. Here is an outliTie of them; IiutJal CQiTunand buffet, YOU CeH SlOjre 128 characters of commands to be executed automatically. For example, if you want a dir- ectory of the disk every time you boot up CPjfM. do this when asked to entex the 'new initial command buffer": Type a -rTy and Enter. You should be familiar with DIE by now; the TM (Control-M, not two separate characters) stands for Enter or Return. Using control codeSj, it is possibly to change border, paper, ink, mode and window size among other things. It is even possible to liave a program execute as soon as CP/M has been entered - try and figure that one out for youraelf. Slgit^on Blxliig. This is a string of (Aarac- ters - op to 353 - that is outpt;sl lo the screen when CP/M is invoked. If you enter 'QtUities disk 1986 - Jack Jones' as the sign-on string, exactly that will be pointed every time you enter CP/M. Persona- lized discs - what more could you wish for! Printer powei-np stfing is very similar to the sign-on siring. As the name rmpli^, the message yoii type here wiU be sent to the tjfinteir each time yoti boot up. Tha cotild be a text message or, perhaps more usefully, a set of control codes lo set up your printer. I'ra most thankful for the option Seyboaid tt&nslation ta&le. which lets me redefine the codes generat&d when 1 press ceriain keys. Each line in the table has four columns to fill in; key number, noirmal, shift and oonirol. Key number refers to the aclual key lo redefine. There should be a comprehensive list at the back of your Amstrad User Instnio Hoiis - or it's handily printed on the Sl^'s case. The remaining three columns allow dif- ferent values to be generated when a key is pressed on its own, with the Shiit key or with Control. A nice example wotild be lo set up the cursor keys (which happen to have codes 3, 0, 3 and 1) so that application programs will recognize them. Here they are set for WotdStar, which in its ordinary unfriendly way (considering the l^ttsrs, 'unfriendly' may be the wrong word!) would expect you to use Control with the keys S, E. X and D - Ascii 19, 5, 2:4 and 4: Kflv code ^Dtra] ■9 Shift 1 IS 3 e Cont --o ( 141 MA U. you wish to alter the keyboard translations, you are presented with a menu closely resem- blmg the followmg; A - Add key translation to table D - Delete key translation C - Clear translation table F Finish translation To enter the first line that 1 gave as an example, you would type A . S . 1 9- . 1 - I '^ 1 . Well have to look at the remaining Semp questions in a future instalment. They are rath a r technical, and this month's space is full. To be safe, best to say no to the rest of the options. However, before you go, look at the last two unanswered questions. Do you want to update your syGtem disk? fY/N) 1 would suggest that you go through all the options a number of times - till you are confident of what you are changing and the effects they will have on your disk before answering yes to this question. The final question asks whether or not you wish to lestait CP/M. Well, it would be nice to see what you have done - because the whole purpose of Setup is to make life with disks more pleasant. ■ ^ ! i SPECTRUM COMMODORE & AMSTRAD HOME COMPUTIRS S F T 'iV A ^ [ Bec:trlc Dreams Software, 3t Carlton Crescent. Southampton ,Katnpsh[rc S01 2EW Tel: (0703) 229594 _ ,,^^ ' The omciaWymSoTsed game hy Kiortaml Sequel to the hugely successful Hung Fu simulation. B^ht more deadly opponents to combat as you develop your karate shls and ad\/ance to become a black'belt nriaster Authentic fighdng moye5 with 4 different locations create an outstanding and realistic atmosphere. rmagirte Software ( t^e4|[Lfnited- 6 Centfaf Street- Manchester- MZ 5NS-Tel: 06r 834 3939 ^^B sr^rr:. 3"DfSCS Usualiy AvsifBble @ f J5.00 for fO /'na P, & A ,^^4^*^*«*'»'*^ a«2fiS0iS»©i^ TAPE TO DISC '**^^K Sf AIPLC '^t (■«, M t^.,t^ .. . "tl zB^s^ iQtfru: 'y«u t«i 1 1 \\ If you're already elite . . . there can only be one more challenge. ^ KONAMI AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 SI DIGITAL' INTEGRATI0^% h '^1^ EDUCATION Arnold moves up a grade Last month we looked at Amstrad software meant 1o educate pr&^schoolers. Now we move up to look at some of the packages avaitabiie for older ag^e groups. The scene hias improved a bit since our education feature last April. CAESURAS TRAVELS Mirrotsolt £8,35 csss, hevtufard Educational software tor the Ams&ad eom- puter lange \s sciajce, and what \s available is very siibBtaridard. Cs.ssar's Travels is one of those rare exceptions, being weU packaged and presented - il looks and feels as proiessionally done as today's ^^ tortainntent software. Caasai's Tia.vol3 comeg in the form book written by Jcmiea Mercej. Aimed M a^ rainge of 3 to 9. it suita botli pre-readers (obviously accompanisd with an adult) and early readBrs. The comput&i cassette con- tains an abbreviated form of the story, but with the 4dded advantage of animated, action , Poor old Caesar h^s been kicked out into the streets for not doing his job pro- perly; catching mice. You take on the lole of this miseilblig cat, Via Vtis keyboard input ihal yoL supply^ diffsTent quTcomes lo the stety may occm, The idea is that you find a new home for ycmrself. Watutally you have? many advcnturGs along the way - it'e not all a bed of catnips. Only eight keys are involFcd. This is an ejtcelleni idea, as it \"rilt not qonluse and thus put otf any youngsters, The nimib^r keys from 1 to 6 are used to instruct Caesar to perform ceilair! cln;tioJ^3, For exanipie, preflaing 1 wiU cause C^aesai to run and pieaaing 3 will make the cat jump. Two other keya are Enter and the apanTebar. Ent«r ta ne^ed when answering certain questions that crop up from lime to time. For example, a number of objects may appear on lihe screen - in one case nin^ sausages appeared. You must count tham up, then pr^aa the correct numbiai key (9 in this case), foUowed by Enter. The spacebar is used to continue or start a new game. To make things easier for a child, all the keys and their associated use are printed on a card which can easily be placed on the keyboard. The game itself is very good, the teM appearing at the top of the screen while CaEsar cavorts amid relevant scenery at the bottom. Once you have instructed Caesar what course he should take» hq carries out his actions graphically before the next section of text pops up. Overall, this is an sKcellent vJay to jtitroduce toddle te to reading. They can SCO their words enacted on screen, and we aJ] know a picture is worth a thousand words. The text appears on screen lirie by line, at a pace a youngster can handle. Tunes are played at various stages m thj« game, adding to the atmosphgrd and (jv<eraU en] oywient. MirTi>rsoft Maxwell House. 74 Wor&hjp St, LontJon, ECSA SEN Phone; 01-377 4$44 Pla.y School, for the three-plug agegnoup, consist with a seiectson of tiny games. Some are of e-ducational use, others - well, they just pass the tirne of day. When you first run the program, a few tnaiiuctions appes.T on the scjcen, telling you which keys you can press, and what they dO- Wnte tham down or remembei them, as no reference is made to the keys further an in the program. You are then asked to press P to play the game. At this stage, piessing Shifl-0 will sat the level of difficulty. Altemaiiveiy. P win take you off to a party, where after several seconds ga.zLt)g at a less- than- mouthwatering graphical cake, you are in- troduced tea Superkid, the question mastar. He promptly aslcs for your name - you type LEI your name and press Enter. On completion ol all the miroductory meseageE, you get a menu with six options. Thdse range from simple addition pro- blems to trying your hand at drawing. The Eirst option is Counting'. A laige box is drawn on screen and a nunibei: of objects appear inside. Tou musi count them up and enter tlie correct nt4jnber. Superkid is watching you throughout youT ordeal - his eyes occasionaJiy blink — but for the most pari, he is cold and stony. He shows either displeasure (when answer- ing wrong) in the torm of taming his mouth down, 91 ^dmiiaTion (of correct answers) by grinning broadly. You are given three ehanoes to ^naweir a question correctly. After a third failure the answer is displayed and the next ques- tion in a sequence of three is diispiayed> A correct answer merits a point in your favour; incorrfld and ii'a face down. AMSTRim ACTION DECEMBER 1SS6 53 EDUCATION After amv^eiing Ibe thre* questiotl^, either Virhizkid wiQ choose which e«t of questions you will try next or you v/ill get to ^oose i^gain (Uus seenis to be at rsmdom). Moving down the t9J?le of cJioic*?, w& 4:;«im« lo 'Find It'. A l^tier oi namb^ic i$ diapJaycd On the sct^^n, and tb& cliild then )ia3 lo search for it, Tliis is £t good way to teach duldren how to sssociaie one ihing with anoihor. The next option, "Paint Box", ie lather a limited drawing utility; Only one colour is allowed on screen (the cMId ceui ctvoosa Shis colour), Movem-ent ia via the curgor key«, so Ptti afraid that yoii arg restricted to straight hues (or crooked ones at leaat), It may hold diildreii's mtercst for a while, but when they wi&h to impiove on their de- Signs, they will be stuck. A^5 3 ^7 hem four is Match Up', Siic odd-looking pattems aie dr^wn on thi? ^qr&an; * iurthier ono is drawn apart from the previous stx.. The child le to match the aaventh object vrlth one iA Ihe elhei six.. The next item ia not ono of the smo-o- ttieat, fastest arcade-raction games available on ftny home micro- Yoa conuol a Paqman lookalike. whose sole task is to eai any stationiLry objticlii in its path, The last but by no means least o! the*e oplionE \9 'How Much', This aels a fairly reasonable little additioti test for your prinxary-Bchool kid. A boK with a number of items appears; you niust type the correct number as with 'Counbng'. Then another box Ifi drawn with objects inside. Do tha same action as before. Then you musl add the object? fron^ bo<h baiEee together and type this total. On the whole» ihig is a well-presented package, vrith some nice touches, es|>eci- ally Superktd with his flicking eyelids and mouth Rwvesnents, The options available will no doubt prove valuable teaching aids for the youngBteia, and more importantly. keep them interested. PHYSICS SeJiuo! SofiwjflrE. £3.35 cass, £14.95 disk, kgifs Physics, lik^ its counterpart diemistry, hftS one thiing basically incorrect with the pack- agittg, ox rather the information displayed. Et is not up to O-Ievel standard. Maybe 12* to 14-yoar-olds wiU appreciate this but not 16-year-olda - that is, if they wish to pass. Apart from that, slightly moie eCfort has gone into Physics; the queationa are not as gjnbiguous, not quite as many spelling errors, and it actually sccepis my answer* (if they are tjorrecl, of course]. Physics has a nine-option menu to choose from. Each optLon has a notes sec- tion as ¥rith Chomistry. They are, however, slightly tnore substctnlial. if you don't Wish to read the notes, you can go straight into the question section. There is a nice suprise awaiting those that opi for one of the sets of questions. Included wii-Jh many oi the questions .ire email diagranna related tO the subject it makes aU the difTerence. The style of answering and marking questions is ident- ical to thogc from Chemistry. Again, once aJl tha questions have bean answiesxed, there Is nothing more to be gained from the package. It would have been quite simple to include extra gues- tions that could be loaded up whenever required. In that way. the user wouJd aquixe a much broader knowledge of the topic at hand, What would have been nice was a graph showing how well yOU had done after answering the question* from all the topics, possibly giving you an average mark at the same instant. Slowly but surely the educational mar- ket is coming to its senses. If you compare the tit]es reviewed here with those back in the April issue of AA — Well, there can be no comparison; roal progiess \^ being made CHEMISTRY ScIiddI Software. £9.95 Cd«S. Ct4.9S disk, ksys Hooray - at last eomeone has conte up with a chemistry program aimed at 12- to 16- ycar'olds. That was my inital reaction. My enthusiasm waa soon, dampened, howevei, as it became clear that the program had a Song way to go before teachiing 0-Ievel i^^andaxd. On loading, yOU are presented with a menu oQeririig a skeleton s>eleetioit of the actual chenustry course. If the packaging had said 13- to H-year-oIds, t would have agreed, but there is no conceivable way that proepecttve O-level candidates can: even conatder passing wish this. Apart from that, there is a very good idea here, SelGcting one of the tOpicfi gives yon the choice to either read a few nates on the subject or alternatively jump straight into the questions. The notes are short and sweet. They cover the queslions yeu are aboiit to answer but go no further. For that, you will have to consult the numerous textbooks. The question sectioii has a wonderfully executed area, but there are many spelling errors, On OOCaJlons my answers where rejecled, I presumed either I had got them wrong or my speliing was incorrect, But then ttic program wouid spew out its ver- sion of the correct answer esactly what I had typed inl TTier© are ten questions to each sec- tion; you are given two chances to answer each one. If yOU ctitci the incorrect answer first time, you arc given a small due (which is generally small enough to enable you to attain the answer)- A correct answer earns you lOV* — if on [he second attempt you manage to get it right., you ase awarded B%. At the end of the 10 questions, your overall percentage mark is shewn; de- pending on the mark achieved, you will get the menage very good, good, or 'poor but win do better nest lime". Obviously you'll do better next time - the questions retnain| the same. This idea has the making of a goodi educationaJ package. Unfortunately, on the] Am.sciad at least, this product is stiU in iis| early daya; consequently it lias severe bugs, and could be lurUier enhanced wi* more questiOtWi a more comprehensive notes aeetian and a general tidy-up. SliU mufitn'i complain too bitterly as there are i few of these educational programs around Sc&oal Soft w&;e Ltd :JW«Ado'A-v*Se Estate, Raheen, Linierick. Meiand Phoner0i&3538i27S94 S4 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 FABULOUS FIREBIRD Firebird has grabbed the coveted Mastergome slot dgaln with the sufOerb gome Druid on pages 58-59> II lectures sofTi^ wonderful colour graphics and fovgh, addictive action. Thorfr was stiff compc^titfon for the top spot this month. A host oF Roves bottled it out - tKe run<*yp to Christmas begins. There's a cracking shool^em-upf from Gargoyle's new lobe I FTL, colled Lightforce on pages 56-57, with greot colour grophics, scrolling and fast action. The new Piranha lob^l also has its First gome out, The Trap Dc&r, based on the chiidren*» TV series. You can see Berk and friends Raved on page 66> Gremlin has earned yet another deserved Rave in Tfoitbtax&f, o 3D derivative of Bovnder - it's greot bouncing fun again on page 72, Mikro^&en follows up its excellent arcade adventure Eqvinox wiFh another graphically superb game Frost Byte - that's also on page 72. Mirrorsoft and Electric Dreams have also got in on the act with fcon Jon and Prodigy, o couple of arcade adventures to be found on pages 82 and 61 respectively. We've even got another Grave award to hand out this tim^ to tho excruciatingly bad tt*s a Knockout hom Ocean. Lots of lovely stuff there lo get stuck into, so go to it. MASTERGAME AA RAVES Llghlforce (FTL) ,. ......„.., .,,.56 Prodigy (Electric Dreams).... .61 The Trap Door (Piranha}... ...j66 Trailblaier (Gremlin)............ ...,72 Frost Byte (Mikro Gen),.... .......72 loon Jon (Mirrorsoft) ........B2 OTHER GAMES TESTED Adfvator (Cascads).,. ...jB2 Trivial Pursuit (Domark). ..,,.. ..-...„„„„ $2 Atlantic Challenger (Virgin). J63 Beach-Head 2 (US Gold)...... ............,.,.JS3 Video Poker(Mastertranic)........„............ 64 Kettle (Alligata)..,... 266 Popeye(Macminan)..... .........69 StreetHawk(Ocean).... ,69 Glider Rfder(Quicksl!va) ....................70 It's a Knockout (Ocean). .........................70 Tlmelord(Alpha Omega),., ..............70 Miami Dice(Bug Byte).....,, 76 Pipeline 2 (Mastertronic) ....,.„„.,«.75 Xeno (A'n'F)..... !..... ..76 Galvan (Imagine) ,. ......B1 Que stor (Cascade). — .,81 The Inheritance (Infogrames) 83 PREVIEWS Pulsator(Martech) B4 Werner {Adolasoft) 84 ikariWanior (Elite) .,,84 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 55 ACTION TEST LIGHTFORCE The new arcadfj labci from Gaigoyle, ttie masters of arcade adventures, has a lot to Uve up to. But if this fiisi release is anything to go by, they look likesucceediny. It's a shoo(-em-ap bssed on many a popular arcade game like Star Farce and Xevious, where you fly o-ver a landscape that scrolls down the screen and have to blast both grQiJ.nd and aerial targets. There arc £oux zotves that /on have to get through, mping out every alien you can on the way, which repeat once youVe completed. The zenea vary in features and aJie^is, but all of them will give you a hard time and a weary firing finger. The four aoneti aie the asteroid belt, jungle planet, orbiting Hoite, and i[?e plajie!. Your craft appeals at the base of the screen but can be freely moved around if, both Up and down as well as lefl and right. You'll find that most of the time you'D want to stay at the bottom of the screen where it's aafest and just move up to avoid some aliens. There are two general types of landscape that scroll beneath the ship: float- ing structures m space and planet surfaces. Your ship fires twin ahois that provide a good ficid of fire when you. hamjrver away at the fire button. These deal with targets on the ground and other ships, but some cannot be destroyed at all and just have to be avoided. SECOND OPINION WJisf can Jl say, rhQ ^TSfSSc^t shoot-ent- iip sin p0 s}ic0(l iSreacf hea b^fdr^ in0 -~ I'm in iiesvea. Yes, yoajnsyhave gathered, ! have & slight bias for caxFymg oatmindloss t,is;ke. Light Force is beautiful, the graphics, the scioUing (albeit d triile slow - but who's cxtmplaining?), use of aolouz, blasHtig satisfaction, depth, siiisii vajF7e/y a;id 'give me snothez qo oi J 'U blast YQV ' appeal. Tlivivcighly rscommetidedi RpM AJi of the graphics are superbly done. There's good sGrolUng. gocd u*e of col&*r, lots of variety and nice explosioiut. The ships come in waves, while the ground features are in groups that usually eonialn a control centra. A bonua ja given straightaway if you can destroy all the pans of a group, while anothei bonus is given at the end of a Eono for all the waves you wipe out. The control centres are also important to dispose of because if you hit enough of them a bonus Me is given at th^ end of the straight dovtm the screen at you, others sXg- sag or wheel across it, and some cvcri honif: in pn you. Collis.ion with anything s^nds you up in a puff oi smoke and puts you back to just before the v/ave that you died on. You -re not at risk just from collision; the ships can fire bullets and even missiles at you - also fatal. GREEN SCREEN VIEW lost tltatone in tiiejun^e scene, apart itom that n o serious worries. RpM Bonus lives can be gained by destioy- ing some: groups where one of the targets will hide a smiling fas^e. If you reveal it by shooting the correct target, another life is added to your initial five. These bonus lives sre very important and if yoa can get all of them It improves your scoring chances greatly. If you score highly enough you can get hold of a shield which can be used seveiraj times to destroy everything on screen. You probably won't get one of those until you'v-e completed all four zones oncQ. For sortie people ahool-em-ups. are dirty words these days, but this one really brings them back to life. It's colourful, fast, compulsive, varied and tough - in short all the qualities a good ahoot-em-up needs. This one should keep you glued to the m«chme and atrengthen your joystick hand and file fmger no end. BW FIRST-DAT TARGET SCORE 30,000 ► Four very tough .zones. ^ Great graphies, scrolling and colour. ^ Very varied aerial attach waves, > Groimd targets as well as aix. ^ CompuUfve fast action. h- Vqu ciJinreEl in between cones. > Boesn^l always respond well to rhe £ix» button. 90% soniics 42% GRAS FACTOR 91% 89% STAYING POWER ::::::::^v^^:^^^gS '.-.■.-.-.-^■.■SWigRH I^Bwflfn -\''*'y.