________ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ______ ___________ ________ \ _____ \ \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / / \ \ _ _ / / _____ \ | | \/ | \ / | | | | | | | | /---\ | \/ | | \/ | | \/ | |___ | \ / | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |___ | ____\ | \/ /| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ____\ | | | |\ / | | | | | | | | | |___| | | | | | | | | | \/ | | | | | | | | | _____ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____/\ | | | | | \___/ | | |___/\ | | | | | | | |____/\ /________/ /___\ /___\ \_______/ \______/ /___\ /___\ /___\ /________/ The Magazine For Spectrum emulators ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -ISSUE 6- JUNE/JULY 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ EDITOR : Barry Plewa E-Mail : DOCTOR@DOCBARRY.DEMON.CO.UK ASSISTANT EDITOR: Matthew Pimm E-Mail : M.PIMM@MARKROB.DEMON.CO.UK TECHNICAL EDITOR: Philip Reynolds E-Mail : PHIL@HEDGFORD.DEMON.CO.UK CONTRIBUTORS : Lee Tonks (Blood), Stephen Smith, Ian Cull EMULATE! Web Pages - HTTP://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~dmb/speccy/emulate/index.html Support BBS : FRAZZLE PROJECT BBS, Kidderminster, Worcs, England Number (UK ) : (01562) 827019 Number (Int) : +44 1562 827019 FIDONET ADDRESS : 2:2500/615.4 _______________________________________________ / \ /-------------------------------------------------\ / \ / C O N T E N T S / \ / / / \ /___________________________________________________/_/_/_\ ----------------------------------------------------------- If you have any queries, letters, comments or cries for help, all E-Mail can be directed to me at the following address and will be featured in a future issue: DOCTOR@DOCBARRY.DEMON.CO.UK Also, any interesting articles you have produced about the Spectrum computer, send to the same address for inclusion in a future edition of Emulate! =========================================================================== CONTENTS Part 1 - Editorial Part 2 - Playing Tips - Mixed Bunch this month! Part 3 - Free Games instructions Part 4 - The RITMAN Interview! Part 5 - The Spectrum Database Review Part 6 - Emulator Reviews Part 7 - Faster Than Basic? Part 8 - 16/48 Index Part 1 Part 9 - A-Z of Spectrum Games Part 6 Part 10 - Spectrum on the Net! Part 11 - Adventures Part 12 - Next Issue =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ************************* * PART 1 - EDITORIAL * ************************* Yes okay, I know whatever happened to the "out in one month" that I promised at the end of last issue? Well. It has been a couple of months of endless annoyances for me! Firstly, my computer monitor breaks down and I have to wait a fortnight to get it repaired. Then Demon decides to cut me off the Internet half way through the month and finally, to add insult to injury, I accidentally delete the Emulate directory on my hard drive! Anyway, enough of me trying to get your pity and on with the magazine. Following on from the Jet Set Willy games which have been featured in the last few issues, ww have a Manic Miner special this month with a new editor and a brand new set of levels for you to plough through!! Great stuff! STOP THE PRESSES! A last minute exclusive has arrived! Just before Emulate was due to be released, an exclusive interview with Spectrum programming genius Jon Ritman has been sent to me by Blood! Check out this first ever exclusive interview in Part 4!! =========================================================================== =========================================================================== **************************** * PART 2 - PLAYING TIPS * **************************** WONDERBOY The complete TAP file of this game is now on NVG, so here are some POKES to get you started! Type in the program (You can delete lines 180-240, but not 250), save it then Run it with the Wonderboy tape playing from the start. And there you have it - infinite axes! 10 REM WONDERBOY 20 CLEAR 27000 30 LET T=0 40 FOR I=23296 TO 23337: READ A: POKE I,A: LET T=T+A: NEXT I 50 IF T<>5602 THEN PRINT "ERROR IN DATA": STOP 60 FOR I=I TO le9: READ A 70 IF A<999 THEN POKE I,A: NEXT I 90 PRINT "PLAY WONDERBOY TAPE FROM THE START" 100 RANDOMIZE USR 23296 110 DATA 33,86,5,17,0,96,1,142 120 DATA 0,237,176,33,116,96,34 130 DATA 128,96,62,117,50,80,96,50 140 DATA 113,96,50,126,96,62,135,50 150 DATA 121,96,49,0,0,221,33,33 160 DATA 122,17,223,131,175,55,205,0 170 DATA 96,48,242,33,0,254,17,0 175 DATA 0,1,224,131,237,184,175 180 DATA 50,58,134: REM INFINITE LIVES 190 DATA 50,32,149: REM INFINITE VITALITY 200 DATA 50,34,134: REM INFINITE AXE 210 DATA 62,24,50,233,137: REM LOAD ANY PART 220 REM NEXT TWO LINES FOR INVINCIBILITY 230 DATA 62,195,50,58,133,50,112,159 240 DATA 50,34,161,50,142,163 250 DATA 49,180,95,195,0,128,999: REM END MARKER =========================================================================== BACK TO SKOOL When Einstein tries to tell on you, make sure you are sitting next to him and then keep your finger on the S key till its time for your next lesson. He will keep falling off his chair and won't get a chance to utter a word. In the Blue room, turn around and face the door, then press C. The screen scrolls, and if you keep pressing C you can watch the girls school. One problem with doing this it that you can't see yourself and you have to guess your way down to the playground door. Only when you get to the Girls school do you reappear. =========================================================================== CONTACT SAM CRUISE A game that often causes many cries for help! Here is the solution: From the start, go to the top of the Hotel Royale. Find the body and answer the telephone. Get the key from No.31 and ring up 7337 twice. After that ring 7162. Go to No.15 and pick up the ringing telephone twice. Pick up another key. Ring 7162 until you are told about the fat man having two keys. Go to the top of the building which is to the left of No.19. Jump onto the side of the wall and then carefully climb down the fire escape. When you get to the bottom, wait until the fat man gets underneath (he's the compulent geezer dressed in white) and jump on him. Having knocked him over, walk on a bit and you'll find another key. Now head towards the green room which is the furthest to the right in the Hotel Royale. To get past the gangster go into room 27, cross the roof, go across the police station roof and onto the roof of No.31 and continue until you get to the Hotel. Once you're in the green room change your disguise to that of a nun. Now answer the telephone. Next go left to the building with the catwalk (it's next to No.74). Go onto the roof and jump onto the edge of the building. When the guard is at the far side, jump onto him and knock him over. Run past him into No.74 where you will pick up another key. You should now have all four keys. The next task is to get a grappling hook from No.74. To do is, get picked up by the gangster inside No.74 and you'll be able to pick up the grappling hook before he gets back, as long as the police don't recognize you. With the grappling hook in your possession go to the top right hand corner of the building next to the fire escape. Face right and press C and you'll throw the grappling hook. If you were wondering how to get past the gangster in front of the police station heres how. Make him follow you as far left as possible, go to the top of No.31 and jump off the roof. If your calculations are correct you'll knock the gangster over as you land and you can then run past him. Jump onto the side of the wall and cross the rope. Once across, press down and you'll enter a room where you'll find a safe with 4 locks. Pick up the budgie and then drop onto the top of No.19. Press the fuse and keep going down and get out as fast as possible. With the budgie in your possession, head towards your apartment. Ring up Lana (7162), and when she is half way up the stairs telephone the police (999). As long as you are wearing a blue disguise she'll be put in jail - otherwise you'll be shot. The case is now solved - but beware, the mob are after you. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ******************************** * PART 3 - SNAPSHOT PACK VI * ******************************** This weeks snapshot pack includes: MANIC MINER SPECIAL! Manic Miner Editor Manic Miner III - Exclusive by Blood!! ALCHEMIST NEWS - Issue 20 of the excellent Spectrum tape-magazine! VALHALLA - Great RPG featuring real AI! (Well..sort of!) FAHRENHEIT 3000 - A Jet Set Willy clone (Hey - Aren't they all?!?) MONTY PYTHON - A new breed of snapshot - the SLT multiload! EXOLON - First in a new series chronicling the games of Raf Cecco! GARFIELD - The ever popular cartoon cat in his first ever game! SPECTACLE 3 - The next in our series of teletext programs! RITMAN SPECIAL - A collection of Jon Ritman's finest games, including Head Over Heels, Batman, Matchday and his first ever effort, Namtir Raiders for the ZX81! =========================================================================== MANIC MINER EDITOR By Richard Swann Supplied by Blood Intro ----- Bored of the continual stream of Jetset Willy editors, I recalled from my youth owning a copy of an editor called Manic Designer which let you change the way your Manic Miner levels looked. I also remembered a type-in editor for Manic Miner which was printed in YS. I decided that it would be my Quest to provide the Internet Speccy community with copies of these little gems to have and to hold, and to show their grandchildren one day. Having tracked down a copy of the YS editor, thanks to Henning (who photocopied the pages and sent them to me), I set about typing it in. And lo, it is here for you all to try. My fingers are now on fire. The instructions from YS are here in full, as well as some little notes of my own. I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you read ALL of this file before proceeding, or you might feel a bit funny later on. Or something. Unfortunately, the course of my life never runs smooth and I found that my single copy of the Manic Designer editor (which I also intended to include here) was trashed beyond repair. If ANYONE could provide me with a new copy of Manic Designer, I would be eternally grateful! It's very old, released about 1984, and as far as I recall was released by a very small software house and was written by two authors. It was half MC and half BASIC, had a bad loading screen with lots of flashing red and yellow squares, and you had to do LOAD "" CODE to load it. Please can someone help to restore this icon from my childhood....! ;-) Enough of my ramblings, on with the instructions! =========================================================================== Rich Swann's Level Editor ------------------------- These instructions are taken directly from YS : Now this is class! After four years of constant helping out in Dr Hugo's Clinic, Dicky (or Rich, as I believe he prefers to be called) of sunny Camberley, has decided that Pitstop could also benefit from his magic touch. And this is what all Manic Miner fans have been longing for for years - it enables you to customise each of the 20 screens, and also lets you change the sprites, so that you can have a completely new set of baddies. The editor is split into two distinct parts - this is the screen editor, and the sprite editor will follow next month. However, the clever thing is, each program is self-supporting, so you can run the screen editor, and play your new screens, without waiting until next month for the next bit! I'm just so considerate. HOW TO DO IT Type in the delicious BASIC listing and save it to auto-run with SAVE "filename" LINE 1. When run, the editor asks you to play the Manic Miner tape. The actual bit it's looking for is the main chunk of code called "MM2", which is the bit that comes after the "title screen" loader. Once loaded, you will be asked which level to edit, and then you'll see a representation of the level, and, hiding down there at the bottom... The Main Menu.1 This option enters the actual editor itself - study the symbols closely (a knowledge of the actual level will help here) and decide whether you want to add floor, wall, poison pansy or whatever. Press O, and enter the character corresponding to the bit you want to add, e.g. $ for a conveyor, or a blank space for nothing. You can then move the cursor around the screen using 5,6,7 and 8, pressing 0 to insert your chosen feature, be it a poison pansy, a collapsing floor, or whatever. There are three other features which make up the editor : Pressing L lets you type in a new name for the level; however, be wary - as the name is poked into memory rather than assigned to a string, you'll need to type in enough characters (and spaces if necessary) to take it up to at least the length of the original name. Pressing K lets you change the position of the keys (shown as red stars on the screen). You're asked for new X,Y co-ordinates, but be careful here, as when I gave a Y value of 8 the program stopped with an error message. If this happens to you, just type GOTO 15 to try again (what do you want, perfection?). Finally, pressing S lets you change Willy's start position (shown by two cyan arrows) - enter new X,Y co-ordinates as before. When you've finished editing, press SPACE to get back to the main menu. The Main Menu.2 This option lets you swap between levels - note that you don't have to save before you swap. The Main Menu.3 The File-handling menu. From this you can save your levels, load ones you made earlier, or print the current level out. There is also a Test Game option, but bear in mind that you can't get back to the editor after selecting this, so save your levels first, eh? To play your levels simply start loading Manic Miner as normal, and when the horrible flashing loading screen comes up, swap the game tape for your saved levels, and play that instead. One thing I noticed when having a brief trial run, was that my repositioned key in Central Cavern was made invisible. Is this a one-off or does it happen all the time? (I don't know). And if it is a regular occurence, does anyone know how to get round it? All suggestions gratefully received. Of course, some people might see invisible keys as a good challenge; other, more cynical people might call it dodgy programming. I, obviously, wouldn't dream of such a thing. Rich Swann's Sprite Editor -------------------------- These instructions are taken directly from YS : Given that z=3+4i, find the argument of 1/z, giving your answer in degrees to one decimal place... Oh, this one's easy - you just realise the denominator, er, then find the arctan... er, or something... I know, let's have a look at the second instalment of the Manic Miner editor instead! Infinitely preferable, I think. This here is the Sprite Editor, which follows on directly from last month's instalment, but runs independently, giving you a perfectly customised version of the ancient classic. As usual, type it in and save it with SAVE "filename" LINE 1. Run it, and you can either load in the new levels you created last month, or you can start from scratch by loading the original tape in, and do the levels later. The instructions, I'm sure you'll be pleased to know, are much less complicated than last month's, so here they are in their entirety... 