[{"TitleName":"Games Designer","Publisher":"Quicksilva Ltd","Author":"John Hollis, Software Studios, Steinar Lund","YearOfRelease":"1983","ZxDbId":"0001970","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-23","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Quicksilva/Software Studios\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\nRetail Price: £14.95\r\nLanguage: Machine code\r\nAuthor: John Hollis\r\n\r\nIf you're tired of actually playing games perhaps you might like to have a go at designing one yourself? Of course a lot of Spectrum owners are not programming geniuses, so Quicksilva have now brought out a package which at least offers control over the various features of some standard arcade games. In a way it's the computer equivalent of the chemistry kit.\r\n\r\nGames Designer comes packed in a neat betamax-sized video cassette box, and contains a detailed booklet on the program. On loading the program the first thing you are offered is a main menu with a list of eight options: Play Game, Select New Game, Alter Sprites, Configuration, Movement, Attack Waves, Load from Tape, Save to Tape.\r\n\r\nAt any time, pressing ENTER returns you to the main menu. Selecting Play Game allows you to play whichever is the 'current' of the eight different games included in the program. Control keys may be altered to suit the users own preferred layout. The second option, Select New Game, lets you choose between any of the other seven games. The eight titles are: Attack of the Mutant Hamburgers, Cyborg, Reflecttron, Turbo-Spider, Tanks a Lot, Halloween, Splat and Qbix.\r\n\r\nHaving played these as they exist, you may fancy redesigning them. Option three allows the sprites to be altered and a menu tells you what can be done. This includes the shapes of the aliens, ships or laser bases, missiles and bombs, shields and explosion sequences. Their colours can be changed as well. Having selected the sprite type to be altered a sprite editor fills the screen, showing all the pixels that make up the sprite. These can then be manipulated from the keyboard without difficulty.\r\n\r\nConfiguration, the fourth option, allows you to alter the way the game takes place. You can change the game format, control keys and joystick options; the background and foreground colours may be altered; special effects can be changed; and there are four classes of sound effect which can be played with, missile sounds, bomb sounds, ship explosions and alien explosions. Selecting one of these keys brings the sound editor into play, a visual display of faders controlling the overall frequency or pitch of the sound, the speed at which pitch increases; or decreases; length of sound.\r\n\r\nOption five is Movement. This controls the patterns and pattern movement of aliens/ objects/ships etc. Again an editor is used with visual display so that you can create almost any pattern or movement you like.\r\n\r\nOption six allows you to alter the attack waves of the aliens, including the animation, points awarded for each destroyed, pattern under which they start a game, numbers of aliens in each attack wave, whether or not they drop bombs, and also what pattern of attack wave follows the 'current' one.\r\n\r\nThe last two options allow you to save your redesigned game or reload it.\r\n\r\nObviously this is a very complex program, which allows great flexibility and offers enjoyment on two levels, both playing and designing. The instruction booklet is well designed, very clear, and includes a technical appendix which may be of interest, as well as various tables to aid games design. They have also been thoughtful enough to provide blank pages at the end for the player's own notes.\r\n\r\nAny combination of control keys or joysticks may be accommodated as desired.\r\n\r\nCOMMENTS\r\n\r\nKeyboard positions: up to you!\r\nJoystick options: up to you!\r\nKeyboard play: positive\r\nUse of colour: up to you!\r\nGraphics: excellent and then up to you!\r\nSound: up to you!\r\nSkill levels: up to you!\r\nLives: up to you!\r\n\r\nSince the ratings hardly apply to this program we asked the reviewers to give an overall percentage. It was 92%","ReviewerComments":["Excellent packaging and instructions. The eight pre-programmed games are quite simple but the graphics are of good quality, and anything can be redesigned. The variations and experiments are endless.\r\nUnknown","I was disappointed by the actual games pre-programmed, which were all very simple. But then, half the fun is redesigning everything, and it's possible to make some very bloody-minded and hard to play games from this little package.\r\nUnknown","The graphics are excellent, and I'm not talking about the game graphics but those on the various menus. The little 'fader' type visuals are wonderful.\r\nUnknown","The program is user-friendly so you don't have to be an expert in machine code programming. Even at £15 Games Designer represents good value for money.\r\nUnknown"],"OverallSummary":"General rating: Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nSince the ratings hardly apply to this program we asked the reviewers to give an overall percentage. It was 92%.\r\n","Page":"40,41","Denied":false,"Award":"Crash Smash","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""},{"Name":"Unknown","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"92%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Spectrum Issue 17, Aug 1985","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-07-18","Editor":"Kevin Cox","TotalPages":66,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Kevin Cock-up\r\nArt Editor: Phoebe Evans\r\nDeputy Editor: Rocky Horror Shaw\r\nProduction Editor: Louise Cook\r\nArt Assistant: Martin Dixon\r\nEditorial Consultant: Andrew Pennell\r\nSoftware Consultant: Gavin Monk\r\nContributors: Stephen Adams, Dave Nicholls, Roger Willis, Ross Holman, Mike Leaman, Toni Baker, Dougie Bern, Chris Cockayne, Paul Woof, Iolo Davidson, Tony Samuels, Chris Wood\r\nAdvertisement Manager: David Baskerville\r\nProduction Manager: Sonia Hunt\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Chris Talbot\r\nManaging Editor: Roger Munford\r\nArt Director: Jimmy Egerton\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Chris Robur\r\nPublisher: Stephen England\r\n\r\nPublished by Sportscene Specialist Press Ltd, [redacted] Company registered in England. Telephone (all departments): [redacted]\r\nTypesetters: Carlinpoint [redacted]\r\nReproduction: Graphic Ideas, London\r\nPrinters: Chase Web Offset [redacted]\r\nDistribution: Seymour Press [redacted]\r\n\r\nAll material in Your Spectrum ©1985 Felden productions, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of the publishers. Your Spectrum is a monthly publication."},"MainText":"THE GENERATION GAME\r\n\r\nGames creators aren't new exactly but they're still the best and quickest way for even the duffest programmer to knock out some ace arcade action. And talking of duffers, we've asked Tony Samuels to create a couple of classics while Peter Shaw looked over his shoulder and took notes.\r\n\r\nWhat's all this then? An in-depth review of two programs that have been around long enough to qualify as golden oldies? That's true but it's really only now that everyone's caught up with what the programs were originally trying to do. New computers like the Macintosh have shown that you don't have to be a machine code whizz to use a computer to the full and this attitude is filtering through to the Spectrum. Look at The program we reviewed a couple of issues ago - simple to use but producing some spectacular visual results. Well, these two games creators really set the trend and it's worth taking a look at how they've stood the test of time and whether they'll help you transfer all your brilliant ideas into code.\r\n\r\nSo, what do they have to offer? Well, that's easily answered - they both allow you to create machine code style games without having to learn a programming language first. But let's not pretend, the games you write won't be as good as the ones you could write in machine code. But they will be quicker to bash out and they'll be a whole lot better than anything you could knock up in Basic - and a whole lot simpler too.\r\n\r\nIf this sounds like just what you've been looking for, the big question is will you be able to create the sort of games you've always dreamed of writing? Well, life isn't all a bed of ROM chips and it's unlikely that you'll get precisely what you're after.\r\n\r\nOf the two programs, Games Designer is the less flexible as it only allows you to create shoot 'em ups. But on the plus side, you can produce games more quickly and easily with this package. With HURG you can also have a go at platform and pacman type games but its animation and sprite handling trip it up when it comes to final presentation.\r\n\r\nThe most appealing aspect of both programs - is that they're menu-driven. This is what sets them apart from other games designers like White Lightning.\r\n\r\nBrilliant as that program undoubtedly is, you still have to become proficient at a programming language - Forth in this case - and that can require the skills of a brain surgeon. No, with Games Designer and HURG the menus guide you as you create your sprites, move them and animate them. The program then puts this information into a game buffer that's looked at by the executive routines when your game's running.\r\n\r\nOne area where White Lightning, say, scores heavily over these two, is its ability to save a game off independently of the main program. This could be done by having an editor in the low part of memory that would affect the game database in the top of memory. Then the sprite routines and so on would come somewhere in the middle and look at info in the database. This way it would be a doddle to save off the middle to top parts of memory as a stand alone game with a short bit of code to tie it all together.