*\*\ ttSSSssMQcmsoQow 1 A A RATING 907. :Tm' y The ground targets all need two hits from yOur guns to destroy them while the ether ships requrr^ either a smgle shot or can 'I be destroyed at all. That meanfi you really have to work hard at the fire button to destroy groups, while the ships need fast&i leHctiona and more accuracy to deal with them. The waves of ships are very varied in both app-earance and behaviour, which means you need to become famiiiiir with their patterns of attadc. Some charge 56 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEj/ ■f iA ACTION TEST AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S3 DRUID firebjfd, £7.95 cass, £12.95 disk, joystick or ke Tlie araade game Oaantiet has already spawned one defiv^ti^re on tli6 Jljnvtracl, Storm, and ihli la a i&cond which really flhawB why th* game was such a bi^ hir iai the arcadea. It's an tiKplQie-and-^oot-Qm" up that take* place on ^ight S,ooiS- of « towei, infested with nasty monsters and Qther autpriMs. Ydu take the part of the druid wJhq i9 trying to defllroy four skulla created by the Princ^^ of Darkness, The skulld axe located on ihe last fouj floons of the lower, so you'll have to battle Ihxough four Qoora bafore you reach the fifat skull. The ftoora are CQ[iJL«cted by staiiwells. Usually there's only one connoctioii botween Dooxa but some have aaveral connectiona for oihar- wlse inaccessible areas. SECOND OPINION I see It. I hear ir. Hike irt Great for a quick iflset, sifpscially ii you have a pAobj'd against anything crawly - thosa beetles make g^rear target prsctice. Druid ig, Jwtw*v»r, juucfi mor^ thAB a s2ioot~oa tAtfh^ loa&l druid&ry. It t^ok me several attempts to riss from the 9ociaJi gtandmg of 'Haif-wiV - zssson being I Ilk»d to *«nj the AbimdAnt avii YoiuBk ill apaftotsmoke! One thiKi^ th9t psits me oS playing ttm typs qI g^Lme^ k (he time spent loAdmgf. Voti cim notke i pot &f t^&, tiavas bath and i&ke ths dog for a walk. However this is a very minor point aud does not detract from the Gxeitiiiff fflxn eplsy. KpIVI You have to hghi yom way pa$l the hordes of attackiitg inoiustera and fmd a atairw«ll dowxt to the n&jci floor. On each floor there wiU also he a niunbex of tz0%- etiie chestfi that provide olijecti and powers that come in very handy £ach ftoor is s msze of corndort and rooms: you'U need to map out each one fo maka piogxoss (juicker in future games. The screen is composed of a window in which you vi^vt the action and a status ax0a where Aeven qgunters ^nd three gauged keep iraj^ of yoyr progress. Thxe^ of the countera ahow you how many miaailet you have of water, fire and electricity. The four other counters show if you have any of four spells that create a key, invlnbility, a Golem or 'chaoft'. Tha gaugi«ts show the druid'a strength, a Golem's atrength and your rating in the ganne. You can h*ve mp to &9 of the thr^* typ«a of mimilfl and chooAe which one you want to ahoot. Each type wUl kill a parti' oular monster quickly but il you're using the wrong nuBsile qh a monster it may tak* two or three hits to kiU il. The nuAsiles and the other spells caji be rouiuJ in cheats, but having taken something Out Of the dOBH it cfliutot be re-sjced. t^e four spells are essential to your progress In the game: the keys unlock dodr^, itivisibUity freezes the monsters leaving you free to jnovo, wtulo 'chaos' destroys all monfitera oit scxeen and xq- plenishea youi energy. Th& Golem spell ia the most interact- ing. It creates a cJ^aracfor who can be controlled by a second playei or move automatically. He deatroys monsters by walking Into (hem and (hereby protects you. He can be commanded to follow, wait or send, or be freely controlled by the second player. Contact with any of (he monateia will deplete your energy, aa will touohJng some other static features like water and check- ered squares. If energy reaches zero the gan\e is over and th« druld oollapaea in a heap of cloak. The Colem is also drained by hitting' monsters but when he dies you can always create another one, Your energy can be teplenishod by gtandifig in the middle of pentagrams, but the diffioully is in finding ihem before youf meagre resources run out, ThS' graphica are excellent with a multi-directional scrolling windoWi well- drawn chor^cierv and landscapofl. and great use of colour. The ganieplay is superb as weU^ hav- ing all the fast action and compulsivaness of a ahoot-^^m-up, but adso tho tactical u$o of chssta, weapons and Golem. The variety of (he graphics, monsters and maaes will keep you wanting to play, ^nd the eight increasingly difficult Doors will pi@QOnt on dxc^^lic'FLt challenge. BW FJBST-DaY TAROET SCORE b^i* con be ustd r ^^r 58 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 ACTION TEST One of ihe inariy fflonsteft: which ml^jlli; g#H. rid oF !( moit effldsnUy? Goad ■^teHln^ window. Elgbt lleofi of laetreaslng dlfiiculty. Great graphics and colou foT Vk9 landBcapAB and chaxactftra. Oood variety orfeaturen with dlfCuent waapoxia, spellfl and abjects. Acttou It (iait, furlou! but tactical too. ThB Golem allows two to play. Not true mslti-player action of IH^ GRI-EN SCREEN VIEW As cfsAT ss Ihe ligrlti ofdsy-nit Ijroubls RpK GRAPHICS SONICS GRAi FACTOR STAYING ISOMER A A HATING 1% [93% M% 93% AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 S3 CDMMODOflE SCRECM There are some places in the universe you don't go alone. ZX SPECTRUM 48K. 1Z8K/+ t9.M AMSTRAD CPC Cassette COMMODORE 6'1/1 2a Cassette,,... i;9.99 AMSTRADCPCOish.,,.. COMMGDOHt 64/128 Disk £14.99 f9 99 £14,99 ELECTRIC 0^ WW S SOFTWARE 31 CARLTOMCRfSCfNI RflinHAMPTOH SOr^FW TFl (OTOJ 211969^ Wail Ufdcf: tieclncUfCWus SoUwiiie, TA femlSltest, Hsmpsnad. London NW.IPPN, ACTIOH TEST PRODIGY Eleeirie Dr^tmis, £3 93 cass, tm.9^ disk, jcvsttck nr ktys Qp. % W9fl(I iuv by rrvachin^s iheie are ju&l two humanoidis, Solo !iie Sytitldman and a baby called Kejo. You've got to help those two Jtelpleas characters escape ftorti this world tiuiabited by the other mutated orgiiuc creations Of Wardlock the machine 9Diceror. The gAirte oertainly has an otit- standing fioundtrack, excelleni graphics and an Lntorcating playing area - but has it got any gameplay? The eiim of the game La to collect four security^yBrem controls, ono each from loxLt main gan;v^ ?one3, These aones are the ice. veggie, teeh and fire, ail ©f which have ihdii own very distinctive fi^^n^ry and charaicteiistics. The screen shows the view o( thti 3D landscape in rather a small box m the middle of the? screen, sttricund^^d by mostly redundant panels. The ficreen scrolls in four diagonal dirgctions se you moYe Solo, and Nejo can orawi aftei htm as well if you let hioi. There are gauges at the top of the screen foj yout oxygen supply, Nejo '3 food supply, and the state of hia nappy. At the bottom of the sore en is an area whore you receive messages during the game. You're aimed with a gun that shoota bubbles, which csmee in handy for deterring the mutant organisms and perfomiing some The main aim is to find the Becuriiy cubes. Once youVe got them they have to be taken to the contiol centre and - then what? The graphics aie impressive, using colour and detail well, while the soundtrack: is highly individual and grci^i to listen to. The only question is over the ganveplay: it consists mainly of wandering around just trying I0 find things. There's enough variety and eomplication to make il an absorbing game Ehat should really chal- lenge your mind and mettle. IW FmST-D&Y TARGET SCORE Find a cube □ I ^ Ex^etlent 3P graphics, ^ Highly original and eatejrt^IiUng sonadtrack, *■ Nasty creatuief that display intaliigencB agtd ^ttveTcranve. P- Tougb task a««piiijng Ihoughi ajid a lot of exploring. P- Original feature* like (be baby ud itiiBlt^B ding mazet. 8 H W » > A itnial] BcrDlllDg nu-eiL, p A Idi ot MU!td«nug ar^tuid seajr^bltag < can bt wearing. OE^i^If SCREEN VIEW A cchuf toggle is incoTpoisfed so bbc?? qx&en-satticu fieivet^s and colour The different foiitia of creature inhabit difl^ren) zones. But all can deplete your energy il they couch yoii and can send you back to the starting point if you're weak enough, Shooting them just makes them run away fox a while before they get their courage bacl:. Of great help while eKploring axe tele- port terminals, but you'll soon find plenty o[ surprises - zones that aren't what they ap- pear to b^ flnd floflirs that do funny things to your m&y^m,ent. Onee you know your way around you'v^e got to find out how 10 get more oxygen for yourself, food for Nejo, and how to clean his nappy as well. SECOND OPrNION' WJiat Aead-iMShmg music wlteti yen fiist iasd it up - some ol the sounds squoBzad through Amoid's speakers are am ajring. Tho graphics certainly JIM tch the in usic: scenery and charaders ars clear and detailed. It's hsrd; m /acr yoa csn w^jydsr aroimd fora^as '^/ithaai wsna^ing to nccomplisli anything. Who cares about gameptay when the semid and gt&phics are this good? RpM AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 ACTION TEST ACTIVATOR Cascade Gaines, jayslttk or (i?y$ Quite an unusual offering from Cascade, and probatoly the firm's bd«1 to date. You cj^ntrol a spaceship which roams the pesl- InJesr^d qorridois of S'paceport Antari, The object is fo locaie fuel rods *nd place liiem in a csTiun, room, blasting ajty naaiie^ ihat happen to enter yoxtx sights. Starting fiom wha^ is presumabty your inotheirs.ttip. ycu hurtle along at a fSiii rate of Ittiots (paiECCS?) iintil eniering the port of Aittari, Onc(} in, th!&t^ is no way bac!< until the task in hand has been completed, tm- TTuedidtely you are fac^-to-face '.¥ith a less- (han-tiieiidly teing- ITie first reacuon is to stab at the Kire button. This will be lo no avail, for you tiave to search for weapons. What a time to find out! The graphics 3I& krg« and reasonably dataiUd. with the suirounding oorridora taking up dome lively pattierns - giOwmg all the more strancT'e the furiher you pro- ceed through the game. WhOe the miiiol tone wiU make you eithei r«(ch or reach fot the volume control, the l&s«i and explosive sounds axe very $ati4fyili^. Once you have found your amimtnitiofi (this appears a.s a bullet standing on. end). pressing Fire will pick it up. While in your posscssioji il will give untold hrepower. Blasling an alien Or one of die strange- looking plants with waving tentacles; will cause it to erupt into JlaniLes. There is one problem; if an alien is liesding towards you amd you manage tO jap it, the debris cont- inues on its original courae. So if you stay in the way, be warned; your energy bar will soan be shoi^t. During your travels on Antari, you will Eioltce objects with letters Inscribed on them. These, if you pick them up, aUow you to pass through various sections and thtis proceed further in the game. A miiximuni of three passes, which includes you; ammu- nition, may be cazried at one time. You need to select carefully lest you hnd yoixr- WrJi wtiU QYQi ISO reonw tQ explore and sonis fast sJio^t-em-ap Action, you would think this would he An exc^ilent gante-. it Iscks scmcthm^ iA^titig ftppssl or iJlh^T the giva-zne-ABotiiBT- go feci IthRs some decent graphics, vfsili good expJipsiVe noiss. Aptwt from diat. there is not much Soritie to Tecomm&nd- BW BS^^^^K? ^^^51 ■^^^■fn MHiffiil H R^^lill m „.. ^ ■^■ii^l ■e^i:^^BHfl Wi^i^l mmWWm^M ■«».i»«vl 4t*» rmiE. IP^MU ttofinxit^ 4990 £! « '"^p ftOMT jei self studc. You livill also very occasionally encoun- tet an item (hat defeats description. This is most likely to be one of the fuel rod«. just pick it up and take il tO the special room with H^. c:all them sevan odd-looTcing stools. Flytng over these wjE caiiise the rod to leave your gfasp and position itself onto one oi these stools. The playing area is tiuite surpriaingly large, and [ha number of aliens (Antanans- ?) will keep the most trigger-happy freai in hesveu, To start with, .you aic given nine hvcs, which may se^m rather an ejscess, but boy do you need them - bvunping mto an alien or plant will cause serious damage TRIVIAL PURSUIT Oamark, I14,3&, joysiiek m keys This is the official version of that mostt inelevi^nt o! boflrd gan^es, h seeks to re- create the garnet throwing in a fe^r eziras Ihat % compuier can provide, jtmt in case you've been in a Tibetan manasticTy IOt the last fe^ir years Til give a brief despxiptiDn of what the game's abnsut- h's all based on questions of no im- portance whatsoever, except that knowing the answers helps you win th? game. You pky on a board where a ring of squares is joiiued. TO a central hub by siic spoken. The squareit are different colours, represendng six qnestion oategoiies and 'throw again ' squares. Yci-u have feo land on the Six squares whexe the spokes meet the ring and answer a question correctly. Hav- ing go{ all six you can go lo the hub and answeir another question to win the game. At the start of a your turn you throw the dice (random choice of numJser by the computer) and can mjove thai number of squares in any diiettion, trying to get ojito on* of the spokc-ends. Land on a sobjecl square and yon havo to answer a question on it: get it right, you can throw again and continue your tum; wrong and play passes CO (he next player, Tho computer veMon of the; game is t»$»entially the same as the board game, but Arnold does all the hard worl; for you - and adda a few new touches to the questions. When a question ia a;sked the screen c^hanges to a cosy fireside ^oene whisre the qCtiostion can take the forni of music, a diagiajn, picture or jusd text. You can alter the lime allowed for answering, from Sve seconds lo luuilless- Once the answer is revealed you're asked if you got it nghi or wiong. Obvi- ously this means you have to announce your Mwwar oui ioud. It leaves a one- player game open to some terrible tempt- ahoits to cheat. Another enhanoement of the game made possible by the contpoter la that for e«ch player a chart is kept ftcording im knowledge of each category. This isn't jvwt of statistical inierest. It comes into play at the ond of the game when a player lands on tho htib and has to answer a question en a category chosen by the other players. They can study his score chart and pick his worst eZ AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER The moln scre«ri s>h5wFT>g *rc board QKECN SCREEN VIEW O: Witich of As six bo^xd cotosirs wQuid you sity comss out best? StiU playable. AW subjert. /Uuher option lets you turn on and off a little H::haiactei calkd TP who presents the questionit. You can also add, remove or pau^e any player in the middle of a game liattt .:./:41«^;.;i»./j;.^K?;.^;:;gf;a^; ■•w*»»**_^ ACTION TEST to your Uvelihdod. This itliiy all sdcin more ttiaji enough to be getting on with, Unfoitunaiely these kind people at Cascade have included a coun- tdowTi timer; only 30 minaiBB to complete the task, otherwisfi ... well, you know. Initially, there is a lot to do. v/hat with fighting off the aliens and p;cla,ng up passes. However you soon, are of the repe- titious ganneplay, The only thing keeping you going \& (he thought, 'Whcra on Antari lethal last iGd?V It's certainly tough, but once you re- cognise the playing area, you will probably move on to J:Omethiiig more demanding. RpM FtRST'DAY T&RG£t $COB£ 7,000 Q ly w ORGEN SCREI^inEW Everything is sxeephon^Hy dear somefone hss gat it right At l^t. HpM N E W ^ Good IsUBtifig appall, >■ Large game ajrei. ^ Satisfying exploHianB. *■ CelowrfuL while the others carry on as narmal. The questions are varied and traly trivial. Bui aftor yom play several times you'll notice the santc old ones coming back. To combat thai (here are IB other queetioji files available, so it's probably best to use those m some oj'der of lolation. As a niult]-pliiyq:r gamg i%'? 9s good a$ Ihs boaid game and makes use of both. sound and graphics capabilities. However the basic aim is still just about to .inswcr trivial quefiiions, whereas Povrer- piay (rcviEwod last month) taltes the trivia theme and adds a more absorbing game 10 U. If you've never played Trivial Pursuit than take a look. Eul if you've got the board game ti's not really worth getting this aj wtiU. BW E W ^ 3tep!leat«a the bdard gvjne very well, >■ Adds graipb leal and sound qaestions, ► K gocid mi.;m-player game. ^, XjoIb of c[qe^on files avaUable. S w ►■ All seems very old-hat tbe9« dAys. P' Not worth buying iS you've got the board gune. CHAPKICS 6ZV. 68% 69% 6a% SOWiCS GHAB f ACTOH STAYING POWtR A A 1UTING ^ Terrible tuns. ¥■ Can become repetitious. ► You won** go back foj more. GAIPHICS SQMIGS GRAB FACTOR STAyiHO FQWEH A A MTING '■■'.'■',■'■■'.-'-',•','',•',''''. VIRGIN ATLHiTTIC CHALLENGE GAME Vitgin. £tt,9S cass, joystick or h^$ Remember Richard Branson's toy boat that he wJuHsed across the Atlantic in record time? Weil, it won't come as any surprise that it's popped up as a computer game, probably to Help pay back the cos! of the btial. The game nuikQs Richard the 90l4 crew member; you have to conlrol him to got the boat across the pond- You must do the ^obs ot the whole crew on the voyage: che^ck ihd radaj. say on course, avoid hazards, keep the enigine running, run your business using the telex, set the speed, and feed yourself. All the areas of the boat are shown on just two screens. You get at each piece of equip- ment by Etanding in front of it and p ressing the Fire button. You hAve to follow a planned route across the sea in order to rendezvous with fuel tankers which refuel your boat to keep It going. In ordei lo keep to this route you - m the cockpit - must Bteei along the bear- ing you're given by the radar Screen. You also have to steer around icebergs and fishing boats thai are constantly getting in your way. SECOND OPINION What's h^ffjjen*fd to my c-^ew? Probsb}yi&d up with ^,e whale idea, ^eavingrm<a to canfroV rudder, jnainla&t the entfsiis room &rsd a whoie fleet of mandSTm tasks. On-scrven action is about as sxctting as a bad Hay's fishing - in sJiojnr npf very. It's ilf totj 6^sy to die: while cattyitig oiil matjrteniuiee on she engmo, you will undoabtPdly Strike an iceberg; or you will be avoiding the tceberg, only to Hud tfle engine overheats And bang, yoii sink* iiyoti hsve aeej? ell tte aetipu on l/ie fef*Vi^Ofl or r&dd About itiit the papers, tesvs this progr&m alone and try your ha/rd a S fishing. RpM Wlule yod'r^ busy aigj^ggmg across tht:> ocean ihc engine lemporature and mteas will be buUduig up, If you lei them rise too far the boat will break up. You'll either have to keep going at a staady pace or give thcni iimc 10 loat occasionally. You have to look after your health and the busmess ds wdl on this trip, mmg ^e galley and a iQ'Iak machine. At the galley you are gradually stoknd up with food, allowing you to move faster around the boat. The telex will ask you a t^uestion .fiboMl the business: you must answer yes or no. Gel the question right and you could make some money, wrong and you'll lose a pa<:ket. Most of your time is spent racing from one part of the ship to another as the computer informs you of each alert, This gets repetibve after a whila, and most annoying when one slight delay can sink the boni and end your game. There's {{Utte a long-tt?rm challenge m cotnpleting the route al all, never mind m record tim^a, so that should keep you plugging away. On the whole I think the g^ime consists mostly of hypo and publicity, but the (ough laak redeems it somewhat. BW Ridhard EFronHn «n lil^fleoiing rourd- br*okeJ GHEEN SCREEN VIEW It looks all ses-giaan to ma. RpM FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE £0% N W > You're constantly on the go, getting between locations. > 1V% very tough to complote. 8 N W S ► Actions get very repetitive. ► Too easy to die without much liotice, ► There's never much actlvl^y on scireen. 1^ Not as eKciting as the real thin^. GRAPHICS somite GRAB FACTOR STAYWG POWER A A UTING 32% £37. 47% 5a% ™^ v^yyi^ BEACH-HEAD II m Cold. C9.9&ass. t!4.9S disK joystick or Jcty* This sequel has been a long lime in the malting. Al )a»t you've got the chance to get lo grips with the dictator who apparently escaped ai the end of the original game. He's now construcied hinioeilf an island ► AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1956 63 ACTION TEST f Ortr^iSa which the allied forces aie trying !o capture, while the dictator trigs to infUct revenge for his earlier tSefeat, You cait play cnthcr the dictato; or itt^ allied commancier, oi go liead-to-head with 4ii<?ther play&r, in the four-stage basUe (or supr^mAcy. In the first stage the allied par<kii-&a[>ets parachute m and attack a machJFLcgun nesl, next they use the gun to help hostages trying vo escape the dictator. Any reaciied hostages are put in hehcop- lers and Gown thiough heavy defences. The final eonfrontalion is between Ihe die talor and aUiod l^'Sder tiuowing 'poottta' sticks at each other sctdsb a river. SECOND OPENION WhAt a lot of rubbish f How can US Gold dare to pat out mack on the msTkci? Thepjogrsm \3 riddled with bjtgs. ypq /aU ^sl^^p Syins your chopper. Hdld down the spacsijar (Or Sis buiton) st asttsizi points of the gsme and^tnass a ^real scare. Best tMag is to stickylspe it snd wstch, in fyct, this is prohshiy the most exciting ieature of the game: seeing youi score rack andre&Ttied^f heights. RpM III one-player iTiode you can play either the allied commander or the dictator, ^gdinfli ihe computer. In the first scene the allied player controls a chopper at the top of the screen that drops paxachubsts behind four walls running horiaotvtaHy across the screen. The dictator control!; a machinegun writh which he trios to pict off the soidicrs. OticC all the soldiers have landed they CAa advance to a wall neaier the gun and then over or around it to ttie bottom of the screen and past lite gun. AH the lime they'll he under heavy fire, but can reply by throwing grenades at the gun foi: bonus points. Elavitig oveifun the gart, the allies can lam it on fhe dictator and try to Kelp so^e hostages escape. They appear in the top left of the screen and walk automaticaUy across to a door^way. The dictator tries to stop them by tising several means whicih the allies try to counter with the gun. One soidijcr ties to drop todta om the eacaper, another lays nunes for hinv to run into, while a tank inmdles towards him trying to crush Hie «:r«en wiwr* Hie aisaurt it>figiit$ GREEN SCREEN VIEW Uiiioitanatety loo much is visible. K]}M him. ET at least one hostage gets through, it s On to Ihe ncjtt slago- This ia a heli<5opter Qight over a downward-£CfoUutg landscape which the allies have to coTtiptete with the hostages as pASSengei^. The dictator coittrals tajtks along the route that can bring the chopper down, while other defences work automati- cally. Tho chopper can ehool many of the defetic^ and fly under and over obstaclftg. The fins I stage has two figures standing on opposite sides of an underground river where they throw sacks to try to hit each Oth^ir. FOiir hits wins a round, causing the man to fall in the water. There are nine rounds to complote, a bonus being awar- ded for scoring 4-0 victories. The stages all sound fine in concept but ihsy are aetualiy very boring to play, For one, three and four ther^ are simple me^Ods for completing them without any difficulty whatsoever, while number two ia a lot tougher. The computer puts up rather pitiful opposition; even a two-player gams IS limited by the garrie's shortconungs, particulaity on stage two where the dictaiteit can win ev^ry time without iail. This is a bad conversion made up ol simple graphics, horrible sound and boring gameplay. BW N W ► Two-playei option mmy pxodtie* some fun. *■ There's some variety in wha* you h^ve to do fu each stage. N E W 1^ Unimpressive graphics. ► Very tiasiy sound- ^ Banng, simple gamoplay on alt stages. ► Stages two and three are very slow. mm GRAPHICS 43% ie%i 44% 38% 42% S0N1CS GRAe FACTOR STAVIN^i POWER A A UTtNS VIDEO POKER Mastartranhc, CI. 39 cass, ksv^^n'v tit Las Vegas thei:e is a machine, much like a slot-maclune, that plays poker with you This is a silicon-diip version of it that will probably cost yau a lot less than throwing cash m the casino. You are given 20 coins wiQi which to bet: nickels, dimes, quarters or dollars- A hand of five cards is dealt to you. Before looking at it you hav0 lo bei up to ten of your ccmns. The hand is then revealed and you have to