1/Z : Move memory pointer up/down by 8 bytes. This is equivalent to a "coarse tuning" control, and you can use it to scan through the memory looking for sprites. Q/A : The "Fine Tune" control - this moves the memory pointer up or down by just one byte, for if you come across an incomplete sprite. X : Switches between viewing sprites as 8x8 or 16x16 types. There are some of each, and generally speaking, the 8x8 sprites tend to come before the 16x16 sprites every level. E : Edit the sprite at current location. Use the cursors (5,6,7,8) to move around the grid, 0 to set a pixel, and 9 to reset it. Space stops the editing and writes the sprite into memory, but BE WARNED - editing data that isn't an actual sprite may well corrupt the game, so make sure you recognise the sprite first! L/S : Load/Save your creations, the same as last month's. 2 : Lets you select an address at which to look for sprites. And it's as simple as that! Have fun, and I'll expect to see Manic Miner 2 in the shops before Christmas! (Somehow, I think not. Ed) =========================================================================== Blood's Notes ------------- These instructions are taken directly from Blood's Head : The editors are provided as two .SNA snapshots. To get the most out of the editor, however, your emulator must support .TAP files (or something similar) to allow you to save data from one of the editors and load it into the other. It's perfectly possible to redesign screens only with a non-TAP editor, though. I have loaded the standard Manic Miner data into both of the editors. When you load the snap, the data is there already and you can begin to edit straight away. Should you wish to load your own data, you'll have to break into the program and GOTO 1. This should allow you to load your own .TAP file of the MM2 data. Take heed of the warnings not to place objects with a Y axis of 8! These generate an out of range error, as they try to poke a memory location with a value greater than 255. The maths to work out the value to poke is pretty darned complex, so I haven't attempted to fix this. If anyone does, please let me have an updated copy! Funny things may happen if you put objects or ground in the path of an oncoming monster! Generally, it's best to avoid doing this. It's also not a good idea to block off the light beam in the Solar Power Generator... You may have problems with special ground, such as conveyor belts or collapsing floors (i.e. new conveyor belts not animating). The best way to learn about this is to experiment! The screen names are not automatically centred! You'll have to do it yourself! DON'T TEST THE SCREENS WITHOUT SAVING FIRST! You'll end up kicking yourself, I know you will..... POKE 35136,0 should give you infy lives. POKE 34795,195 : POKE 34796,241 : POKE 34797,135: POKE 36233,195: POKE 36234,149 : POKE 36235,141 will give you infinite air. Send me your creations! I'd love to play any redesigned Manic Miners....! Epilogue -------- Errm....that's it really. Thanks to : Henning - for finding the editor and sending me the photocopies. Rich Swann - for writing the editor! Matt Smith - for writing the game! Craig Broadbent - for publishing the editor in YS. Your Sinclair - for being a top, top, top mag. Richard Hallas - for continued support and encouragment. Any questions, write to me at the address below. Now, let's all see if we can do better than the AWFUL Manic Miner 2 hacked-up version which is currently doing the rounds on the Internet! =========================================================================== =========================================================================== MANIC MINER 3 Tales From a Parallel Universe Designed by the infamous BLOOD! (l.d.tonks@bra0202.wins.icl.co.uk) (c)1996 Cheese Freak Software Manic Miner programmed by Matthew Smith (c)1983 Bug Byte Software Title Screen produced by BLOOD using a cartoon of Matt Smith I found on NVG, PaintShop Pro for Windows, Melbourne Draw, and BMP2SPEC (a cunning little utility I wrote to port my Windows graphics to the Speccy). INSTRUCTIONS It is rumoured that there are an infinite number of parallel universes where every possibility is played out. Things in these other dimensions may be very similar to our own reality, but subtly different because of certain decisions which were taken differently. Miner Willy is no exception to this rule. Previously, thousands of Speccy owners had thrilled to his adventures in his battle to escape the Manic Mining machines, but now Cheese Freak Software brings you the escapades of ANOTHER Miner Willy from a parallel universe! Just like his counterpart in this reality, Willy has fallen into a mine packed with dangers and must escape from 20 lethal caverns in order to locate the untold treasures of an ancient civilisation. However, in this universe things are subtly different... Can Miner Willy emulate the antics of his trans-dimensional counterpart, or are the Speccy owners of the other universe doomed to a life with no Jet Set Willy? GAME CONTROL Three keys are used to control the game: Q,E,T,U or O - Move left W,R,Y,I or P - Move right Shift to space - Jump Also : A to G - Pause H to ENTER - Music On/Off FOR THE EASILY FOOLED In case you hadn't noticed, this is a version of Manic Miner which I have edited with the Manic Miner Editor to produce a very different game! All 20 screens have been replaced (and the scrolly message!) and should prove a new challenge for MM addicts. I can't pretend that my screens are as good as Matt Smith's originals, but I GUARANTEE that they're much better than the very crap 'Manic Miner 2' snapshot which has been doing the rounds on the Internet. I haven't changed many graphics, for two reasons : 1) The graphics were very good anyway 2) I'm crap at drawing You won't recognise any of the rooms anyway - it's completely different. They're not all rock hard either - some are easy and some are like The Warehouse.....Eeek! I'm not asking for anything for this - it's free, just play it and enjoy it. And when you've done, why not grab a copy of the editor and have a go at redesigning it yourself? The editor's free too. I'm just too nice. I'd like to see any of your creations..... Regards, Blood. P.S. The screens are as follows. If you want to take a peek at 'em, use the level skip cheat or watch the demonstration...... 1. Slightly to One Side Cavern 2. Brass Penguins? 3. Bernard Matthews' Personal Hell 4. Sealed with a Glasgow Kiss 5. Future Echoes 6. Pac Up Your Troubles 7. Altar of 7th Day Advent Hoppists 8. Alan Sugar's Take-Over Bid 9. Perils of a Bad-Hair Day 10. Dr. Jones WOOD Believe This! 11. Revenge of Brian's Phone Bill! (dedicated to Brian 'No Binaries!' Gaff) 12. Alan Sugar must DIE! 13. The 'Difficult to Edit' Cavern 14. Crashing More Often Than a ZX81! 15. Matthew Smith's Unpaid Royalties 16. Zucchini! Or Something.... (dedicated to the hard working YS team) 17. Farmer Barleymow's DDT Store 18. Eye o' Oktup (dedicated to 'dat ole looney...bwah!) 19. Warp Core Breach 20. Join the Jet Set (with apologies to Richard Hallas!) =========================================================================== =========================================================================== TRAILBLAZER Determination, speed, and dexterity are the key assets needed to complete TRAILBLAZER successfully. Thundering into the unknown at breakneck speed, are you agile enough to negotiate the perils? Roll left and right to avoid the cracks but be careful not to fall off the edge of the path as you go. Be sure to identify and avoid the squares which will either speed you up or make you jump automatically. Keep a careful eye on the clock as the more time you have left at the end of each level, the more bonus time you will be awarded. The aim of the game is to guide the ball down each of 14 courses as quickly as possible, whilst avoiding the holes and other obstacles. Each course has its own time limit. Differently shaded squares have different effects. (Note: there's actually a diagram of the different types of square in the instructions, but it's a bit difficult to draw in ASCII, so I'll try and describe the squares as best I can.) Normal - light pattern Reverse controls - darker shaded squares in a chequered pattern Increase speed - lines along the direction of travel Decrease speed - lines across the direction of travel Bounce - solid colour areas There are two options which can be selected - these are: a) PLAY THE ARCADE - You are limited to four jumps per course and have a time limit on each course. Your aim is to complete as many courses as possible and to accumulate the highest score. b) THREE COURSE TRIAL - (press 4 to select this option) this gives you the opportunity to practice any three courses with a 99 second time limit on each one. Scoring Your score increases depending on the speed at which you are travelling. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== EXOLON This is the first game in another small series which will be running throughout the next few issues of Emulate! chronicling the games of the infamous Raf Cecco! The aim of each level is to get from one side to the other. There are 125 screens in all, divided into 5 levels of 25. You can move your man (Vitorc) left and right using the appropriate keys, and up will make him jump. Pressing the fire button down and then quickly releasing it will fire one shot of the laser. Pressing and holding the fire button will launch one of your rockets, which will arc through the sky and shoot forward, destroying any scenery in the way. At a certain point through each of the levels, there is placed a cubicle allowing you to select the exo-skeleton. This will give you greater protection, and double your rate of fire, but it does mean that you will not get the score bonus at the end. There are also teleporters spread around certain screens. Walking into one of these and presing down will teleport you to the other teleporter located on the screen. To replenish you rockets and laser, simply walk into the power packs that are spread around the levels. Their colour determines which item they will replenish. When you get to the end of a level, there is a small skill test. An arrow will quickly switch between several scores, and you must press the fire button at the right time to select the highest. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== VALHALLA Legend 1983 THE SCREEN Think of the screen as three windows. The top window is the picture. The middle window, which has a white background is the information window. The bottom window, which has a black background and a flashing white cursor is where you type in your commands. THE KEYBOARD If you are not familiar with the Spectrum keyboard, consult Chapter 2, page 8 of the Spectrum introduction manual. You communicate with the game and with the characters using the keyboard to type in your commands. Your own actions are also typed in as commands Having typed in a command you must always press ENTER. Examples - get food ENTER Thor get axe ENTER where ENTER jump ENTER Note - There will sometimes be a delay of several seconds after you press ENTER before your command is interpreted. This is because, as a character in VALHALLA, you have to take your turn along with all the other characters. This means that if Loki has just attacked Thor, you will have to wait until the fight is over before your command is carried out. Typing a command can be done in any combination of capitals and lower case letters. Punctuation is optional. The easiest way of entering a command is therefore to use lower case letters and no punctuation. For example - get sword. You can edit text, as you type it, using the Spectrum edit commands. CAPS SHIFT 5, 6, 7, 8, move the flashing cursor in the direction printed above the keys, and CAPS SHIFT 0 deletes the character to the left of the cursor. For further information see page 8 of your Spectrum Introduction manual. CAPS SHIFT 1 will delete anything you have typed into the bottom black window. CAPS SHIFT 2 is used to pull you last entry back into the black input window. Spelling mistakes are dealt with in two ways. If you make a minor mistake or miss out a letter - for example 'ge sord' instead of 'get sword' - it will automatically be corrected. Sometimes the command system will approximate or try to guess what you mean, but it might not be exactly what you intended. There may be times when the command system is completely unable to understand what you have entered. The part that is causing problems will be highlighted in red and you can edit in the usual way and press ENTER. Note - The command system has three ways of dealing with things ENTERed that it cannot understand - by printing 'This doesn't make sense or what?,' or by totally ignoring your entry. However none of this happens if you enter commands accurately. THE QUESTS As you will discover, you can have great fun simple watching VALHALLA and issuing commands to the characters. However, there are six adventures awaiting you in VALHALLA. Each of these adventures is a quest for a special object hidden somewhere in the game world. The six special objects can only be discovered in order - Ofnir (key) cannot be used as an ordinary key Drapnir (ring) cannot be used as an ordinary ring Skornir (shield) Skalir (sword) Felstrong (axe) Grimnir (helmet) Before you can seriously start on even the first quest, you will need to do two things - equip yourself with basic useful items such as helmet, weapon, food, key and ring; and familiarise yourself with the layout of VALHALLA's world. The best way of doing this is to start to make a map. Even though some locations may look similar, each is unique. There will be occasions when having, or not having a certain object or character with you, will allow you access to a location. You could try using 'where' or 'help' if you need inspiration, but don't be surprised if you're not told all you need to know... CLUES Ofnir - Darkness in Midgard. Drapnir - So many choices - you could sink into the pits of despair. Skornir - A peculiar start - a difficult decision - the bald man needs defence. Note - If you are serious about solving the entire sequence of quests, it is essential that you plan what you are going to do with the quest objects once you obtained them. Remember that when you die, Ofnir and Drapnir will be taken from you - and of course you cannot carry Felstrong at the same time as Skalir. Note - When you die, the objects that are taken from you are randomly distributed throughout the game world. This means that if you are unfortunate enough to die with Ofnir or Drapnir amongst your possessions, you will have to reload the program and start the entire sequence of quests from the beginning. If you die from hunger or fighting you reappear in an area of hell. You will lose all your possessions except for your helmet, sword or axe, and money, if you had them when you died. You will keep any special objects that you had, except for Ofnir and Drapnir which you will lose. When any other character dies, from hunger or fighting, they will also lose all of their possessions including Ofnir and Drapnir, but again excluding their weapons. You can only have one helmet and one shield at any time, and can only carry one sword or one axe but not both. This, of course, means that you cannot carry the quest objects Felstrong (the axe) and Skalir (the sword) at the same time. Felstrong, Skalir, Skornir (the shield) and Grimnir (the helmet) can all be used in the same way and with the same effect as any other axe, sword, shield and helmet. However, the quest objects weigh more than ordinary objects. This means that you will get weaker when you carry these objects and will therefore need to eat and drink more. Ofnir and Drapnir are purely ceremonial which means that you will need to carry an ordinary key to uses chests and cupboards and an ordinary ring to use ringways. Having died and reappeared in hell, you will find, using the 'how' command that you are very strong. PLAYING THE GAME Don't be afraid to experiment. Expect to be frustrated - the game has been designed to present a series of increasingly difficult challenges. If you become seriously involved in pursuing the six VALHALLA quests and find you need further information on playing adventure games, most of the popular computing magazines provide help corners for keen adventurers and there are now magazines being published devoted entirely to adventure games. GOING PLACES Moving in your present location There are very few occasions when you will need to use a command simply to move. Most commands like 'attack' and 'get' automatically carry out any necessary movement and movement for no specific reason will drain your strength unnecessarily. The 'l' and 'r' keys will move you slightly left and right respectively. Alternatively you can use 'go,' or 'go to' the object or person. For example, 'go to Odin' and 'go to the axe.' Equally, if you prefer short commands, 'go Odin' and 'go axe' will have the same effect. Moving to a new location To go to a new location, apart from when you jump using ringways, you always use go followed by a direction. For example, 'go north' or 'go southeast.' Note - You can also use abbreviations such as 'go n' or 'go se.' Most locations will offer you a choice of directions in which you can go. Hardly any will offer you the choice of all eight directions and one or two locations will have no exits other than ringways. There are occasions when having, or not having a certain object or character with you, will allow you access to a location. You could try using 'where' or 'help' if you need inspiration, but don't be surprised if you're not told all you need to know... Note - The faster you move through locations the harder it is for other characters to keep up with you. Note - You can only move by directions and not by using place names. For example, 'go to VALHALLA' will not work. Note - You cannot use the word 'enter' in order to get into a building. Remember you are always facing North which means that if you see a castle in the background, you enter it with 'go north'. You cannot enter huts. RINGS AND RINGWAYS Some locations have ringways which allow you to jump to another location in then game. You are not, however, told where you will end up before you jump. Your only chance of finding out is if the 'help' command is being co-operative... To use a ringway you need a ring. As with keys, the only times you lose possession of a ring is when you die or if you sell it, drop it or give it away. Note - Drapnir is a ceremonial ring and cannot be used to jump. EATING AND DRINKING Your strength is affected by everything you do, even standing still. This means that carrying three objects will leave you weaker than carrying one light object. This also means that traveling to a new location and fighting reduces your strength. The only way to increase your strength is by eating and drinking. Note - Food will do you more good than wine... In some locations you will find food and/or wine conveniently lying around. You can eat or drink or simply get the food or wine for future use. However, if other characters are around, they may well have the same idea - so decide and act quickly. In some locations you will find food and/or wine in a locked cupboard or chest. If, however, you are already weak, you may well find yourself unable to unlock the cupboard or chest. You will then need to use your powers of persuasion to get another character to do it for you. At the start of the game, many of the characters are carrying food and/or wine. Any of the characters in the game may eat and drink from time to time. They will tend to pick up food and wine that is lying around, exchange food and wine among themselves and the more stupid characters may even drop food and wine as they move around. If you are weak and there is no obvious source of food and wine, you can try asking another character to either sell or give you some. You have a fixed maximum potential strength, so there is no point in eating or drinking for the sake of it. In fact, there is a fixed amount of found and drink in the universe, so the more that you consume, the less there is left for you when you really need it. It makes more sense to get the food and/or wine and carry it with you or store it in a chest or a cupboard. FIGHTING There is no way to stop any fight once it has started. You can, however, type in your next command while the fight is taking place. Only two characters can fight at any one time. Fights are either won, lost or drawn. When other characters die they leave the screen to reappear elsewhere, but not necessarily in hell. This means that sometimes a character who has just died, will return quite quickly to your present location. The outcome of any fight is determined by the strength of the characters involved and the weapons that they are carrying. Note - A helmet and a shield are purely defensive. Your attacking strength is determined by your having, or not having, a sword or an axe. A sword will always be stronger than an axe, except when thrown. There is also a small random "luck" factor, although this will hardly ever dramatically affect the outcome of a fight. Fights can be started in various ways - You, or any character, can simply decide to attack any other character. You can ask one character to attack another on your behalf. Whether they do, or not, depends on how they feel about you at the time. Equally, other characters, particularly the more intelligent ones, will often ask other characters to do their fighting for them. Letting other characters fight on your behalf is obviously attractive but you will need to do a certain amount of attacking and fighting yourself. The extent to which other characters like you, give you things, fight on your behalf, open containers for you and generally help you is determined by the characters that you choose to attack. For example, if you attack Hel and Gripe (baddies), Odin (goodie) will be more co-operative than Loki (baddie). Likewise, if you attack Odin the chances are that Loki will be co-operative. Even when your strength is at its maximum, you will not be strong enough to overcome the strongest characters, good and bad alike. It is unlikely, however, that even the strongest characters would kill you in a single bout of fighting, provided that you are reasonably well armed and have kept your strength up by eating and drinking. Any character, including you, can start a fight by throwing any object you posses, except money, at any other character. The effect of throwing objects varies according to what has been thrown. For example, a bottle may not cause much damage whereas a fireball or lightning may actually kill you or any character, when you or they are at their weakest. Note - When thrown, an axe is stronger than a sword. GETTING THINGS If you want to get any object it must be lying on the ground or in an open chest or cupboard. Simply type 'get' followed by the name of the object. For example - get axe get lightning Note - You can always check what items are present and in open containers by using the 'what' command and pressing ENTER. Getting things from containers is under the heading chests,cupboards and keys. Note - 'Take' has exactly the same effect as 'get'. It does not matter which word you use. Dropping things An obvious way to get something from a character is by making them drop it and then you get it. For example - Thor drop the axe and if he does, followed by: get axe This is however far from ideal as any other character can also get it. There is also the risk of Klepto turning up... Note - Once you have dropped an object it is no longer yours. This means that any other character could take it, and if you have had second thoughts about dropping it, you might not be able to get it back. You can drop any object in your possession at any time. This can be useful when you are weak and you want to lighten your load. You can only drop things to the ground and except for fireballs and lightning, which are invisible, you will see the object appear on the ground. Other characters, especially the weak and stupid ones, might drop things as they move around. If you drop an object and it is still there when you leave the location, you can always try to return to your previous location and attempt to get it before another character... Giving things You simply type in 'give' followed by the name of the object and the name of the character you are giving it to. For example - give axe to Thor give Thor the axe give axe Thor Equally you can ask any character to give an object to any other character. For example - Odin give Thor axe Odin give the axe to Thor Odin give me the axe Odin give me your axe Note - You cannot force characters to give objects to you. Whether or not they agree depends on how well disposed towards you they are at the time... BUYING AND SELLING Buying things There are three ways to start the process of buying, using the commands 'buy,' 'offer' and 'sell.' For example - buy axe from Thor for 20 crowns offer 20 crowns to Thor for axe Thor sell me your axe for 20 crowns The character concerned will then either accept or reject your bid depending upon the situation. If the offer is refused, you can make another offer by typing 'offer 30 crowns to Thor for axe' or by editing the previous input. Note - You need to find out for yourself how much, or how little, you should ask or offer for an object. Note - Other characters will not themselves start the buying and selling process. Selling things The only reason you would want to sell an object is to raise money. You can use the words 'buy' or 'sell' to start the process. For example - sell axe to Thor for 20 crowns or Thor buy axe from me for 20 crowns The character concerned will then