\r\n\r\nAs often happens in a comparative review like this, my choice falls somewhere between the two programs. If only the smoothness and slickness of Games Designer could be combined with the flexibility of HURG. As you can only plump for one, you must decide what sort of games you're after. If it's just shoot 'em ups then go for Quicksilva's but if you're willing to sacrifice a certain amount of smoothness in favour of a wider range of games, go for HURG. One word of advice if you're veering towards Games Designer - it might be worth your while looking out for the version that Marks and Spencer brought out at the end of last year.\r\n\r\nFinally, let's do a bit of dreaming - what would the perfect games creator package look like? Well , it's going to have to incorporate all the wham-bam-pow features of the new software. Alien 8-type 3 D graphics would obviously be a plus as would a larger range of game formats to choose from. Also a graphics editor such as the one on The Artist would be a big help - even better if it were completely icon-driven. It's going to take a lot of work to come up with something with all those features, so it'll be interesting to see if any software house takes up the challenge. Of course, if you've written a program like that or you reckon you could, we'd love to talk to you at YS. Now there's something to think about!\r\n\r\nGAMES DESIGNER\r\nQuicksilva\r\n£9.95\r\n\r\nThere's no way of disguising that Games Designer's pretty limited in what it can achieve - the four types of games you can bash out are all rather old hat. But the way it does it is excellent. The animation of the sprites is superbly smooth and there are tons of useful options for you to play around with. All in all, a lot of fun if you accept the limitations.\r\n\r\nOverall rating: 8/10. Completion time: 2.5 hours.\r\n\r\nHURG\r\nMelbourne House\r\n£14.95\r\n\r\nHURG really does have all the goodies you could wish for - if only the rough edges had been tidied up in the rush to get it on the shelves. True, it's much more flexible than Games Designer and offers a greater range of possibilities but it's really not all it could have been.\r\n\r\nOverall rating: 6/10\r\nCompletion Time: 4 hours including time on Melbourne Draw.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"24,25,27","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Tony Samuels","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"MAX BURGERS FROM OUTER SPACE\r\n\r\nNot now available on Tony 'Slim' Software, this is a game that's gonna really knock your Thicko Shakes for six. Feast your eyes on the format, gorge yourself on the graphics. You play the part of an unsatisfied fast foodie who's after his grub - first the burgers, then fries. Big Max and turbo-charged apple pies. Just shoot em up and count the calories.\r\n\r\nTake a look at the main menu. You'll find here all the options you'll need to take you further into the editing menus, and on the way to producing your very own monster megahit.\r\n\r\nThere are eight different flightpaths for your aliens to follow. Choose them with the Movement Editor and use them in combination or on their own to get those enemies zig-zagging.\r\n\r\nThis option takes you on to the Attack Wave editor, Here you can define the scoring system, the speed and the next screen the program'll look to after the current level is completed.\r\n\r\nUse the Configuration Menu to tell Games Designer how your game will operate. You can choose from four types of game format - Space Invader, Scramble, Berserk and Asteroids. You're also asked what colour back- and foreground you require and what type of special FX (Groan! Ed) you want - stars, for instance.\r\n\r\nThe Sprite Menu will take you on to a further set of menu options that allow you to change the shape of the sprites for the player, aliens, explosions and so on.\r\n\r\nThe Play Game option allows you to play the game you're currently editing. That way you can - judge whether an alteration works or not."},{"Text":"So, this is it - the end of all the hard work, the heartache and the sleepless nights. And in the true Tony 'Slim' Samuels style it's about food - Maxburgers from Outer Space. Need we say more?\r\n\r\nAt last, here are our two-stage fully animated sprites - the world famous YS bouncing burgers. What d'you mean you can't see 'em moving? Well, you'll just have to take our word for it! And for the fact that they're following the patterns that were laid down earlier.\r\n\r\nThe background stars were added with the Special FX function. They can be moved in one of four directions - up, down, left and right but they don't affect the playing of the game. They're just there to add another element of interest and let's face it, Tony's game needs something to stop you nodding off!"},{"Text":"Study this carefully - you'll find it the most useful menu in the game. Its function is to define what the aliens get up to on each level, how many you'll have to face and the consequences of being zapped by one.\r\n\r\nHere you can control the speed of your aliens and whether or not the nasty critters drop bombs on you. You're offered a choice of seven variants that cover slow speeds, fast speeds, turbo speeds and bomb-droppin', death-dealin' nastiness.\r\n\r\nEach game has a basic eight levels but, of course, you can repeat any level to give the impression that you've created a megagame. This column lets Games Designer know where to go after the current screen's been completed.\r\n\r\nMax controls (any relation to Max Headroom? Ed) the number of aliens that have to be annihilated before you pass onto the next level. You can choose any number between zero (which is pretty pointless) and 99 (which is pretty impossible).\r\n\r\nPat here stands for pattern and defines the movement paths of each alien. You can create up to eight different movement patterns.\r\n\r\nUse the Anim column to define the alien animation. Just like the sprite designer, you'll need to have the manual close to hand if you re going to make head or tail Of these numbers."},{"Text":"You've got up to 32 sprites to play around with on each game. Use this chart to set them up, but a word of warning - don't lose the manual or you're in big trouble. Games Designer loses one point for lack of menu-driving!\r\n\r\nDefining sprites is pretty odd to say the least. You create half the sprite at a time and then use a binary-style control to set or reset each pixel.\r\n\r\nIf you want to end with a bang, not a Wimpy, then you'll need to use the explosion sprite that's kept in the last four stages of animation. You can define exactly what the explosion looks like which is an improvement on HURG - that only lets you define its size.\r\n\r\nThese sprites, 00 and 01, are the two-stage animation sprites for the first screen. You can have anything up to four stages of animation.\r\n\r\nYour sprites can only be 12 pixels deep by 12 wide. That's considerably smaller than the ones you can create with HURG but they are 'real' sprites. By that, I mean they're smooth scrolling and fast."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 3, Apr 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-03-16","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Quicksilva, 48K\r\n£14.95\r\nAuthor: John Hollis\r\n\r\nPacked into a neat Betamax video case, Games Designer offers eight arcade game variations, all of which may be redesigned in most aspects to suit the players' taste. Less of a game than a utility practice mode. You can change between any of the games using the main menu, then alter the design of the sprites such as aliens, missiles, laser bases, ships etc., you can redesign the game format, foreground and background colours, sound effects, patterns of movement, attack waves, and you can then save or reload your redesigned game. The graphics are very good, especially the design of the editors. Games Designer is accompanied by an excellent booklet which tells you how the program may be used. Perhaps the only drawback is that the games already programmed are of a very basic type. Does not require any working knowledge of machine code, although this could be a good way of learning the rudiments. Recommended, overall CRASH rating 89% M/C.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"89%","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 23, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":152,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: Nicole Segre\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nSoftware Editor: John Gilbert\r\nProgram Reviewer: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Brian King\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nSales Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to any of the Sinclair User group of publications please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for the copyright of each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]"},"MainText":"SPRITES PUT LIFE INTO THE GAMES OF YOUR COICE\r\n\r\nJohn Gilbert looks at some of the new designer packages on the market.\r\n\r\nCreation and programming of games on the Spectrum has always been left to the imagination of those who had the nerve to enter the world of machine code and had the creative talent to produce such products as Manic Miner and The Corridors of Genon.\r\n\r\nThat elite club has been broken by some software companies which have produced packages to allow even a beginner to produce competent arcade and adventure games. Those packages contain machine code routines which can be manipulated to produce the sound and vision necessary for games play.\r\n\r\nThe first company to produce such a utility package for the creation of arcade games was Quicksilva, with Games Designer in 1983.\r\n\r\nThe user can create up to eight games in the package, each with varying formats and characters. For instance, you could create a mixture of all the classic arcade games using Space Invaders Defender and even Pacman. Those characters are limited only to what the imagination of the users can produce.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva produced eight example games in the package to show what kind of effects can be obtained. They include mutant hamburgers, flying tanks and jet-propelled spiders. All of those characters are created using a sprite technique.