decide which cards to hold and which to discard. Discards will be replaced by new ones, which wiJl turn over to reveal your hnal hand. You're trying to ge! a winning hand. Most winnitig cornbinations cctiform to the usual rules of pokei and each one has odds placed on it. For instance the odda on gfittting a ilush are S to 1 , so if you get that hand yOu'U get back five times your stake money- sec OND OpnnoN Zszzs. Oh do esfCifSe /ne. I SPSS just Ca tchmg 40 winks whil6 my c^ani? »rere' being dealt. This could have boejt a hslf-tSeceitt gsme. but tistfortmistfly it fsUs down on sp&ed - oj lack of it. Nice graphics, awrftii son/id and ffsiTfeplsy. Somifone at Mastertronic atvsaasiy hssn'i hsard of the CPC's three-channs} sound chip: come to tha !, th^y cSJt 'the A 5*af e tk^ t Arnold 's intemsissre riintiijng st Appioximatclj 3.7MH3L KpM The least valuable winning hand you can have is a pair of j^icks or better, which just gets you your stake money back. The fvtosi valuable hand is a royal Quah. for which the odds are 250 to 1 a bit stingy if you ask me. If you haven't got a pokei game it might be interesting^ but without the competitive edge of an opponent I found it very dull and rather slow. BW GltZE-n SCREEN VIEW At I^ast soias oiii dosen 't show apt SpM C D Him S >■ Cards turn nicely. BAD NEW S 1^ ^le gajne is slow. ^ Little to do, requiring little skiU. ^ Tita vajtiety ta the game. ^ No competitive edge to it. m SRAPNICS 40% 12% 21% 13% 21% SONICS ghab factor STAVING POWER A A RATING 64 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 (^ (^ ^ ^ f /. i I /i AN ANIMATED ARCAD ADVjENTURE FROM HELL AND BEYOND 'U ^ I ^ 7///M^ ACTION TEST THE TRAPDOOR Prranha, C7,9S Bass, JQVStfck or kevs Based around Eha new cMldren's show of HiQ some nsjne this game £hoiildn''t be written off s4 just fot Wda; ir's gol a lol more to Dff«T. B^sidea the cute graphics, humour and good animaboti, thd^c 4r@ vprn? inler- esling tasks to compiete. You won't nuuter MUjm easily; TTie gun« C$ne©m* the atfjfempts of a hapleiB Berk to please thie Bad-Tempered Thing - upstaits, never s«on - tMt orders him to do various taslu, Bark mh&bitA the lovrer floois oi a dingy caitle and has to ddltvar oliJBGts to the BTT using a dum- bwAiler lift. Bflfk lum»^ is a lajge, bins, cu!e-lookit\g cookie moruter dh&ntblLn^ aroiuid the screen al pr«c9««ly the «pe«d beBttirig a fat lump like him. There are two types of Berks:: Leameis and Sup«iff, The Learners have to complete four tasles; [h& Superberk has lo dO Sve «nd also cape with some additional hazards. SECOND OPINION Oh wow} That was my initial maction on seaing svch it iavely, laige yet detailed Bitrk wandering .tround an ovei-iiiff^at^ii i^^nlh. W*' hniid and mouth movcmoitis are sa fantitsficaly fe^lintic - ^dmo:il btftter tkan wdtching me TVcanotm. The things poor B^k has to send lo 'Im UpslairB «tren't very pleasant: eyebaU ciush, boiled fltimies and a can of worms , for instance. It's adlily job, but somebody's got lo do it. Each (Uk requireB you to solve & jiuale by using various pieces of equip- ment and) inOdt difficultly) a cxeature from out of the trapdoor. The trapdooi is in the floor of Berk's starling room. Whsn he Qicke the lever to open it, out com«s a creature. One ot Ihera is Adtsetiiial to the c£Mi;tpletion of h (a^k but the others just have lo be got rid ol again. They each perform an action that you'll n^ed ajid although it inay tit>t be irTunedi- arely apparent what it is, you'll apprsciata their animation and humC'iir . Berk is wondoifully animated as ha waddles around the casde - one long wrap- around corridor with a single cellar room belotK7. The corridQ; ha$ sevei^ Slaircaaes thai Berk can climb lo re^ch baleonies and walkways. The piaylng area isn't very laig«; even «o, there a quite * lor of hajd work lo do to crack the game. The cattle itself is quite dull but the creatures within it are mosi enteriaining. Berk can pick up many objects, moat of contalnexa, ajiid tip the contenia from one to another. Some oJjjects %xm too large to carry and have to be pushed around to get them into position. You1t have to be quite imaginative in your use of them. Just to illustrate why, here's an example of one of the laskji. The BTT luas asked for fried «ggs so logically enough, Bork needs to gel a biid oul fxDm the trapdoor. Once out, it daps around doing nothing in particular, so how does Berk get seme egga from itr Well, ret to put too fine a point ot^ it, he needs to give il a bit of a surprise from beneath - catapult something into it, I won't toll you any more except that when Berk succeeds, the look V^ A big, bliM, on the bird's face i« hilarious. Each task has to bo completed within a time ILitiit or poor Berk will catch heU from yon-Jcno w-who , Throughout the game a little yellow spider hops (?) atound making a nuisance of himself. A skull can come in handy far giving advice on what to do. Another pro- blem is getting rid of an unwanted cieatuxe .REENYIEW rOdng Except Bcik ;s c!t\iT:y e That w * cryutg sluune ^ — o«ron*<wij*mjirreJ/ou* - ••ritlSliKwi mov&tnati Ifs hard to find wotds to describe this game because it's packed with oxiginality and is vsry odd. The kettle of the title is what you control, ft flies and has to be got out of an underground cave system - what could be more natural? The most mieresting feature of the game is that two players can play simulta- neously, viewing the action on separate halves oi a split screen. You can compete with each other to get through the game or help aacli other out if you want lo. In ihe one-playei mode Ihe second window diaappeaia. In each cave aystem there are 'bowels' which look like leather bottles and spew out blue bubbles from their open. tops. The bubbles are the your main danger: when they collide with you they take large chunks off your kettle energy. To deal with them you have a 'crisaa', a buUet that Otbits the kettle and destroys bubbles on contact. The crtzza can also be sent out ahead of you to keep the bubbles frsm getting clo$e. The criaza is alsq used to destroy the bowels by hitting them ten times to leave a diamond. Hit the diamond while the crizES is in orbit to reveal either a tin-opener (1 said this game is odd], alien, bonus poittts QT a jug of water. The tin-opener is what you need to get through to the next level; it 66 AMST RAD ACTION DECEMBEH ACTION TEST 1 lECOND OPimOK Lo vQ ih& sound vciy noisy up to Qie usual AtligM^ standard! tt's^ very origioiSAi id&a which uiifortumiely f^ls down on the giunepldy. The ta^kg neem rathsr repetitive, withtii^ scefi0ty chanc^g only sUcrhtiy as yoa proce&d ta deeper levels. In short, this g.AiuG lisivaa mt! cold: I keep expecting sometlung mors 6xcttiiig t0 happen -perhaps one day? apens the lid of a connecting pipe when you approach it. The Alien draJne energy and has to be shot Th« jug of water lepleniahes yaur energy, The cavo sptems get gradually moi0 CKmipUcaied and difficult, putting you In^ creAsingly at risk iiora banging into the waUg - another way to lose eneigy. Foitu- naiely you can reatart a game at the highest level you reached when ysu die so yC'U don't continually have lo replay the easier utming levels. The game has luuiy optionB besidcis the two-player one thai pur a bit of variety into the action. The crista can be made to proceed or retreat, which meeiiE it vnH either aiay out ahead of you when fired or letum to orbit as soon as U hite someihing, 1 GREEN SCREEN VIEW Very deer - no tionbia saving Any f«SltUI9. tn one-player mode you can eJso choose to have the vetwnd ketde ^ a kind of shadow that follows you -averywheie and thereby helps protect you with its crizza. There's aiso a flash' conunand which in two-player mode Dashes the bubbles to speed up the There's lots of ongmality, intriguing optiona and toagh levels- to cope with (hat make the game very intereating. Howevei the actual gameplay of flying around the cave systems destroying bowels will get a tittle repeddve. The scrolling two-player windowA are eiceUent though, and people who enjoy a two-player challenge should find plenty of enjoyrti'enlH BW rJ»flT-0JlY TARGET SCORE 2.000 COOP NEWS >■ dOlevela of iscxekiiiAg difilculty. ► Excellent fl.pl H-sci-eon scrolUng, *■ Intaresttng control f«atura in tha crizza. >■ Tfice rajige of game-altering optldiie. >■ Competitive two-player aetien. ■ Ji a w t w % ^ Gameplay can get quite repedtive, *■ The graphics axe small and Ordinaxy. GFIAPHICS 68% SONICS 6€«A 82% J8% -'-'-I-I-i-I^^ggMHaBBJ GRAB FACTOR >:j;':':':":";:::'r>:^KSS via STAYING POWEH kh HATING AM3TRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 61 m }i jr '' ^ ■^- ! /, ■ »* ',' ..L^ i Li ««•.*• * If *w ♦► .t >i f >r'^ tiLC .<^ Ocean Software Limited 6 Central Street Manchester M2 5NS. Telephone: 061 832 6633 Telex: 669977 ACTION TEST P0PCVE Magmill^fi. £7.3S casa, jovstick or heys One of tJie cartoon world's most enduring charactsiE T10W appears in am arcade game where he ge(a Xa do what he always does; fight with Bluto for Olive Oyl'B. altontions. The game's main claim to fame i^ tin© large animated characters thai gallivant around. Popeye and Bluto look musclebound and mean. The 9Fune takes place on 16 screens where you, as PopeySn have to coUect 3S he^ts and give (hom to Olive. She has to be constantly supplied 50 thai her 'love level' doesn't Jail too low, Tha scieena are a collection of buildings, ropes, gtaiis aitd 3trange objects that you can walk in Jroiit of and, in many cases, behind. This last factor 16 impoilant in avoiding ihe dangers that Qcctu on mai^y screens. SECOND opiwrorf Popeye is certainly as iax^e S3lifs ia this game, S^jne ehsrapters tak^ itp prscticaHy s third of the screen - thsy ars big^andin itiosi css&s had for your health. An extrsmeiycoSourhii gAma - possibly averdone with soma sboniinAhle ct?}oiir clashing. Some hiimQvroas louchQS add to th& gsiRe, b-js notion g ovei ih& tcp. No lasting ttpp0sl: in fact I think I'll switch off, RpM Apart iroiti Bluio piovvling near Olive s house Iheie axe ether creatures. If any of them hits you you'll ha laid flat out. Only a can of spinach wiH revive yon. To avoid these coUision£ you need to dUCk iinto doorways, climb out of harm's reach or jump down to somewher^^. If you aien't carrying spinach or jf Olive's 'loveometer' iun» oul, the game ends. There are three main types ol object in the game; heat is, spinach and keys. The keys all look the sajne but particular ones open specific doors, so you have to cont- pleie sections of the game in the right oidee. There are oihei objecar a coin, fuse and bottle ioi instance, Their purpose should become clear as you encounter particular greens. Despite iha large figures the graphics don't really impress. They're too chunky and clash wilh the backgrounds loo often. The gameplay doean'f require tnuch pU2- KSuag, but yoii will have to do a fair bit of exploring uid trial -and-'iarEor before gett- ing far. Some of the places you can readi aren't iftunediaiely clear - lika gethng en the UFO and where you can get off it so persevHranc© is needed oven if it looks as if there's no way out. It's a dated game idea, but it's still enjoyable and has some good animated characters. BW riRST^DAY TARGET SCORE S hearts CB££N SCE£EN VIEW iotff oflov&iy shades ofgreiftt. RpM N VI S ► Large animated characters e ^ Ability to go in frant of and beJiiad (bijigs. ^ Tough working out the right route. B N I w > Ckniiky graphics and garish colomrs. >■ Hat much puzzling. ^ Annoying' to walk off the edge of a screen and straight into a creature. I GiUfcPHlCS somes GNAB FACTOR' ^SIAVING POW« A A RATING STREET HAWK Ucean. CS.9S cass, joystick or keys Here we go agalrf with yel anolher TV licensing deal and ye! another game that has taken an inordinate dmouni of time to gEt to the shelves. Fortunately, unJike other recent release-^. >tiis one actually has some decent giaphic£ and reasonable gamcplay. It may not set your Amstrad abght. but at least you won't be stomping on the cas^sette infrustiation. Street Hawk is a motorbike and you are a cap Tilth a tean-pilot mentality' - which presumably means you like crashing things. This is just as well because you get to do a lot of that - both to yourself and to everyone else. The action takes place en a downward- scroUing roadway. Your bike appaars in the middle of the screen, viewed from overhead. You have lo deal v/ith a. group ol crimtnals engaged m crimes, while trying to avoid civilians and the police, The motorbike can aooeleiate up to 100 mph, move left and right, leap in the aix, and siioot a laser forwards. It wiE meet several types of vehicle on th# road, some bad guys and some cnnocentf travellirig at tlifferent speeds, You can shoot thciii; or jump on top of them, taut only the bad guys get you points . Bumping intO the other traflic reduces the aimour on the bike; so doaa being shot by gangjiteTS appearing from majiholes. SECOND OPINION SoniiS fAitlynice graphics, with some grant motorbike- swsiving scenes 1 enjoyed blasting everything tn sight; il my t'AS0F became too hot, th&n jumping on the osr roots made a mcs allernstivc yoti can only gs t * waiy with ihis briefly, for (he police wovld SQOii coins chiRrgiiig- iu. Try AS yon might, yoa jusi can 't shoot them (must hsve remiorced chassis). Pisying the gatus by the rules becomes rsther baring: th0 Same tasks to carjy out every time, Mako yottr wn Tales, plsy It your way-1 did and ihoiouglily ertjored it. RpM The first task is to pull up outside a nine Store L The screen changes to show the store on a corner. You control a cursor that fires a laser and must shoot Quree robbers as they charge out of the store for their getaway van, if you succeed you drive on to try to destroy the black sedan car of a kidnapper. Succeed in doing that and you'll hxva to rtfpeat the task, but v/ith heavier traffic to contend with. You'U usually find the police on youi •ail B( some point as well. The only way to shake them is to engage Tuibo, This clears the etreel of tra£ic and races you ahead at 350 mph. Tiirbo can be U£ed only a limited time on each run. Not a classic by any means, but an enjoyable fasl-acdon driving gamie. BW W ^ Good scrolling roadw^ay, ►- Fast shoot-em 'Hp action, ^ Progressive difficulty keeps you interested. ^ Nice cart and Ecenery. B « S ^ Wine-store scenfr is slirtpleaiid imiAteEesting, W- Di^jving and shaoting won't hook yon for very long. GRAPHICS somes GRABFACTOfl STAVING POWfR A A RATING 70% SSVe AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 69 ACTION TEST IT'S A KNOCKOUT Oc^iir, O 9b cass. jo^fstjuh w keys RemcjviJser the maniacal laugh of Stuart Hall and the airrjess- banter of Eddie Warmg? Well, sadly, this computer version wouldTi''t even raise a chuckle out of Stuart let alone Eddie. FrankHy I think it ought to be re- named it's 3 Cock-up and given away as a booby prise on BlankBty Bisnk- There are six mini-garnes based on tht^ TV saiias with six countries taking part in the compchtiorL. Up to six players can cOmpele or jual one player against the cotnpuler. bit^tspetsi^ with fsva events is ihe marathon, where one oomitry takes a lum at it bonvGcn rounds. Thts other five all hdppen at once. All the events are jusi a single screen, except foe the la^t orLe, the pbstacle race, SECOND OPINION Imuat say, it's good to aay Ocesin keeping up stsrdards and pipducing litrer rubbish such as It's a Knockout, It hss to- stop! Software houses must re^U^e tiji^t big ftdvetHseTnsnt Cajupaigiis snd a lift Of hype sisROt thf? otily fsctofs tiece^Aty to s&il a game. 'lt'$ i ...tip' has patiietie squ&rs- looking grapiiics, ra^beiry-like soandeffects (v^-ish the occasional besp tbTOwn in) And amsteurish pnygTMnming. All this for £9! What a bsrgamf KpM Thf j:n~athon game is called Bionte Bash wherei you hav« id move a weight abovs six holes and drop it on the bron- tosauiits that appears befoie it ducks back down again.. As with most of the games it's a matt^F of bitting as many as possible wiOiin a. time limii. Tho first gamo is Flying Flans, You stand an ihe right of a wall while flans are thiovsm over it for you to catch. If you miss them they land on the floor and make you skid about while trying to catch mor^ flaii9, Harlem Hoppeis is riext: you cotitrol a eharaerter att&ched to a piece of elastic. Ke hftfi to run acfosb the screen to catch balls rolling off a camel's back. This one t&k^s very careful timing and a good deal of luck. The Tetanic Drop i9 one of those enter- taining watsr events wher« everybody gets wet. Four contestants will one At a time slide down a rope and you have to drop ihfini into the water at the right lime So pass through a ring in the 'water. TJie rings have varying points values that change as the game goeE along. After Titanic comes the Diet of Worms, where you control a bird that has to peck up as niany womis. as possible. They wriggle up and down while another bird also tries to eal them, Tlie iast event i? the pbslacJe race. It's a scrolling decattilon-type game where you have to waggle to move along and jump avet obslacles like a wat^r ditch. Log and ball. Each event scores six points for the winner down to one for last place. The grand total of all ewenls determines the wanner. The graphics ftur all the events axe really quite dreadful. It wouldn't surprise me if ii had been written in Basic. The events rely a lot on random chance and have very repetitive gamepiay anyway. As a silly party game for six players it mighl have some enteitainrnent value, but olhei- wifie it's very diaappointing. BW FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 15 points agairtyt computer opponents G D fi D NEW S h- Mulli-plAycf games naay Jbn fun. BAD NEW S ^ Graphics are very badr ^ Control is jerky and the game pace slow. ^ Simple ropAtitivA t&tk«, ^ It isQ^teTen funny. GREEN SCREEN VIEW l couldji '1 iJear to look RpM GRAPHICS 16%. 19'/. 1S% 16% 13% SOfilCS GRAB FACTOR STAVING POWER A A HATING TIMCLORD Alp*iB Otnegt. £l.9P cess, joystick w kvfs The inBtrucnons for AO's latest axe sparse, to say the least. But then you'U have to play the game for only a itiinute to see lh«it they're all you need. The game is a straightforward exploration type, where you juat have to search for objects and blast lots of aliens on the way. The tas): is to collect the four missing places of your time machine thai are scat- tered about the planet Oiijenlesa. I'll bet you qan'c guess what you run out of during the game, can you? Three alieiis materialise on oach screen, which will also contain at least one cxii and some superfluous graphics. Going through the doorways f]ick& you to another screen. There ax^ several basic designs for the screens, reproeenting different areas like cave's and the planet surface. Th^ tht^ee aliens aira the aama on overy GLIDER RIDER □uicdsilva, £8.95 cassette, jov^tkh oi keys 'Everyone has heard of the Abraxas Cor- poration - Arms, for Anyone. Anywhere, Any Kcaeon, Any Ouar.tity,' aays the paclc- aging. They are a mean btwidi, hiding away on their plastic island, EoO^, somewhere m jiud-Pacsfic- Producing and selling weapons is their game Paelhon is your codenams; you're a member of the SBD laak force - silent but deadly. With your maxk-o glider (coUa^ peible), E37 motorbike and nine hand- grcjividles, you are ready to !aJ(e on fits world -WeL EoOs at leasl. Your mission is to destroy the heavily defend^jd nuclear reactors on EoQs. Th^^se provide energy for the plastic island - with its nylon gra»s and polythene trees (no doubt tupperware birds as well). Oi course any sglf-r<;apecting island with nuqloar rq- actora would also have a decent ground-to- air laser delence ssysiem. ... [ thuDJi ihey have gone over (he top wiUi this. ^^^5 SECOND OPINION It looks and sounds stunning',, supetb 3D graphics, a dnvmg best for the moti^rcydc and hghl airy tuji6 fin glid- ing - wlmf more coutd you a$k? A playahto game with s lot niOr& action, that's What. It's dehghtHtl S3 far as it goes but if only they'd put in fome easier t-ssks Hitd gratuitaus viol&no& it would have been so tttach better. BW Qnce you land on the island, Ihft hv«- littst music I have eiver hoard on on Amstrad comes to your ears - it is so very appropriate, continuing throughout the game. You firtd yourself cruising a rtvotoi- biJAe around the isUnd, All (lie reactors, la«r turreta. «ven tanks (stttilonary), ae highly detailed, making v^ry ple^*nt viewing -- even if everything is one colour: it obviously wasn't possible to dye (he plastic. Koweyer. you are h&re to cause desirucijon, notio admire the scenery 'Objective: destroy extental reactors:/ screen but have dLfferent chaiacteriatic^^ Two of them are slow-moving and cimnQt h^ deeiroyad. The third te fast and homes in on you. but can be JdUed by your hefty missiles. This only gets rid of him tem- porarily, though; he remateiialisos a few second:? lateT. SECOND OPINION Lots oiscteeas to hfwl arowid w-9ii vory similar, though. Ev^n the characters ara the sAm.6 ttOm SCteen to scicCn; they are iairly drib Slid DlcJcer at All the wrong limes ft'ss budget game, and it sltovrs. RpM As you ta.cc through the screens the oxygen supply has to be kept up by coUect- ing objects. Curiously these take the form of money - pe^rhape there's a ^endly oxygon scUcr luridng around. There's also an a*e to be found. Tliis allows you aocera to other aieas of the game. 10 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 1 ACTION TEST That's a good onie; t have si>feht hoi^^s ifytng Jo Cirry oul the order, -iffslh no Buccess- Th^ idsais to disable the lasers by bumping into whiflt appear to b^ pyl(?ne - this causes the iM^rs to go haywitQ find ahooc straight up in the atv. Rush to a slope utd US tM. To do thia. press aJl youi directianal keys. If y&u are lucbY yfitu bikd wilt ti-^tn^onn into a glider and you'll be soanng lugh in the sk^ ; iT not. iry again. Once ui the au, you should coma down Jow, and while the lABSFfl are dis- tr&f^ted. bomb the reactoi, tThose are spherical and hjvc lir.yf s5ot-like windows,) That IB the iheofy it leaisi, Putting it into practice 1$, well, nothing *hOrt pf impo- ssible. Eithef the Isser will spcl you im- medisiisiy and "Oiaiis, you 3«^;m to have bflsn frazsled," or you land m the aea and "Oops, you have been eaten by shaiics. ' Earring that, the reaclors seem to be impregiriible. [ bombed them a hundred lim^, and moihitig happened. At some stages I was viiluailv $i1t^g on a reactor and clwdting greaiadas heU for leather.