either accept or reject you proposal depending upon the situation. If the offer is rejected you can edit your previous input to try again. i.e. sell axe to Thor for 10 crowns Note - Providing you have not entered anything else, you can use CAPS SHIFT 2 to pull your last entry back into the text window. You can then simply edit the number of crowns. Note - You start the game with 200 crowns and you can only add to that by selling an object or asking another character to give you money. You can find out how much you have by typing 'list.' CHESTS, CUPBOARDS AND KEYS In some locations you will find chests and cupboards. On the screen, a cupboard looks like a small door. All chests and cupboards can be used as containers for any object that you can carry. If a cupboard or chest is closed, it is automatically locked and a key is needed to open it. The same key opens all chests and cupboards and the only times you lose possession of a key is when you die or if you sell it, drop it or give it away. Different cupboards and chests require varying amounts of strength to open them, so that having a key does not necessarily mean that you can open the container. There may be some containers that, even at your strongest, you are unable to open. You then need to rely on the goodwill of another character to open them for you. Note - Any container is automatically closed and therefore locked when you leave a location. You do not need a key to lock a container. It is important to note that other characters will not open containers, unless persuaded by you to do so. However, if a container is open they will take things from it and put things in it. There are certain rules which determine how many items you can put into and take out of a chest or cupboard. You will need to discover these as you play VALHALLA. However, watch out for Klepto... Note - Ofnir is a ceremonial key and will not open chests and cupboards. SUMMONING CHARACTERS There will be times when you want a particular character on screen with you, either to do something, like open a chest, or because they have something you need. You simply use 'summon' followed by a character name. For example - summon Odin Note - 'Summon' can only be used with a character name. You can summon any character, even if they have just died. However sometimes, as with help, the characters do not co-operate and 'sorry...' appears on the screen. You can always try repeating your request. If you summon a character who is already on screen, your command will be ignored. GETTING CHARACTERS TO DO THINGS FOR YOU There will be times when it will be necessary or desirable to get another character to do something for you. You can ask any character to do almost anything you yourself can do, but of course, they may refuse. Some examples - Odin get the ring Loki go northeast Thor attack Krank Saga eat the food Boldir open the chest Odin put ring in chest Note - Other characters cannot buy and sell for you. WHAT, WHERE AND WHO Typing 'what' and pressing ENTER will tell you what objects are present on the screen. This will include the contents of any open chest or cupboard. Typing 'where' and pressing ENTER will tell you where you are and what directions you can go in. There are, however, occasions when you need to have, or have not, an object or a certain character with you in order to go in a certain direction. Even if the character or object is present on screen, 'where' will not tell you about these extra directions. In these instances you need to use the 'help' command or, in the absence of help, simple trial and error. 'Where' will also tell you if there is a ringway present, but will not tell you where it leads to. You can always try 'help...' Typing 'who' and pressing ENTER will tell you the names of the characters currently on the screen. HOW AND LIST Typing 'how' and pressing ENTER will give you a report on your current strength. For example - You are feeling very strong. Typing 'list' and pressing ENTER provides you with a list of everything you are carrying and the amount of money (crowns) you possess. HELP As you play VALHALLA you will find that there will be times when you need some guidance. This applies especially if you are seriously pursuing the quest objects. 'Help' can give you three kinds of information. It will tell you directions in which you can go if you have, or don't have an object or a particular character with you. It may also randomly select one of the other characters on screen and tell you which objects he or she is carrying and how much money they possess. Finally, it may also tell you the destination of a ringway, if there is one. Note - Help does not always tell the "whole truth," but will not actually lie. Sometimes help will not co-operate at all, returning with 'sorry...' However repeating it may get results. PAUSE If for any reason you want to freeze VALHALLA, for any length of time, simply type 'pause' and press ENTER. Any action that has started before you pressed ENTER will be completed. To restart, type in any command and press ENTER. SAVE AND LOAD At any time you can save the current game position onto tape, so that you can resume playing the game from the exact point at which you left it. Do not attempt to save and load VALHALLA until you have read this chapter. VALHALLA's 'save' and 'load' commands work in an entirely different way to the Spectrum's usual 'save' and 'load' commands. To save, type 'save', then start your cassette recorder and then press ENTER. Do not press ENTER before you have started your cassette recorder. If you are not sure about recording from your Spectrum to your cassette recorder, refer to Chapter 6, page 21 of your Spectrum Introduction manual. Note - Do not use "" or a file name - simply type 'save' and press ENTER. You cannot stop 'save' or 'load' once you have pressed ENTER. Do not attempt to stop either process by using the break key. Saving takes approx 30 seconds to complete and you should note that although the game position is exactly preserved, any container that was open will have closed. VALHALLA does not have a 'verify' command. This means that if you have not already tried saving on you cassette recorder you should do so using the Spectrum's verify command. This way you will know that you cassette recorder will save and load with your Spectrum. Refer to Chapter 6, page 23 of the Spectrum Introduction manual. Note - As saving only takes 30 seconds, you can always play safe and record your game twice in succession. To load a previously saved game, you must first load VALHALLA itself if it is not already running. Type 'load,' press ENTER and then start the cassette recorder. As with saving, do not use "" or a file name and not press the break key. Note - If you type 'load' and PRESS enter and do not mean to load a previously saved game position, the only way out is to turn the machine off. You then have to turn it on and reload VALHALLA. PRINT, NOPRINT AND COPY If you have a ZX printer, you can use it with VALHALLA. Follow the instructions supplied with your printer. Do not attempt to connect your printer when the Spectrum is turned on and VALHALLA is running. Print - As events are reported in the white text window,they are also printed. Noprint - Turns 'print' off. Copy - Copies the complete screen, graphics and text. The quality of the printouts does not compare with the actual screen graphics and is only of limited use. Of course, it does provide proof that you have been to a certain location or obtained one or more of the quest objects. THE CHARACTERS You will find the qualities that a character possesses alongside the illustration of the character. All of the characters in the game behave according to the qualities they possess. Hence Thor is good, brave and strong but does some pretty stupid things. Krank is bad news and Saga is good, bright and reliable. There is one situation that arises where you will probably think that all of the characters are being stupid. That is where they die of hunger when there is food lying around. In fact it often gets them out of a location or a tricky situation,so that they can immediately return with their full strength. Name sort badness goodness charisma strength bravery brains ----- ---- ------- -------- -------- -------- ------- ------ Gore wolf 4 - 2 3 3 2 Gastro wolf 5 - 2 3 4 4 Frantic wolf 3 - 1 4 5 4 Skadi dragon - 3 5 4 3 1 Nasher dragon 5 - 1 2 1 1 Nidhog dragon 3 - 2 4 4 2 Grunt giant 2 - 4 4 5 3 Rankle giant 4 - 1 4 4 4 Krank giant 4 - 1 4 5 5 Thudd giant 2 - 2 2 4 3 Gripe giant 3 - 4 4 3 2 Tyr god - 2 3 4 4 1 Heimdal god - 2 4 3 2 3 Idun goddess - 5 2 2 2 2 Boldir god - 5 5 4 4 3 Kir god - 4 5 3 4 3 Bragi god - 3 2 2 3 3 Kon dwarf 4 - 4 3 1 4 Mary dwarf - 3 1 1 1 3 Klepto dwarf 1 - 4 2 3 5 Alvin dwarf - 2 4 2 1 2 Boogi dwarf 1 - 4 1 1 1 Bug dwarf - 2 3 3 3 2 Leer dwarf 3 - 2 3 3 3 Snor giant - 1 3 3 1 1 Glut giant - 1 2 3 2 2 Klout giant - 3 2 4 4 2 Drudge giant - 2 1 3 2 1 Odin god - 3 5 4 4 5 Saga goddess - 4 5 3 4 5 Loki god 5 - 5 4 4 5 Hel goddess 5 - 3 4 4 5 Thor god - 5 4 5 5 2 Talis goddess - 2 5 3 3 4 Od god - 4 3 1 1 5 Mistra goddess - 1 5 3 3 3 SUMMARY command example ------- ------- Attack attack Odin with axe Buy buy axe from Thor for 20 crowns Close close chest Copy Drink drink wine Drop drop lightning Eat eat food Get get axe Give give axe to Thor Go go north, go to axe, go se Help How Jump travel by ringways using ring Kill kill Odin L moves you to the left List Load Lock Noprint Offer offer 10 crowns to Odin for axe Open open chest Pause Print Put put ring in chest R moves you to the right Save Sell sell axe to Loki for 30 crowns Shut shut chest Summon summon Thor Take take axe Throw throw fireball at Loki Unlock unlock chest What Where Who You must press the ENTER key after every command. DO NOT PRESS THE BREAK KEY To ask a character to do something type character's name followed by command and ENTER - e.g. 'Thor get axe.' To enter a building - 'go north.' You cannot enter a hut. CAPS SHIFT 1 deletes your entire input line. CAPS SHIFT 2 pulls your last entry back into the black input window, so that you can repeat the entry or edit it. SYMBOL SHIFT Q, A, Z are used for scrolling the white text window over the twenty line text area. CAPS SHIFT 5, 6, 7, 8 and DELETE (0) provide normal editing facilities. CHARACTERS Alvin Boldir Boogi Bragi Bug Drudge Frantic Gastro Glut Gore Gripe Grunt Heimdal Hel Idun Kir Klepto Klout Kon Krank Leer Loki Mary Mistra Nasher Nidhog Od Odin Rankle Saga Skadi Snor Talis Thor Thudd Tyr OBJECTS Axe Chest Crowns Cupboard Drapnir (ring) Felstrong (axe) Fireball (invisible) Food Grimnir (helmet) Helmet Jewel Key Lightning (invisible) Ofnir (key) Ring Rock Shield Skalir (sword) Skornir (shield) Sword Wine =========================================================================== DEMON FROM THE DARKSIDE 4 =========================================================================== ALCHEMIST NEWS No.20 Included with this issue of Emulate is the latest issue of the excellent Spectrum based magazine, AlchNews. It contains loads of articles concerning the current Spectrum scene and is well worth a read!! Heres some details of how to contact Alchemist Research: ALCHEMIST RESEARCH 62 Tithe Barn Lane, Woodhouse, SHEFFIELD. S13 7LN Telephone: 0114 269 7644. Mobile: 0378 835449 Alchemist Research is the UK's leading Spectrum and emulator user group. It was established in 1986 and is the people's choice for anything Spectrum, winner of the Crashed magazine award for Best Spectrum Service in 1995-96. We work closely with only the best Spectrum services, who will confirm our unrivalled service. All letters are answered personally, friendly and promptly - yet to be matched by any other Spectrum user groups. Please make any money orders payable to MR A. DAVIS. OUR MAGAZINE AlchNews is now the world's largest Spectrum tape and disk magazine. Latest issues have been the equivalent of 384 pages of solid A4 text! The magazine covers all aspects of the Spectrum, including regular sections on: Basic programming, news, software & PD reviews / tutorials, adventure writing & playing, machine code, languages, +3 computing, +D, Opus, Microdrive, communications, fiction, humour, the unexplained, hardware projects, CP/M, music, adverts and much more. AlchNews has dozens of writers, many of which are leading figures in the Spectrum scene. The magazine also incorporates folded magazines of he past, including SARUG, Sinclair News, 1982, and the Marshall Cavendish INPUT series. AlchNews is available on any Spectrum format (except 3" disk and Microdrive) for just œ1. Subscription fee is œ4 per year. For a free sample of the latest or any back issues, just send media and SAE, stating which issues you'd like. The magazine is also available for the SAM Coupe and PC Z80 Emulator, a free shareware copy is provided. COMPLETE SPECTRUM SUPPORT Alchemist Research is the only service which operates a Spectrum helpline, totally devoid of any subscription or other charges. We aim to solve any problem you may be experiencing, be it hardware or software. Other than INDUG, Alchemist Research is the only group who receives official and regular support on +D bugs and fixer programs. We are also in close contact with some of the world's best software programmers. We have masterminded several hardware projects, including 128k keypad devices, +3 external drives, RS232 communications and a multi-group project of 'essential manuals', beginning with a Spectrum 128k definitive technical manual. We can master disk conversions of your programs should you not have the facilities and aid in any aspect of your programming. We can help in tracking down hardware, software and books, thanks to our register of users