\r\n\r\nSprites are graphics characters, like user-defined graphics on the Spectrum, which are four times the size of one character square. A sprite can be anything which moves in those pre-defined squares and the sprite editor in Games Designer will allow you to set up several of those characters. Most of them have already been used to create aliens for the example games but you can alter them for your own programs. There are also two spare sprites which have not been used for design and you can use them if you wish to start building from scratch.\r\n\r\nWhen you have selected the 'alter sprite' option from the main menu, the computer will display a 12 x 12 grid on the screen with the current shape of the sprite displayed in it. Using the cursor keys you can alter the places in which ink is inserted and omit pieces of the design you do not want.\r\n\r\nThere are various types of sprite characters you can use and they include aliens spaceships and explosion sequences. When you have finished altering one of the sprites you can change the colour of the object if necessary by using the 'alter attributes' option on the sprite editor page.\r\n\r\nAliens and explosions can be animated by using several sprites which show progressively the course of the action - like stop-frame photography. When each of the sprites is switched on to the screen in sequence, the characters taking part in the game seem to move. You can change the colour of each individual sprite so that it is possible to make an animated figure, or explosion, flash after each movement.\r\n\r\nThe movement of the sprites round the screen can be achieved by using another main menu option. For movement you must form a pattern of numbers which represent the movement of an individual sprite into an attack wave. Sprites can be made to dive-bomb, swoop on the player-figure, or even to loop the loop. It is possible to change the concept of a game by changing only a few numbers in the movement patter-n.\r\n\r\nAnother important feature of the package, listed on the main menu, is the 'configuration' option. It will allow you to change one game into another and one of its functions is to create the format of the game you are designing.\r\n\r\nThe format will decide whether the game has the movement patterns of Galaxians, invaders, defenders or asteroids and whether your laser base or spaceship moves vertically or horizontally across the screen.\r\n\r\nTo add to the excitement you can also introduce special effects on to the screen. They include stars if you want your game in space, shields for the defence of spaceships, and a factor which will determine whether the aliens appeal individually or in groups.\r\n\r\nThe other features in Games Designer include a sound generator with which laser zaps can be created. A high score table, like the one Quicksilva uses in its other games, is also included at the end of each of the games created.\r\n\r\nWhen the package is used initially it is novel in concept and many entertaining games can be created using it. Unfortunately there are some snags with the package. You can load and save new games which you have created but they can be used only when the creator program is running. You will also find that after you have created several games they will all seem similar in movement and content. All you can create is one type of game - zap the objects or be zapped.\r\n\r\nApart from that small criticism the series of routines provided in Games Designer should provide a great deal of entertainment and its use is limited only by the creator's ingenuity.\r\n\r\nMelbourne House, publisher of The Hobbit, announced a similar product at the same time as Quicksilva. The package, the HURG, reached the market later than Games Designer. Its purpose is the same and with it you should be able to create some imaginative arcade games.\r\n\r\nThe HURG is slightly different from Games Designer as it asks the user questions for the construction of the player shapes which are to be manipulated on the screen.\r\n\r\nThe package also provides subroutines for creating graphics and sound explosion effects. Like Games Designer, the software created using it can be played only with the HURG control program. That makes the two packages alike, the only major difference in concept and design being that Melbourne House has only three example programs in its package as opposed to the Quicksilva eight.\r\n\r\nIf you do not like arcade games, or become disenchanted with them, you might like to try writing adventure games in machine code without the trouble of writing the code. The Quill, from Gilsoft, will set up a database for your own textual adventure and all you have to do is enter the text and directions of the locations through which you want the player to move. You can then enter the items which can be found in the adventure scenario and the locations into which they should be situated.\r\n\r\nProvided with the program is an excellent manual which takes the user through the setting-up procedure of a simple adventure scenario, as well as showing the meaning of all the options on the main menu.\r\n\r\nThe adventures need not consist only of picking up objects or moving around locations. The machine code routines in The Quill will allow complex adventure actions, including switching torches on and off and providing specific actions for players to perform, such as eating apples, shaking leaves from a tree, or wearing a hat.\r\n\r\nOnce you have finished setting up the options you want to enter into your adventure you can test it by using the demonstration mode. You can go through the locations and test all the traps without destroying the main database creator.\r\n\r\nIf there is something which is incorrect in the scenarios you can change them by using the database editor. When finally you are pleased with the adventure you have created you can SAVE it to tape. Unlike the two arcade games designers, the adventures you create using The Quill can be run independently from the control and creator program. Gilsoft will permit users to market games which have been created using it so long as its name is displayed prominently on all labelling.\r\n\r\nIt has also gone to the lengths of describing The Quill program and how it produces an adventure game. That means you have complete control over what you produce and an interesting insight into a program which should keep adventure players happy for a long time.\r\n\r\nUnlike the arcade games designers there are virtually no limits to what type of adventure scenario you produce. Program generators provide an excellent opportunity for users of the Spectrum to produce games and not to rely so much on professional manufacturers. It must be said, however, that the arcade and adventure games which you produce will provide few surprises when you play them. The packages available allow you to write games for other people to play. There is nothing more uninteresting than playing your own adventure games.\r\n\r\nThe generators will provide a good deal of fun but are more likely to be used as utilities and not as a replacement for professional software.\r\n\r\nProfessional manufacturers will still provide the quality and originality in software. No package, even if it is brilliant in the production of games using the sausage machine technique, will provide an answer to properly machine-coded and original games.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva Ltd. [redacted].\r\n\r\nMelbourne House, [redacted].\r\n\r\nGilsoft, [redacted]","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"44,45","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"7","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"\"The series of routines should provide a great deal of entertainment and its use is limited only by the creator's ingenuity.\""},{"Text":"\"If you do not like arcade games, you might like to try writing adventure games without the trouble of writing the code.\""}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 21, Dec 1983","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1983-11-17","Editor":"Nigel Clark","TotalPages":204,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nDeputy Editor: Nicole Segre\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nSoftware Editor: John Gilbert\r\nProgram Reviewer: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Brian King\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nSales Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to any of the Sinclair User group of publications please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1983\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Photograph: Peter Dawney"},"MainText":"THE SAME GAME - ONLY THE ALIENS ARE DIFFERENT\r\n\r\nMost young 48K Spectrum owners dream of being able to write a prize-winning machine-code arcade game. The dream can be a reality with Games Designer for the 48K Spectrum from Quicksilva Software Studios.\r\n\r\nThe package will enable you to build various game elements into the game of your choice. You can design large animated characters, called sprites, and make them into spaceships, witches, demons, or even mutant hamburgers.\r\n\r\nOnce you have designed the characters you can decide their movements with the attack wave designer. With the aid of this tool you can make the game as difficult or as easy as necessary. Explosions, zaps and even spaceship engines can be manufactured using the sound generator. It can be programmed to take effect when an alien or laser base is hit.\r\n\r\nTo manipulate games you need no programming experience. The disadvantage is that the games you create will not run independently of the Designer program. You have to load the main program and select the game load option to play back the program you have created.\r\n\r\nAlthough you can create a variety of games, with aliens appearing from the sides, top and bottom of the screen, the types of game will seem finally to be all the same. In effect all you are doing is zapping aliens and there is no change to the format.\r\n\r\nTo become used to the package you might like to try one of the eight games included on the new game menu.\r\n\r\nThey include Attack of the Mutant Hamburgers, Hallowe'en and Reflectatron. Most of them will provide a certain amount of fun but many of them just emphasise the point that they are the same games but with different aliens, moving in different attack waves.