-- Ints Hating, very ftHfitratLEig. I ended up Qying or even riding around the iskkd, admiring its beauijfijl Iand943ape. One discovery was thai moro gretudes could b& obtained fron^ stores on I&itd. And tjme is a linuting factor: only 30 minutea tea oompSeie the taslt ~ aargh, Love- >■ SpoUt by iznpos iibtlty of the f ^ Occastona.! bu^ will HHjuire restarttng (uAt»«laadibg). GR£EN SCREEN VIEW Theie wasn't much colom to start with. jbiif Bvervthing is clsaz, BW GRAPMICS SOfflCS GftAB FACTOR ^XAimn POWER A A RATING 5%:o \% .% '7% The graphics ^e reaisonable, but the animation of the characters iaii't very good. The gameplay is laiily repetiliyi& - juat ruRtiing around seeching and shfioting, The playing area ^ qiwite large, howe¥er» so there '5 a fair bit to keep you oxploring. Not bad for those of you who love doing maps: not good if you want a bit of variety. FIRST-DAY TARGET SCORE 25% B El N £ W S *■ A lot of DCxeena to expl«». ^ Conserving oxygen won*C he easy. B h D N E W S ^ Very lepetitive searehlsg and shooting. ^ UTiitmpreBitTe char Aclei» and dj^LTnatLon. GREEN SCREEN VIEW !.oaks better in giettn fOJr some reason. RpM GMiMllCS 4?V. 16% 51% 52% SONICS GAAB FACTOR STAYING KJWER A A RATING bt;% AMSTSAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 71 J ACTION TEST I FROST BYTE IMiKm Cm. £i^h ca&s. £13.35 disk, jaysiick Oi htvs Eve: flinee the WdiSy ^onos Mikro Gen has had fl reputation for excellent games graphiciu The n£tl<:oiitiiiu0» v«ith thu clBv^rly titte<j game, Anyone wh«'i s««n Slqiunojv will TcicogpJms the excellent noe of eoltmr and impressive character detign tliat featuiea again beco. The game itseU in much diffiaient. It stars A KrflBzer called Hickoy wtio loolcs and moves juat like the Slinky toy that vran popular flotne time ago - that apfjjig thing that somersaultB down the stalrQ, The Kreazer haa jujt eceatped frofn captivity, You have to guide him through a hazardous and icy cave system to release five other Kreezeis and get oii( of the cavema. He moves by CUpping end-ov«r- end 90 that when aiattonary he either point? atraighi up or is curved over in an upside- down 'U' shap«. He can also jump upwards and move through the air while drifting back to the Hoor. You enoounier many hazards in the caves. Same you can shoot if you can find some anutiuiution. The bullets go atxaight up when you'r^j vertical and horizontally when you're in the middle oi a 'step', Othei; cresrures just have to be avoided, while tataa appear to b« there just tin de<rar- ation. If you collide with one of the crea- turos or fall too Car, a life is lost. There axe repLacemenIs but they aren't easy lo get lO- As yoa travel through the caves you find coloured, diamond-shaped sweets which give yau special powers, when used. Red Ones make you m.ove faster, blue ones ^et you jump higher and green ones aUow you lo fan further than normal- These are all c»si«ntial to the completion of the game. But watch out for when you're given a sweet you don't actually want. SECOND OPINlOZi' Thadn 't seen Eqtiinox so this aama as d pleasant suipnse. Hove the giaphics and tha t SJinky ehKTAvter. N^ot only doss It look goad but It's tough as weU. I think it's possibly 3 bit too tough to start with - you may fake some time gettingf off the first two screens - haf once you get into it it's very gripping stuff. Give me a few weeks end Tmtgh t crack it. RpM Even with the iweels you need som-e occadional extra heip in the form of spring platforms and mattresses - they give you an eittra boc^ wh«n juaiping or a soft landing for a long tall. You're going lo need all this help because the creatures present some Wicked tlnurtg problems that require thought and speed. Each Kieezer has to be rescued within a time limit before it is eaten. Being gobbled up is curiously called the 'twang'. To release the poor unfortunate you just have to get to the cage where he is held and touch him. Then you can haad (or ihe exit door - whicih leads 10 the ne*! caye system and more challenges. The graphics reaily are superb again with lots ot colour, $,oni<? great charaders and humour. The gamepiay is great wrth lots of nasty tuning problems and a pleas- ing variety of obstacle* and dangers. The five caves should be enough to tast anyone. The only problem will be slaying cool while dealing with the deadly opponents, BW FI11ST-D2T TAILGET SCOil£ s.ooo C1t£EN SCREEN VWW *'* 4 Bhanm t0 mint ,iJ} ttatcotoar bur evsTyttmig's viaible. BpM ! TRAILBLAZER &icnihn. t9.95 cass, fit 95 di^h j»Yislick Or ksys TfoHbla^et is another game featuring a bouncing ball - like Bounder m SD, but faster and more dependent on fast relles;e«- Gremlui lives up to its ejEceUenl reputatiott for high-quality games that feature both originality and good gsmsplay. In Bounder you had a laoidscape that vcTOUed underneath a ball viewed from abciv^; here you view the ball from behind as the pathway scrolls toward you at a low angle. The aim of the game is of course to keep your ball on ibe comae aa it ncei by bemealh. Th^Lre are 14 different courses, each one of which has lo be completed withm a time tout. Nearly ail of iiem are ejciremely dMaili. SECOND O^miOMT This is a rea! tough ons ihst will have you gijt#d in front otih9momt0r^ It's just as weU they put in Ois practice mode bscsuSB evert Je-sminff the tirsi couple <iicoarsee isn't S9fy- Tks scroiling^ path is great, although I thought it would /la ve ijeen nicer to have a lArger ball. This one really put me through my paces. For anyone who likes last actt'oji this is terrific. RpM Each cDiirae is made dp Of five lanes, and each lane le broken up Into squares so as to form a grid. The squares come in different coleufs that have different flfFscta on Che ball when it hits them. And of course th«y aro tntorspeised with gaping holes in the path which have to be avoided. The •quake's properties can be used to avoid the holee, But if you fall into one you lose vahiable time and can mess up the rest of the eouxis through bad positioning at the restart. The four spi^cia] coloured squares are white, yellow, gre^ti and blue. White causes you lo bounce, yellow ^eeds you lip, green ste^^ yoti to vurtwxily a stop, aitd blue revftcvea tho co&trels. You'll need to tiB« whita and yeUow stiuares a tot lo complete courses, Tlu& gxeen and blue are nollting but trouble aiid can really mess up anm. J^ny of ths 14 courses can bs pracnsiod WiUl an increased timc^ limit sit that you can became familiar with it. In the game proper you have to complete the courses in order and agamst a much tougher tane limit, They aren't forgiving of mistakes - one wrong twitch and yotiU be off. And po»ibly you won't be able to recover 10 finish the run, because you're thrown back OnJo the course movmg and may ba compleiely out of petition. GREEN SCREEN VIEW It's not easy telling which coloured sqiisres ar^ which - it can co^ you vital ^ht-seeorfds, RpM Apart from guiding the ball left and right, you control its speed- High gpded is essennal for compittmg coursjes in time, but tricky sections can be taken slowly. You «lso start each course with a Limited ntun* bei of 'manoar jumps, which are handy because there's not al*sys a white »citia)re there when you need one. 7Z AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 ACTION TEST P One or two placoe wlt«in« you cant do tauch about quick dMithB. W >■ Humoiu^iAa ajid hwU 'drawn > Tough timing problems everywhere. P- Good fealureB like aweets and spiing platforms, ► Five totigh caves will keep you busy- GftAintfCS SOMtC$ CRAB FACTOR STAVING PO Win AA RATING rntST-DAYTABCET SCOIUG B.QOO As ever with Giemlui ganve«, the J£aphic9 are superbly doii^- The scrolling nHh gives a good Impression of ntovement kUhe music: U j\ice toOr But the clincher is the gamejilay: very tough but v&ry addicitve, The coujtea are eittremely hard and have 10 be practised until you're (amiliatr with every pait of them. But once you are it's very Lmpreanve and gteai tiin £ooimng down them at full p$it leaping over and p-ast ih€ yawning holes. 14 vevT tough coorseK. F^it, sccolliDg path glv«x good lanpTetflion ^f tnovem^nt. Waiid»rful when you complete a e0itx«e without a fault. ¥ery addictiv? aa y^fi try to gal eottiaen right. Very limpla faaimaa that work well to produce a tough ^ame. Pattup* too fiui and tough tot wntw. I CFAPHICS SONICS GRAB FACTOR ISTAriNGFOWER A A RATINC 7% 70% 83% 86% ■yf6 0^>yk< ii-^i AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 13 Top Gun puts you in the ftghier pilot's scat of an F'l 4 Tomcat Vector graphics and a split screen allow I or 2 players to play head to head, or against the computer £7.95 SPECTRUM TM Your armajnents in this nerve tingling aerial duel are heat seeking missiles and a 20mm rsipid fire cannon. Can you feel the force! Top Gun mavericks! Enter the danger zone. £8.95 AMSTRAD/ COMMODORE Ocean Software Ltd., 6 Central Street, Manchester M2 5NS. Telephone; 061-832 6633.TGlex; 669977 OCEAN G. Otnui SqFiwvc: Disirjbuudtn FmiKC tf Otein hnte Jiitffant f l-4l'T 144, Cxinhjiie in. Gcrmmy br halwin. tittptvne, 2)4l-/00«9 '"DESIGNATES TRADEMARKOF PAF^AlVIOU^fT PICTURES COFtPORATION anct U5@<i by OCEAN SOFTWAFE, LTD,, under aulhoniation, ACTION TEST PIPELINE 2 Ef you can cetnembdr back to issa& one and out Amscyclopcdia. you'U pro^bably te- memiier a now-depaned softWiirc house calj«KJ Taskscft and Their game Supsi Pipe- Imo U. It wds a full-prico product ttien, but that was over a yRar dgo. Now ii'a still the ScUTLe gant«^ bul With a diUerenl pricetag and uhdei^ a dinerem label. If you reitiember rhe game from way back then, you'll juat want te know (hat ihis la fexflcUy the same game, But Yva Eure (here aft plenty af you who've joined us ijt the past y^ar thai d6n't know akoul it. The star is Forennan Tied. He has (o complete 16 scre^rts ol action by HUirg barrels at ih*;! bottom df the screen. At (In; top is a tan^k of water that gradufilly empties inro a twisiing pipe system, which weav«*i all over th« screen, and ev&ntuiUly flows out the i3iid and mto the barrels. While ihuf \& going on you are clamber- ing around the pipe system trying lo stay aJwc a«d stop creatures and loola - which sneak in from the £idge» of lh« scre^r^ ~ making holos in the pipes. Most of [hg tools cjan be shot with your gun when (hey are horizontal with you.. A tabetci, however, can be shot only from behind, and a ^howei o( tacks not ai all. If one or these «n«nues getB to you, you plonge lo a nafity end off Iho pipe - unless your iru.sty helper come to your rescue. Fred's mates appear two at a time und can be sacrificed to the toois withotK cost, for they will quickly reappear. SECOND OPINION IThia was an inunensely cfood gmmo tho first time it csmts on I. Today, ai a kiiOckdowji price, it stiU snams gocd on c^mpaj-jso" with nrn^ti othvr SottWATi^. The Hiti'Si i$ ^xceDtntl, /ind ofleiings. liyon. hnvon 't gp^ Super Pipeline II, then go out mud buy it. For £2, yon just csn 't go wrong. RpM I The helpers also perform tt\.f. (Ask ol repairing any leaks ui the pipe, so tli<}y're kept constantly buityn You have to lead (hern to the leaks beroiu they start work, and while iheyre foilowmg you they can guard your back from attackn If yoii: leave leaks too loiiig your wai^ai WiU slart to run oui and decres^e youi score, as it draws on a teat^rre supply. If you fill the barrels you progress onto a new acraan with more barrets to fill. OI^EK SCRSSN VIE W Certainly cI^at enaa^h tcpiay. 1 RpM The graphics Attd sound are still good today, although the same niggle remaijis about the characters going behind pipes aiid being obscured, After a bit o( practice ihe game is relaiivsly easy you find safe Epota on the pipes ■ but it'« Still a lot of fun. And it's cheap now as we]l, BW rmST-DAY TARGET SCOR£ lOO.OQO E W ^ Nice cario^ny graphics. ► Jolly soundtrack. ^ Still a very original g^ame (a sad reflection on many otbex aoftwaie houses). B N W s > Characters disappear behind pipes. ^ Rather too easy to complete. I GSJtPHICS SONICS GRAB FACTOR STAiriNG POWEft AA RAnm 63=/. 67% 78% ■:-;■ MIAMI DICE Biig-Brte, £2.l9f i;a$$. joYstick or kty^ Yet another gambling ganie! This one from Bug-Byte is a faitliful representation Of the Aiuerscan dire game 'critpa'. Up to four piAyers at once can participate; each Mkes a turn to bet and throw tho dice. Craps la a fairly complCH gaine, with many obscure mica, I'll giive only a vary brief sutfljtiafy, although several pages cOLild be taken up. Ton throw dice and bet on the out- come. A casino's bctbng table is laid out w a complejc pattern, with various bet lyjKJrt clearly marked in boxes. Several combin- ationa of bet9 mAke all sorts oi odds available. The person rolling the dice is obliged 10 bet he will travc a winning ouicome. If a 7 or U (called natural numbers) arts rplXed first, it's an immediate win . If you think; that is very favourable, then rolling a 2, 3 or 12 (craps) will wipe the aitiile off your face. Any other number thrown, known as a point number, will meaii subsequent throws are necessary to determine a win or lose. Here it becomes more complex, because if a ? is now thrown, you autoniiati- cally Ipso. SECOND OPINION Oncfi Tff disc^VQS&d the pJ^yjfrg koys and tried my besi to ui\d&rstjnd tjt^ riths, there was revoaled a ^ottd gsm- bhng ggtn^r The t-'Jidracfors are^ quite en tei tJiining a f first - ihey hs ve to be to ksep you intarested.. Yoa'U hsvei to work bazd to gat to grips with all the various betting aress. Quc-e yon have, this is A toufthroittsiicsimtiistion. BW The bctlaig options wilt drive you iv-ad. The iristruclians left rae more confused, so I ended up placing bete wilhoul a clue what they were for - sometmves 1 wm lucky, Olhei times not. At the start of the game you can choose how many players will participate , and which characters ihoy will assume. A BCreen then pops itp ^howmg your charac- ter and three opponents. There is ofccurse also thij croupiers vvho tells you v/hal is happening at any stage of (he game. The foreground graphics show tho tabie with any bets placed and, when thrown, the dice. ThiSre \& a strange soundtrack with Qie game, I couldn't m^e up my mind what I should do to it - either take up my magician's garb and do con}urmg tricks, or grab the nearest young lady and wahz away. It ie a pity the cassette inlay was only slightly altered before being used for the Amslrad, There is no 'Megaloading system with Speech', nor do the suggeseted Iteys work. To help you along, these are the correct keys and what ^ey do; Ksy(}osrd Joystisk Flaysr K*f'/ Q Up 1 Q .A O-owft 2 7 Loft 3 % P ftiatit 4 i It IS aifiusing to watch the figures in action: the hippie whose glasses fall down hia nose will cojtstaittly readjuist them, fox e^tample. Their eye movomeitt is exceptional, giving them a very shifty air, ThiB is another game tlval is nice to look at and listen lo but unfortunately is spoilt by having such a complex beitir.g system. It does get boring. RpM N W S > Nice characters, with am using antlcK, *' Merry music lo accompany your bctllug. 1^ The cassette cover is lalhex jnterestin-g. g NEWS ^ InstructlDns ore misleading and wrong, ^ Play becomes boring and Tepeti1{Te« GRAPH CS SONICS GRAB FACTOR STAVIfilG POtftlR A A RATtWG AMSTEAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 15 • ACTION TEST XENO A'n'F ,i' Argus, li.5i cass. jn^stick ar keys H^ri^'fl 91101:1101 QUO qf thj0Bd iniriguing games that is very simple in concept but strong on that mdefiiiablt) quality - itddic- tivG gaineplay. The action laltes place in Ein QvaJ arena with a goal at either end. On th-e rink are just diree things; a ^all and two objecis looking like a cross bedf^een a cream bun and a curling stone. Tliey are in fact the two playeis, one or bosh of which can be under your control, and they're used for smacking the ball around the rink. The basic id^a is aimpl@: you just try to put (he ball m the other player 'e goal by knocking tk? ball ajromtd with your bun. There are three Ecreens makincf up the link, tho ball (ilwilya being in Iho picituri:^ burthe players often bein^ oul of sight. You can play againsi either the com- puter or another player. In either case there are a number of paj-aroetaia that have to be SGt up that dclcrminc the speed and difficulty of the game, Onoe you've started you must learn how to control youi 'stone', You can actually move An arrow fra^ly around Ute rink but after a specified time limit it returns to the starting position^ If yoti pTCES Fire while it's away from you, the stone flies off iit that direction. The players alternate wiih their ax- rowB. But if you delay and don't take a shot immediately, the arro\v will disappear and youi opponent geta aiiOther shot. Apart SECOND OPENION This h^£ lovely graphics, albejl only w shaiies ofbkie. BitUhntj itgaiust the cowpvter »t the higher j'e vels can be rsaS joysiick'WTBnclung 3tuS- sh ooting your 'doughnut ' a t high speed toward the puck can be very saUafying. especislly ifyoa score a gcal in ihe process. May Isck /astiiTg- App^Al, biii is d&iinitsly worth a look. RpM from the goals ihe rink is enclosed hy ela,3tic sides, so that when you or the ball bounce into it you fust iicochel Off. You can set the amount of time allowed for positioning the arrow and taking a shot and also the speed ar which die oomputer plays. Th^ :naich is played over four quar- ters; you can set the length of these, up to i ntaximum of nine minutes each. These sett- ings allow you to vary ihe game from quiie «edata action and long mai^ches to very fast reaction piay and short matches. Rinky dink pi ink The computer opponent ia very toucpi on ihe faster levels because he's very accurate and never misseg a s.hDt. Kow' =ovDr, you cdn put him off his stroke by ramming into him or shielding the ball [fom him. The two-pkyer gwne is aiso * lot of ■fun with intense Competition. Thi; only drawback with the gajfio is Ihal despite its initial addictiveneas there just isn't enough variety or Cealures to keep you hooked. For a while it's imjtietBe fun and a challenge but the lack of variety means it's easy to Ure of (he action. BW FIKST-DAT TARGET SCOUE Beat computer at speed S W 5 ^ Simple ajid addictive gaTnepIay. > PaTametexv allow you to change the g&me to suit any speed or skill. > GcK>d. ttaU. and crowd graphlcii, ^ Cempetifive two-play «Fexeitsirn«Bl, Oardy 'S ihe m(i*isive arcide adventufe ihat takes you . fffbugh soif e of I he mos! tlftlaiied d^jngeons you vp ever -seed. EithBf soio or wilfi a \mv^) TricfiEl you can hack ItMjmftand iap your *ay ihrot^h ipucues necromancws ■^^ ottiCT rfLnaffOr- ewe Iters whose concern lof your heailh and m'H -i3 erng' is ?ero ^ ■:;r5 ^^..^ .x.- ^^Vm nave iher reasons of course. TfieyVe fltardjno a massivgT'casuf^s hnarcfuvrtch you, i'ycu'rftciiiick cansiuff fnto ^ouT fci!r^'^ni9[yca3aciou& swHg bag- I, i — ^^ y.l idy is the ultirnets dungemi Enter at yc*tr peril' FEATURES • Treasure trove scr^efis at %en( • Or>e or Iwo players f • 5 ditlerent spell lype^ :— JL — , • A variety rt( nnsUes eathdungeort /|),.# m trenziea. inumQ-i;HiJsiing3CRon sot' ;j a i = 7'^ ^^^ AU11I &RI f nu- "-. ELECTRIC DHEAMS SOnVMRE. ZXSpEetnimJ8K.'12eit - cassette. .17.99 ' ^ SO f 2£WTEv : 07031 £29*^4 . computers -^-^ ?3PwirtVf^ef Hampsftad. — HI ' 7 Fctii yuuHitii uncofluuuuuiy dravvn into a mati^tiuiu m pjui:, aciioa as you bcc the challenge i\l ^'i*'- n.iKtgndingcoT^' '«!'»in of »i»l^c asscm!>kd lor your Amsir^^d Precision ani sIdU, speed and idlest!*, alertness and in^nirit^ art all ^ to be found in the imy of late^at releases. Huwcvcf good you 3it yon'U Bnd tt diHicoIi to keep yom head above water against this hnmcane ol software. / I *v Q ^^"^ ■i i»«* aS^ iTfll ai^- 1^ >5i -"Gi'' .^jt- ^ x"'^^;'"^''^:;*" loissi&ti. ■*''*N!j|j ''^'^Oijjfj ■V. J^ ■fo*j ;.!;?*•, Wfli^yj Ten gtmc '^Wto. i#ij «fc J"iri yoa Per f^Ss-^1^r^-£^«/ ™«^^f;r. cir arc »«?ar4i toftr''""- '"*"'S"''-^' •* r« fpe IJ< "»Si ^ve ^^'iiith ^5D, 'ink "*'**2,„1^ IJ.S, QtAi U4, liHits 2/3 HoUort Wa^. HoUoiiJ, Bimiiiijinin BO 7AX. Td: m i5« 3388 With no hope on the horizon - all that's left are dreams /ixH^c^ c^/a^- 1^0x4- •s». CfOLQEK KfUg riNo M-^ |lc ^ ^•VXMM ~ ' pp- 1 ■ *. — n : 1 * i Z^ I Things couldn't bo worae< Nq mon«y, no food, no m>p&. Until tha day of th« tolegram. Now you must g«t to Las Vegas. And Why?To win a million doltars, that's aill It won't ba aasy , you may not even gat out otyour holel, let alone surviwa tho ordeal ot the airport. And have you the Bkili, and ttia luck, to win in the Casinos of U« Vegas? Avaitabis on^ Awnatf d (Tape & Disk} CBU 64! USX and Spectrum (Tape onty) ACTION TEST GALVAN Imagine. fS.SS cas, jaystfdi or ke^s Those <:om-op ctjnversioiis keep osi com- ing. Bui down in the wiidE of Somerset, ppqpli; ihin,!