with equipment for sale. We are the only group to cover Spectrum CP/M in depth and offer assistance, tips and programs for users with Star printers. We also stock utility suites of programs for the Opus, +D and +3 disk systems. Just send blank disk and SAE for a copy. =========================================================================== GARFIELD - BIG FAT HAIRY DEAL This is the first game to feature that fat cartoon cat, Garfield. The game itself is an arcade adventure, similar in style to the "Wally" games. You can pick up and use objects to advance further in the game, with the eventual aim being to release your girlfirend, Arlene, from the stray cat pound. Watch out for the nasties and the annoying dog Odie, as contact with either of these will cause your Sleepometre to rise and when you fall asleep, you lose the game! =========================================================================== SPECTACLE 3 The next and final Spectacle teletext program in the series. Simply use the program like a normal teletext screen entering a three figure number between 100 and 200 to go to that particular page and beware! Some jokes are severly crap! =========================================================================== MONTY PYTHONS FLYING CIRCUS With the new emulators appearing on the Internet comes a new breed of snapshot called the SLT multiload. This is similar to a TAP file and can be used most Speccy emulators for the PC. (Z80 will support it when the new version arrives soon!) Anyway, the first SLT game to be included with Emulate is this bizarre platform games based on the even more bizarre comedy series of the same name. It is very surreal and I am not totally sure what you have to do, but I'm sure you'll have fun trying to work it out!! ;) =========================================================================== THE RITMAN COLLECTION To coincide with this issue's EXCLUSIVE Ritman interview, we present some of his most memorable Spectrum programming acheivements with this month's snapshot pack. Games included are: NAMTIR RAIDERS - You'll need a ZX81 emulator (such as Xtender) to play this one - Jon's first ever game (As indicated by the title!) BATMAN 3D - This excellent game paved the way for some of his later classices, but is excellent in it's own right. HEAD OVER HEELS - You've never heard of this? - Crawl back in your cave! One of - if not THE - finest isometric arcade adventures ever released on any platform! MATCH DAY - Forget Sensible Soccer - this football classic is one of the most fondly remebered Speccy sport games! =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ************************************ * PART 4 - THE RITMAN INTERVIEW * ************************************ Here it is! The first ever Emulate! exclusive interview. Our roving reporter, Blood, has tracked down a Speccy God - Jon "Head Over Heels" Ritman! I'll hand straight over to him! ED. "One of the things missing from the current computer scene is the 'famous programmer'. Back in the good old days of the Speccy, everyone knew the name of their favourite programmer and often it was who wrote the game rather than who published it that affected the sales the most." "One such programming genius was Jon Ritman, the man behind (amongst many others) classics such as Match Day, Batman and Head Over Heals. These days Jon is still around (although not programming for the Spectrum any more!) and is still very much involved in the industry." "Putting on my best 'cheeky young scamp of a journalist' hat, I scampered over and asked him outright if he'd answer a few questions. And guess what - he agreed......! Here we go with Emulate's first Exclusive Interview!" Me: How did you get started in computers? Jon: I used to mend TV's for a living, working for Radio Rentals - they were going to rent computers so I decided they would need engineers and bought a ZX81 so I could learn - the rest is history. Me: When did you first see a Spectrum and what were your first impressions? Jon: Can't remember - pretty cool! Me: Can you remember the first game you ever wrote? What was it like? Jon: Of course I can, it was called Namtir Raiders and was released by Artic Computing on the ZX81 - it was a movable ship at the bottom of the screen. (Retro-fans with a ZX81 emulator can grab a copy of Namtir Raiders from NVG! Download the following snaps pack : ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair/zx81/snaps/packs/ZXPRGS10.ARJ It's the file called 'NAMTIR.P'.......) (And it's in this month's snapshot pack! ED.) Me: What was your first commercial game? Jon: See above (In those days you could get away with a 2k game). Me: What was the first game you wrote that you were really happy with? Jon: I don't release games I'm not happy with - of course each game should/must be better than the last. Me: Did you always program full time, or did you start out like the average computer hack working in the back bedroom in the evening? ;-) Jon: I stayed at Radio Rentals for my first 3 games before going full time (remember that I was making 4 games a year at this time). Me: Did Knight Lore inspire you to do your isometric 3D games, or was it all your own idea? Jon: It was Knight Lore! Me: Did you use the same 3D engine for Monster Max on the Gameboy as you did for your 3D games on the Spectrum? Jon: No - it was a complete rewrite. (In case you didn't know, Monster Max was Jon and Bernie's only game for the Nintendo Gameboy. It's a 3D isometric game in a very similar style to Head Over Heals and is well worth a look if you're a fan of the genre!) Me: Head Over Heals is still probably the finest isometric 3D game on any machine and features on MANY peoples' favourite games list. What were your favourite games for the Spectrum and why? Jon: Match Day II - Cause I could win ;-) Knight Lore - Cause it blew me away when I first laid eyes on it! Me: Out of all the games you have written, which is your personal favourite? Jon: Head Over Heals. (Not surprising, eh?) Me: What was the last Speccy game you wrote? Did you leave anything unfinished? (and if so is there any chance we'll ever get to see it!) Jon: I have trouble remembering that far back but it was either HoH or Match Day II! I had started a new game called Starship (working title) when I moved on, the source for this has now gone missing so don't expect to see it! (Shame!) Me: What made you leave the Spectrum scene? It sounds like it wasn't something you expected to happen...... Jon: The article about Ultimate appeared (I'm sure you remember it) and I went to see them and then started working with them. (If I remember correctly, the advert Jon is talking about was placed by Ultimate in the late 80s just after they had become RARE. It advertised for programmers to help them progress into the arcade and console business, and appeared in most of the popular Spectrum mags.) Me: Were you sad to see the Spectrum go, or were you eager to move on to more powerful machines? Jon: The more power the better! Me: Is there anything you miss about the old days? Jon: They were great times but we all move on to bigger and better things, so no, not really. Me: You have a new company now called Cranberry Source. Are there any other names we'd recognise from Spectrum days working for you? Whatever happened to Bernie Drummond? Do you still work together? Jon: My business partner, John Cook, was Head of development at Mirrorsoft but he's not a programming type so most would not have come across his name - inside the industry however he is probably better known than me. Bernie does work for CS. (There's another couple for the FAQ then!) Me: What are Cranberry Source working on at the minute? Which machines are you concentrating on? Jon: Three games each on PC, Playstation & Saturn - Q.A.D. - A fly over a stunning landscape rescuing hostages game (2player) The Net - A multiplayer soccer game Redemption - An epic game, this would take me too long to describe! Me: Do you still program, or do you let other people get their hands dirty these days? ;-) Jon: I find there are too many distractions for me to program, running a company almost 30 strong means you get interrupted every three minutes. Me: Do you miss programming? Or are you glad you're out of it?! Jon: Running a company this size is still very much a learning experience and I've always enjoyed learning (isn't that what is fun about programming?) - I still look at the odd inner machine code loop to see if I can optimise it any better than my staff (and sometimes I can :-) so I'm not completely out of programming. Me: Any plans to convert any of your old games to the PC or consoles? I remember seeing Head Over Heals converted onto the 16 bit computers some time ago - what did you think of the conversions? Jon: HoH 16 bit conversions were all done by a guy at Ocean and they were as perfect as any conversion I've ever seen. I wouldn't convert an old game but of course The Net is a soccer game and I wouldn't release it if it wasn't much better than Match Day - For Hoh fans I suggest a look at Redemption (it wont be released until the end of next year). (eek! That's a long time!) Me: Do you ever get the urge to just go and write a Spectrum game instead of getting all hot and bothered over this PC and Super-Console business? ;-) Jon: No! (Shame again... but it was worth a try!) Me: Retro-mania has arrived with a bang and suddenly everyone is playing old games and getting all teary-eyed over the 'old days'. Do you think that modern games can really compete with the old classics? Aren't they just all graphics and no gameplay? Jon: Unfortunately many games have just been FMV fests but that doesn't mean a great modern game can't have superb graphics - of course it's possible to make ace games on a super powerful PC and that's just what CS plans to do. Me: Is it easier to produce a good game for the PC / Superconsoles than it was for the Spectrum because of the increased hardware? Or does it just make it easier for less scrupulous people than yourself to produce sloppy software? Jon: It isn't any easier for me because the games are much larger than the speccy days, what the PC does provide is less restrictions than the old machines - I suppose it does make it easy to knock up those collections of FMV sequences that some people call games though... Me: Are you in on the Retro-mania? Do you ever pull out an old computer or an emulator and play some old games? Or don't you have the time any more! ;-) Jon: I've got the Z80 emulator but I only really look at my own products on it. (Well, I could think of a lot WORSE things to use it for!) And that was it! My first ever interview and it was with a complete Speccy God! Hopefully that's given you all a little insight into Jon and his work - let's hope his future programming projects go on to be timeless classics too, eh? For those of you interested in having a look at what Cranberry Source are producing, there's a full page preview of QAD in the September 96 issue of PC Format and (so Jon tells me) there should be a playable demo with the October issue....probably! ;-) I'd like to thank Jon for taking time out from his incredibly busy schedule to talk to me - I hope it's been as interesting for you lot as it has been for me! Next month I'll be talking to Matthew Smith (in my dreams!). ;-) Blood. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ************************************* * PART 5 - THE SPECTRUM DATABASE * ************************************* Reveiwed by Stephen Smith Okay, I know what you're thinking - why am I writing this? (I hope you're thinking that anyway, otherwise you don't know much about the Spectrum games Database). It's like Julian Gollop reveiwing Rebelstar Raiders, or Pete Cooke reviewing Micronought One. Yes, I created the database and have even written quite a few entries for it as well. However, I will try to remain as impartial as possible. The original idea of the Spectrum Games Database (or SGD as I will now refer to it, since I am not being paid by the word. In fact I don't think I'm getting paid at all...) was to be a complete tome of knowledge regarding Spectrum games. And this is still the goal, although I might extend it to include every Spectrum program rather than just games. I used to hate it when I would download a Spectrum game from an ftp site, load into my emulator, and then not know what the Hell to do. Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of Spectrum games, I do still have this problem when I download a game that doesn't have an entry, but that number of games is decreasing all the time. So how do I get an entry? This is simplicity itself. All you have to do is go to the SGD web site, located at www.hermetica.com/technologia/sinclair /stevo/gamedbs/gamedbs.html. From there you are greeted with an excellent logo (drawn by Paulo "Nusco" Perotta) long page of text, much like this, of me explaining what it's all about. If you are lucky enough to own a web browser that can handle frames, down the left hand side will be the letters of the alphabet starting with "Nos" (obviously). If you don't, then you will need to scroll further down the page for this list. Anyway, should you click on any of the letters, you will be taken to a list of Spectrum games that start with this letter. I do not know if these lists are complete (chances are "no"), but they are getting there. Some of them are even links, and this is how you access an entry. Each entry is a text file with the name of the game at the top, and is divided up into sections, for example "publisher" and "controls" etc... Each entry is slowly building up into everything that you could ever know about the game, from how to play it to where to find it to what the reviews in the magazines were. The SGD is looking for as much help as possible. One of the great things about the Spectrum was that there were so many games. This does mean that each one needs instructions, and so I am constantly asking people to write entries for the database. At the moment the entries are coming in faster than ever, and in fact I am having trouble keeping up. But don't let this stop you. There was a bit of a problem previously with some of the links not going anywhere, but that has now been sorted. Admittedly this can be annoying, but we are doing our best. However, problems aside, its turning into a great success, and it could be the next Internet Movie Database. Indeed, what of the future? Maybe a front end similar to the IMdB, to help you even find a game that you didn't know you you wanted? COMMENTS: "Well, sume of dem links dint work, but fer those that did, it wus gweat. I was 'aving trouble workin oot what was going orn in Manic Miner, but this sortid me out. But what's the key fer shoot?" "It's a great idea, and that Stephen Smith should be given a meddle. In fact, I think every person who subscribes to comp.sys.sinclair should send him a tenner." "What's a Spectrum? Hello?" "I'm a Commodore User." [smack] "Urgh." Playability: 10% - Well, it's not really a game. Graphics: 100% - What graphics there are (1 logo) is excellent. Sound: 0% - Er, there is none. Lastability: 100% - This one will run and run. It's improving all the time. Overall: 100% - Hey, I tried to be impartial! =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ******************************** * PART 6 - EMULATOR REVIEWS * ******************************** I thought as the magazine is entitled "Emulate" it was high time we took a look at some of the Emulators currently doing the rounds on the web pages, FTP sites and BBS's around the globe! As more and more computers become obsolete, more and more emulators appear to start people "retro-computing" in the hope of bringing back the memories of the days when games were playable, cheap (well..some of them!) and were above all good fun! (Stop me if I begin to sound like an old fogey!) So, I have scoured the web and have come up with short reviews of a few of the newer emulators, not only for the humble Speccy, but also some for computers which made the Speccy obsolete, now having been relegated to the bargain shops themselves!! WSPECEM I start with a Speccy emulator which has just been released on the Internet. When this emulator was announced recently on C.S.S, it took me slightly by surprise - I had heard no mention of it before - therefore it couldn't be very good, could it? How wrong I was... This new Spectrum Emulator for Windows 3.1/95 is top class. It runs in a window which can be re-sized as you wish, and it even multitasks under Windows 95 (well, as much as W95 can multitask!) It recognizes and can convert between nearly all of the Spectrum file-types, even including TAP and SLT support. The version I have tried shows great potential. There are several features missing which would make it a major rival to Z80, the main one being 128k support. Currently, you cannot use 128k snapshots with it, although the emulator will bravely try to load any snapshot you throw at it, giving you the appropriate "This probably won't work" warning! Nevertheless, you can take a good look at a 128k game's title screen before the emulator crashes, and I am sure that 128k support will appear in a later version. Another drawback is speed. The emulator runs at normal Spectrum speed on my 75Mhz Pentium while in a small window. Enlarged to a whole screen, the emulator does drag quite significantly. Also, there is no option to alter speed, although the author may be saving this option for registered users (though the emulator is freeware...at the moment!). Finally, there are no real "advanced" features implemented yet, such as Plus-D, Microdrive or Tape-File editing. If you just use your emulator for games, download this gem immediately, otherwise stick to your DOS emulator until more features are added. PC64 A complex Commodore Emulator, PC64 offers a massive amount of features, including support for Disks and Tapes, with the option of connecting up to 8 external disk drives. However "complex" is the operative word and after a few hours usage, I felt that I still hadn't got to grips with most of it's features. However it is a well designed DOS-based emulator, although I'm sure no readers of Emulate! will be using it - if only out of principal!! VGB The "Virtual Gameboy" is the first of several console emulators that have recently appeared. There are versions now for Unix, Windows and DOS, although the latest Windows version is not very nice to use, as a big "Register this or die" (or words to those effect!) message is printed across screen at all times! I know the idea of shareware is just for trial, but surely it would have been better just to disbale some features? Anyway... The VGB is a nice emulator, running about 85% of gameboy games at a near perfect speed on my P75. It is hard to make copies of Gameboy carts yourself without an expensive piece of equipment, although you need look no further than the newly created Alt.Binaries.Gameboy newsgroup to find enough games to keep you happy for many a day! SMS Another console emulator, this time for the Sega Master System. I have fond memories of this, as the MS was my first step away from a Speccy (boo..hiss I hear you say!) This emulator has only just (by a matter of days) been released in a playable form with version 0.2. The previous version 0.0 (!) was only capable of playing the soundtrack of a game (Bet that was gripping stuff!), but the latest version is looking very impressive. I played two games (Alex Kidd and Wonderboy) and found that the emulator run at an excellent speed, with perfect sound. The only problem is the sprite update in some games, which causes old sprites to be left on the screen. This should be fixed shortly according to the readme file. LATEST - It has been fixed with version 0.3! SPW Another console emulator, this time for the Super Nintendo. When run, it looked fine. It only works under Windows 95 and seems a bit slow, but the game I loaded (Kick Off 3) seemed to run perfectly. I couldn't fathom out any of the control buttons, but I never let that put me off! Also, there is apparently no game that runs 100% and very few games that run better than 50%, but I'm sure that will be improved upon in future releases. My advice - leave this one alone until a later version (and also when the instructions have been translated into English!) UAE They said it couldn't be done....they shouted it couldn't be done...they SCREAMED it couldn't be done...but it has! The subject of many a debate on the Emulators newsgroup was the possibility of creating a functional Amiga emulator for the PC. Well, after many false starts, we finally have an emulator that is worth downloading. The Unix Amiga Emulator (previously called the Unusable Amiga Emulator due to the fact that it couldn't even boot!) is now up to version 0.6 and looks set for a proper release soon. A lot of games still do not work with the emulator, although Monkey Island and The Bards Tale amongst others, work fine. The emulator is still quite slow and there is a slight problem with the screen centering, but this seems to have proved all the doubters wrong! Anyway, thats enough emulators for this month. If you want to download any of the emulators listed above, you can find links on the Emulate! Web Pages. NOTE: The Amiga Emulator requires an image of the KickStart ROM to be able to boot. This can be obtained by using a small program supplied with the emulator on a real Amiga. Alternatively, check out one of the warez newsgroups as they will probably soon be doing the rounds there (I didn't say that!!!) =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ********************************* * PART 7 - FASTER THAN BASIC * ********************************* By Ian Cull Bsc Part 1. Introduction. --------------------- The Sinclair ZX Spectrum computer is, like almost all computers, built around a Central Processing Unit - the Z80 microprocessor chip. This chip is a very small piece of silicon packaged into a case about 3 inches by 1, and can execute carry out up to four million operations EVERY second! The ZX Spectrum does not run the Z80 at full speed, but can nevertheless carry out hundreds of thousands of operations every second. So why does your Basic program run so slowly? The answer is that the Z80 chip can only understand very simple instructions, that mean nothing to you or I. For example, the following instructions add 2 and 7 :- 00111110 00000010 11000110 00000111 and the ZX Spectrum can do this about 250000 times every second! Unfortunately, when you write the following Basic program :- 10 LET A=2+7 the ZX Spectrum can only manage to perform the sum about 385 times each second. The problem is that the Basic, which we can immediately understand, means nothing to the Z80. Special programs in the ZX Spectrum convert our Basic into instructions that the Z80 can understand, and that is how our program is run. Of course, the converting takes a VERY long time for the Z80 to do, since it can only do very simple things. This is why the Basic program takes 500 or 1000 times longer to give results than the Z80 program. There are, however, a number of ways that we can get our programs to work more quickly, and this series will look at doing things 'faster than (ZX) Basic'. Tweaks. ------- ZX Basic is a very 'user-friendly' Basic - anyone who has used any non- Sinclair computer will confirm this. ZX Basic checks each line of program as you type it in. You can also stop a program, alter it and then continue running it (most versions of Basic lose all the variables whenever you change something). Unfortunately, ZX Basic is also VERY slow. Most identically written programs will run quite a lot slower on the ZX Spectrum than on many other computers. The reasons behind this are complex, but are caused by the way that ZX Basic was written (by bolting extras on to the early ZX80 & ZX81 versions, mainly). If you know the ways of ZX Basic, however, you can change your programs so that they run more quickly. Here are three examples :- a) Define variables that are used a lot first. When the program references them, ZX Basic will find them first. b) Put often-used subroutines and loops at the start of your program (and use a GO TO around them) - ZX Basic always searches for subroutines from the beginning of the program. c) Avoid 'difficult' instructions if simple ones will do. For instance, multiplying by two is much slower for the Z80 to do than adding something to itself. These and other 'tweaks' can be used in any program, and will have more or less effect depending on what the program is doing (a very short program won't be sped up much by b), for example). Alternative Languages. ---------------------- Basic, Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, was originally developed to teach Fortran and was designed to be easy to learn, rather than efficient to use. Basic is very good at some tasks (in particular, string handling) but is not good at many things (try to handle more data than can be held in memory, for instance). There are many other computer languages designed for many different reasons, and you will find that writing a program in a language other than Basic will often give much faster results. Of course, it may take much longer to write - this is why Basic is still popular as a 'quick and dirty' solution to many tasks; if the computer takes a long time to run the program that took much less time for you to write, then it must be time for another coffee! In this series we will be looking at other languages available for the ZX Spectrum, in particular how much faster they are than Basic compared with how much more difficult they are to write. Machine Code. ------------- The way to get your programs to run REALLY fast is to actually write them in the language that the Z80 understands - this language is called Machine Code, and is really difficult to learn and write. The example I gave earlier is an extreme way of writing machine code - the actual Binary representations of the instructions. Although those 1s and 0s are all that the Z80 understands, the task is made easier for us if we use an Assembler - this is a program that carries out a one-for-one conversion from Assembler programs that we write, into machine code. The earlier program in assembler looks like :- LD A,2 ADD A,7 obviously this is easier for us to understand than the actual machine code, but it doesn't solve the problem that the Z80 can only do very simple things we have to break down our program into hundreds of very simple instructions. Compilers. ---------- Here, in theory, is the answer to everyones dreams (and what this series is truly about). A Compiler is a little like an Assembler in that it takes a program and produces machine code. The difference is that the program can be written in a language that you already know - Basic, for example! Compilers are very simple or very complicated, depending on how many tricks are programmed into them. At the simplest level, each line of the program is converted into an exactly equivalent set of machine code instructions - the increase in speed is due purely to the translation from program to machine code being done by the compiler, rather than as the program is run. At the other extreme, Compilers can spend ages hunting through your program, deleting unnecessary code, re-arranging bits and generally producing machine code which can run almost as quickly as if you had written the program yourself in assembler. In order to get some idea of what improvements can be expected when using a different language, or a compiler, we use 'benchmarks'. These are simple programs which can be written in any computer language and times when run - the time gives an idea of how useful the language or compiler would be for real tasks. The problem with benchmarks is that they only test what they are written to test - which is NOT a real task. Some compilers can even spot common benchmark test programs, and 'cheat' by rewriting the test. Nevertheless, I am going to use some 'really useful' benchmarks in these tests - the programs will calculate the first one hundred Prime Numbers (numbers which are only divided exactly by themselves or one - really useful!) There are two programs, which do the same thing in two completely different ways. PRIMES1 calculates each prime by checking all the divisions (this is a very slow & difficult task for the Z80). PRIMES2 uses a 'sieve' which is like crossing off a list all multiples of each number; any numbers not crossed off must be prime (try it if you are not sure). This month, we finish by presenting both listings in ZX Basic. Try them on your computer (and on other computers if you can) and try tweaking them - see how fast you can get them to run. Note that deleting the PRINT line (160 in PRIMES1, 130 in PRIMES2) is a fairer comparison, since it then does not time the displaying, only the calculating (The ZX Spectrum is VERY slow at displaying things). As a taster to keep you interested, a later presentation will run PRIMES2 (without PRINTing) in about half a second - that is about one hundred times Faster Than Basic ... 