\r\n\r\nIf you want to program games with no programming knowledge, Games Designer is for you.\r\n\r\nIt can be obtained from Quicksilva Ltd, [redacted]. It costs £14.95.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"53","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 26, Dec 1983","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1983-11-16","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":222,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nAssistant Editor: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Clare Edgeley\r\nReader Services: Robert Schifreen\r\nArt Editor: Linda Freeman\r\nDesigner: Lynda Skerry\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nStaff Writers: Seamus St. John, Richard Frankel\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Rob Cameron\r\nAdvertising Executive: Louise Matthews\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Louise Flockhart\r\nPublisher: Tom Moloney\r\n\r\nEditorial and Advertisement Offices: [redacted]\r\n\r\nCOMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES POSTAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE. By using the special Postal Subscription Service, copies of COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES can be mailed direct from our offices each month to any address throughout the world. All subscription applications should be sent for processing to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES (Subscription Department), [redacted]. All orders should include the appropriate remittance made payable to COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES. Annual subscription rates (12 issues): UK and Eire: £14. Additional service information including individual overseas airmail rates available upon request. Circulation Department: EMAP National Publications. Published and distributed by EMAP National Publications Ltd. Printed by Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Computer & Video Games Limited ISSN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover Illustration: Kathy Wyatt\r\nNext Issue: December 16th"},"MainText":"Once upon a time if you wanted to write a good game then you needed to be a good programmer. But not any more. Programs are appearing which allow you to create games without knowing anything about the computer. Robert Schifreen tested the two latest offerings.\r\n\r\nIf you've always fancied yourself as a designer of video games but don't think you are skilled enough to program your own games, then this new software innovation might interest you.\r\n\r\nCalled The Games Designer, this program allows you to design your own video games - even if you know nothing at all about programming! The games are all in machine code and, says the maker, will be as good, if not better than most of the commercial software currently available for the machine.\r\n\r\nIf all this sounds too good to be true, then you should realise that there are some limitations to the system. Firstly, you cannot design your own unique game from scratch. You are only allowed variations on the theme of Invaders, Asteroids, Scramble and Berserk.\r\n\r\nOnce the tape has loaded, you are presented with a menu of options. At this point, there are 8 separate games stored in the system and you can select any one of them. The games are not stand-alone programs but are banks of data which need the actual designer program to run. A game can be saved and loaded once written.\r\n\r\nYou can either alter one of the 8 demo games supplied, or create your own. The only limitation here is that it can only be one of the 4 main types mentioned above.\r\n\r\nThe first option in the menu is to play a game. This plays the current game and uses the cursor keys for movement. The zero key is used to fire. To change the current game to another of the eight, you choose option two.\r\n\r\nTaking option 3 puts you in to the sprite editor.\r\n\r\nSprites are 12 pixels square as opposed to the normal 8 available in Basic. These are the characters which will appear in your game including all the aliens, ships, missiles and the like. If you want animation, like a space invader which constantly blinks, you can define two different sprites and the program will constantly flick between the two during play..\r\n\r\nThe menu option which has the most dramatic effect on a game is the configuration section.\r\n\r\nSelecting this option takes you to yet another menu which allows various characteristics of the game to be set.\r\n\r\nMost important is the game format which is a number between 1 and 4 corresponding the four types game. Adding 4 to any of these values makes the game joystick compatible. You can also set the background and foreground colours here.\r\n\r\nThere is also a special effects section which does wonderful things like scattering random stars over the playing area. You can also specify whether aliens appear singly or in groups. You can provide a shield for the laser base if you wish.\r\n\r\nNext come the sound effects. Entering this option lets you alter the sounds by means of 4 sliding controls displayed on the screen.\r\n\r\nThere is a reasonable simulation of a definable envelope command here, and the sounds available are quite good.\r\n\r\nThere are 4 different options, with different noises producable for missile sound, bomb sound and explosions of ship and alien.\r\n\r\nThe attack wave command allows control of movement on the screen. Here you can set up your attack waves, and specify which sprites will be used to form them.\r\n\r\nThe actual movement is controlled by another menu option. There are a number of different movement paths which you can define and then link them to each other creating long chains.\r\n\r\nWhilst setting up the attack waves, you are also given control over such matters as how many points will be awarded for destroying certain aliens and also the maximum number of aliens in an attack wave.\r\n\r\nOnce you have created your masterpiece you can save it to cassette. The system used differs from The Quill in that the cassette is not a self contained game. It is simply a data file which needs to be loaded along with the designer itself.\r\n\r\nAlthough this package is sold as a games designer, there is a limit to the originality of the games which can be produced. You are always limited to variations on a theme, although it should be said that these variations can be quite divorced from the original.\r\n\r\nHowever, you can produce smooth, fast machine code games with little effort - and you get 8 demo games as well. Games Designer comes from Quicksilva at £14.95 and runs on a 48k Spectrum.\r\n\r\nIf you've ever tried your hand at writing a Adventure program then you'll know just how long and complicated a job it can be.\r\n\r\nBut that's been made a lot easier with The Quill, a program for the Spectrum which allows you to design your own adventure games. You can now put all your effort into creating the scenes and pitfalls, and leave The Quill to do the programming for you.\r\n\r\nThe best way to test such a program is to use it to create a simple Adventure, so that's what I did.\r\n\r\nFirstly I designed the game by drawing a map showing all the locations and how they were connected.\r\n\r\nThere were just four locations in my example, although in reality you aren't limited to any size. The program itself takes around 8k, so the database for the game can be massive if you have the time to design it.\r\n\r\nOnce you have your map designed, you then have to tell the interpreter about the locations. You type in the text which is associated with that particular location.\r\n\r\nThe entire program is menu driven. There's a main menu with around 20 options such as alter vocabulary, select movement table etc., and you can alter any part of your game at will. Within each of these choices there's a small sub-menu with 2 or 3 choices.\r\n\r\nOnce you have defined the locations you have to tell , the program how they are interconnected. For each location, you need to specify all possible routes from it, and the number of the location which taking that route will lead you to.\r\n\r\nNo adventure is complete without a number of objects like keys, torches and jewels. You can have up to 255 objects in your Adventure and you define them in the same way as the locations. For each object number you type in the appropriate text.\r\n\r\nOnce you've specified your objects you can place them at their starting positions in the game. Again you use the location numbers to specify positions.\r\n\r\nThere are also a few special object, numbers, tor example 254, which implies that the object is currently being carried by the Adventurer.\r\n\r\nThe most important part of an Adventure is the range of words which the computer can understand. The program may not understand TURN ON THE LIGHT, but may be totally familiar with a command to LIGHT LAMP.\r\n\r\nThe heart of the Adventure is called the event table. It is this which links the actions which the program takes, to the commands which the player types in.\r\n\r\nAll the normal commands associated with Adventures are available, like Inventory, Describe and Quit. A player can also save the current game to tape and continue his quest at a later date. This is distinct from saving the completed adventure to tape which can be done not by the player but by the person creating the game with The Quill.\r\n\r\nBecause certain actions are dependent on other conditions being satisfied, The Quill provides a number of flags which the program can set. For example, if a player picks up a key the program may set flag five to a value of one. Then, if the player tries to open the door the program will look at the value of flag five to see if the player has the key. If he or she does, then the door will be opened. If not, then the Adventure will say something like \"\"you cannot open the door without the key\"\".\r\n\r\nAdditional commands also exist such as BEEP, which enables you to add limited sound effects to the game. No doubt most people getting killed by a dragon will do so to the accompaniment of the Death March.\r\n\r\nAt any time you can test your Adventure and alter any part of it.