*; »rc4d«6 are where you do your shpppitiij. This is oTie ol those games I've missed whUe tucked ^way down here - hui judgjrg from this vsrsion, t hiivcni iniascd rttuch- Tha gune iak6B pljioc in a two- dimerLSiona! care systcin with muld- direc'jona] scrolling. It's iiihabited by a nfl5»y array of aiicn creaturei. You conlrol a man dOlhe^ m futunshc knightly garb who has to battle through the caves to a demon. You have lo destroy the dom&n by shooting its pans 9cvcraJ times. Then you can move on to lh« nsxx tevel of play. The caves ^v& v^iiou? backgrounds includir^g brickwoik, wal^r and hi-tech scenery. The trouble with some of these 19 that the coloiui haven't been ver/ wcli dvoseii: there is tittle contrast. The deft- nilion of iho charflcioif.9 ;s also weak. As a result cvfiiyihing on ^cir^etn looks indis- tinct. Although you can tell what's going aw it's like looking through an unfocuBsed camera. SECOND onmoji There ts, a gtwtJ idea (somewhere) to this gajnc- It's uiifeilunate that drawmg-ifonid ideas can 't^Jways £* c&zned lOTwaid inlo progTanumntj^ iBcknique. The screen js jmiiincule- It iust a£)OLrtr tnaiutges to St your chiiTttct^T. a hft of surronndsTig tiickvrork and, J you ars very lucky, d Jew iniUion aliens popping in tor te*. Not the wise'St choice ofcoiour, nor even the smoothest scioUmg Around. Faz that matter control isn''i too hos either. There must be som&thing good about it. AJi yes, iot9 of nasties to stap. Rpm Th* s«e otthe scrolling icreen doesfi't help o|Lthi$t. It's very narrow, and as you move left or right it's practlnftlljf impossible to react to any thing that cornea straight toward you- As the knight rUnt into the cr@Alu res a power gauge is depleted. He can hghi back against thn aliens - initially just by punch- ing them but with weapons if he can find a power pyramid The pyramids put his powQi up 4nd give him a w-6apon. Which one dop-ftttdj On the- pow^i j^v^l- A3 the pov/er ruttfi down agam. (he weapon gradually becorrLe? leas powet ful until ycriu knight is back lo a Ust Pyramids are found just lying around or by killing space-suited f06. The eaves have ^veral Hooib You can get between them usmg stairs, holeii in Ihe floor or jumping. Borne area* have tpeci^ aliens, such as jsharks and stingrays under- water; Bom^ ha.vc nasty effects on you like temporajry paralysis. ORZ^N SCAEEN VIEW Was that s inick that moYed or was if jny ctisiricter? RpM The graphics, narrow screen and awk- ward scrolling make the game unimpress- ive to look at, It's not much bettei la play. You'll hnd yourself wandering around doing a lot of ahooting. which achieves little ^itciept 10 gain you the odd pyraimd. Cor- tatnly not one of the better coin-op convflisioRf. FISST-DAY TJLRGET SCOKE 2O.D0C N W > Change of weapons adds intexest. ► Quite large areas to cMplore, ¥■ Some nasty varieties of monsters. B W S ^ Very aart ow sereen display conLblned with awkward screlling maket play diffLculi. ^ Graphics lack contrast and dtefuittiDn. ¥■ Cameplay coiici;ts meE^ty of wandeting around searching for the denioR. GMf>H)CS SONICS I GHAB FWTIW SUVtNG POWER A A RATING QVESTOR Cescade, CB.9S ca». C13.95 rtisk, jovslich or hirvs It doesn't take much to work out that you're Irying to imd something: the liile gives that av7ay. And you'll soon find out that you've got to do !t on a flying carpet. Tho qaest is to find and rescue the daughtor of tha Nawab frorr. some nasty catacombs whore tihu's ijnprisoned - and that involves solv- ing a good many problems. Yon atart dcop within the caves and spend the whole game flying about on the carpet This airborne doormat is quale awk- ward to contra] and you'll die many times early on trying to ntaatei it. The caves are inhabited by all manner o( ovii creaiuro£ th^t appear on most screens, moving in patterns up and down There are quite a lot of objects and loeanons to find. Many of them aie hajd to get to and involve ^ugh tirmng problems and removing obstacles from your path. You can carry only ihree ob/octis s! a time. When you come to where the object can be used •• ior opening a door, say - ti happens automatically. There are some flaaMng ob- joctg ihat you can't pick up but which act aa clues for you to work out. The graphics and sound aie ordinary with little to commend them. Moat of the tasks are fairly strajghtforward as well, just needing a lot of blind! eKperimeni. The control is the most annoying leature: on« twitch in the wrong direction can put you into the clutches of a moiuter and lose one of your precious few live*^ There's enough challenge (or ardent axcadd-adventuxcra to plug away with, but there's nothing very »peciaJ. vw FIftST'»aY TARGET SC Olt£ GREEN SCREEN VIEW Good colour fJto^fi^ -■ •^volylh^^q.!s RpM _G n N E W_ 1^ Lota of objects and locations, I* Tough BKplDring with puzzles and dming problems. ^ Wide variety of features and problems. SECOND OPINION Uyou rani an alien acadcntaUy, you wjjJ .fi'rrcf yon jre stjicksnd all your ^nargy dr^ns exceedingly Last. The WAlls must also ha v0 some farm of itdhesive- you can'! just glance otF them - you remain Urinly embedded. This game is too d^tnsnding, .sjtd if 'if rAiber o!d hat. npM or acro&s the screen, The creatures either drain your onorgy or kill yesi outr;ght Thie is tough when you havo only three lives. But some of the monsters can be zapped With weapons and objects found in the caves, Unioriunatety fmdmg out what does what, where and what to do about it (what?) ts a matter of (rial-and-etror and many losi games. ' "^lAMSTRAD ACTION ACTION TEST i ICON ION Mirroraoft, fS.95 tass. E13,8&{lisk, joystiek ork^? A great idea for a game, this: a program trapped inside your computer thai doesn't waKi lo die when you switch ofi, Yova taalt. of couru*, is to aid an^ abet thje rebel progxom, Icon joa. and got him out ot ihe computer before (he power goes oK To mAn^ge that you've got tfy complore many pijastle* snd: e«plOT& the weird in- stidcs of ihc coittputcv. SECOND OFINION On i&sding the msfmctions to this §Am0. Ilh0ught tlaif ivsa definitely for me. Uttfoituiiitety it was iirudr haidet than J bad aitlicipatsd: 1 was barely ^hf& 10 lea ve ths fiist sciSsn mOtttut death standiag ov^r m». After SQrersJ aitsntpff 1 really started to cn/oy the g^unc, with its Aumoiir. ehixpy chAtact^f$ And oAerj devious puzzles. If you snjoy siUy jokes, snd doji't Sing^ th« computer into the rubbish tip afl»t faifitig irascrably for Lhc arst low ^ittcmpts, ^en ihi? gHnta ts n must. RpM "^iMt scToens axb sho'ivn in ZD, And you move t>eiwe«n eh«tn by going off eitlter odgo 9X 'wio' a doorway i?y pqsHttig up. Faicti jocftiJpn has a naftii; - inosi of ihcxn are piui3 on (h« a<Mtt3l pajrta ihal raaks up a compute!, such as the redundani inierpffe- ler and (he k^ety bii (keyboard). Scat- tered aiound tie locaiione are objects wtucl) may nol have any inuncduiEc appa' iwit use but wi^ }i«lp yout complete th^ i i- v*^ ^ , U^r^r^, Two other characters in Qie game move arQund freely among all the loc- ations. They can provide inv^tluable h&Ip They're osUed Andy Cspacsior ^d Chitrlie Chipliii. Ajidy 19 a Rorthctter and Charlie a fttuck^iip southern snob. You communicsK;' with them, and perform all other actions m the game, using a 8«i oi scons and window menus. The ipons allow you to perform many different tasks while ihe; menufl pro- vide aU ^tc$ of helpful intoxntcttion, Th^ra as'^ ten tcons: status, chat, tei- mfnat, manipulate, act, move, note, help, Siya a^d quit. Chat lets you talk to the other ditaiacl^rs on a number of subjects so tk^t ybu can make them friendly snd more helpful to your caus^. The status opiion tells you how Andy and Charhe are feeling, aa woU as how you're doing in the game, while the help icon leUs you where they are. Terminal puta you onto a computer terrmna! if you're standing at it, where a menu of optioTis will be given to you. Manipulate and act twth involvft han- (llt)t<j Ihe m.iny objects you can find- Yon can pick them up, drop them, examine them and give Them lo oUier characters. You can a3so try !o use them or more Specific-ally dig, rub. wave, hit or combme th«m, Ono olhei handy feature is the note- pad op which you ean keep track of your progreas and jot reminders of what you need to do Ab you et^tpior^ Ehe computer there are various areas that ca::t*t bo entered wiihoul the right object- il yoii do try lo enter without a Icay' then an eaiergy gauge de- creases, The game end* when one of three things happaiis: a 3£>minuto time lim.it runs out, energy runs out, or you escape. Th« graphics atkI sound aien't spec- tacular but the puzzies, icons and menus make the gameplay absorbing. It's a bit tough to begin with, until you work out the memory nup near the start location (te- member to use the 'breadcrumb' lochniquo of dropping things to show wheie you've already be*ti}. Once you're well irtto the game there are plenty of objects, pussies and humour that wiU keep you baahing aw'dy for many an homi, BW FIRST-DAY TABGET SCORE 15 V* W ♦./' i-' %/ /"' i I m wmmmmmmmmmmmm , , — — ^„^ y. T in; ■«ieiaMMNIHIMSSHtMHH(inMn««MfllMfa«HH^^ H^fMaiw i ii ,u, ii u», i n wn*»illlHW ^l^^^^^^a So tt»«t'} wiipt Ihe inwqtft fcM>l(4 IH<*'( J B2 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1936 ACTION TEST ¥■ Plenty of locations with EAteresHag; names. ^ Klce icon And widdow m^nu HyBtsin. ^ Characters to contimniiiCAte and fntof act with, 1^ Lpts of QbJC<:t;S tLtid pMxxltt to sotve wltli tltem. U B ► fl, bit tough to atari with, W GREEN SCBEEIN VIEW AbsoluiBiy no prabic}ni v/aitdeiing thiou0t your computer's insidss here. RpIV! GMPHtCS SCINIC5 GRABfACTtffl STAVING POTftR A k MTING THE INHERITANCE joyiitidt or k»y£ Here's anoihei French game that has plenty of ^lennunta of Qriginality in both present- ation and ^ameplay. K cOirujB in (tiir©© patts in which yoi; have to ^scApo iiora y^ur hoi^lf catch A pfaxi? to Las Vegas and then makf; a imlliorL dollars ov^ittighl. Sounds easy, huh? The reason yo»i've got to do all this is that your a.uM has popped hsr clogs and is All ex'Hun!, toequeaihing ycm her whole fortune ojily if you c&n make that jnitUon. SECOND OPINION A fairly otiginai cona^pt here - a pieasstil sufpnsti. Ths graphics 3rc deiailed and colourful, compelling yo u to fiTjji over or exazTDJic every object Most AinUsiiig' vFas humpuig into stiother charscter: hs (orsh&) would gsii^T^tiy dcmsnd an iS^jrt on yotiT person. The prahlQm is Chat when I Am sSronl^d itt such d manner, the hr& batten gists a good bcssis^tg. This do&s ito good at aU. it a ggtAvates thsm, causing iuTthei demands ra JtjepJaoed upon your shoisid^rs The Inheiilance Jidsmoie than ^inoiigh to hold your interest - if you don't iiko meeting other psopls, or cvQn milling aroand airports, ttt^n I'm sure you 'Aroiildn f rcjuct a good spending spree at the Lss Vegas casiitoi RpM At the start of th,^' gajne you le placed in yoai grotty apaitment on the llfii Ilooi of * hotel «id given S200 and an airline tidfiet lo Las Vegas. Vour firsi (4s.k, <iTid probably the tcmghesi. is to got out of the building. Tlte room is pictured as a single screen which y<ju csjt explore ymng a cutsor. Placing it ov^^r ait object and preetutg Fire may cause you lo piqjc i\ up or roveal its contents, For inslance, there's a bag which Virill come in handy, and lots of Qbj«cls ui cupboards and drawers. Once you've got what you need you can place the ssirsor over the door and head out into the corridor. Einch floor has a single corridor: a lift and stairwell on opposite 3idea in tho mid- dle, and rooms along Ejiilhei Sid's. You oaii move along the corndor and turn around using (he cursoi. If you turn to face a door you can nng the bell to sec if anyone's honte or jusi try lo go iii oit your own. The problem with this leisurely inspec- tion i* that you've got only a few minutos to g'et to the iiiiporl and had better look lively. Heading lor the lift or the tttitiis you'll encounter the main problem: the building is full of people you owe things to. U you've got the fight thing to give back to them they'll go away and not bother you again, othoiwise Iheyll post Br you inccstafinlly, The people appe^tr dis hoad-aitd- shotild&fs picluies wiih animated mouths, all lookin«]r hke characieis Itora a cartoon. Th&y aren't all bad for you, but if you happen lo offer ihom the wrong object it might be congtjrued as * threal and bring .ill sorts of trouble down on you. When you nxanage to gel to tht' ground Qoor yoil've got SnOther knotty problem: how lo get !o the airporl. But I'm sure a resourecful individual lite you can cope with that. The airport is the second prti't ol the game and involves you snteJy geiimg onto the eight, surviving some unexpected hap- penings and catching a bus to Ih© eafiiftOA at Las Vegas. There are a ntm^bei of different problems to solve and things to do to insure success. Tnal-and-erro!" 1,3 youf beer method of discovery. At Las Vegas there are three lypos of game you can play. Some oUicr places provido ways of raising more mor^ey if yoa get lucky or observanl. The games are frait-m^chincs, crapa (dice), anda nuntborv gaiwa caUed boule. You'll find it tough to make money very quickly on the tables, io 10 make the nulliiott you'll have to plug away for a long whi|«. The graphics b all sections are eKceU ani, leaiunng ifiieresting characters and locations. The problem-solving ia most evi- dent in the fins! game, wilh some tricky situations at ihe airport The gambling at the end is thrown in mor^ lor fun thnii anything else. I think this is belter than- Veis CXrtr^and mosi playem should find it a lot easier to get into, FIRST-DAY TJiRCET SCOKE Escape the hotel M E W ^ Excellent gjtiphics far characters and locations. ^ Oaod control over the realistic hotel envLiTDnment. ^ Nice knotly problems ta wOik Out. »■ Thvee parts should keep voti ^oing for ai while. e D N E W & *■ You may get a frustrated i^tti the eonstcint need for trial and error. GREEN SCREEN VIEW Tlte graphics iose out hare, e very ^ling looking mlh^r dull and drah. Sat ihk does not soriosisly alfecl th& gameplay. RpM 6RAPHICS r SOMItS GRAB FACTOR [staying PDWf R r A A RATING i One of 1*1* ur.plsasqnl iriiabbldrts of lh«: twiet AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 83 PREVIEWS WAR Martecfi This Itxjks like being a very impieaaivf; scrolling shoot-em-up if one or two teclm- ical niggles can be Eorted out, Unusually for the AKifilrad, irs a sidf^wAy^s-scTolluig game. Thi^ is what's causing tltc problem M Ihe m&meiil - tl'd loo fasi. You cdntiol a sltip ihal skints over the SUrfAOd Ciif » RpacA station, and h^vQ tO d^al with rklicn ships aHaaking (on the demo disk we saw, Oniy liadn'l ^riived y&t). On the surface of the station arc ob Etacles - be careful not to Dy into them. If things get too hectic you can always fiip the ship over and fly on Ui.« other aide of the itlatioi<i, out of liatrm'a way. If the acrtjllmg is slowed 4own jusi enough, and when the aii^n 9ltipd 91^ added in, tlufl will b« a ver^ faAt-aelicin gam« and from a g«nre which is nt^w fo th« Amstiad. IKARI WARRIORS This IS Elil&'8 l«iti5fii conv^f&itin of a popular arcade game and it loolca certain to be the best y«l from that house, it'st an lutaahamcd orgy of violence and destnaclion that should satiiSfy the bloodlust of any Com- mando plflyecs and piavide a (remendouB test of anyone''s,pyatick skills}. Looked bt simply, it's BnotJier dowmward-scfOllilig shoot-em-up in the CozTunando raQuld. bul it knocks seven colour a of bruises out of its predecessor. You control a KambO'type character, and you simply hikVO 10 battle yoUr way up the route ahfiad, blasting evarything in your path. The route lakes yeu 4ver bt'idg«s, through sv/amps ^rtd pa^t forfs. B«9sdes bullets, you'te armed with grenades, which have a ttemendoue effect when you lob them into buildings t^very- Ihing blowa up in a. nuiES of debrvs, taking much of the (urrounding area widi it. Sol- diers are everywhere. As you progress you'll even lun into en&iity tanks ajid a helicopter ^un^ip thst tiamwiexg down- screen at you, Never fear, though, because you can always hop into a tank of youi ovm aiid carry on antaishing away "Ar.th ihat. The games graphioj aro superb: lots of coIouJh great explosions, wellndlriiwii spriteft. superb scroUing and plenty of variety. What weVe seen of the garoeplay is pretty unpressive loo' very addictive a,3 you blast ottythmg that does or doesn't move. This is definitely one to watch for! 84 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER Wemer l^ a, Gexman biker who's aepa- r^titly quite a cult figure over there. If what we've flecn is anything to go by, ha will aoon be pretty popular here too, Tlie exact structure of the game isn't deor yet, but it involve.9 building a big, bad cu$tom motorbike and tlien rasng it against some' wicked opposition The bjke-biiildiing section of the pre- view disk "was complete, however. It aJlows a lot of freedom in what sort of bike you have from a one-engined Ghuffsr to a four-engined. road- wrecking, car- PULSATOn Martech Yet another promising game- Tlie preview disk here was in a much more complete form than Martech's other two. It features seme very nice graphic* and a iol of in- triguing and original elemejit$. It's COnft- poscd of fiv^ levels o( 4i rooms each, in which you control a aphcTO, The sphore has to find and rescue a Pulsy' on each level before moving on to the next. Iithabiiing the levels are other spheres thai have it in for you by domg nasty dungi lil(« dtainl»g your ettergy, dLsablit^g your gun, ktULng you inulajiilly and even stewing objeds you're carrying The gun vtili deal ciu:Li;hing, wheel-squealing angel from hcil. Of course, before you can get down to any racing you've got lo get it approved by the cops> who are a very finicky bunch, The race scenes haven't been com- pleted but the graphics v/ere on show. There were some very intcrtssting bits of animation on Werner. He performs vltiious action* indudittg running, driving, filling up with potjoU getting hit with a pie in the face, and vomiting m (he httEi posBible taita. Other Bcenea among the demoa we saw were an, impressive 3D view of driving down the road into fog, and a picture of Werner holding a joystick where ho mir- rors your every move. If these hilarious graphics convert into good gameplay, wc could be looking at one of the most original and funny hita of the year, PREVIEWS M I 4^ 't^-m TARZAN Martech with the Ji>addti;;ij li you.^*^ quick eAotigli, and one object will give you intmutiitY for a. tune. There axe also eiatic daiijgen Oiat have to h^ ^v^tched for as they can kiU you aa well. Tine layout of each level ta the major probiem: it's a maze with code-numbered gat«s everywhere. You need (o pass over a numbftTAd oensai to opon a gate, but traveliuig over il again closes Ihe gate. This rtieana yau must work out some contorted routes through otia-WAy ooiiidojis aitd gates while beiiug harried byd various robots. The gameplay and -graphic Idok «ix- oeUent. This production uhould certauiEy be fiiushed in the very near futut^t so keep "emp«<ledforit, Edgar Rice Burroughs' leyijndaiy jangle hero haB found hia way onto computers, and aB you can see from our competition he has no interiDon of keeping quiet about it. Somethirtg Martech hop«9 to put in the game is a digitised Tafzon yell. See if you can do botter and win a gr^at prize. The game is gowg 10 be an axcuadc adv* entu£$^ aet in the jungly, ruili3 and temples whei0 Tarsan aearchet for his beloved Jane> She's be«n captured by a tribe of natives demanding the return of their precious gems. PUying the role of Tarean, you've gtyi to get them back. Ttie jujigie and othoi locations are represented in an interesting and attractive screen design. Tarzan can move left and right along paths with picturesque scenery in the background, but aiao with shadowy objecrs m the foreground. This creates an atmospheric 3D impression in which most ambitious Tarzans should be very happy. On his search Taizan Will need to find and U3G many objects. At one point he ev^n needs the help of a hairy friend. Some of these objecte may not be immediately obvi- ous to see or to use, but you'll soon learn when you start picking them tip. The other major feature of the game is the threat presented by the jungle's other wild inhabitants. You'll need well'honed reactions to fight o£f of avoid all manner of adversaries; big CBta, Rinakes, spear- throwing luttivea and rolling rocks. You can use combat moves including somersaults, kicks and punches - so there's plenty of room for section. The gameplay wasn't much in evidence on tk& demo version wo s^w, because the various elements ar*^ atiU being pulled together, but the graphiea laoked good and the rest promises wslii. Gel youi lungs tuned up for this one so you can yodel along with the ape man. ^ First prize ^ a loincloth ► a giant python ^ a rubber chimp mask ► a cuddly toy monkey ►- and a copy of the game farzan, from Maitech 30 ninners-up I*' a copy of the game Your task Produce a Tarzan yell, by one of two methods: ►^ put a yell onto audio tape, and then digitize it using oui Type-in on pages 26-27; or ►- produce a program that makes a yell. Send your entry on a tape or disk - a computer program, not audio. K you want it returned, say so and make sure your name and address are clearly legible and stuck firmly onto it. Post to '*Tar2an comp", Amstrad Action^ at the Old Bam, Somerton, TAl 1 SAH. Entries must reach ua by 18 Deceniber 1986. s-j.-l-.-- i^-.^>.->;. TW UMi'S'^"" I'^KONM/II Coming Soon for SPECTRUM E7,95 ScrsBn shots (ri>in Arcade vers ton Available from all leading retailers and COMMODORE 64/128 CASSEHE E8.95 DISC £14.95 '" "se ol difficully send cheques or AMSTRAD CPC CASSEnE£B,95 DISC £14.95 M5X CARTRIDGE £15.95 postal orders to: NMC LTD., PO Boi 67, London SWIt IBS. Tel: at 226 673D \ k™,. .our ..n»« -^s: 'f: iT*:.^;:? ^t^f^ us GBi.1 »«■< Walt n«"»V; »";,7 j„ t™„!,k, t).^" « "^swH »; Aftershock, tfy'-'-y .«, ,|,« h«.. I Leather Ooddesses of Phobos InfacDm/Activlcien, £24.99 (UbIc on\j The time: around 3 a.m. The problem: «t dozy Pilg has just awakerted, his I^ostlrils (Uring wifh ihe hideous seem of mothtulls, subtly blended with the aroma of a pi^z.^ that has luatured lor months m a pujblic lavatory. The solution: crawl tuider the bed-cloihes snd - Yes! There's your Leather Goddesses scratch'n'sniS card scrumpled up under the duvet. Yes, my fellow Pilgs, this gamje has a real scretch'n'snifC card for you to gag over. It also has just about everything else yoa'd look for in a brUliajit adventure. Tricky puzzles, brilliaiLt ten, a whopping great piiceiag, disk-only spneciiiciition, and best of all, ihrse playing levels. Playing iBveb? Yessir^ Tame (yavsm), Suggestive (hmmm...), aod Lewd (ye gcMJs?)- And m a game where you must escape the clutches of the ttmiuacal Leather Goddesses who are intent on ueing you as an unwilling experiment in their hid'eouJi investig- ations into "How to falf^ over Man {oi Woman) Kind', you'll have plenty of opportiuuty for savouring all three, The baaic aim of the game m tc coUecl a number of objects which range trom a length of hose to a copy of the Cleveland phone book - and ihqjeby cortstruHSt a machine which wili destr^oy the wicked LGs and save your bacon. 'Tis v\.<3\. an easy garrte, but 'tis beautifully logical tn construction and like all Infocom titles worth every penny of the rather ^l^v^led price. Really this game is so good that 1 don't know wliat t<3 say next. Should 1 16\\ you about the titne 1 got humsd info a gorilla and locked into a cage with a f&maie of that species? StiOUld 1 tell you about wh^t happened when I, being in the company of the afareoaid lady gorilla, selected the Iiewd level of play? No, i abound not. Or should ] tell you about the brilhant touches of pro- gratnming the selection of youi sex, for example. If you enter, at the beginning at tho game, the LADIES toilet, you are hencefortli fetnaJe. If you chose the CENTS, you aie ,„ weU, we assun^e you are. Or shobild I lell you about the humour? As you struggle with the Mad Sciertti.si! who la about to strap you to the bed and cat ry out some fjendtsh experiment, you type m desperation; "KILL THE MAD SCIENTIST". And what's the response? "Relajt ..." Aaaaaghghghg ! Or should 1 iniortn you of the painstaking attention to detail in the (ordinarily) unimporiant responses from the parser. For ,©Kaniple. you try to TIE HOSE TO SWITCH. Well, you can't - f^^: 7-^*.