10 REM PRIMES1 in Basic. Ian Cull Bsc. 18/4/89. 20 DIM P(1000) 30 LET P(1)=2: LET PTOP=1 40 LET PP=1: LET PPS=P(PP)*P(PP) 50 LET P=3 100 IF PPS
100 THEN GOTO 200 110 IF P(PTOP)<>0 THEN LET PTOP=PTOP+1: GOTO 100 120 LET P=PTOP: LET X=P 130 PRINT PCNT,P: INPUT; :REM Remove this for speed 140 LET PCNT=PCNT+1 150 LET P(X)=1: LET X=X+P 160 IF X<=1000 THEN GOTO 150 170 GOTO 100 200 PRINT"Prime 100 is ";P: STOP Join us next month for Part 2 of the tutorial. =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ******************************** * PART 8 - 16/48 INDEX Pt.1 * ******************************** Over the next few issues, we will be running a complete index of the ever- populare 16/48 tape magazine. We'll start off this month with a list of all the type-in adventure games featured over the two years it ran, including the memorable "Long Way Home" series. Several issues are missing from the NVG archives. If anyone has a copy, of any of the following missing issues, could they please get in touch: 9,10,14,16,18 or any after no.24 Also we are still looking for Issues 15 and 22 in original Tape format. If anyone has these issues, but has no way of making snapshots of them, then I will be happy to make a snapshot of them myself. All tapes will be returned as soon as I have transferred them. =========================================================================== ADVENTURE GAMES THE LONG WAY HOME Part 1. Spaceship No.3 Part 2. The Ship No.4 Part 3. Pyramid No.5 Part 4. Troglodyte No.7 Part 5. Castle No.8 Part 6. Part 6 No.9 Part 7. Part 7 No.10 Part 8. Home No.11 THE LUDOIDS (Long Way Home Chapter 2) Part 1. The Ludoids No.13 Part 2. Jammer No.15 Part 3. Part 3 No.16 Part 4. Cyclapes No.17 Part 5. Part 5 No.18 Part 6. The Desert No.20 Part 7. Mini Sub No.21 Part 8. Westlins No.22 OTHE ADVENTURE GAMES Sorcerer No.6 Xmas Adventure No.12 Prisoner No.23 Adventure No.24 OF DUNGEONS AND GREEN MEN The Adventure hints, tips and reviews section ran from No.1 - No.23 An adventure tips program was included in No.24 =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ******************************************* * PART 9 - A-Z OF SPECTRUM GAMES Pt.6 * ******************************************* GAME NAME PUBLISHER % IS ========================================================== F-1 TORNADO Zeppelin Games 51 84 F-16 COMBAT PILOT Digital Integration 84 86 F-16 FIGHTING FALCON Mastertronic 53 76 F-16 STRIKE EAGLE MicroProse 84 42 F-19 STEALTH FIGHTER Microprose 83 73 FA CUP FOOTBALL Virgin 64 27 FACTORY BREAKOUT Poppy Soft 90 6 FAHRENHEIT 3000 Softstone 81 13 FAIRLIGHT The Edge 95 22 FAIRLIGHT II The Edge 81 36 FAIRLY DIFF MISSION Zodian Software 76 55 FALCON PATROL II Virgin 56 17 FALCON RENEGADE LORD Virgin Games 64 42 FALKLANDS 82 PSS 33 27 FALL GUY Elite Software 76 12 FALL OF ROME Argus Press Software 55 8 FAMOUS FIVE, THE Enigma Variations 81 89 FANTASIA DIAMOND Hewson Consultants 10 5 FANTASTIC VOYAGE Quicksilva 78 16 FANTASY, THE Mediandroid 49 43 FANTASY AMER FOOTBALL Zeppelin Games 78 80 FANTASY WORLD DIZZY Codemasters 94 72 FAST AND THE FURIOUS Go! 63 46 FAST FOOD Codemasters 68 63 FAT WORM BLOWS SPARKY Durell 95 34 FEDERATION CRL 78 51 FERNANDEZ MUST DIE Image Works 87 58 FEUD Bulldog Software 91 38 FIENDISH FREDDY'S BT Mindscape 94 76 FIFTH QUADRANT Bubble Bus 48 44 FIGHTER PILOT Digital Integration 86 2 FIGHTING WARRIOR Melbourne House 73 22 FIGHTER BOMBER Activision 73 77 FIGHTER PILOT Silverbird 76 61 FIGHTING SOCCER Activision 68 71 FIGHTING WARRIOR Mastertronic Plus 45 75 FINAL ASSAULT Epyx 38 62 FINAL FIGHT US Gold 90 93 FINAL MATRIX Gremlin Graphics 75 41 FINAL MISSION Incentive 07 10 FINDERS KEEPERS Mastertronic 85 13 FIRE AND FORGET Titus 55 61 FIRE ON THE WATER Arrow == 14 FIREFLASH Abacus 78 1 FIREFLY Ocean 92 50 FIREHAWKS Postern 51 1 FIRELORD Hewson 91 35 FIRELORD Players Software 73 85 FIRETRAP Electric Dreams 78 49 FIREWORK, WATER MUSIC Software Cottage == 16 FIRST DIVISION MANAGER Codemasters 86 92 FIRST PAST THE POST Cult 32 55 FISH! Rainbird 93 63 FIST II Melbourne House 58 38 FISTS OF FURY Virgin Games 76 89 FIVE ON TREASUR ISLAND Enigma Variations 78 82 FLASH GORDON Mad 42 43 FLIGHT PATH Anirog 04 16 FLINTSTONES, THE Grandslam 62 54 FLUNKY Piranha 60 44 FLYER FOX Bug-Byte 63 26 FLYING SHARK Firebird 85 49 FOOTBALL DIRECTOR D&H Games 13 45 FOOTBALL FRENZY Alternative 39 50 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2 Addictive 79 54 FOOTBALL QUICKQUIZ Rothmans 21 26 FOOTBALLER, THE Cult 43 69 FOOTBALLER OF YEAR Gremlin 68 37 FOOTBALLER OF YEAR 2 Gremlin 63 72 FOOTBALLER OF YEAR 2 GBH 58 90 FORBIDDEN FRUIT Tansoft 73 14 FORBIDDEN PLANET Design Design 86 26 FORCE FIGHTER Perfection 68 3 FORCE, THE Argus Press 68 30 FOREST AT WORLDS END Interceptor Software *6 10 FOREST, THE Phipps Associates == 1 FORGOTTEN CITY Hawk 87 38 FORGOTTEN WORLDS US Gold 90 65 FORGOTTEN WORLDS Hit Squad 60 90 FORMAT 4 KIT SP/1 Orion Software == 3 FORMULA 1 Spirit Software 25 8 FOUR MINS TO MIDNIGHT Eighth Day 76 39 FOURTH PROTOCOL, THE Century Hutchinson *9 19 FOXX FIGHTS BACK IMAGEWORKS 85 58 FRACTIONS Key Software == 37 FRACTIONS 2 Key Software == 44 FRANK BRUNOS BOXING Elite 86 19 FRANKENSTEIN Icon 76 18 FRANKENSTEIN JR CARTOON TIME 50 73 FRANKIE GOES HOLLYWOOD Ocean 94 19 FRANK N STEIN PSS 80 9 FRANK THE FLEA Megasoft 57 27 FRED Quicksilva 83 3 FREDDY HARDEST Ocean 84 47 FREDS FAN FACTORY Software Super Savers 44 12 FREEDOM FIGHTER Power House 19 53 FREEZ BEEZ Silversoft 61 2 FRENCH Vision Software == 39 FRENCH CROSSWORDS AVP Computing == 35 FRENCH DICTATION AVP Computing == 35 FRENCH IS FUN CDS == 2 FRENCH LISTENING COMP Softlee System == 18 FRENCH VOCABULARY Rose Software == 19 FRIDAY THE 13TH Domark 32 29 FRIGHTENED FANTASY Dented Designs 78 42 FRIGHTMARE Cascade 57 51 FRONTLINE Zeppelin 50 53 FROOT LOOP NTD Software 50 6 FROST BYTE Mikro-Gen 86 35 FROST BYTE Micro Value 79 89 FRUIT MACHINE SIM Codemasters 30 47 FRUIT MACHINE SIM Codemasters 78 74 FRUIT MACHINE SIM 2 Codemasters 40 80 FULL THROTTLE Micromega 91 7 FULL THROTTLE 2 Zeppelin Games 40 86 FUN SCHOOL 3 <5 Database 84 85 FUN SCHOOL 3 5-7 Database 86 85 FUNHOUSE Pacific == 15 FURY, THE Martech 72 55 FUTURE BIKE SIMULATOR Hi-Tec Software 68 78 FUTURE KNIGHT Gremlin Graphics 76 36 FUTURE TENSE Mystic Software 85 46 FUTURE ZOO Clwyd 43 33 =========================================================================== =========================================================================== ************************************ * PART 10 - SPECTRUM ON THE NET * ************************************ Getting larger and larger each issue, this section hopes to keep you up to date with the ever changing sites you can visit on the web, FTP sites to download from and BBS's you can dial up. ========================================================================== EMULATE! MAGAZINE ON THE WEB! The one web site you MUST visit!! ;) HTTP://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~dmb/speccy/emulate/index.html ========================================================================== GAMES SEARCH ENGINES HTTP://www.nvg.unit.no:80/spectrum/search.html SPECTRUM ARCHIE HTTP://drson.vse.cz/snapsearch/ SNAPSHOT SEARCH ========================================================================== MISCELLANEOUS HTTP://www.nvg.unit.no/spectrum/jmg7/intro.html SPECTRUM PD HTTP://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~steve/spectrum/ SPECTRUM ADS HTTP://osiris.sund.ac.uk/~ca4aba/snaps.html SNAPS LIST HTTP://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~dmb/speccy/ SNAPSHOTS HTTP://grelb.src.gla.ac.uk:8000/~webster TOP 100 GAMES HTTP://relcom.eu.net/zx/ SPECTRUM MUSEUM HTTP://spodbox.linux.org.uk/~majik/sinclair/ MUSEUM ========================================================================== STEPHEN SMITH'S COLLECTION You can find this great collection of pages at: HTTP://www.hermetica.com/technologia/sinclair/stevo/ This menu gives you links to the Game-FAQ, the Spectrum Database, plus loads of other excellent Speccy-related pages! Also, you can download entries to the games database from: FTP://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair/docs/game-database/ ========================================================================== SPECTRUM GAME TIPS HTTP://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/students/zcacbb1/spectrum/smashtips/ HTTP://www.soton.ac.uk/~rjc394/ ========================================================================== TOLKIEN GAMES Devoted to games based on Tolkien characters: HTTP://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/ HTTP://www.lysator.liu.se/tolkien-games/spectrum.html ========================================================================== ZX81 HTTP://www.maths.nott.ac.uk/personal/cpg/zx81/ ========================================================================== SAM COUPE HTTP://www.soton.ac.uk/~tsp93ma/Coupe/ ========================================================================== SINCLAIR QL HTTP://pcsuppl.cc.rl.ac.uk/home/chris/hchof/ql.html HTTP://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/peta HTTP://www.forthrt.com/-di~ren/homepage.html HTTP://www.serve.com/swensont HTTP://www.uni-mains.de/~roklein/ql HTTP://vsdmsi.zdv.uni-mains.de/~kleir000/index.html ========================================================================== QUICK LINKS TO OTHER SPECTRUM SITES HTTP://relcom.eu.net/zx/ZXLinks.html HTTP://www.io.org/~diehl/speccy2.html ========================================================================== SPECTRUM HOME PAGES IAN COLLIER HTTP://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/oucl/users/ian.collier/index.html MARAT FAYZULLIN HTTP://www.cs.umd.edu/users/fms/ ========================================================================== THE SPECTRUM FAQS HTTP://www.hermetica.com/technologia/sinclair/stevo/gamefaq.htm GAMES FAQ HTTP://www.cs.umd.edu/users/fms/stuff/spectrum.faq TECH FAQ HTTP://Coming Soon QL HTTP://Coming Soon ZX81 ========================================================================== FTP SITES All the below address are sites where files relating to the Spectrum are held, usually snapshots. If you are using a specialist FTP program, remove the "ftp://" from the beginning of each address. ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/emulators/spectrum ftp://ftp.ijs.si/pub/zx ftp://ftp.nvg.unit.no/pub/sinclair ftp://ftp.dcc.uchile.cl/pub/OS/sinclair ftp://ftp.ijs.si/pub/zx ftp://ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de/pub/zxspectrum ftp://spodbox.linux.org.uk/pub/users/majik/ ftp://ftp.gui.uva.es/pub/sinclair ftp://akira.uc3m.es/pub/sinclair ftp://virgo/inesc.pt.pub/games/ZX ftp://lst.