[{"TitleName":"Spectrum Game Writers' Pack","Publisher":"Collins Educational Ltd","Author":"Peter K. McBride","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0001967","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 5, Apr 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-03-15","Editor":"Chris Anderson","TotalPages":176,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Chris Anderson\r\nProduction Editor: Roderick George\r\nArt Editor: Ian Findlay\r\nTechnical Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nStaff Writers: Steve Cooke, Peter Connor\r\nEditorial Assistant: Samantha Hemens\r\nSoftware Consultant: Tony Takoushi\r\nCartoons: Kipper Williams\r\nProgram Control Guardians: Jeff Riddle\r\nGame-of-the-month poster: Pat Weedon\r\nScreenshots: Chris Bell\r\nCover Illustration: Richard Evans\r\nGroup Editor: Cyndy Miles\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nPublisher: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\nPublishing Secretary: Jenny Dunne\r\nAdvertising Manager: Herbert Wright\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Jan Martin\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Pat Dolan\r\nAdvertisement Production: Simon Carter\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Coraline Turner\r\nSales Executives: Joey Davies, Marion O'Neill\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]. Typesetting by Spectrum Typesetting, [redacted] Origination by Fourmost Colour [redacted]. Printed and bound by Chase Web Offset [redacted]. © VNU Business Publications 1984."},"MainText":"PUBLISHER: Collins Educational\r\nAuthor: P K McBride\r\nPRICE: £7.95\r\n\r\nThis package consists of a cassette and a 104-page book.\r\n\r\nAt a very early stage the reader is introduced to concepts such as controlling the movement of objects from the keyboard and the detection of collisions. McBride then moves on to consider various other types of game: guessing games of the Hangman type, hat and ball games. mazes, unbeatable noughts and crosses - in fact, all the staple fodder so beloved by computer book authors.\r\n\r\nThere's even a section devoted to cheating, in which hidden program lines are used to load the odds in the writer's favour.\r\n\r\nThe accompanying cassette gives a selection of ready-torun games, as well as a collection of routines that may be incorporated in the user's own programs. The book is generally easy to read, with material sensibly split up into small easily digested sections.\r\n\r\nAlthough almost everything here is covered - often in considerably more detail - by one or other of the huge selection of books about the Spectrum, the inclusion of the ready-to-run routines and the 'no fuss' writing style make this an attractive package for the computer beginner who is keen to get on with writing games.\r\n\r\nBut I must stress the 'beginner' but - those who want to know how to achieve sophisticated graphics of the Ultimate or Imagine calibre will have to look elsewhere.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"115","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Mann","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]