\r\n\r\nUsing The Quill lets a computer user create a playable Adventure game. It will take quite some time to produce a good game, and a clear map is essential. Nevertheless, you do not need to know anything about programming. In fact, using The Quill will teach a novice something about writing programs as he works through the simple language which the Adventure interpreter understands.\r\n\r\nThis software is very professionally produced. It comes with a 52 page manual which takes you step by step through the creation of a simple Adventure.\r\n\r\nObviously if someone creates a Adventure he will wish to save it. You can do this with The Quill and it will save both the Adventure and a short Basic loader program. This means that the tape produced will auto-run and appear no different from a commercially produced program.\r\n\r\nGilsoft, creators of The Quill, are quite happy to let people sell their creations to others. They do not demand royalties as Softek do on their compiler. There is simply a message in the manual saying that if you intend to sell an Adventure written with The Quill we would be grateful if you could mention somewhere in it that it was written with The Quill\". Now that's the way to handle such matters, isn't it.\r\n\r\nThe Quill is made by Gilsoft which is based in Barry, South Glamorgan. You can buy a copy from selected computer outlets or direct from Gilsoft by mail or phone [redacted]. If you're an adventure fan then you'll find it worth every penny of the £14.95 price tag.\r\n\r\nMelbourne House have a similar program on offer for Spectrum owners.\r\n\r\nIt's called the high resolution user friendly real time games designer, or HURG for short!\r\n\r\nUnfortunately there's only one copy of the program in the world at the moment, and that's in Australia. However, Computer and Video Games has discovered information about the program and it sounds very similar to the Quicksilva offering.\r\n\r\nAgain it is driven by a series of question and answer routines. It has the facility for creating various graphics characters and these can be animated. You can also speed up the game or make the aliens more vicious.\r\n\r\nAny game can be saved on cassette, but you will still need the games designer loaded as the control program.\r\n\r\nThe Hurg comes with three demo games as opposed to Quicksilva's eight. There is also a monthly competition which Melbourne House will be running for the next few months to find the best game created with the Hurg. All the finalists will then be judged to produce a grand winner, with a prize of £1,000.\r\n\r\nThe Hurg should be available from you local W. H. Smith soon, and it also costs £14.95.\r\n\r\nWith the introduction of these programs, it now seems possible that games written with such systems will be offered for sale on cassette. As for the quality of this software we shall have to wait and see. As for the question of copyright I think that an interesting situation could develop.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"90","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Robert Schifreen","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 4, Apr 1984","Price":"£0.8","ReleaseDate":"1984-03-15","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":236,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nStaff Writer: Simon Beesley\r\nProduction Editor: Ian Vallely\r\nSub-Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Dawson\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £10.50 for 12 issues.\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Shobhan Gajjar\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Nicholas Ratnieks\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Nigel Borrell, Julian Bidlake, Kay Filbin\r\nNorthern Office: Ron Southall\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Jeanette Mackrell\r\nClassified: Claire Notley\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\n©Business Press International Ltd 1984\r\n\r\nPrinted in Great Britain for the proprietors of Business Press International Ltd, [redacted].\r\nISSN 0263-0885\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted], and typeset by Instep Ltd, [redacted]"},"MainText":"GAMES WRITING PACKS\r\n\r\nProducing fast-action games without the need to learn machine-code programming - Simon Beesley reviews a crop of games designers including the newly-released Hurtg.\r\r\n\r\r\nThere are few more dismal experiences than playing a version of Space Invaders written in Basic. The invading aliens dawdle across the screen while your missiles take an age to reach them. The fact is that Basic is usually too slow for writing adequate arcade games. For best effects you need the speed and flexibility of machine code. But for most of us learning machine code is a daunting task.\r\r\n\r\r\nAs an alternative there are now a number of programs which offer a more painless way of writing arcade quality games. These are either extensions to Basic or full-blown games designers.\r\r\n\r\r\nMelbourne Houses's Hurg is such a program. Hurg, incidentally, stands for High-Level, User-Friendly, Real Time, Games Designer. The terms High-Level and User-Friendly refer to the fact that by using Hurg you can design a game without writing a line of code - the entire system is menu driven. It offers, in fact, an extensive hierarchy of menus and sub-menus which between them cater for almost every aspect of designing a game.\r\r\n\r\r\nDEFINE EIGHT OBJECTS\r\r\n\r\r\nNot only, for example, can you define up to eight different objects but you can also animate each in a different way and determine how it is to move. Movement can be described in considerable detail. You could instruct an object to mimic the movement of another object or give a weighting to movement in certain directions. Alternatively you could define eight paths and link four of them together.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe animation facility is extremely impressive. Each object can be given up to eight animation sequences. It can either be allotted two different shapes for each direction or be made to pass through an entire eight shape cycle in every direction. Once you have defined its shapes you can set the speed at which animation occurs as well as the speed with which the object moves across the screen. Two Shape Generator is one of the most enjoyable features of Hurg. In effect it lets you construct the frames for a cartoon. As soon as you have defined at least two different shapes you can see tour cartoon character in motion.\r\r\n\r\r\nThere are a host of other options such as a regeneration menu, a collision table, and a games variation menu. To take just one of these, the games variation menu allows you to alter the pattern of a game after a specified event. Thus you could instruct the ghosts in a PacMan-type game to move away from the player when a power pill has been eaten.\r\r\n\r\r\nAlthough there is no facility for designing a background you can load in a predefined screen. This means that an assortment of different games can be designed. Two of the demonstration games included with Hurg show its range. Manic Koala is a creditable Manic Miner type game - with only one screen - while Ms Hortense is a Pac-Man variation.\r\r\n\r\r\nDesigning a complete game with Hurg is quite a complicated business. The program's facilities are so extensive that they need much fuller explanations than are given in the manual. More examples are needed. The manual gives an example of how to write a simple game but this is rather sketchy. When I came to design an Invaders type game I was unable to make my missile leave its silo. Doubtless I had made an elementary mistake but detailed step by step instruction would have been handy.\r\r\n\r\r\nQuicksilva's Games Designer is easier to use bin more limited in its scope. Essentially it is an instant shoot em up kit. Seven game formats are open to you - Invaders, Asteroids, Scramble and so on - but these are really a matter of fixing the directions the aliens come from and how your character moves. The program does not allow you to design a game at the same level of detail as Hurg. So you are confined to producing variations on the same shoot-em-up theme: aliens approach and you blast them out of the skies.\r\r\n\r\r\nAgain it is menu driven. There are eight options on the main menu; Play Game, Select New Game. Alter Sprites, Configuration, Movement, Attack Waves, Load from Tape, and Save to Tape. Selecting any one takes you to you to another section. The sprite option, for example, takes you to a character definer where you can define either your own player and missiles or the enemy characters and their missiles.\r\r\n\r\r\nIncluded in the configuration sub-menu is quite a sophisticated sound editor - a feature lacking in Hurg. By moving a slide up and down on five scales you can create he sound of your choice for explosions or missiles. Given the range of different sounds that can be produced this is particularly simple to use as well as being fun to play with.\r\r\n\r\r\nAlthough you can give the aliens a limited degree of animation and set their flight path you cannot animate your own character. This feature does not begin to compare with Hurg's extensive facilities for defining animation and movement. Only one set of aliens can appear on the screen at any one time and all move in the same way.\r\r\n\r\r\nNor is it possible to define the background. The background option reduces to a choice of colours and the decision to include stars or not.\r\r\n\r\r\nBut for all its limitations Games Designer is a highly effective package. The eight are predefined games which are included with it show that you can certainly design games of commercial quality. If shoot-em-ups are your taste then this program will allow you to indulge yourself to the full.\r\r\n\r\r\nGames Designer programs, however, have their frustrations. They restrict you to a set course menu. With Hurg, for example, it is possible to design a Pac-Man game but you could not instruct the ghosts to move intelligently. As the blurb for Interactive Software's puts it, such programs cannot satisfy those who enjoy the challenge of true programming.