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/incoming/kio/readme ftp://ftp.gmd.de/if-archive ftp://ftp.funet.fi:/pub/misc/if-archive ftp://ftp.sun.ac.za/pub/msdos/zx ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/msdos/emulator =========================================================================== BBS'S TO VISIT: FRAZZLE PROJECT BBS +44 1562 827019 24 Hrs GARGAMELS LAIR BBS +44 1224 873783 24 Hrs VIRTUAL MADDNESS BBS +44 1344 422575 24 Hrs =========================================================================== =========================================================================== *************************** * PART 11 - ADVENTURES * *************************** This month, we have the original tip sheets for the five games in the "Adventure" series of games: ADVENTURE A - Planet of Death ADVENTURE B - Inca Treasure ADVENTURE C - Ship of Doom ADVENTURE D - Espionage Island ADVENTURE E - The Golden Apple Thanks to Mike Gorton for posting the original sheets on the Sinclair newsgroup and allowing their inclusion in the mag. =========================================================================== PLANET of DEATH (Adventure A) Find the old house. Get the floorboard. Find the ravine. Cross ravine using board. Get the laser. Cross the ravine again. Find the maze. Go N.S.E.W. into ice cavern. Get ice. Slide down using ice. Go into wind tunnel. Get gloves. Wear gloves. Go East (door). Get key. Return to cavern. Get man. Drop man. Kill man. Get mirror. Find force field. Fire laser at field twice then dance. Go to lift. Get starter motor. Go to lift control room. Push 3. Push 2. Push 1. Go into spaceship. Push aux. Sail into the lift. Push (press) 4. =========================================================================== INCA TREASURE (Adventure B) HINTS and TIPS: These are not a complete solution to the Adventure, but they should help anyone totally baffled by the Adventure. The first problem is getting into the temple. ROOM OBJECT USED IN Jungle clearing Branch Temple steps KEY WORDS Remove leaves Get stick South Break latch Use stick Climb steps Use rock Go through door SACRIFICIAL CHAMBER MAGIC BLANKET FIRE ROOM Store room Key Panelled room Rock room Match Fire room Painted corridor Chisel Remove magic ring from flint Small room Ladder At POOL SIDE: Climb on board Boat, row in direction: S - Robe Room W - Priest Rest Room E - Fire Room In FIRE ROOM: Smother flames with magic blanket, light lamp, get magic ring. FIRE ROOM: Magic ring - Get through porthole in sand dungeon. FORGOTTEN ROOM: Blue stone - Get through porthole in sand dungeon. SACRED STORE ROOM: Red stone - Get main treasure. ARMOURY: Rope - Climb out of sand dungeon. In The Maze: NSEW - EMPEROR'S THRONE ROOM SNWE - MIRROR ROOM NSWE - TRAITORS' HALL =========================================================================== SHIP OF DOOM (Adventure C) Wear specs to find micro-battery. Insert micro-battery into rod to get SONIC screwdriver. Point sonic to get key. Shine torch at beam to pass. Cut rope and join to hook. Look up and throw rope. Fuse bars with mirror. Ask for help with buttons. When you meet the random alien, fight it out rather than running. He may be a good dodger, but you will get him. USEFUL SENTENCES Get specs Cut rope. Wear specs Join rope ....... to hook. Get micro Look up. Get rod Throw rope. Insert micro Climb rope. Get laser Pay barman. Point sonic (at case) Drink drink. Get key Fuse bars ... with mirror. Insert key ... into hole Press red. Shoot girl Press orange. Shoot door Press green. Go door ... at this point a random alien Press bottom. will appear. Always fight it out. Fuse bars ... head back. Shine torch ... at beam. Press button (escape) =========================================================================== ESPIONAGE ISLAND (Adventure D) To escape from plane: GET PARA WEAR PARA PULL LEVER PULL CORD UNSTRAP PARA To Get Lucky Beads In Aircraft Wreckage: FEEL CORNER PULL STRING GIVE BEADS (to Native Woman) To Get Knife: KILL GUARD TO GET GUN AND TORCH FLOAT DOWNSTREAM AND GET OFF BOAT TO GET ROPE To get across crevasse: DROP STICK STITCHED IS THE SAME AS SEWN ie. South, East, West, North to cross the swamp. To move rock: TIE ROPE TO ROCK AND TO TRUCK, THEN PUSH BUTTON, THEN PEDAL To diver tank: SWITCH SWITCH, REMOVE LIGHT AND INSERT PLASTIC ... INTO LIGHT. SWITCH SWITCH AGAIN, SHINE TORCH ... INTO HOLE To open safe: REMEMBER GRAFFITTI No. KILL COLONEL, OPEN CUPBOARD AND WEAR JACKET To start helicopter: TURN HANDLE, DON'T GO DIRECTLY SOUTH BUT BY-PASS THE AA GUN TO LAND ON THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER. =========================================================================== THE GOLDEN APPLE (Adevnture E) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- OBJECT USE Items with an '*' on These are treasures and should be stored to score either side. points - in the study. SIGN Just a sign KEY Unlocks door and box HANDKERCHIEF COVER MOUTH and SLEEP in the bedroom FLOWERS SMELL FLOWERS - gives player the key and handkerchief. LOG CHOP LOG (with AXE) to get *SILVER BAR* and PLANKS PLANKS Used to REPAIR BRIDGE AXE CHOP LOG WATERING CAN FILL CAN at stream and then WATER SEEDS after PLANTING THEM in the vegetable plot STREAM FILL CAN here SEEDS PLANT SEEDS in vegetable plot and water them CARROTS GIVE CARROTS to GUARD STAIRS CLIMB STAIRS TREE CLIMB TREE LEVER Must be PULLED before you can take the LAMP DOOR GO DOOR - Must be unlocked with key PAINTING EXAMINE PAINTING - *BROOCH* appears TABLE CLIMB TABLE LAMP ON/OFF turn is on & off BED SLEEP or MOVE BED DUST EXAMINE DUST - *RUG* APPEARS WHISTLE BLOW WHISTLE in BEDROOM or on HILL - transports player MATCHES Needed to 'ON' LAMP LAKE & FISH CATCH FISH - (need net) salmon appears SALMON GIVE TO BEGGAR and CATCH ANOTHER ONE. FEED CROCODILE with second one RAVINE OBSTACLE BRIDGE REPAIR BRIDGE and then CROSS BRIDGE (need rope & planks to repair it) CAVE GO CAVE (NEED LAMP) BEGGAR GIVE SALMON - *COIN* appears NET Need it for catching fish CLIFF Examine CLIFF - There is no way to climb it! You must cross the bridge SHIP GO SHIP & SAIL WRECK GO WRECK STALACTITE CLIMB STALACTITE STONE Go into round cave and THROW STONE, PULL PLUG, GET DIAMOND POOL Used for dissolving stone PLUG PULL PLUG empties pool SHADOW Stops player going into hole. Must turn lamp OFF - shadow disappears and player can go hole HOLE GO HOLE ROPE REPAIRS BRIDGE SHOVEL DIG - in the SOFT CORRIDOR CROCODILE Must be fed before player can go CRACK CRACK GO CRACK CASE Cover EMERALDS - SING PANEL SLIDE PANEL OPENING GO OPENING GUARD Can't see very well - GIVE CARROTS PASSAGE GO PASSAGE SPHERE ROLL SPHERE behind opening (on the steep slope) GLASS SPRAY GLASS (with TIN) and mirror appears PIT GO PIT BOX UNLOCK BOX - *GLOVE* appears KNIFE THROW KNIFE (at switch) TAXI GO TAXI SWITCH Throw knife at it DROP OBSTACLE HALLWAY CRAWL & then GO HALL GAS OBSTACLE CAGE Contains parrot PARROT Tells the player that the answer is 2B WINDOW EXAMINE WINDOW BUTTON HOLD BREATH, PUSH BUTTON, GO HATCH, GET SAPPHIRE, N, PUSH BUTTON EXIT GO EXIT COMPUTER Type 2B LIGHT GO LIGHT HATCH GO HATCH TIN SPRAY GLASS MIRROR HOLD MIRROR, GO CHAMBER SAFE Opens after 12 *treasures* GO SAFE CHAMBER GO CHAMBER NOTICE READ NOTICE MEDUSA Death - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - COMMANDS: NORTH, N, SOUTH, S, EAST, E, WEST, W, UP, U, DOWN, D LOOK, REDESCRIBE, L, QUIT, INVENTORY, I, SCORE, POINTS, GET, TAKE, PICK LIFT, DROP, PUT, LEAVE, HELP, WAIT, CLIMB, SLEEP, REST, EXAMINE, BREAK SPLIT, CHOP, SMELL, SNIFF, UNLOCK, GO, ENTER, MOVE, PUSH, PULL, FILL, PLANT WATER, BLOW, CROSS, REPAIR, CATCH, GIVE, EAT, ON, OFF, JUMP/LEAP, SAIL THROW, FEED, SLIDE, SING, ROLL, DIG, SAVE, LOAD, CRAWL, HOLD, TYPE, WEAR SPRAY, PAINT, READ, INSTRUCT, COVER =========================================================================== DEMON FROM THE DARKSIDE 3 Finally for this months section, the usual solution to last months Demon adventure game: S, fight troll, d, close door, (if not troll would kill you) e, get gold, examine dwarf, wake dwarf, dwarf follow me, w, open door, u, nw, n, get flask, examine flask, n, climb wall, d, get rope, swim, e, push orc, d, get sword, examine crack, examine ogre, give gold, nw, n, n, n, examine flower, e, examine spring, fill flask, w, give water, e, fill flask, w, get key, n, examine hogshead, give water, s, e, fill flask, w, n, nw Gruff stay, examine hook, tie rope, d, sw, get stone, examine stone, ne, u, Gruff follow me, d, sw, Giant follow me, ne, w, examine boulder, get charcoal, w, examine demon, examine tree, climb tree, get tooth, d, s, examine demon, give tooth, s, S, Gruff stay, use charcoal, d, examine gash, get torch, u, examine crack, light torch, examine orc, search orc, get shield, get cloak, dwarf follow me, n, Giant follow me, se, s, examine footprints, Stride stay, s, s, n, n, s, s, examine chest, unlock chest, drop key, examine chest, get egg, break egg, get wise, examine wise, n, n, Giant follow me, n, nw, n, e, Giant follow me, e, sw, e, s, examine boulder, Gruff stay, push boulder, examine web, get grit, n, GRIT, drink water, get Gruff, get Stride W, give shield, s, examine door, break door, s, n, n, Giant follow me, n, e, ne, Kill orc, n, w, examine orc, STORE, n, kill drakon, take staff, kill orcs, s, kill orc, e, GRIT, examine bridge, e, GRIT, get staff, break staff, look, e, .....DONE IT! =========================================================================== =========================================================================== **************************************** * PART 12 - PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE * **************************************** BACK ISSUES All back issues can be obtained from either the Frazzle Project BBS or the NVG UNIT FTP site (directory: pub/sinclair/snaps/discmag/emulate) or the DEMON FTP site (directory: pub/emulators/spectrum/magazines/emulate) Here a brief run-down of what was in the last 6 issues: ========================================================================== ISSUE 1 - September 1995 A-Z of Spectrum Games Part 1, Spectrum History Part 1, Complete guide to the Dizzy Games, Rebelstar Review Guide, Massive Multiface POKE List, plus adventures and Games Charts. SNAPSHOT PACK: Pyjamarama, 16/48 No.20, JSW Editor, Jet Set Willy 3, Chaos Editor, War In Middle Earth, Twice Shy, Plus a collection of GIF files and two utilities - SPCONV and POKE-IT. ========================================================================== ISSUE 2 - October 1995 A-Z of Spectrum Games Part 2, Spectrum History Part 2, Hackers guide to Doomdarks Revenge, Tips for Pyjamarama, Bards Tale and Retarded Creatures and Caverns, Spectrum database Run down, Complete Guide to Spectrum Charts and Desert Island Disks. SNAPSHOT PACK: Everyones a Wally, 16/48 No.3, The Bards Tale, Rock Star Ate My Hamster, Loads of Midnight, Retarded Creatures and Caverns, Spectrum Test Program, POKE Database, Plus two EXCLUSIVE games, Join the Jet Set and pre-release version of Street Hawk. ========================================================================== ISSUE 3 - November/December 1995 A-Z of Spectrum Games Part 3, Spectrum History Part 3, Complete Guide to the Magic Knight games, Spectrum Book Database Part 1, Solution for Everyones A Wally, Stormbringer, Finders Keepers and Spellbound. SNAPSHOT PACK: Demon From The Darkside, Crazy Caverns, Deathstalker, Herberts Dummy Run & Bonus puzzle game, Robocop (128k), 16/48 No.24, Graham Gooch's Cricket, Technician Ted 2 - Costa Capers, Jet Set Willy Editor II, plus another EXCLUSIVE game, Jet Set Willy - The continuing adventures. ========================================================================== ISSUE 4 - January/February 1995 Matthew Smith Special! Two interviews with the legendary programmer. SNAPSHOT PACK: Three Weeks In Paradise, Journey'S End, Spectacle, Murder, Demon From the Darkside 2, Robocop 2 (128k), 16/48 No.19, Plus EXCLUSIVE game, Jet Set Willy - The Deadly Mission. ========================================================================== ISSUE 5 - March/April 1995 SNAPSHOT PACK: Demon From the Darkside 3, Alchemist News No.19, Dizzy 8, Robin of Sherwood, 3D Starfighter, Gregory Loses His Clock, Spectacle 2, Stifflip & Co, Streaker... Plus EXCLUSIVE game, Jet Set Willy - Willy's Holiday. ========================================================================== SPECIAL 1 - Winter 1995 The First Emulate special features a massive A-Z featuring hints, tips, pokes and solutions for hundreds of games. This collection was originally published in Your Sinclair as the "Smash Tips" supplement, and is now available in ASCII Text, as well as HTML!! ========================================================================== I will also send out some back issues of the text mag to those who send me a personal E-mail request. READERS QUESTIONNAIRE There is still time for you to fill in the Emulate! questionnaire and I will publish the results in the next issue. I'd really like to know what you think of the magazine. I would appreciate it if you could fill it in and E-Mail it to me at DOCTOR@DOCBARRY.DEMON.CO.UK ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- READER QUESTIONNAIRE RATINGS :- 1=Excellent => 5=Average => 10=Awful 1. How would you rate Emulate as a magazine? 2. How would you rate it's content/features? 3. How would you rate the text presentation? 4. How would you rate the following features? SNAPSHOT PACKAGE/INSTRUCTIONS EDITORIAL/NEWS CLASSIC REVIEWS A-Z OF SPECTRUM GAMES SPECTRUM HISTORY GAMES CHARTS INTERNET SECTION PLAYING TIPS ADVENTURES TECHNICAL FORUM FEATURES (EG.DATABASE) 5. How would you rate the following? EMULATE! TEXT MAGAZINE EMULATE! WEB PAGES EMULATE! PC EXECUTABLE 6. Which of the following would you like to see? AMIGAGUIDE VERSION OF EMULATE SPECTRUM TAP/SNA OF EMULATE OTHER ________________________ 7. Which feature of the magazine would you like to get rid of? 8. Which feature would you like to see introduced? 9. What do you think of the snapshots? FINE. GREAT AS THEY ARE. MORE SNAPSHOTS LESS SNAPSHOTS LESS TAP/Z80 FILES MORE TAP/Z80 FILES 10. Rate the following Emulate exclusives in the snapshot pack? THE JET SET WILLY GAMES STREET HAWK THE JET SET WILLY EDITORS ALCHEMIST NEWS 11. Any more comments? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for filling out the questionnaire! ========================================================================== NEXT MONTH Can it get any better? (Maybe if the magazine actually comes out on time!) Anyway, to try to match this exclusive-packed issue, next issue will hopefully contain a few exclusive surprises lurking in the 7th snapshot pack, inculding a few never-before-seen games. Plus of course, all the regulars, as well as the questionnaire results, the next game in the Raf Cecco series (guess what that is!) and lots more! I won't say any more - just check out No.7, out in September! (Or sometime next year, depending on your outlook! ;) ) ========================================================================== ==========================================================================