^ yp {^■>i ^ x; and in any ordinary adventure you might be told - YOU CAN*? DO THAT, In Leather Goddesses yom get: 'YquVe tied the rubber hose! In the third quarter, with forty aeconda on the clock, the scoie is tubber hoae 17, player 171 It But s^sriously. folks, you can't tie the rubber hose, ' Wall, seriously, folks, even if you can't tie tlie leather hose, you better go out and add this one to the collection. It's not only very antusing, wtitlen by Steve Mcreisky of HitchhikeTs and Sorcerer fan\e, packed with features, brilliantly designed, and con\plele with scratch' n'sniff and 3-D glasses - it's also quite disgiistitig, and all ir, the best possible laste. ATMOSPHERE INTERACTION CHALLENGE AA HATING After Shock Inter ceplor. £9,95 cass, £14,95 disk This game wm previewed by the Pilg last month but a bugged copy prevented mo from getting very far. Now Iritergeptor have kindly sent me a working veiraion - how doos it play? Well, not quite as well as Fd hoped, 1 have to admit, though AMSTfiAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 87 ► i '* n V >4V f 4^ Ba&ed on Judo, UCHI maTa, fe probabty the most actvarjced and challenging martial arts simulation to date. AM the skills 'n'spHls - without the bnibesff! Sptctnim 4aii^3 Caurtfr ti .95 Amrt'«J464 664'6fSft Cassette £9 95 Owe t1 3 95 MSJt Cassette €9.95 fechniul CDTStj'tant Bnan imJa, comptevir-i^ a succcisful IX( II- M^ orte or Ove nun/ excitliig ttmuMS inccxi>cr3f«J in the ^sme. Brian Jacn received nis Qiiack belt, 1 it D*n, when onfy 1 &, He ii now a 7th Pan, an eHic world group Hivirig won tht Dntish C fwmpiomhip eleven times, ttie C5pen Chan^^ikamtipftvc Qmaf the Curoped^n OwmpBrnhip four timm ^d ^n. Oymprc MedaJ, h^ it one of Ih* moit knowtedgcatjle ^d roreim<i$i ejip^rwrits of Judo inlhe wofld. Martech is thcfc:^ter«d trade mart< of SoftytHaK CanmurMcottoTK UinltFd, M^rtecn Hous*, ftav Ten ace, Pe*«mcv SiS/. ta*i ^js§eir BNS4 6£E -mAf>E EMQUIIUE^^LCOMt PMQHE 10323: 76S4M TEL£X^ 878373 MrtecG ADVENTURE there's no doubt that the graphics (and the animation in particular) are superb. Ctuinnevs billow smoke over the shat- lered city, tankers spill oil. and although the jjicturos ate spread rather few and far between, they do add enormouisly to the game, Inteieeptoi have really made their name with graphics and this game eertaitily isn't goiitCF to damage their reputation on thai score. However, after you'vo been playing for half an hour or so, certain weaknesses in the game itself begin to appear. The first is the extreme fussLness of the parser, which makes itself lelt right fjom the begirming of the game. Take this for example: you are caught in a lift and have discovered a panel in the ceiling. Common sense tells you thai to esoape you need somehow to climb through the panel. Moving, lifting, and pressing the panel have no effect you have to REMOVE PANEL and nothing else will do. OK, a bil niggly, but not too bad. But then how do you get out of the lift? The panel's invitingly open, but if you eitter UP you're told you "can't go irt that direction*. Nor can you CLIMB THROUGH PANEL, or GO PANEL, or ENTER PANIEL. or LEAVE LIFT, or GO OUT or whatever. You have to CL&'EB OUT OF THE LIFT and nothing else wiU do. Now that strikes me as a little hard, and part of a general feeling of wg'akness in the deaign of the parser and the vocabulary that also means, for example, that you can't GET objects - you can only TAKE them, Interc«pior have gone (o great lengttis (o answer e^riticisms of their games - especially over the short location descriptions. Certainly the dqjscnpfion* in Ahei^hQck are much longer than previous titles from ihis co.-npany, but severa] of Ihem give the impression (hat they were not written by an inspired author, but rather by someono who kept saytng to hunsolf, Must have longQi: descnptionsr and sometiines the length is achieved at the cost of the stylo , Similarly, although there are lots of obtecls about, not many of tham Are worth examining; in la^t most of ih^nt are of no use ai aU in th'C adventure. This could be a good point, in that the player has to work out which is nt^t^dod and which isn'l ~ especially ssnce you can't carry much - but il would be nico il they could have more complex roles to play. At one point you can feed the arJmala in tho soo - a nico touch, but there aren't niany more like that. However, there's no doubt that Interceptor have chosen a good plot idea and the atmosphere of the game is at tirn'OS {fuite Bxoalsent - especially when you enter the reptile hou&e at the 200. After playing tedt/ier Goddesses, a g^me like Aiicrshock seems terriiy hmited and one-duncnsional - but that, sadly, is a cnt^cism that could be made of most Bntish adventures these days !t>ecause of our contuiued re'.iance on the iLmiied cassette - based format. AfiQrshock is up witii some of the bener examples, but let's face if, the standard, with or.e or two exceptions, isn't that Mgh. Perhaps you think I'm being over-harsh. If so, pSease play a few miocom games and then write and tell me what you think, Even more worrying - play Interceptor's Heross ofKurv.. which must be all of two years old and then ask yourself how much things have improved since then? Personally I'd rate Heroes of KsTH over Aftorshock any day, even if only for style and originality. What do other readers think? ATMOSPHERE 30% INTERACTION 62% CHALLENGE 1S% AA RATING 69% Return to Oz us Gold, £S.99t cass, £14.99 disk TV and mm tie-ins have been all the rage in recent months, with Never Ending^ Stozy, and arcade games based on everything from Svpermoit to DoctQr Who. For the most part they've been pretty dire, but the Pilg had high hopes of Renini to O2 since it bears the prestigiouK Disney seal of approval - surely the descendants of Walt would not put their name to anything less than awesome? Hmnun ... Well, the fact is thai this game is pretty ... er ... Mickey Mouse. The Cowled Crusader polished it oil in 33 minutes, which is my current record for solvmg a game from scratch. But before you pass on to the r^ext review in disgust, perhaps you should ponder awhile some of the innovations and interests of this little gamette. Ecium to Oz requires no text input whatsoever. At «ach stage of the game, the bottom of the screen bears a menu from which, using a combination of the space bar and the Enter key, you select one of sis options. Thesie are LOOK, TALK, SEARCH. GET. LIST, and LEAVE, Th« aim of the game is to make use of these options I0 move from one screen -location to another ajid renirn 10 Oz, where things are in a bad way. You must restore the righthil Queen of Oz to her throne, destroy the wicked Nome King, and outwit other nasties in the process. The gatr.e system works very well, given its limiiatious. For example, you press TALK and on the screen a little square wJU pick out one of the characters present if you can talk to Mm. At this point it's worth pressmg SPACE to see if the square flips to any o' the other characters displayed (if there are any) If it does, then you can choose who you wish to talk to by pressing Enter. Sounds 900d. but the actual gameplay is very limited, TALKlng, for example, sounds interesting but in fact dimply means gening occasional helpful messages from other charac- ters. The oti-er commands are similarly efficient in iheir operation and selection, and similarly limited in the effects they actually produoe. There aren'r very many puzzles in the game, and most of them are solVFible provided you have the nghT object with you. AMSTRAD ACTION" DECEMBER 1936 89 ► I I ADVENTURE I l^oe you can cairy aH lihe objects in the gaine simultaneously, diid since the progrant obMgingLy tetl? you which one will be effective in each cas«. you don't have much problem here. Retuzn to Oz could have been a very einjoyable game for younger players, but ! wander if it isn't ju3t a bit too limited. Certainly any PUg who's done even a modicum of advcntaring would find it very simple fare. The blurb (hat comes with the program says. 'While the atory cloaely follows the plot of tho film, it has been necesssrily expanded to make the game more playable and more of a ohajlenge.' If that's the case, i'm glad I didn't bother to see the film. ATMOSPHERE INTERACTION CHALLENGE AA RATING ^extmon*begir..-^i-^;--Jt whole .ew wora ^ adventujfuig- ^ iL Id creatine Y^"^ '*'^'^- ?r^^er*.'ll be p,,>cess of wntmg ^^ " j^^ available uUh«e.^ Th^r*^ ^, ,, by u«u.^-2 -^^^ ^,,^.g. P;-* "^^^^^/U So stay tur^oci. J^°^^^^^^_^_^^ ^ ..^l-;:v;-:':':':':':-:::::::-: I * ,1 .■<.■>.» .*,■,* r A *■ * il-.+^^.V Charts go bi-monthly ... In order to give ua more space in fumie tor reviews and other essential ilenia, we'll carry the Adventure Top Ten in every other issue from now on. What's teucx^, this will gjVD you all a chance to get your voters in and possibly quahfy for a free game as one of the legendary Lucky Pilgs- Dort't forget lo post off th& form each month to enter the draw, and to ensure that your opuuons are reflected in the PUg's Top Ten. To the Pilgfim Am stra d Action The Old B&TD Som ertoa , Somerset TAIl SAH My favourite three adventuiea are: Game 1 Company The reasons for my first choice above are; "Hie free game 1 would like if fm a lucky FUg is: My BAxne: My a4drev9 (BLOCK CAPITALS ONLY, PLEASE) Clue Cauldroa Special Jffen tf/laf Tfiij eaceJlent game was onginaUy released on the Spectrum and has recently been issues as a budge I title on tho Amstrad. It has some excellent graphics (small but perfectly formed) and some very untieual twists. The game was always one of the Pilg's favountes, partly because it lb quite tricky, and partly because of the extremely ... v^ell ... add creanixes in the game. Here goes then with aome vital hints'^n'tips. Ask Ogert>n for the Black Knife - ihere's no need to kill him. Dig in the sand and then hsten to the shell- When you go paying social caUa. to DZ make sure Timandra ia with you- Elva can make a longbow 'iVith the right knife. To enter the caatle, reseat; someone, reunite him with an old fnend, then go to the castje and wait. Saying Kentilla' brings you your sword, Tlie large Urga-Maul should be searched twice. Check in the scrub near Grako's tower for a boat, Elv^a is good for carrying things. With creeping shadows, green is OK, red is not. To kill Grako. hit him with the staff three timies. then give it lo hirn. Clue-sniffing with the Pilgrim I I Heroes <ffKsiit Oil the chest before opening it. Deliver jeweUery etc to the cottage- OriOn lakes yoU places. Seatfa^e Delia Enter 104 and 199 Stick button in with chewing gum [chew il first). Spot disk with telescope, get it with magnet and Ime. Secret of St Brides Type PLANT and &se what happena- Robm of Sherwood To escape from. jail'. Go shoulders, grab a.nlde, airanglc guard, search guard, get sword, imdc bolt with awotd, open grating. go grating, go door, go battlements, go door, go right, go window... AdvGiitiire Qaesi Balrog won't let you pass with the sun-stone, so carry (he sword and Etonc and smite ihe bridge* The vampire objects to onions. Cool the Dragon's hBartburn with something cold, Daitgeon Adv&nmr& Create a slippery problem for the goat. The poppy will help you get past the music. Pilg prize idiocy! The Pilg has to apologise profusely to one or two prizewinners who have yet to recoive their prizes. A house move and two office moves have pltmged hia personal papers into even deeper disarray than normal and aome addresses and details of prizewinners have gone astray. PLiEASE... If you have won a prize, either as a Lucky Pilg or in one of the Cowled CnjSAder's competitions, and have not received il. then write to me al Amstrsd At^on, with your envelope marlecd PUg's Pri?.e Dept. I wiJi then ensure that youjr prize reaches you without delay, 1 know that in some cases thu will havt; caused many of you inconvenience and diaappoint- ment, and I apologue most pr0fu$0ly if you were one of those affectt;d-just get meyour addy] HEROES OF KARN -^^ flAT ^ TINYPLAHT GIANT CLAM ^^ POTIONS -™ SILVER FLl/TE J SQNQ-BlRD BOTTLE CARprr •■(•I OACCEJ? El| PILLOW ^ COIN ^% SERPENT _.^: LIZARD FROG POO OF OIL DlAnONO EPJOEK rfANDOLIB rffl WATERFALL *^i, SAPPHIRE Mii WICKER CAGiE **^ WITCH HOMEV HEAL ^ TINDER BOX MOHET SWDRO SPEAR BIBLE y' i: a^ « ^ ^ Eca SEAR SCROLL /^ WAWD BL^ GOLD KEY POD OF ACID CHEST COFFIH GO 10 EN LVRE BOX CROWBAR SHOVEL PHEONIX SILVER CROSS UP TO UPT-0 t Lords & Ladies of Ad venture Cainp«iin»n M nanitf up » H« Mho C«a pat fhni luuDH into Uili liiA af inunoTtal beings -<rtK> ^^vc VMrtond (snh uiii> dui^ti and T«4unwd to :«U m,E? ute. Ooni tot^ui it you w^m VB ^;c))v «:A4rt wvd DmIU' Inendc kn I3va praca», 1lu»n drop nil • poifcaid wilh fcniT nun» ■nd iddrnu tiiA ■ Itit of 9«mDi you v«i compleini. 'fhe Kj^^EHaui One will lh«n cotw^ar yvu fOf iHrCtuBHL D4a.'l tOT^ftt li> knclikdd your phixno numbE'T iS yoa wnh. bu; beU ul mind Uuit 'you mtf no ili Tt mmv wl'l, wrti^c't mi>i allur memberi (iryiMir}ieu]t«}'.i>1c) Urn U )^')a'n MiUWUltg' a uard oi Lddy oE Ajdvsn^iuQ tlicn plauo rHnember to include a ■■li-4dd,joi»ed iumpsd tavtifrpe ». it y»u't« l«l«]^icratAg, w rinf «ia rcwxTiabSa hevr */id .*riir4l thrae e'cldeli lh iJha morning! Lord* nnd L>adb«t, on U-,* ^chcr hjnd, ple&it rericiudr tlu! by eci^tring y^r nuita ia Oii« Odlumn fou «t« eB«rMQ te tvlj) yout f«U«<r.i , i» d«iil p«ii«Titty ind etfiCL^Ady wi^ii itifttT DEUjuiiiiri you wU> b« newuxlad imh fnwidiihip and - who ]«□«■? - help wh^ you yvuntivH M*4 it. Witrlard, Horaaa af Xtm, Jtinir ef SahyJaa, Forest at the iVof^di End. M**Mtjt /fcm AndfomadM, Saturn re Edan, Bmorti^ StSe. Ltrd* of Timo, Sr\owlMtJi Smuif^kTt Civ*. BTMomFrtw M)t4ltw Wlll«n, nnUrw Kill Cvtltgi, »nt JU4irt*Ti Wtacill«i«*14, ffl^tlfain. ISIB 1ITO Lf^jid b//M(r Kti\^, MtibfiSt, ffovttr Efdir\^ S^ry. K*ntg* frenr AbdMnwdi. fenFl a^ lh* P«aliB]*k*W4y, 21 04lttt>l*«*, ClltlUrM4tKr,Cain£iTift, CAZI SXf Sia^am Fambcrlen, 11 Hmgu* Rvw, Puh HIU, Iheflleld) 12 SSA filittMtA □iUIW.Idl', tVf*tWf gndintf Hiarr^ Htitthil, Hfuces e! S^n, Me3Sj<f6 fmM Andrp- mvda f:fttmt « Woflftt Sit A Jeweit, ot Bibyiim. Fitiertld tilt, 'Arttiarct, Winvr^ to Ed^a,. tfcmi Jil FMtdis*. S&si ^ifiKn. Ciimic Ali\f^•n(tirc^ Msndoaa Qvett, Dxia Daiach tibTipen TItd OiuBiay, tO Oaxvrfn AT«nne, ttcundwe'Sd, M*Ud«k^ ft*x»mtf^, Clwyd, lilf]9 WLR Tt>a HifbSitf, TVni* KinfptOP' VMsfy, Hi^rocf ofilam, COrlte «/ Tttr^r, C^li^ttH Ct*t, TTrv Hiiilt. Se-teiHOr 0( C^jfRser^V* C»tii*:. Jktrait of U!i? ffini}*. Qimsi fcr tfle MoJj' Crail, Mtgieiant But. flo:uin i9 EAia. Snowlmll. I/Vann a PirsdJsf, Secret ofSiSwidea. Very Biff Ciw Aerosmie, Lor^ lO,' Tmta. £nwr^'4 i£^a, .V^d iVcmvi. Frtpe cf^Ms^ck, SasbsMO DelOr Pbil Sfmondi. 19 OoHilh Claie. Bound lEiiw, W>llLB^(iii.S(m*r, iT/li9EH Hutlii Cotit, 23 Ctavitnut Willc, Biitwpiwerlli, Brtilol, IS I St] ff«iliz3T ToCden, Wornt m ji'irtdua, Ej:i'fij'i.':^if;e>, Hotrtji, Lordr ofMitiOigtit, £iibti:flJr Cetotut Advomuro, Fiiivrt *l ihtr WarJtb End, K«d MaeA, A£ru4g« i^^m ^«tnun«dii il«i( Alrd, 1^ B^RLJMtl HMd, Hfidqi iUU, Hnntnihun, ■» SHR Sctf jWoct, Hotcom st K^rrt. fawela ^fa*by!oi\, fitvtMgaboniAndro^iiBda. Sett>i»a DtUt Chklilophtf £nf , li JlmBaiRoid, Iionden, BWll UA 6fDtTlKH OtmtMim W>«*1tT, Z Burford Ctaie, SoulhdDwn, Bath, Avon, BJ12 IJf IkDJ'^ Ol' Midnights Soam^zkE Sevenga, Red Moan, Mordatf'i Outat, The So^git. QIattie AdvK\iarm. Hat <ry on iLhe \Ug'ek, Vfurm in fitradiae, Robs! Pltsos. XeatUia. Saab*** D«lta, HtfOtt e( K*n\ Twrrsrnielinsai SnowbtSli iorda ot iinm, VaSkyrie !7, :!w Xat Tiiiegy, Slt6rleck. Hampatead. Lent 3{ rA* Smg*. StfOJt s/ 0*siti>i\, OJWjfJJSHf, Xitbin of £h*fivtii4. Jtfibm (t/ii^rJMJf, An raitiff^rfit^r ^nzn^t. Spellbound. HuSk. Spltitnant, Jitt\tni f#£d'M Owuy ClBfg, 2 Spatland Tspi, Culguni, llBehdBit, Lanea, OLlZ TttX AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 91 ll FootbaleroftheYear Ihe gun; bawiHT miybattiacd i^tsp -ftFchfUm- d^, tiUrfet dcm and nf jia ^ gpnn^ rd turi J vnu're ifiw tngt^ the ukitiHE KEtMc EJIhcYniirAiMmL t'ifh fcm First OlvisiDH jiants and opted to stay with Rovers. This promising c« ntre- back has si g r ; ed a new contra I. team manager D ;^ Thorpe annou today. attiH* il 'he ' -M-^ Cox, SAiJE, about his ' City. ,, Coopeif] *eefc ro jur COafTenchr medical ire wtpcn Pitrrs fta-s ireaied o[> .1/ iV^ BANKS lifri [he ALWAYS AHEAD Footbaler of the Year ^ Ci6*4 MSXSi>«Uiim4: ,£6.95 iS7,95 . Aittflrad. BBC/Ekdion / Avenger lC16^4 CBW64fl3 9X Spectrum ^ Anuitrad vJS9.9l fcwtl llcr. I> <- , fh could oe"" n^ ir withe «^^rfVtefl*nl"' Ei,.. because ot a WB \ The '"iV^^iK hB "'L '"'f!, i mi week col end or un cral r-wmark-atjlejcorffl, wfticli has ,na.df; [I bnrnpiayief [hfdutv™ prolific ieorcT in il)arl \ \ Flnt ami \ Tlgr" tf mnW ir!9.dauic hvtild) yog had IP pmw yijiir fltftui iliiibbwofn] r t^ nn you iHtt Bo pnw foi' ufntne mral ndirtat yw but Mif npM •id Moisi >c ScnlifltKebyh YeuhiK »«n n UK Gad HiiQa lii youtCuBgi V»ti^im«lKiui«tindinwtvwt4 linijr. 'J yDLi!)Mi9iiife«idn!w<4!K'e4ni iDon itKTi ^ lMj)in fw M tdolia A (M 'Sim! K^, voa) luOL-ttiftttMt Iwntd id uvm Aveiiger(WarofttieT1gern) ,\ Be ciii Wayt £' Thing on £«} AnUibIt I GrtmllnGraphbl I HouH, liy Canrer Street OF THEIR TIME FutiR Knight Js^Mmr JS6,95£7-95 Anutrwi £9.95 /' AmttndOitk Bf\ "^ ■ m,.? ^ 1 B^^^P^. x^'^^^lf ' 1 FutmKiii^ IM hMA itl^ br jHslil j>mik MU h lt» Hi cUdK»i^ifi«l)c0<»Tent(i< AAig ificn wrtitf- V ilrraniini (t«B mgsd hm tw pMr \ SmBi)i.%KmtimaitksiT\fini.ti \ yjj btif^y ctflm. Defend |eu^ \ nttif tg/mtt tt Eeiwkg Sooity MiL Fight pi 11^ Bmi^ M ywi^ ki«lg «ntC' Ely [^nd') ga- te rb 5|iri9«ictfie whew li« iViTn 9<^Q0m Ii9ij9i> fanymdinwsyldJn ¥■! nud^flh oiy T)'4»d* Ma nqr fd't KH OK tsr ih» doDim nd hv r skI imnd Ihc *)flW(rw* *cw j*u (irafWR or «- cfHon irili itsi DcnEHunxs anil you jump WtMHdQ^ )^ 4 JdeBI ^ m (he dod ft life qiidAjcu i:fiiifAA y«w M ^S?^;v; 1 ^? .^^ ■ 4i^ * ^ i>-:.^;:M .s^^ Ff> iL ^■-"^^Cfi a; >w • • ■* < 1 1 -k^^'^ ■■.A. - jm. '.'^'.'if.V"/' '-. T- 1. .' f/T^ rj . , . 4 < « ^ F"'"^ ■ f*^ < « * III r ) 1 4 i 4 4 il^l. . . r-T^ 4 4 4 < ^.^ ■"i:« ilip 4*444 ' '/p~i>.'I 4 4 4 4 4 4 .,.,.< 4 4 4 4 4 • < ^1 14 4 4 4 IT^'I'T''' 1 r^^4 4 4 4 4 4 ■:■. 4*44444:': 4 4 Jli 4 4 4 4 •'■■ 4 i^^i 4 4 4 4 *^ y.;i vl; :■■•■■;!■ QiX'StS < *^' 4444 U- .<-,■:.:■:'.■;■. :i:;S 4 4 4 4. ■^^^ 4 1 K :;>::::::-?;:::::::i ^ij * * * "i -• * -* Pa t .. . i .. i|::.-.r,,;,:^i 4 4 4 i 4 4 i^« fl. Ftf'll^ ??© ^-^^ ;-r<;";;' ■y^^j^i l-<^ w!: ;^ H^' .*yv^ 4 1 4 4 4 4 ' J 4 4 4 * ft iv i 4 4 4 I J^-^j.Vj'i 1444444 4444 4 4 j U.?^* o t" * k J [■• *"«"i'"'*"i' "(fa « 4 4 <r_] 4 4 4 4 !4| ^444444 1.^1 4 4 4 ^H 4 4 4 I < V 4 4 4 4 4 4 * Tr 4 4 4 4'^4' 4 4 4 4 -* *1 ^■« "4 "4 "* "4 4 4l_ 4 4 4 4 4 4444444444 144444 4 444 444444444 « h4 4* [444^4444. J ^ J I: 4 4 Jf'4 4 4 4 4 ' '-■'^s^-4-! r^ , ^r^ 4 4 4 rrv 3** I L 4 4^4 4 4 4 4t4^ m i , * 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 4 4 4 i__i_4. 4 4 Jrt H-S ,4_4' |4 4H-4 4JI-L|*444 »>»*,/*<: %.i»\ V^ ^ta'q^:.' ^A- ^L&J m wm. , I- ^^^^ Hl-.j. PL*!';^^"^: <5* ^ -J 't TAPE £0.99 The place ... the deepest, torn The plot ... to attack youi semes with the fine to the ultimate testatum yoi Your reply ... keep yom cool Are you capable of mastering the most exeit flf ^i^R. # \ jc ihi Eutili prior to f he ■k are TeturniBg lo _ ii}iicsr. fr«m the cohtnrb QJ jffluf Sfifvahi jujtf f spjcccrrft, you miisi deftad the Ejnh jrotn rakwvtr by ihi' XtviMt* invjHJcf^! In (he event of youf sdi vivui]; wave ilia vtvtt ai enemy o^!iIatt(thi you will tiicnunttr (he maiitAUa^kia df the Xevious oiiciwiveT \ht knim Genesis Maiht:i iUiifr! This is jmi %ml A dirtci hit to her cuitiil reactor Will dinUe her, tkai do bdi 3!>e luHeiJ intfl a U\^ ffcnM: ol ^ImtY' Xevitpus hijctTi will ^ocm k -appear to renew tiieii acticks will) incKisdi dEtcrnniMiHm! 1 1 Bob Wade checks out your tips, poke$ and game- busting ploys. The best ones coulcf win a entire i$»ve's A A Raves! So why not send YOUR latest gem to: Cheat Mode, Amstrad Action, Someiton, Somerset, TAll 5AH. Po^ArerpIay Tony Hoyle of St Amies and Neil MacDougaJi qE Biistol have both come up vnth pokes allowing you to examino ihc pre- prepared question files on the Aicaiia game. Just type in d^e Hating, rewind the tape on side I and Tim the lisiing. Once the cotnpilei has loaded, you can lo3d (?ne of the quiz files pro- vided and examine i1. 21 LMrcDipiler' ai POKE L92B9,IBF H CALL VmS9 F Ktllopede This Method l poke fiom Shaun Bouine gf Oldham gives ywi an awful loT ai lives to bJaat away those insects, IB NEMDRr imrMK HKm R Zi 13 IIKM:Ilt l,2fi: INK 2,24 31 CLSlLDAr'scrfin'pkCfif 4f LDU'lkindiscDbj- Si mm j;jtiKf,!;iiiK i,i: INK Z.lim 3,1 &d LQA9*<k ill. sa?', Kill ,23,34,44,23 41 mti 36,3?,il,H,e9,2J,fi5 ,IJ,3S,:3,Z3 U UU 3&,37|23|3&|be. 31,37 ,btl,c3,3d,fl iB UU 21,bd,3i:,3i,c3,23,3i ,45, 23, 36, be 71 MIA c3|iM2,N, 23,34,15 j2I,9c,4a,3i Bi Dm c3|Z3.3&,3c,23,3£,b» ,2I,Sb,73,3fi 9nmff,et,fb,e9,c2,lS,4c ,3«,17,cd,n m DATA4],c4r4^4a,c3,Bt,4 3,21,76,36,36 111 BATA t3,23,3£,lf,23,3S,b e.:3,fl,3i 13« m rklElf TO blE77:R£l Hit 14ff i-V*LriH*l);y=yta ISi POKE r, a: NEXT 151 IF y()k29F2 THEK PfilNT ' Ma error' tEXD 171 LOAI Mlmsll' X ^ lei CALL U£M ^1 / Thrust In addidon to our pJa^yjng guide (in colour - flip ahjead a few pages) Phil Howard has come up with his own nifty poke, tt's entered using Method 1 and gives yoxx an extra new cssntrol over your ship. WJien in flight you can hit the Ctrl key and it stops the ship dead. It doesn't Slop the pod iJ yo^i're cafiying i1, but controlling it i& inuch easiei' once youVe stopped. Alien Highway nfijiother cracker from Phil Ho- ward which de-electrifies the road edge in the VoitoK gamo to make manoeuvering a lot ■ea.BL«i. It's «r.iBred using Method L. 11 SITA 32,4£,32,3i,32,32,ft> ,S6,2fl,l2,J4 if MTA E?,B5,21,3a,fJ,3ft,c3 23 3i 26 23 If DATA 21,£3,n,22,lt,U,c3 ,4f,?9.Zl,e2 21 WTA 39, 3fi, £3,23,34,54, 23 ,3i,bt,2],4f 31 UU if,E5,21,fl,bb,iS|C3 ,b7,39,«5,21 41 m ;i,f2,36,8S»cl,fl,f3 59 FOR x-|BE4f TO U£6a h$ REAP it 7rP0l£E ijVAlfl'titI 8f NEXT n ftEHORY I20f f iff LQAJ'sli^n hi^lMI^* III CALL IIE4* .r-y Heavy on the Magick Ivlike Kiamiaf d of Colwinecton has some tips for anyone stuck in Gargoyle '5 animated advenruijre on how to deal with ail thos« doon. Doors are opened using keys, gold or a pasBword. If a door has a table near it a key is required; if a la.bie and a double-O sign, gold is needed; if pillars with skulls or wolve?' head?, a password has to be found. Rooms requiring keys have naities like room of Pride and room of Claws, These names match star signs found next to The keys. For qieampl^ LocJ the lion matches the room of Pride and Cancer the crab matches the room of Claws. Elemental s sre a problem. as they bJoek progress or gtiajd useful object. To obtain the ob- }ect$ a replacement has to be found. A pellet i& replaced by a ball, an egg by a shell, and a nugget by a nougat. To get past the fife you must carry the salamander clasp. To pass the hydre you muft have the snake clasp. Most moii;sler3 can be dealt with by blasting but other ledger ones tequire an object to kill them. Use the mirror on Medusa, the pellet on the s:1ug, the slat on the txyclops, the garlic on the vam- pire and the nugget on the werewolf. If you tnp. Into th^m Without the right object the only way paat la to transfuse till you have 33 stamina points and then continuaily freeje them. PoUb mBthods Here is how lo input the major- ity of Ciiea; Mcde pokes. The inslrttctions for each poke tell you which ol the mo difTcicni ntieUiods to use, \i you Mve a 66ior 61£8f you'll have to type 1 I ■>'.