\r\r\n\r\r\nScope is a computer graphics language. It has 31 command words which are tagged onto Basic Rem statements. They cannot, however, be intermingled with Basic. Once you have written a Scope routine it needs to be compiled into object code in another area of memory. The idea is that once compiled your graphics routine can be called from Basic.\r\r\n\r\r\nENTIRE GAME IN SCOPE\r\r\n\r\r\nYou could also write an entire game in Scope: although with only 31 commands on hand this would be a daunting task. Scope does not allow floating point variables so the sine and cosine functions cannot be used. Nor are there commands for multiplication and division. User-defined graphics need to be set up in Basic.\r\r\n\r\r\nAt first glance Scope's syntax seems rather complex. To set up the equivalent of the empty loop FOR A = 0 to 100 NEXT requires the following commands:\r\r\n\r\r\n10 REM Var,a,0;\r\r\n20 REM Label; A;\r\r\n30 REM Inc;a,1;\r\r\n40 REM Test,194,a,100,A;\r\r\n\r\r\nBut the language's graphics commands like Plot, Draw and Attr are familiar enough; while Fscr is a useful addition which scrolls the screen pixel in any direction.\r\r\n\r\r\nBy using Scope to build up graphics routines you could undoubtedly speed up your Basic programs considerably. It is also an interesting introduction to lower-level languages - a compromise between Basic and assembly language. As an alternative to Scope one could use a fully-fledged Basic compiler or Forth.\r\r\n\r\r\nRichard Taylor's Fifth is a more accessible aid to writing fast games and, arguably, just as effective. One of Your Computer's regular contributors Richard Taylor needs, as they say, no introduction. In an interview he once said that he like to make machine do thing they are not designed to do. Having given the ZX-81 high resolution and speeded up its loading rate, he is now doing amazing things for the Spectrum.Fifth is a 4K extension to Basic which lets you harness effects normally only available through machine code. It supplies 25 new commands and a further 13 functions. To use them you simply enter the commands and their parameters after Rem statements.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe largest group of commands provide the Spectrum with a sprite facility. The beauty of this is that since the sprites are interrupt driven they move independently of your program. You can specify the direction of one of up to 255 sprites and then set the speed and number of pixels un;p at a time. Once set in motion the sprites carry on moving while the program attends to something else. If a sprite collides with another object or veers off the screen control returns to Basic whereupon you can redirect it.\r\r\n\r\r\nAlong with the spite facility Fifth offers a number of other new commands. Among them are Sound, a far more powerful instruction than Beep, and Replace which changes colours on screen in a similar way to the BBC's VDU 19 command. With Get and Put you can store away any rectangular section of the screen and then reprint it at a new position.\r\r\n\r\r\nPut together these facilities make up a hugely useful tool for writing games without dipping into machine code. The sprites are particularly impressive. As they can be set to move pixel by pixel at a rate of 50 jumps per second they are both fast and smooth.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe Commodore 64 already has sprites but using them in Basic is a slow and tedious business. Almost unchanged since the days of the PET Commodore's Basic now looks a little long in the tooth. It has no specific commands to handle sprites, high resolution graphics or the 64's sophisticated sound chip. To access these facilities you must instead rummage through the manual in search of the requisite Pokes.\r\r\n\r\r\nSimon's Basic remedies this state of affairs. It is an extension to Basic which makes good the resident Basic's shortcomings with a further 114 commands.\r\r\n\r\r\nNUMBER OF NOVELTIES\r\r\n\r\r\nWith the Simon's Basic cartridge in place Commodore's Basic can hold its own and indeed feel superior to any other versions of the language on the market. Before writing it David Simons drew up a shopping list of all the commands and features he would like to see in his idea of Basic. And here they all are: structured programming features such as Repeat Until and local variables; programming aids such Auto, Trace and Remember; error trapping commands, extra string handling commands, scroll commands for any direction; and, of course, an extensive range of instructions to deal with sound, high-resolution graphics and sprites. There are also a number of novelties like Delay which varies the rate at which a listing is printed and Disapa which hides a program line as a security aid.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe graphics commands, in particular, do all you could hope for. To mention just a few, Paint fills in an enclosed area, Rec draws a rectangle, while Rot will rotate and expand a predefined shape.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn return for 8K of your RAM Simon's Basic gives you a remarkable number of new software features. Some were sorely needed, other cans be considered bonus extras.The pity is that Commodore did not think to rewrite its Basic at the outset incorporating some of these features in the ROM.\r\r\n\r\r\nFIFTH\r\r\n48K Spectrum\r\r\n£9.95\r\r\nCRL\r\r\n\r\r\nGAMES DESIGNER\r\r\n48K Spectrum\r\r\n£14.94\r\r\nQuicksilva\r\r\n\r\r\nH.U.R.G.\r\r\n48K Spectrum\r\r\n£14.94\r\r\nMelbourne House\r\r\n\r\r\nSCOPE\r\r\n48K Spectrum\r\r\n£11.95\r\r\nISP Marketing Ltd\r\r\n\r\r\nSIMON'S BASIC\r\r\nCommodore 64\r\r\nBusiness UK Ltd","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"77,78","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Simon Beesley","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Above and above left: Games Designer from Quicksilva."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair Programs Issue 20, Jun 1984","Price":"£0.95","ReleaseDate":"1984-05-17","Editor":"Rebecca Ferguson","TotalPages":60,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nConsultant Editor: John Campbell\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: June Mortimer\r\nDesign: Elaine Bishop\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Gary Price\r\nAdvertisement Executive: Frank Humphrey-Gaskin\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nAssistant Managing Director: Barry Hazel\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nU.S. Press representative Mr J. Eisenberg, JE Publishers' representative, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSinclair Programs is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like your original programs to be published in Sinclair Programs, please send your contributions, which must not have appeared elsewhere, to\r\nSinclair Programs\r\nEEC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included. We pay £10 for the copyright of each program published.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1984 Sinclair Programs\r\nISSN No. 0263-0265\r\n\r\nPrinted and typeset by: Cradley Print PLC, [redacted]\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCover Design: Ivan Hissey"},"MainText":"TAKING THE EASY ROUTE TO BETTER PROGRAMS\r\n\r\nGames Designer, Hurg and The Quill allow beginners to produce machine-code games. We look at these three programs in detail.\r\n\r\nProgramming a Spectrum with an original game is not difficult. Simple games can be written within hours of first using a computer, with the knowledge gained from reading the first chapters of the manual.\r\n\r\nWhen those games are compared, as they are bound to be, to professional software, they are found to be sadly lacking. The graphics are unsophisticated, the sound is unexciting, and the speed is slow. As original home-made creations they have their charm but many programmers find themselves wishing they knew an easy route to machine code and good programming.\r\n\r\nIt is for everyone who ever wished they knew such an easy route that three programs have been put on the market. The Quill by Gilsoft, Games Designer from Software Studios and Hurg from Melbourne House are all easy routes to professional-style games programming.\r\n\r\nGames Designer is complete with eight pre-recorded games which have been written using the designer program.\r\n\r\nWhile playing the games, common themes become apparent. Each consists of one creature/object, defending itself by destroying attacking waves of other objects/creatures. Each creature is a sprite graphic; that is a graphic which is much bigger than a user-defined graphic and which moves smoothly across the screen as a whole. The movement is smooth and fast and the sound is not a series of beeps, as in a Basic program, but a variety of rising and falling machine-coded noises.\r\n\r\nMENU-DRIVEN\r\n\r\nGames Designer is menu-driven and arrives with a short instruction booklet. The main menu allows the user to load, save or play a game, to change the game being played, to alter the sprites, their configuration, their movement and the attack waves. Once one of those options has been chosen, a secondary menu or some other list of options is displayed.\r\n\r\nThe configuration option on the main menu produces a variety of options. The background or foreground colour of the screen during the game can be changed, sounds can be defined, and the general format of the game can be changed. Game formats are based on existing types of game. The choices are Invaders-type, Asteroids-type, Scramble-type and Berserk-type.\r\n\r\nTWO HOURS ONLY\r\n\r\nGames Designer is fairly simple to use and a first game can be completed in two hours. Once each section of the program and of the instruction manual has been understood the program can be used easily and machine-coded games can be designed quickly and efficiently. A major difficulty is that the games are all of the same type and that it does not take long for the format to become uninteresting.\r\n\r\nThe Hurg package is complete with three games designed with its help. They show far more variety than those in the Games Designer package. One is a version of Pac-man, while the other two are unlike other games on the market. The games feature animated sprite graphics, including a manic koala bear, complicated screen layouts and a variety of scoring procedures.