> ■ ■ before typing either. Method 1 retake sure that you've le- vround the game tape lo the beginnmg, Now sype in the poke listing. Then type I^UN and press the Enter key. (Don't mse the key marked CTRL or ContioH thai would stop the poke Irom working.) Presji the Pl,ay key on the cass^ otto deck, and then any key on the main keyboard - the spacebar wiP do niceJy, The tape should now $tan to play through in the notmal way. Method 2 For this method, you have to skip the first bit of the game program. To do that, stari by re- winding the game tape to the beginning. Now type in (he listing. Then type CAT and press Enter. Start the tape by press- ing Play and then any key. Then watch the screen. Ailer a kttie while ycmU gel the message " . i -, ; ■- .■■•■■■! Ill i( .jr - 1 It doesn't matter what the aom* et/uii740tuaUy is: this wjli vary from one game lo another. If the mstructjons with the poke just teH you to skip the first bl^ic. you should stop the iap« here. If (he iii^i ructions tell you to skip several thuigs^ stop L^e tape when the i^ourid mes- sage comes up for the last Ihiitg you're trying loskip Once you'vtf slopped the lapo. prt'ss Escape, lype Rll^ and press Enter. Now press Play on the tapedeck and any key on the keyboard lo start liie tape ruiinin<}. 98 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 After yeofis ai negf&ctmany sirdnge dnct dangerous Jife-forms hoveinfesled Antori.The fuej-notf j SO ©ssenliallo her reoctFvatiort hove been token from tih 9 Power Chamber and kjst in her web of dada, chambersandrooms-Voy most locate *he5« and rehjm Ihsm to their corred' .locotion. Ma ny dongers \vrk oroynd every comer. Rgdicrfion wiiTpanetrtiteyour ACTIVATQIf $ <?u)<sr skin, Twti^ k ^ImftW. imesUi '• '^■V£<^' Hon-oQ^^^' 1 5 FUN FILLED GAMES K^ Virflin Cti4TKi preienti ihe iliiTd Janfeitfc Mmpilqiipn in tha MQW 9 AMIS ??(-]« . .,. j bflft se 1 1 ing ful I price gdrn^i on one to^ far Ih* prie* ck on* fuN price n«w onsl HOW ttAMM ^\*,^ wide choioof tiig h quality ggmai ihe whota family can «rijoy. AveilabbfwCOmWKVaOBI^HHHBnniM Wontt AJWSTIIAbCPC NfCICFi RLATSTHEiffiiN Wild Comet CV*f fha ]£ hci^i of iKe Royol $F G«4rga's ixiurba in Sarldwijh. ;ecii«4i Vii|tnOeiMS Itporti yoif to o lend wKer* tvit i-rtu»i bo d*f* Qdv*ntuni ftatiMB^cot g naphki and gam*ploy * Qf« CODIMAMiMATfl Dtumrti ttne CapltiHn of C*fiturion in Ihit oxcirirhg ihoof-«m-up. Your ihipl £hi«ld«cnda1rcic:king syitwrn, butfrDuntutldKkJA'thAbaftiJc ifie attack i rig Mycrn f f aft. Mikro-'Cw hutnoui U M yoilr i ngenu kf y lo g«l the gong wMrkirvg orkd uneoMr ih* umk wqgof loft. torKJ SpMtL Uolho Lookout FofI VflWfOAKfU [hMMrk f I ■ KcrMH oread* adv«nt</r« bditd on Iha Jbnii^! J ^the fiffel Tout^r, o rvsoui ^m a ftornin^ City I cnd*43i*Qking qI Sill«6i^ VaDiy. \ and HOW ttWWW Y iMll ifre prti vdlua nnHMvd liindtPICnVIHL NOWOAMC53 iftovQibbl^ FH«a*e moko you^ cHftqv>o oi j^v^^ NOW GAMES 3{t£9.9S, p'oov NOW OAMES 3 ts £S,95 (f*Qturei^ DCOiMiMODOfif NOW OAMIS r» Ct.9$ (fr- Nightt, Fo I '^yabfe fo Virgin Ganrws LKW^lecai-v u. lion you r»quiw. tjCOj |ll. Chuck te Igg, Tir Ma TTRUM, lidhight, BriCmBI Sfcm Vir9»n Gom** AMSTRAD, Couldton, VYoiia ^ u f, . iliMp, Pyjamar^ma, Afctbion Nom* Virgin ;;KJJr«i* Ud, /i4 vemon rafO, Hmiqdoijc i iLorKJonl CHEA T MODE Jcick thd Nipper We've got bolh disk ar.d lape pdkestoi the Gretnliti gama. th« disk Version coining Iiom our own RpM and the tape on6 from Phi] Dohcity of Luton. Typo in th6 djsk poke aiid gave it to a separate disk - not the game disk. Once saved you Juat n«a4 lo run ii and fojjow the on- screen irLStmctions. Th& Upe poke jK eTi tared using Method L PIcjsc note thai the disk poke actually write! to your gaitie disJc and alteis ir, bo en- sure the wnte-piotect tah ia off oi the poke won't work, There 13 a check m the piogiam that shouM stop any bxtotv in the da,ta gening through, but you should bfi vary c%re^ whon typincr it in Disk version IJ ' II ' ne Vrite Pfotect Ifust If Of^ 31 ' DtlfFiJie He pQbts Ci mo! I# EniirH 90 mn i'MMsi i:m 1.1:1 ^ FOR t=i]isf TO iim-.fm U !F IJ012I4? Mi PRIKT'ER mi m tm*:mf n PRilT'Irtsert IftCIf THE JTIP ^1^ ^is: iflts drive A lad pr ess 1 le]r«..* Iff CALL ytf3:CAlL fclEfi IJIPRIHT'InliBJU 1ms It^ Ifl '■ Sa zl=I«tEY*:IF i^" THEN m 141 IF 3«=*T' TffN PCXE UW 4,kC3:MlCE Ui4Cfl;50TC 291 151 IF rt='IC THEH POKE HI4 i,iCZ:POKE III4C,K1:S0T0 31 I m LQCJtTE u\mm m%\i\ 171 lUTO IZf m PnNT'Prm It i(«7 Hl»n R eady To Pla)^ daw...* 191 CALL bElf3:CAlL Utf6:!C PF 3MMIfc21,n,If,CB,l4,K,2 2,9d. 11,11, ?9,1I»CI1,M,BC,?2 ,9fc,li 21f DATA U,n,l\,%\%,ll^% ,IA,3D 720 DATA lJ,S7,IF,9£,lfffI«C Lll,l,2,lf,C,7?,32,93,lf,lS .E4,3E 23f BITfi 11,33,?3,1I,3A,8M f,3C,32,8D,lf,Cl,ll,D2,3£,C3 l,77,23,a£,M,77,i3,3£pii,7? ?Sf MTU Zl,9t,lf,CS,fi,R,3 A,n,lf,4F,CS,E5,IE,lfj3AfaF ,11,57 l&lllTASF,9A,ll,fl,Cl,Il,f f,l2,i?,JC,79,32,91,l«,li,E4 ,31,11 27«MTA 32,91, H,3A,8F, 11,3 C,32tSF,lf,Cl.li,G2,C9,f£,ll ,li,M 7@« DATA 11, fl,l J, »r,84,ff,J 1.17,35, ff,H,f7,fl,ll,W,fJ m?tn H«53,i:P0J(E tll5?, f:{ALL tllli;6OT0 m m PDKE L 1053, lEA; POKE fclfS 7,UF;CAIL fcllfi:60T0 IM Tape version \%mi 1 ?i nmtt 41959 3f lATA 17^,Sf,!l,32,A2,«,H J?,32^i95,l,16 4f FOR i=4B64l TO 4S651 Sf READ I a POKE i, J 71 mj eiL0A0'<nipp5r-,4ff6l $1 POKE 4ll4r,19| IMCALl 41961 d"7 Monty on the Run Phil Howard again, folks, witli a Method \ poke for Gremlax's platfoim/cyplarAliO'rt g^me. This one gives you a whole buntdi of lives &guiv - what ntore could you want? H PftTA 21,W,9c,3*,b7,d,l? ,82,Zl,£b,42 21 BATH 3£,c3, 23, 34,17,23, 3A ,f3,Zl,40,if 3f DATA eS,21,B?,l3,t5,c3,4l ,42re5,21,3i 41 DATA H,3i,K,il,fI,f3,c9 5FF0R 3£=12E9 TO 1311 hi ^m as 78 PQK8 t,VALCI*+a$) ?|t€XT ?« ^5RT t2Ji0 IH LOlD'icnt? on tN Ml" ill CALl I2F1 The Apprentice This poke for the Mastertrome game cornea from Nicholas Paris of Rugby and gives you infinite lives. It's entered using Method £ to skip the first five blocks riflitied THE APPSENTICE. 2M LOCATE H,12:PltIKT *pliis I Halt...* 31 FOA ■«! TO H 40 REAl It 50 POKE IJIilu,UAl(*l*4»t] if NEH 71 CK.L IJHf 30 POKE mas, 1 90 phe mvL.t Iff CALL I(?E7A UfmiTA 21, bif 12, 11, 4^,92,3 12f DATA Ed,iI,bc,d2,flrlftC Sdi Combat Dan Rodgers of London has some tips for the contbai game that he says should allow you to carry on endlessly. For white- to black-belt opponenis you should advance two paces fofwftrd and hold a chest kicit. Wheal iJic opponent IS near enough, chest-kick ro- pcatedly, never allowing your foot ia touch the floor, That sliould do 'thmti all in. Southern Belie Andif<?w Dug of Tim ha£ som^ tips oji the HewBon ateam- locomotive gani<^ thai should help you stay on time. Firstly ss an overall tip it's bein to use accelerated time during each journey, as this mak'ES the wrholc jomnQy trom VictOTia to Brighton last 12 to 15 mtnutes instead of an hour . Starting oH is easy, pressing C four tLEnos to put the cut-ofl fun on and .wlnstliB.g, then putt< ing ihe regulator ttalf on (pi«3s- ing a twice) After a few sec- onds you wdl pull out of the station. Wlien your speed is higher than 4 you should press R twice *gain to put the regu- lator full on. Once a spood ol around 30-^0 is achieved yoa c-an ease down on the cut-oBf. pressmg Control-C rw^ce to put jl at half. When going downhiU very fast put ihd T^^ulatDr on half and the «it-0(r <Hl lis lowest position but not iM: return to previous sett- ings for norroil travel. When, clinibing giadiente the regu- lator should bo fuU on and the cut-off about half or tnore. Slowatg d&wn k best done with light or itisdium braking, but putting on the blower and dosing the raguLaitcT will also slow you down quite fast. Before entermg a tunnel put the ^slower on and whistle a second or tivo before entering the tunneL Try to conserve aa much coal and water as possible throughout the Toumey, although it isn't easy. As a gen- lerai rule having ^o coal and water at Z or alsove at Clayton tunnel should seo yoQ through (0 the ^nd. If you are going very fast (ever 70) at QayTon Ot PitTChajn ninnels it is bast tO use !ight or medium braking, ready for going slowly into Brighton, If you 1-Jt the buffers at Brighton at a higin speed you will ctash, Yoi3 must stop within ^ feet of liiq end of the platform - this ig tough and you'll need practice to achieve it. Remember to observe the speed limits and to use ths blower and whistto for the tunnels. ► AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 101 CHEAT MODE Fait the bkiok b«U and al Dan belts yoH ahculd some result iwice into iJwj nuddle of fhc screen and then repeat! Ui« rout- ine with the chest kick. When the thiowing £iars coirte Aloti^ the gr-ouitd, use a flying kick to avoid ihem. ^a you will often tnj;ure your opponent as well. When the stars come at head height, duck. Get Dexter Andrew Mansell of Shaipthorne his a tip for the PSS/Ere game. If you press the Delete key it wi)i pause the game, Tobruk Michel Peier RemJoo from Brigh,- lon has a method foi wiruung or ihe PSS war gamE;, It hardJy tests your strategic and lacttcal sktils but it works. 1 Move atl urkits with a suc- movemeiit aJlawance ^nd sur- round Bir Hachjeuti. 3. ^^ove supplies to within six spaces of units, 3, Keep attacking Bir Hachaim \mib. all units. 4, Every jnove, try lo move supplies around a bit so (hey vifon't get hit by an entsmy air strike. 5 , On command phase lUe all ?0 poittta on ait attacks. 6, When it comes to the air attsidbc always bontb Tobruk. 7, Afler bombing Tobruk three tunes it will surrender. Stainless Sted We gave you tha cheat meOiod on tho Mikro-Gen 3hoo!-era-up Ittst month and now we've go! pl^yin^ ttp« Troin Neil Brewn of Lisbufft and Keith Weiler of Ra^leigh, Incidentality, the choat rtieihod has becoiitie slightly clearer than holding down the top IWO rows of the keyboard - try juat pressing the keys MIKROGEN siiTtuitaiteoiisly. Zone 0; The hBlicoptars need to be hit (wicc,so make it count. If hit only once they fly all over the plac€ making them dif- ficult to hit. To shoot them jii^t pofiirion yaorseU facing acroea the road as they approach on (he scanner. When they are nearly on the scroen, fire a cont- inuous line of buUels across the screen and you should gel the necessary two hits. Always use the scanner before venturing up the loft side of a row of cars, When dealing with ihe met^l eyes, try to gel ihem just showing at the top of the screen where they won't normally fire on you .Don't forget that to enter the car at the end of the zone you have to touch the right side of it. Zene It You have to wsidb yont fuel carefully here since the desert section ha:) to be negotiated quite slowly. Stay around at the start for a while picking oJf the miestJes, and keep careful watch, en youT scaitnoi to Be« when a missile may toe coming up behind you. Wh«n yOtl reflch the first barrier don't forget to ehoot the square droid because you have to de- stroy all of the enemy to com- plete the zone. You can ineak by on the right side of the first barrier and over the starfish on the right of thcs second bairici. Don't forgot you've got to »hoot everything and can't get past the wsiB at the end of the jsone. Zone 2: Bomb Cho subs tinti) the p]sns3 ^iiive and then pick them Off. Try to pick just one aub to keep bombing so you o«n hit i1 accurately. When you come across fuel leave it untti you really nd^d it because you'Uiteedalot, Zona 3: It's mudu like Zone so just progress through il in the same way. FouHK Protocol jSariy North of Littlehampton has eome up ^ith Bome excoUent tips: for the hrst part of this game of mcriguo and doception that sihould enable you to complete It, On Jutte 8 you leoeive a incmo asking you to install security system* in the CO Paja Analyst buildmg. to which you must reply yas. The bajsemeitf r] FREDERICK FORSYTH THE FOURTH PROTOCOL THE GAME nuisl be locked in the followutg w*y: both computer-room doors, the office at«J tho data storage area. On the ground floor you need to lock the main entrance doors, the dcjut and key rooiTtv the ol&ce. the secur- ity door and the meeting room, tf you carry th^t out correctly yon'il gel anothei^ fueniQ later on which requires yOu to doctdo on the order of Importance of the following: L Computer audits by system analy&tit. 2, Special password changed weekly. 3, Special keys to secure araas. 4, Photie calls ihrough hurtisn OpfllTBtQT^, Their correct order o! im- portance is 2431, which ahould slop hackers ge:iing into the Byatetr- Cencom contains tho file Telephone which lists three numisers: BlenhoJrrt computer a438a?31, medical security 71338880, and £ir Anliiony Plumb ia377a«3. The last mim- ber should be used when the player kJiovvs all the details about the traitor and his contact- Don' I dial it if you aren't sure becauiie you wM lose valuable prestige points. Medical gjecurity can be ■ ■ f caUod only after Bracton has called you, Bracton seems ob- sesjied v/ith catling you so read hJS file along with Tliom'*. ; Blenheim's computer can be called at any time; by giving the decoded paftsword you^re given at the start you can tx^ctvf- fer files to Ceneom, where ihey can be examined. Amon^ the fUes yov, can get from Blenihelm are: Nato. papei I. paper 2, paper S, paper 4, paper S, MoD. Cabinet, f'oio- ign. Abba, Sismsiav, pizza, Maras, Pasternak, Faulkner, Bracton^ l?hom, Blod^vyn, trad, names, delivery, Uilaon, Omparde, Shouku and Fox. By analf^ifi of the filed papers 1-6, MoD, Cabinet and Foreign you can narrow the traitor down io one of five men who had access to all thfe documents and a pholooopter. Generally the more watchers yon have on a target the faster you get the results. Always uifwer the phone quickly because some of the caQs are vety important. Kev^t have waichcTs on targets that have already been dealt with as It losses prestige points. Some targets such us. Warbiirton and Banister require the full E5 watcheia to get resiiKs, ne sXO Nexor JuBUn Cole from Colehestei Hm a Method 1 poke that gives in- finite lives on Design Design's 3D ar^^ade adventure. NK 1,26; IKK 2, IS: INK 3,19 21 a^ltFia 3B »EA9 bIMF b«-'eAJ' THEM liaslb^ALI'lt'milPOKEi ,b:i=itl;t^t+b:S(no 31 41 IF iiWm THEN PSIHT'Err or in dita'IEIII 51 CALL IBFie m UU 3f,H,i:i,6b,bc,ll,0I i>l 70 ma »,H,ctf,77,bc,Zi,ff 11 Bff mk £d,83,bE:,cd,7i,bt:,f3 ZI 90IATAIf,cF,U,ff,U,ci,?Z ,n 111 MTAIl,i4, 32,2^39, cM 1,21 Lzi un «id >^.' Roland goes Cciterwaylir\g Do you remember back in the April -,ssue we printed a spoof hi -score sent in by a reader from Denmark? WqU, surpnae surprise, jamos Anderson from Glasgow has sent in a poke for this non-existent game. Just type It m and run it - you won't need to rewind the non-ex:stcni gome tape or skip any im^giiutry h£ader1eef files. il ROBE J 20 UU cd,14,bc,3«|53,d,54 jbb 30 MTA 3e,55,cd,5d,bh 40 UU 3«,43,cd,5d,bb 50 1ATA 3e,4b,c4,Sd,bb SI lATA af,4S,td,M,bb J9 JATA 3e,52,cd,Sd,bh 102 AMSTRAD ACTION DECEMBEE 1986 CHEAT MODE flP^Ti^^r in FC^ i=Um TO MflilMl lI^flEAB at: POKE a, ML (%Ni m NEXT 13S C/U.L t4l0e t^ Batman Neil MacDougaU from Girtstol answeis thd piayi^js Qf alt c^ped ccufisdeis wiih ih« disk -vneision. Just typc^ in the listing and gave il onio the game disk. Wow whenev^i you vmm uvfiniie live* just Tun ihe Usungf and it will fllllon^>ltgca]ly load Lhe gauxe With tnUm'je lives. mi tnm i.^niK i,mm 3 2i& 31 FOR x=ISFH TO tBFZSJEAS illPOK i,HLI'l('Hl):IEXT 41 C4LL 1.IF0I WBATA lt,l?Jl,4i,H,n,4^ J HI itIATA c<,»,bc,2i,27,bf,n ,11 ,lf 20 lATA fi,csI,$3,bc,U,7«,bc 9|]ArUf,k,34,ff,c3,iMl IK DATA £dF2{,73,6Z|«d|ll,l Star strike II Tips lot the Reallime game coine from P joll^ys of Wigan, who lakes you through h Btag^ by frtage. Whon you asATt the game you arc shown a chart of the sysiems. If you're a boguui«i Uion go for the &eta fl^yslem, ^^fh^ch is relatively aasy. Once you've chosen a flyfltem, ihe map of ua pknets appeals, TiiGSG art? split into ihreg types: Agricultural - ThssG have poor defences and are the cafiosl of tha ihreg. The etages ^s ^aoc gates, fighters, pisnetajry desc- ent and control roam. IndaitilAl - The&e are slightly harder, croitsiBting of space gates, liglitors, vcnltlalion duct and conErol room. Milii^Tf - These are the har- dest of tho three, They are made up of the space wheel, $pa(;e g^ies, fighti^r?, planetary dAJc^^tit, V0ntildlion duel and control room. Note that sometimas an alarm will SQund nnd ti load of coloured rectangles will head for yon. Tney can't be ahot so you have to dodge them, but foituiiately they don't take much off your shield, Spscs wAe^l: Appears on the screen and moves clock- wise- Rotate ihe ship anti- clockwise and blast the pOdS Off the whgel edg€. A door opens: centre 6ie cross-hsjirs on it and press D, Rotate the ship against tlie spin of the wheel until the door is horizontal and then keep it the;€. Once inside bla&t th« £ghter and t«ro of thd triangl'SS on the far wall. The Ihiid triangle stop& the iris from mov- December chaffenges This month's challenge J should keep the mappers happy, so get cracking, 1. A pokfi iiUowing you to use chests more than onot? in Druid. t. A poke giving invulnerability on Ijgiitforce. 3. Anvapof Ffosr-Byte, 4. A rnsp of Piadiqy. 5. A map and playing guide to Iconjoji ^ ImJ ing ?o shoot it when the iiis is fully open and fly out , JTefetic^ shields: Thera ate jieTBrAl different g^ites you have to negotiate- Each one lio^ a diamond-shapied gap containing squares and triangles. The triangles gan be shot but the scmarea cannot. To pass through saf^ely, hfi-*<3 for the middle square firing at any misalign that come from the guns- The mid- dle square is set back from tho Qilnfirfi; wJiexi the others disap- pcaz from view yoU Oftn tyrii to the side very quickly to avoid the Unal square. Orbits! insertion: To be on the safe side transfer AH irtuch fuel to the shiuid as possiblo, Fightei3: It's beat to turn your eRgines off to conserve hiel and kcM^p on iha windows (press II), fighters have to ho, shot three times before (hey ex- plode and icvcal the fuel pod- To get the pod ju£j keep it in sight and thrust hard loward-'s i beat you. Scavengers nocd only One shot to destroy them. The number o! (jghtcrs depends on tho strength of the planet. Ground attack: This is the easy bit. AU you have to do here is avoid the movuig rectangles, missiles ar^d vcrtif^l laaeia and blast away at every tl«ng else. Go at full speed to savq fual. Ventiiatiop duct: Stay at half speed and just try lo dodge everything. B(j particularly car- eful with the iriaeu. Gontrol rooms: Each planet has either a reactor or a bRttle compptGFr Just shoot it and fly out of the door that operis. Otherwise you return to the ground attack or ventilation duel o( that planet. The easiest system Is B@la, then Alpha and Delta, Do Ep^ilon last: (his is (he toughest. When refuelling in the module, fill up only your energy bar or you'll never ba able to complete the game. ,il'MMii:illal ^' If- I Winners That arch-poker Phtl Howud has grabbed the big prise this month with pokQS on Tiurust, Alien Highway, and Monty OJi file Rsui, A much-deserved re- ward for consistent high quality and quanbty over many mottths. The runnei3-up are; Dave Howton and Rlehaid Ntclidl- soa, who md^pendeniity ^ni Thrust playing guides, P }tt\- leys for the Starstnks U playing guide. }a3n<>s Moloney for the DoamdATk rcAp. and Nicholas PavlB lor his Appr9i\tic» poke and mnp AMSTRAD ON DECEMBER 1936 103 Try beating oik AMDRUM ! ^^X^. ^ ^ tf m- ^ -r:^--iS? > , >**o u ^ r ;\& featured on "Micro Live" /ji and ^^' "Saturday wmm DIGITAL DRUM SYSTEM for the AMSTRAD £3495 II 464/664/6128 tm*j^ B DIGITALLY RECORDED REAL DRUM SOUNDS SIMPLE TO USE ~ UP AND RUNNING IN ONLY MINUTES A TRUE DIGiTAL DRUM MACHiNE ■HEAL TIME' OR ON-SCREEN PROGRAMMING COMPLETE WITH SOFTWARE EXTRA SOUNDS CAN BE LOADED FftOM TAPE CREATIVE. EDUCATIONAL AND FUN THE MOST EXCITING PERIPHERAL EVER DEVELOPED DYNAMIC FIL»N0 SYSTEM — STORE OVER 1 000 PROG RAM MED R H YTH MS f=— TAPE SYNC FACILITY SONGS CAN 8E SAVED ON TAPE/DISC POLYPHONIC I COMPREHENSIVE MANUAL (' JUST PLUGS INTO MOST HI PI'S 1 NOVVA^ILABLE Latfn Kit &Edf tor Fi ?3-99 ( t'ectro Kit & Editor fn^^fj AvaJlabl«from 0^ r^^"""^f Hiqh St.Stores and all good computer shops Or direct from Cheetah Marketing. Marking ^ »W Spectrum Amstrad Commodore Cassette £8.95 Amstrad Disc £13.95 ] « i r A i ■'PVMI^ar^f J "11 ..