\r\n\r\nThe catch is, of course, that no games design program, however good, can do all the work and there is a great deal for the player to do before a professional-looking game can be produced. Each sprite graphic must be designed, the screen layout must be produced, complete animation cycles in all directions must be devised-the list goes on and on.\r\n\r\nBEWILDERING VARIETY\r\n\r\nWith so much to do and so many options in it, Hurg necessarily contains a bewildering variety of menus, within which it is easy to become lost. The instruction manual is not nearly clear enough and leaves much to guesswork. Despite the comment at the beginning of the booklet that \"any combination of options can make a valid game\", a large variety of combinations can produce nothing like a valid game.\r\n\r\nAt the end of the instruction booklet, hidden in Appendix A, are the instructions which would best be given at the beginning of the manual, on how to find and use the correct menu at the correct time and thus write a simple Hurg game.\r\n\r\nThe first step is to re-set Hurg and thus clear any previous attempts at games. The next stage is to create the background which will appear onscreen. That should be designed separately and LOADed into the main program at that point. There is no help with design, although it is suggested that the program Melbourne Draw could be used.\r\n\r\nIt would have been more helpful to let users know before they LOADed the main program that the screen design should be completed previously. Users without Melbourne Draw will find that some knowledge of Basic programming is needed to create a satisfactory background.\r\n\r\nDesigning the player's character is done in a sub-menu. The character can be a variety of sizes although, at first, it is best to follow the instructions and create the simplest possible character of the size two columns by two rows. As in Games Designer, a grid is supplied on which characters can be designed quickly and easily.\r\n\r\nThe design menu is slightly confusing. If you have chosen an animation count of 2, as suggested in the booklet, the program will expect you to design two characters. The game will then use those characters alternately to produce an animated effect, so designing, for example, a lettuce followed by a cricket bat, wilt quickly prove a strain on the eyes. The easiest shapes are lines and crosses of varying lengths and sizes, for they give an effect of animation quickly and easily.\r\n\r\nOnce the player has been defined and modified, the first alien can be produced in the same way and the fire button action can be chosen. Any other necessary aliens can be defined. The game will probably, at that point, resemble a machine-coded version of a beginner's Basic game - very crude, undeveloped and probably not very exciting.\r\n\r\nEFFECTIVE AID\r\n\r\nUsers who reach that stage will already have spent some hours using the program, criticising the very sketchy instruction booklet and sorting-out one menu from another. Hurg is a very effective tool for producing games but it is not as simple to use as the publicity suggests. It seems likely that people who have the time and patience to learn to use it will also be those who have the time and patience to use machine code.\r\n\r\nNevertheless, even to people who can use machine code it would be useful for trying ideas. If Melbourne House were to produce a better instruction manual, preferably with a detailed breakdown of how one of the pre-recorded games was created, together with diagrams, Hurg would be unbeatable value.\r\n\r\nHurg allows users to produce any arcade game for the Spectrum. The Quill by Gilsoft enables users to produce any text-only adventure. Gilsoft also allows users to market games produced in that way and a number of games already on the market were written using it.\r\n\r\nAs with Hurg, The Quill very quickly makes it clear that the user cannot expect something for nothing. An adventure contains a large number of location descriptions. Each of those must be typed into the computer. An adventure has a large vocabulary and each word to be understood must be entered. Most important, everything which the adventurer asks the computer to do must provoke some response and each of those responses must be entered.\r\n\r\nThe manual explains in detail how to create a very simple adventure, which involves exploring a house, opening a safe, removing a jewel and taking it to the correct part of the house. That is a very short adventure, with very few locations and very limited vocabulary.\r\n\r\nTEN OPTIONS\r\n\r\nTo create your own adventure of that size, using The Quill would take some five hours' work. The sheer volume of information to be entered means that, even when the user knows exactly what to enter, and has already debugged it, an adventure of that size would take around an hour-and-a-half to enter, longer for inexperienced typists.\r\n\r\nTen options in the main menu are those used to create the main body of the adventure. The vocabulary table must contain every word which the program will be expected to understand. Adventurers who have been puzzled when a location description in an adventure contains words which the computer does not understand will see that the reason is that the location table is different from the vocabulary table. Each word in the vocabulary is given a number. Synonyms, such as UP, U and ASCEND, are all given the same number, so that they will all be treated in the same way by the computer.\r\n\r\nPROVOKE RESPONSES\r\n\r\nThe words with the lowest numeric values in the vocabulary table are treated by the program as directions, so that they provoke the response \"I can't go in that direction\" if they cannot be used in a location. Words with higher numeric values provoke the response \"I can't\" when used at the wrong time.\r\n\r\nThe object table is separate from the vocabulary table. It must include every object to be used, e.g., sword, food, light. Object zero will always be treated by the program as a source of light, a torch for example, which will illuminate dark places. Some objects which seem the same must be listed separately . The open safe and the closed safe are treated by the computer as two different things, as are the torch and the lighted torch.\r\n\r\nOnce objects have been entered, the text for each location should be entered. Locations, like objects and vocabulary, are all given numbers . Objects can then be given a start location, which tells the computer in which room to place them. Some objects, such as the lighted torch, do nor have a start location and must be defined as not created .\r\n\r\nDRAW A MAP\r\n\r\nWhen creating an adventure it is best to begin with a map, which will serve as a reminder of where everything is. It is also useful to write on paper exactly what has been typed into the database. In that way, if the spanner is to begin life in the living room it is not necessary to refer to different tables to find that the spanner is object one and the living room location 20.\r\n\r\nThe Quill is an excellent program which enables patient users to produce thought-provoking, professional adventures. It also provides valuable insights into how adventure games are put together. By using the program for a few hours it is possible to learn a good deal about how adventures are created and how they can be solved.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"30,31","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"June Mortimer","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 3, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","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\nIllustrations: Mark Watkinson, Andy Bylo, Tony Hannaford\r\nPhotography: Ian McKinnel, Chris Bell, Tony Sleep\r\nGroup Editor: Cyndy Miles\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\nAdvertising Manager: Herbert Wright\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Jan Martin\r\nSales Executives: Joey Davies, Marion O'Neill, Louise Hedges\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":"MAKING MONSTERS\r\n\r\nA wave of new Spectrum programs allows you to design your own games and graphics. Stuart Cooke investigates.\r\n\r\nThe computer market is flooded with machines offering high resolution graphics, sound and joystick ports. It's therefore not surprising that a person who is learning a new computer language usually starts by trying to draw pictures on the screen or even attempting to program a game. This may be either one of their own design, or a copy of an arcade game.\r\n\r\nUsually this results in disappointment because the game is too slow and objects jump around the screen; nothing like the smooth graphics in the arcades or even in the programs that come from the well-known software houses.\r\n\r\nSoftware packages designed to aid graphic creation are now appearing on the market. These range from games designer programs to self-contained graphic languages which enable the owner of a home computer to produce games with something like arcade quality, including smooth graphics and good sound effects.\r\n\r\nThe Sinclair Spectrum, being one of the best selling micros in Britain at the moment, has perhaps the widest range of graphic software.\r\n\r\nFor the person who wants to design their own graphic games easily. Quicksilva have produced a menu-driven games designer program, unoriginally named Games Designer.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva's claim that you get 'a lifetime of games in one package' is probably a little exaggerated. Nevertheless, for a person who wants to design his own games this package is an ideal introduction.\r\n\r\nGames Designer is menu driven. This means that you need no programming knowledge at all to use it as you never have to write a single program statement.\r\n\r\nWhen loaded, Games Designer automatically runs and the main menu is displayed on the screen, giving you a list of eight options. These are: 1 PLAY GAME, 2 SELECT NEW GAME, 3 ALTER SPRITES, 4 CONFIGURATION, 5 MOVEMENT, 6 ATTACK WAVES, 7 LOAD FROM TAPE, and 8 SAVE TO TAPE.