^r- i RICHNICHOLSON DAVE NEW) ON L«we! rt*re# Uv*k ont Cfllfict rile Fl*1 and Weir wp pfld Affd co-utitdown starts Lsir*l ti*f* moll* la w »ii- ti* »lirefe to bvlJ*t, CoKvtf Fu«l^n4 po^jfiPiiiFioFf fWfelflr on >^dy otft V#y»t *9ur Shoot flvm and 9^P li»il*9 ihi*td Gftnerof tips Ccti-nt the rmrtiber of shots 1( destroy q f^neJof shoot H rwo oMhfee tim*s leis than fhot on the way^ down Keep the sound turntd up so 'hot you can lell If youV* hitting CI rtottor with your hviieH when JFj ofUnreeti »n Fevers* g^avily.olwoyi let the pod pr«(ede y^i, Ihfough turtnel* Collect oil fvs\ and destroy Ol'guni oothedescen* U** shifid whsfi*ve, i'eiesnding into an area wher*guns gre oe^ive FrequeritMseof,^,g^(„-.ljjj^ esiflniiol for Ihe^ invfiibJe sections Immet WastefsOfiaF>d Simon O Connen hava. on eJicelleniiipf^pf shEpping Jtirough UveJ*. Jyj, Kjj|j dowf, the 2 S. i and up- and piets £i cope, y^ntwjjj Jhp yov Forward oiti fey^f "With o rrisiion-compieFe bonus. !ti» iwat^^t p»o*to^ Mvvmi Thfutt tionf to ovoid dlddros nl S*flbtlifa pod i>#flMt|l| dOd' apcnir -- *»Cy out '^1 dump I HRUST A IIMP£TGUN ^ WAU SLIDER FUEL C£U (and wmlMfl ^ POWER PLANT KLYSTRON PODS ^»^ fvs* and J'reot riveter op*T *efls' ^^ DOOR Lave! $!x ¥ 1 ■^^■^ ^H^H ^J 1^ ■■ J p; 0<^>*^lBd*,h. t"5'**l «li,g th^y '^•'*n flooring arrae- re p^niq^f SfJOof (hi* cnj j^^ sop quidriy door BUY YOUR SOFTWARE FROM YOUR ARMCHAIR! Am$trad Actio v;*-- W*'i("f^'¥Sag :' ice do the walkirr By the time yowV« rmached fhh port of flw ma^oi^in^, cKoncoK are yov'd tove to got yovr hands on tome af th« «oftwor# w«V«i r«vjBw«d. And thof*E ju&l What yov con do. Out moil ^rder servic* allows you 4o drdor virtucjHy ANY piec« of &oftw<rr« for th» Amstrad micros mv\9W0<i in th« mosozine. Whal*i more you con sova yovrs^tf o good sum of money on thop pric«& AND quoHfy for Qfo^t fr«« grfli. M«y, W% a w^ondorfu) woy to buy yoor ^oftwore! SUPER FREE GIFTS! Here's Ihe greai ra^gc ol s&Uwnre that you can get FREE wilh your refer - most of thsse titles normaHy cosling over £8. If your lolat order is over £15 you witi receive ONE free titte, and if its over £30 you gel TWO! Use the order Form to mark your preferences and to delete any titles you already have. AltlnougiT' wa- will supply your prelerences if we can. we do not guarantee this - so be prepared for ar^lVSTERYGIFT! AIL ORDE A if 10 1 i^#^i--ii delivery y IFAT discounts KUMG FU/NUMUR 1 Two Hrent ocedn gsmei on one tape, ^ gsvan away with Vm Chns^nnaJ "85 i?iii« of 4^, U you muMd i1 Ihon, you couJjd gal it now. TUtCOVtMAMr DEMO* A full version of t^w AA-RawhA PSS giHTte <Hi tape. I4>gi!llt0t' Wilh dhifrtAl «f iouf &ther PSS tilleB, asd uuliuc- lions Sor iransifBTtinq fJie CcH'*rtW!f lo didc. A£ reaiuffid ai^ ih« cover d our Hay iwue. CASSirrf OMtv Maibatl "s Hutiutty Rtm Everyone 'e a WsISy AmeiicAii FiMtbail Electro Freddy HvntST KiShr Ltserwarp Sf3iat Cisssic Aavsn tare Wriggler Pyjamarssna Spannerman HuiicJilMck KfAsI^r Chess Rol<m<l goes Digging Meifig^ from Andrnmida SMtxHawk Wwter C^m^s Doomidiiy Biuvs CtftOfucteT Big Lc<igu»SoccmT Ai^x ItggiBM World Pooi M^rsport Alton Htgtiway Sw^evo^s W6iki TLL Hsgl\ way Erceunmr B/iliTian iiSsm WRIGGLER VOUCHER Fgi uii >vttl1»nJ»<l1i*n|l.M- r 1 I I I I I I I 1 I I X VOUCHER r«r HttwHh iiihn linn EtO.H- jinii. Ml uwclltr nnr alin) VOUCHER i I I I VOUCHER Ni wtwuhii'iiiiauif £B(ILdD (■•t, «rH viHiClHr r*l'«^| HOT STUFF FREE! HOW ORDERS ARE DEALT WITH Amatrad Action Mail Order t« ran hcjc in Sorr:«Ttr>it by the super- #ffiirl»iit sue TAVliOR, rhe woitihil wkio gft» more laail in A <iAf than movi peopl« get each f*tai progtairvR whl^h our sup-pUcis cajinat gal hold fy[ (or smne re- lie«ii. Sue deipktch«* al] p'^clcagttk br Hftfi ciAii maJ wiUiln Twe av thiee Mctkin^ imyn of HceLving the o^dei-a. Therefoie^ yen c&n aomnally expcei t<> T4c«ive yo^or If i1'» litvlAved bfytind H^*t vrlUcli hftan't y«l been lolessctl it is tQmpcHiily imAVftUliJ}li|> tn vrfaieh <»ii« « pbQD« q«U from yim WON*! ipead thift^* ap, (In f^ct the revet »ft - ph*nr «flll» *rc very t)mV'Con»iiining,)< If * long 4l«lkV wier« I11c#ly H«'d ttl yoa Nn«w. PLEASE BEAR IN MtND 1. Th^ fhct tluit a prognm i* re- vl^Wi^d ia the inag^uin* dn«i nal KErORE it ttaa ncnaftlty be«ii 2. We «* Kiippy to jvlimi ypm ordar 41 any lirqie up ta the d«- •palcH cl the gODfiii. Bnl b«caafre ot Htm pe«&LbI1Uy of copying lofl- WBTFj mo rchind »if f xcKkngc lo «Ii aSl»Tnativ« ^ee* vt iottwiTB dsb b« giTcn aA*r th«y h«vr boi^n de- «IMtc)i«A. ferriTwe Miucb dpei noi lead may be Tetaniad for a le^ pl«cepn«nl cati*t(« or dt»c ccn- iaining tke ak.m* t^^twaia ciifaei 1v HI Air dltpctli/ ta 111* loftwar* h4nfc CDno*m«d' 3. Wb try to be Jia accQiatB bi up* ckn with d«tatlt 4f price, comjMtl- biUty 4n4 dilk «T4lUlaUity, feot cknnat acrcpi liability ior any *n«)f« lb*! «:)r«»j^ In, with any order over £5 A CIS data cessette containins high-quality tape specially desig- ned for cOftTputer users, It Comes in a library case with blank inlay card. FREE! with any order over £15 your pick of any one of the samcs featured in the Super-gifts box, Most would normally cost £8-10! FREE! with any order over £30 A bisrik 3" disk OR your pick of any TWO of the games featured In the Super-gifts box. OVERSEAS READERS WELCOME Acadeis in rh« Rvpnbttc oj inELAMD can 0]rd«t iny oJf i.h««« h^ohIq at the s»nt* rat«« tLt- British cead«r* j»r4Tldod thai paym^n.! Jn VAadt in pauAdi SK'TlibSf" ^^ y" wish to pAy in iTinh ponnac yan inuiE Mdd a [ft,3-!ii{) Kuicfadrg^ IN AUDITION to ^l«Min{| lot- tlic current o»«|t4Jqy» late - thal't yrltMi it CDStE us tfl pay In your oherquci or poiital ordcxs, HE^d«r« #]i0wlL»ro In EVBOPE must add El per s^flvrai* it^fn 14 lh« foit aT theit ordar. Ptymant jitaftt be in pO'U.nde St*^lLnf> Sendthisiofrritslj^Davtnent i^- AAMallOTd*r.l9PlnewoeO Drlve,Somerton.Samfifsc1,TAl1 6JP MAIL ORDER FORM Name....... ,.,,..,. ..,.,„„„,..,.„.... .,Teiaphoner^O, (if pOS Address........ „. „.„„ S) ,-,,,-..,..,.... „, , ,,..,„„.. Post code , fwlachine owned: DCPC4G4 CCPC664 U CPC6123 Enlvth* pfa.BF*mf you with <«erd*rh Ih* «p«e*t bslcw, tJr4«- 'PRICE' yw tiuiI *r\i.v lh( lull f (lilt pfl«*, f jam want unvf* thM) IW* Umi, you th«u Id Elit tlitm on 1 1 iparsl* pint irf paper. SOFTWARETITLE SOFTWARE HOUSE DISC/CASS PRICE 1 - 2 3 :4 PR&DtSCOl JNTTOTAL TklC er-* o! til* fci' lowing aisecrd'irg to ymr miE-tKSCdilMTTOTJt'L. ! I U^erES n CS-9.99 lendoE(]a5QpdiSCOUri;vOuch«r< □ £10-14,9S, 1 enclose a £1 discount voucher, ._! C^S-i9.S9.lonotij3«a£l voudnerantfdaima ffMOin. lZ P20- ■20.99 J snciase a E2 voucher aind Claim a freeQiri, tMJ0.09,lenctesoa£2voucherandc!aim twogifte [jOvisfESO, Iefic5o*&3£5vouchwandcla'm iwo titts TOTALPAYABLE FOR MAlt ORDER (-PRE-OtSCOUNTTOTAL mirus diaoojril^; Ifn ««M* itwn iMa bt A* o>nw irsu alraadv liftw, ind tirtli |h* ana* yEM ttfuM prntaAMly lll« a* your tr** ^Mlfi, OveM E^ • C*Hf<( Afl»»rrlift - TfHiy^wi ■ PfiaptaAfO. ' £*win«HiMi < H^icrtott- M#»ur CJ»»S ■ floiaij Softs ni'55'"'0 ' M*8fflfcJi ' ^>ict h>»* Save £71 ADVANCED MUSIC SYSTEM ThlB disk could lie yours for Juiit £22.95 Ot tf you iMven^t got a disk diive... Save £3.50! MUSIC SYSTEM Oa cassette at just tl2AB th« original Mt/sfc System caused qyite o tlir wKerv Peto Connor reviewed ir in our Morch \a\x9, describing if of '« superbly executed packo^e ,„ viWh o thorough ond vary cfeor monuar. Since then it hot become the standard agoinst which all mu^ic pack- ages hove been fudged, ond largely found wanting. The Advanced Music System extends the facilites £tfll further, and 'the main section <.. tooks every btt o« good now oi it did six months ago*. The package h very easy to use, with pep^down menus and windows. You can emote three separate voices dl a time. As you ptoy, the tune op peers m full mustcol notation on the screen. The Advanced version includes a printout module for printing six voices of 'mu$ic on proper slaves on paper, ond a linker module thai allows larger pieces to be pfoyed. We are oFfering you The Advanced Music Sy&/&m on disk for £7 less than yov will find it in the shops, and if you haven't got o disk drive then we ore knocking £3.50 off the cheaper MvsJc Sysfem on cassette. IF you are planning: to buy a disk drive soon, then you can still benefit os Rainbird will upgrade you to Advcffcedfrn £1 4. Whatever youVe got, this is the best way to get into music and save money at the same timel SPECIAI Half Price! ■ Special offer for readers ta ISSUE 4-- ' cassette Only 75p if you order any o The 1 1 epage Christmas issue of Amstrad Ac fion, with Kung fu and Number On& from Ocean on a coyer cassette, retailed for £1 ,S0 and as a back issue normally costs £1 .85. You can have a copy antd halve the original price if you take up any of this month's Special Offers. The cassette Is arguably the best gift aver sluck to a magazine cover, and up to the standard you Save chaos! MAGAZINE bin; Only £3.95 You askud for «hem and now you've goi These T them. No more piles o( AnTStriad Acliorm as the ma clulteiing up your living room Mipet and 'Amstiad , getting, sob, battered to pieces m the pio- Nevwap C cess. Instead a superb, cusiom-buiK bindiit n\agazines . spdci^Uy deaitfuod lo t.-ike 12 copies of AA etotied bohi and preserve them m pristine condition for Loyal i pio&perirv' v^nd easy future referenecj. your bindei ; SPECIAL OFFER FORM Ftl! in your r\Bme, addraBS and machine typa on the revej'se of this form, yoifwieh to order- LDniid D £5.95 on Cassette 2.Adv, Music System D £22.95 on Disc 3. Music System D £12.45 on Cassette 4. Trio □ £7,95 on Cassette □ £12.95 on disk 5. Light force □ Cass £6.95 □ Disc £11 .95 6. Power play □ Just £6.95 on Cassette 7. Magazine binders D£3,95 8. Subscription D 12 months £16.50 (U K rates Ofily - write for quotaHion tor Qv^K^eas rales] 9. Back issues At£1,35:^No.3^No.S □ No.SQNo.lonNo.ll □ NoiaDNolSQNo.U At£1.85:DNo.4nNo,8 (TbMaal £1,9S indud* ««»v»f meunted eSSSSM OOntdiiUng sifuytj g,amBaur:n±'u) □ Issue 4 lor 75p! Then placo a Ifch naxt to lho»e items 10. Grand clearance sate □ Elite cass £6.95 D Elite disc £9.95 □ B a! man cass £4.95 □ Batman disc £6.95 □ NewWord disc £29.95 □ Str*loop+ disc £6,95 QSorcery+ disc £6,95 □ Raid disc E5.95 □ Cyrus Chess disc £6.95 □ Dambusters cas& £4,95 □ Bounty Bob cass £1 .95 □ DGadline disc £9.95 □ s&astalk0rdisc£S.95 □ WSBballcass£3.95 □ YAK'ngFu cass £3.95 TOTAL NUMBER OF tTEMS TICKED | "| TOTAL AMOUNT PAYABLE ON SPECIAL OFFERS I endose a ctieqiie or postal ardor fcf this am out, plus tho tot*'^ payable for mait order on ihe reverse of this farm. The payment is made out to FUTURE PUBLISHING LTD. Save £2! TRIO Sam Goes Sho; Table Test Computer Snap! Yours for just £7.95 If youVe been looking for sq lo get Arnold educating your try Trio, three programs aifn making learning fun for kids. 1 w© first saw this soflware w so ifTpressed thai we helped authors lind a suitable pubflr and now we can bf ing it to yc this special price. Tfio is the first foray iff educational s«as by Piranha advantage of these pages: item from these two pagesL sd p^i^ pounds for over the iler, Kung Fu has s^jperb lation and 3 two-playor optbn; ihefOiieis an addiclive rdterball te with super-fast 3D graphics. AtkJ the issue itself isn't bad EOT. with our usual reviews and vs, a look inside the doors of jan» and plenty^ of maps and ne-pokes. SuperiD value at £1 .50, i i it could be yours for 75p!! Mastergame! Save £2! ii^nTTi Only E5.95 on cassettel Here it is, tine great AA maslBrgame winich notched up a 93% rating. Featuring superb colour grapfiics with smoof fi^ mulli-dJrectional scroKing, Firebird's program pits you against a host of evil creatures. You have three different types of weapon to blast mem off the screen. Combine all that with a large playing area and a feature whereby a second player can simultaneously take part in the game, anct you have the ingredients of a winr^er. It's an absolute bargain at it$ luil mtail price of £7.95. Knock off two pounds and you cani refuse. ERS ; Jook every bit us. good ifutd JTtciudc the n*me emlKJSsed in blocked 1 titc- spine. Individual eld in place by bemg of 12 wire? 3, don'l delay. Request SUBSCRlBfl Enstue that you gst the next 13 copies o! AmatTAd Action with Ihe minimum at (usa. £13.50 will make sure that every issue materialises on your doormat without you having to iitl a fin- ger. AA Rave! Save £2! UGHTFORCE Onfy £6,95 cassette, £11.95 disk This game is Faster Than Light, A really classy shoot-em-up with beautiful graphics. You have loads of alien spedes to blast and four different zones to play, with both ground and air targets to destroy. But above all the game's addictive. How long can keep your finger olf the button?! cassette, or £12.95 on disk e "smalt but tethal' software team within Mac mill an, which is one of Britain's naosl respected rtanies in the world of books. m The three programs in !he set are Sam Goes Sh(^ng (a challenge to even adult memories), Tsbl&$ Testanti Computer Snt^l {w\lh no cards for parents to have to clear up afterwards). It is gr«at fun for kids of ail ages! PLEASE NOTE TTloa* QJtera are ^eipaj^l^ frMn Ihw r*B at OUT inail-order schwno, Ywi CATLfLOt uAi thio TouciieTi ai\ lh# tnMil- OTder p«ge :o obiMm tar^f dJ*' cnuin And timm g^ta: - we'iw«liwidy Intockod off iha suw: ws c4aT HOvr- «ver. tt fflti pttlmt, ytms my ordof «ny el tlw iwini on Qus pA^« 21 ihm HOMUl FUU. tTHlCE rhfough iho OTdlnarf mail-ordtfr sehetne i>n iht prariouc p*q: You can ttiAh usa Oto Qth^ 90i94« it ^ Mm* te^fl Stock clearance! AIMAZING BARGAINS Great so Ft ware at under half price! Oar AlsdCiin 's Cave of software treASures has become TAther full of late, atjd vf-e've decidad fo have i? clu-arcmt. So here 's a aniqui! appoitunity to pick up some superb sofnvare at aUly piiecs. Iiike half price or Isss. Check out the titles Imlow and if yo» wAitt f<> order, move fast, because we only h<iv& timii^ supplies at these prices. ELITE Firebird's spac« mftge-ganie. Oniy £6,95 on cass^tie or £9-^5 on disc! BATMAN The superb 3D aicade-;idv^titiire from Ocesr. Only £4,95 on cassette or £e,9S cm disc! NEWWORD The power-packed WordStar-^ompstihls wordpiocessor from NewStar. This version ie for tlie CPC 6128, Only £2&e3 on disc reduced from £69! STRANGELOOP PiLfS Bemonding, funuristic aclion in a huge, bxisue robot factory. Only £S.95 on disc! SORCERY PLUS Widely acknowledged as one of THE great Amsirad games ~ ju$t i£.B^ on di^! RAID The contiovefsial shoot-em-up against the RusElane. just £3,95 on djs<;! CYRUS II CHESS Powerful chess program with a gorgeous 3D display. Only £G,9S on disci DAMBUSTERS Famous flight-simulation action from the second world war, Just£4.9S on cassette! BOUNTY BOB STRIKES BACK OriL' of the wfotld's most addictive pJatforro gantes. Now only £1.95 on cassette! DEADLINE A sujjerb disc text adveriture from bifocom- This IS the 6128 vetsion. Jusf £&-85 to cleart SEASTALKER Anoihec liifocom great - a perfect introduc- tion to adven luring for 6130 owners. Disc onty £9.95 to clear! WORLD SERIES BASEBALL Ttic tanious sporis simulation From tmagine. Only £3.D5 on cassette. YIE-AR KUNG FU ltii.agii«G's luj.iiiou^cotrdtat g<){tii;. Now only £3.D5onca3gctli;! THE ALL-IN-ONE ACTION FORM This form has been created by the Save-Your-AA-From-Being-Overhacked-Department You cai> use it to register your votes for Games and Serious Software, or to send in your Type-ins, without losing any news or reviews. GAME CHART VOTING FORM PLEASE NOTE \6v hiva a TOTAL ot 10 votes for eaoh chart t^altbcate bfitween up to live progfAma - sg. you can gi^e all 10 lo one pragramorapll1thiemsav^4*^<tZtT«ti( / would like to vote for the following gar GAME 1. SOFTWARE HOUSE VOTE ALLOCATION 2. 3. 4. 5. SERIOUS SOFTWARE V 1 would like to vote for the following pac PROGRAM 1. OTING FORM :kages: SOFTWARE HOUSE VOTE ALLOCATION 2. 3. 4. 5. i « You can help us out at AA, and give your type-ins a far better charice of being ptfbtished, by filfing out this form and wrapping it around your cassette wSth a rubber band, it would also be an idea if you ^end it in a jiffy bag a& an awful lot of cassettes arrive here damaged. Name ,,,,,, ,, ,>, Address , Postcode. TITLE™ „...„... DESCRIPTIOI^: *Pi V'ii'vinHi*fr»itilili*»IP»«ipi r#*»4'^« } hereby declare that the program on th^ attached tape is a// my own work, and that it has not been sent io sr)y other publication, nor been published in any form, or submitfed to a software house hr txsnsideration a$ part of a commen^iai padi&ge. Signed. .Date. WHAT! SURELY YOU'RE NOT STILL WAITING ^ FOR THAT GAME TO LOAD ? ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU BOUGHT YOUR SOFTWARE FROM AMBYTE, THE ONLY COMPANY WHICH CAN SELL YOU GAMES SOFTWARE ON DISC AT CASSETTE PRICES ^ HERE'S HOW IT WORKS^ From 1h« litl below you pick 1h« games you wani, and w« put Ihem on disc - «asy fin'l i1? Wveill th«rn cufttom compilations. The AdvsnLages are clmai; you benefit Ircm 1h« (oadmg ap^cd diac game* offer, 1,0 you gel more out of your ■ottware, but you don"l pay any mom than if you were buying the game* on upe. Not ortly that, many of the gtmea we offef wouldn't be available on ditc * where ets* could you buy a Maslertronic geme lor El .99, on dtK!, kf tt lan'1 *rom AMBYTE. ACTIVt&lON ACOO' AC0C2 AC003 ACOC-<t AC0O5 ACOM Ghoslftuslerj. Mir>dshm<Jo* Master & th« l nmps HtKua on Fradailus Hwdwr 9&9' 9.»9' g.sa' 999" Barry McGuiQiiri Boxing S.99' ALLIGATA ALO0 1 Who QafBfl W*is 2 S95 1.99 1» 199 199 199 1 99 1 99 1 99 1 9& 2.99 2 99 Z.99 MASTERTnCmiC MAOOt Fndtrs KfteipeTS MA002 CNIar MAOO13 N>Oflt#^ra'qU0US MAOM looemoiior) MA005 SoyI at a Robot MAOOe Foftrtufa One Simu^aior MAOO? OfK Maf* and His Drotd MAOOa Cav«fi Dt C3oom MA009 (nro Oblivion MAOIQ Sp«n Bound MA011 TfMLaElVS MA012 K»n« MA0 13 Radicw h/|A014 Flw « Skj« Fooibsli MIKflO-GfcN MKOOl B4TII6 &1 :h^ Ptawts 9 9S MK0O2 ThiBH Wb9J(£ tn Pafaaise 9.9& MK003 HartHflB'tOumniy Run 9.9S MKOlJd EqjMox 9 as US GOLO iiSOQi BeiachheBd 2 9.95' US0D2 1rnpos«ibl« Mission 9.5S' USOoa Wim^Garnss 9.95 USO04 R«lurnlDOf 9.93' U$OC@ Bnjce Lo« fii.9S US006 Goonie^ S.fS* US007 ZoiTO flSS' USCOa Sunlight S.S5' US009 OambMiiitr* 0.95 US010 Kifnp Fu 9.95 USOli BojCiljiHob 9 95 US012 DtMri Fox 955 g*i=M'''.ir:i.^rvj?i^ GRD01 I hin^ on A Sfxiog GR002 way Oi ThB TiQar GR003 Sufrtf Sisiiih GROM BOLfr^^r GR006 Monly oniha Run KUOOt SiapAwCfiflef KU002 Galawd KU003 RoiiiRflid KuaOS Cavftms of MafS KO007 At^o Mavis KlTDOfi Rewgadd KU009 B'jtter B'oi* 9.9S a.95' S.9S e,9S' 5.95 G.S5 6.9S SJS fi9S ELrri 1 ess PALACE PA>31 Ciiuiiron PA002 Cauldmni ir 3 93 8.99 FIRE&IHD 1 FKOi Raspuiin 7 9& FlOaS Ron#ston* ?.9S FIQ04 Co£!a Csptn 7.95 FIC06 C'thnara 7.fiS Fi006 Thui>dertait{^ 3,9£ F«507 Willow Pattarfl 3.9S FIOiM Don! Panic 3.95 FIOM Subsunk 1.99 FI!?tO ShQitsFuze 1.99 FIOII Tha CoTtat Gams 7.95 FI012 Ntnjatlasrir 1.99 FI013 Collapse 1.99 FIOM Melichopp4f 1.99 FIO15 Thrust ffl9 FlOlS Seabaa* Delta 199 FlOf 7 The WiW Syoch 1.99 FK)19 Sr^rFrebirds 1 99 Fh)19 Haivay H«a(^an0er '.99 FIOJO Salksy HarcskJ '.39 PSWl TNeaif* Europe 5.95 PS002 Hanle Iw Midway 9.95 PS003 0atii« CJf Brram 9.95 PSOC'4 SwofOsandSwOftry 9.95 IMPORTAN VOU (VW Y ORDE R AS MAN Y GAME S AS YOU LIKE so LON G AS THE COMBINED VALUE OF FWOOf THEM EJCCeEDStiS VOUCANMOT, FOR eXAf^PLE. ORDEH SEVEN MASTERTROfJIC TITLES UNLiSSVOU Al SO OROFR TWO NORRML PRICED GAMES CRL Cf*H)l Endiifftoca 79s GftOOZ Ju^oernoul 7.95 CRiOOS Fwmuia 1 795 CRO<04 Blade Runoer 695 1 MAflTECH J BFIITANNIA SOFTWAnE BmXH Play YoiJf Caniji FU^ 7.95 CC0O£ CC0&3. Afnri*fin ELECTBlCDflEAMS MTI>01 2«d4 - Tha 5a'.l\t Bag-m B.95 MT002 Brian Jad^s S^jpenlai' a.95 MTCHJ3 Geoff Capes Si nong Man fl.K MTtKH Sam Fox Slrp Pofcer S 96 MT005 WAR B g*' EOOOl E0002 Wimsr SpodS Spindi2^ MIHHOHSOFT MS001 MS0&2 DynsTiire Dan 0D'jldQrdash 995 90S 9.B8 ' S.9S 9.95 ORDERING (CPC 6128/664 S ^64 machirtes oniy) OONT FORGET VOU MUST SPEND AT LEAST t1 5 ON TWO GAMES. PieAsn donrtov'deF amy games marlcedvnth a star |*) unless you have l^>eplX}nedu& ion ghe rurnberbeioii^) lofnake^ure Ihey are available. Thes9 games ware nol available ai tfie lime of ouf gdng I0 {X€ss tut shourtd b« when >tm r^art this - hutdon'i take a chance- phone us. ori>erwiiM yourofder mighi gsT delayed YQ!ijcaniord?fasmar!ygamesaByoulike.uSoasepafatepic;teo1pa(>&rif you prefer , Out don'l torgel any of I he dealails ar^etl for by l^'e fDm. Phone 0277 229684 Code Number Title Total Order Value Price Name. Customer Code (il you heve one pifliastt uia It, il saves time) ^■^■^ ^^ Address. .Fob I Cede. Cheques 3rd po&tai flfde« should bemade payable to AMBYTE- All orders Should be pasted to AMBYTE^ 200 North Service Rd, Bfeiilwood. Essex. CM14 4SG UNIT14,WHITE HILL HOUSE, 6 UNION STREET, LUTON, BE0SLU1 3AN THE UTILITY PEOPLE TEL ^0502) 4ii6as FOR YOUR AMSTRAD 464/664/61 23 ■t7,K OtSC TRANSMAT ten Ul9 -nsdn > MccMtsr^avstitti^ oU^ »A^m'Mn; int Ct?.K B BIT PRINTED PORT 4sr«ia^ :r4'«:c xti.ffic nsc FIDO * Be- M* ll*«H,i(ii«-f»Briiw, tf *■ wjn<it«inria*»pio jrnn you w*rt iht-iniJO !■ ycM'»^*p ™rii-n)tiir»iii«*|j(|iatff«uiii A ttmuK* d« jilB)j win » iit*1Jr*^*ji'*y5U •*• :i*W w»w ««r*«i! *' 'teff-<Ft>i »n| fM^rf JlMkl^' Atrii!^ 3ht4dte ■Aaneitiidi^e4ke^»^piciF4iii^ Htn^f4u<*n*uiar*]ri* s-i: ' *i»«sU9«m 4e< MPS' *wt 4:^ s*ipt iwi'-i s^n^pri'viv tliTWUM'l'*' WWdi>'»tf*« **»»*» WUffifl* ' *M ini9tua«fiiijii*« ftjapMd4«du« ■wvuMMpiMru NO'/' * |tOMVf<4940h! 0»jet4VMJIMJ-C1tJl, ir tsit HA ve Afir eiffKvtrr otrAimrts abrn pffQQUAMs ncAse vse rue oflcm romt Mttow I ORDCR FORM J AipeamnA^ V4 ti/vf i^jnf ^,r i.,-,., ^j,^ f tjnn (■*, fr J ii'WH/)r:MfOl.lF.^i(v-*..lMMiJ!iF«fr^'rv [ NWiE , I ADORiM I nt» FFlNTf.mPjiCJ^ JVDOUtdS (*iifTi.flBf Jbn iFcn - F ■-' - h- US ■7SS ■O^ Z^ 1-J £fJC ADDLABS ^ —J tiM spinrr 1 cass tnt ftwwnc tacliiipt )o li«n»ii Pot gMuta ii«9»i>ni PRINTER PAC tl (^^ ■:v^%- ■ vtf<imttU»Bfa«M>imi lw tBiKOTH)j!t<-in;jw-icf tl SUPER SPRfTE Clrf> I SCRIPTOfI CASS OBC CASS oec SVSX Shekhama Computer Services ife|.C'tH3fi«T-Ci. .^.bS 'UJCA 6d«Ji-CH -^ OHVO ,, :•! flfT DeiTf.H--P! »flXe«HIL^|P<' D1 7« «Ctt>3MH«R. «TTUi;xr-a-« t,t^ cjihffix.'ATV/AFA^'S— 09 ftftfreiK9T-«,- ,- ,,_ tT9 KSi^iwiSML*, „■„, Tir','lAL*UR44n-D4 ItK *A1V.iU<l^-K u.,.. 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ADVERTISERS' INDEX ea A.G.F 39 MARTECH AMBYTE 113 MIKROGEN 105 AM5 20 MIRAGE 3d ARIOLASOFT 32,44 MIRRORSOFT 37 ARNOR 18 NMC 51,86 BESTBYTE 21 OCEAN 17,52 BEYOND CASCADE CHEETAH DOMARK ELECTRIC DREAMS 65,1 BC 99 46,104 9 49,60,77 PR)DEUTtLmES114 RAM 10-11 SCHOOL 43 SHEKHANA 114 SIREN 43 EVESHAM SOFTEK 4 MICROS 51 SOFT INSIGHT 39 GARGOYLE 12 SUPASOFT 21 GREMUN 92-93 UBfSOFT 30-31 IMAGENE INCENTIVE IFC,40,50 OBC 21,39,43 US GOLD 78-79 21,«.S7 VIRGIN 100 INFOGRAMES SO 114 AMSTEAD ACTION DECEMBER 1986 ^fp^ iifODROID IS AVA{iA8LBr^ iLERS. IN CASE OFOf }ND SOFTWARE FfRSTl LOND( lGOoo software \S£ WRtTE 7D 4EW OXFORD ST. DENT< DESIGNS nnHH r -f * "^ 1* n\^f^i s- t r ■ 1 1 1^ Pi shot on ^d itinth. <'^I«L^'«l ^^miiSlti , .. you haven't al. n vouYe i| |fa|r a fed/ surprise oins Mag Max to loaaWBraP^ur micro. ' "1 Max could be a mean machine if you Ve got what?liWi^ to put - f him t03ether. Build him up and his fire-power increases - you'll need it! - believe it! '^ '^■ ManctTesterM25WS Tel: •^^^■t ,Tclex:669