\r\n\r\nOption 1 allows you to play the 'current' game. The program automatically uses the cursor keys for movement, but it is possible to select other keys and even use a joystick.\r\n\r\nThe second option allows you to select one of the games included within Games Designer. There are eight of these, for example - Attack of the Mutant Hamburgers and Halloween.\r\n\r\nQuicksilva claim that four of the games supplied with the program were designed by people with no programming expertise but, in fact, all were high quality.\r\n\r\nThe characters used in Games Designer are called sprites. Each sprite consists of a 12 x 12 square in which each dot can be either the foreground or background colour.\r\n\r\nOption 3 lets you define your character on the 12 x 12 grid. There are 31 sprites in all and these are grouped as follows: 00-15 are the aliens; 16-23, player's ships or bases; 24, player's missile; 25, missile for the aliens; 26, spare (used for moving sprites around); 27, shield; and 28-31, explosion sequence.\r\n\r\nAll of the keys used to design a character are displayed on the screen making it very easy to design a character of your choice. Pictures overleaf and on page 17 show the 31 sprites from the Halloween game and one of these sprites being designed.\r\n\r\nThe configuration section allows you to choose the game format, screen colours, special effects and to define the sounds for the bombs and explosions.\r\n\r\nGame format allows you to choose from Invaders type, Asteroids type, Scramble type and Berserk type of game.\r\n\r\nThe special effects select whether you have a blank screen or stars as the background (but no other choice is available). You can also select whether the aliens appear singly or in groups and whether a shield will protect your ship.\r\n\r\nDefining a sound is simplicity itself. When you select the sound you want, the sound editor chart appears on the screen. This consists of five slide controls.\r\n\r\nFREQ sets the pitch of the sound; RAMP 1 sets the speed at which the pitch increases; RAMP 2 sets the speed at which the pitch decreases; LEVEL sets the amount of pitch change caused by Ramps 1 and 2; and TIME sets the length of the sound.\r\n\r\nAny change that you make to the controls can be heard by pressing the symbol shift key.\r\n\r\nA wide range of sounds can be made by altering the slides and as much fun can be had defining the sounds as in playing the games themselves.\r\n\r\nYou can define the movement of the aliens or monsters by using the fifth option. This is a little limited as you can only move the character in any of eight directions following one of eight programmable movement patterns which can be linked to each other.\r\n\r\nBasically the movement pattern consists of a series of numbers, each representing a certain direction as specified below.\r\n\r\nNorth: 0\r\nNorth East: 1\r\nEast: 2\r\nSouth East: 3\r\nSouth: 4\r\nSouth West: 5\r\nWest: 6\r\nNorth West: 7\r\n\r\nSo for example 0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2 would move three units up then three right. As can be seen it's a little crude but nevertheless. some complex movement patterns can be designed.\r\n\r\nWhen option 6 is selected the ATACK WAVES chart will appear on the screen. This screen allows you to choose which aliens appear on the screen, whether or not the aliens are animated, the score value and speed of the aliens and which movement pattern they follow.\r\n\r\nAs previously mentioned this option is used to animate the sprites and it is possible to 'chain' together either two or four slightly different sprites, this enables you to make wings flap or eyes move, for example.\r\n\r\nThe main problem with Games Designer is that even though you can redefine the graphics and the movement patterns, the games designed are all basically the same. If you choose the Invaders format what you get is essentially a game like Space Invaders with graphics that you have designed.\r\n\r\nAnother disappointment is that you can't define your own background. The only thing you can do is select the colour and whether you wish to have stars or not.\r\n\r\nDespite these limitations Games Designer is simple and fun to use. It is possible to produce fast games with smooth graphics and good sound without having to know a thing about programming.\r\n\r\nFor the programmer who doesn't want the limitations of a menu driven games designer, such as the Quicksilva program, and who is willing to put a little more effort into his programming, two new 'graphic languages' have appeared for the Spectrum. Fifth from Computer Rentals Ltd (CRL) and Scope from ISP Marketing Ltd.\r\n\r\nThe first of these packages, Fifth, is not so much a new language but rather an extension of Basic, giving the Spectrum owner another 25 commands. These new commands are placed within REM statements so that the Spectrum will accept the words and not reply with a syntax error.\r\n\r\nCompared with some of its (dearer) rivals, one of the main disadvantages of the Spectrum is that it lacks sprites. A 'sprite' is a user-defined graphic, that once set moving on the screen, will continue independently while the Basic program performs some other function.\r\n\r\nIt will only return to the Basic program if the sprite collides with another object or goes off the screen. With Fifth the Spectrum user now has access to sprites or rather to 'objects', the name given to sprites in this program.\r\n\r\nAn object can be defined as any of the Spectrum characters, both alphanumeric and user-definable graphics. Once an object has been defined it's possible to set it moving in any of 16 directions using the VECTOR command to set the direction and then MOVE to start the object in motion.\r\n\r\nOnce it's moving the program can 'go away and perform another function while the object 'glides' across the screen pixel by pixel on its own - an effect which is really amazing to watch! The SPEED command allows you to change the speed at which an object moves on the screen.\r\n\r\nAs well as commands to move 'objects' around the screen there are other graphic commands. For example FILL changes the ink and paper colours of the whole screen without clearing it, a function that is not possible in Basic.\r\n\r\nREPLACE is similar in effect to FILL but is only changes a colour to another specified one. For example:\r\n\r\n10 INK 0: PAPER 7\r\n20 PRINT INK 0: PAPER 1\r\n30 REM REPLACE\r\n\r\nThis will change all occurrences of black ink on blue paper to black ink on white paper.\r\n\r\nFifth also provides a new sound command, having no fewer than four parameters rather than the usual two. The effects that can be produced are simply amazing and are as good, if not better than the sound in commercial games programs.\r\n\r\nThe second of the two, Scope, unlike Fifth is a self-contained graphics language. A 'SCOPE' (Simple Compilation Of Plain English) program is written within Basic in REM statements and is then COMPILED by the Scope program.\r\n\r\nThe Scope manual states that, 'SCOPE is primarily intended for high speed handling of graphics, colour, sound and animation', and fast it certainly is.\r\n\r\nScope offers 31 commands, nearly all of which have an equivalent Basic instruction, the difference being that Scope is much faster.\r\n\r\nHowever, most of the commands only handle integer numbers in the range 0 to 255 and it is possible to set up variables (A to Z and a to z) with the VAR command.\r\n\r\nBecause there will be occasions when you need a larger number, for example to hold a score in a game, Scope also provides a BVAR (Big Variable) command which allows you to calculate and print numbers between 0 and 65535. A possible limitation of Scope is that variables can only be increased or decreased. There are no commands for multiplication, division or any scientific functions.\r\n\r\nScope is a structured language, which means that a program can be written in small separate sections, then tested as you write the program in. Later routines can then call up those which you have previously tested.\r\n\r\nFor the serious programmer who wants to write fast games programs, (or any program which includes graphics) both Scope and Fifth deserve to be looked at. Both packages have their good and bad points but Fifth appears to be more flexible allowing you to use Basic as well as Fifth commands and to pass variables between the two.\r\n\r\nAs well as programs that enable you to write faster and smoother games programs, there are those that are invaluable to anyone wishing to produce a graphics display, be it for a games program or some other purpose. Two such programs are Melbourne Draw, produced by Melbourne House and Spectrographics, by Bridge Software.\r\n\r\nBoth these programs are 'sketch pads' which enable you to draw more objects on the screen. They each have their good and bad points, but one failing of both programs is that it is difficult to draw curves. It is only possible to move the 'pen' in eight directions.\r\n\r\nSpectrographics has a built-in user definable graphic producer, making it easy to define your graphics characters, while Melbourne Draw allows you to save an area of the screen for graphic characters.\r\n\r\nAnother good feature of Melbourne Draw is its ability to enlarge sections of the screen, thus making it much easier to see exactly what you're drawing.\r\n\r\nBoth packages enable you to fill in an area of the screen with the current ink colour, if there are any holes in the object, the ink will leak out of the shape and spread all over the screen.\r\n\r\nMelbourne House's program has a facility that allows you to stop the fill command, and return the screen to its original condition before the fill was started. However, with Spectrographics you will have lost your picture.\r\n\r\nMelbourne Draw only has facilities to draw lines while Spectrographics allows you to draw boxes, triangles, and circles, automatically.\r\n\r\nBoth programs save time when designing any playing areas or other graphics for use in a program, though it would have been nice to draw curves easily.\r\n\r\nPaintbox, a graphics program from Print 'n' Plotter Products offers similar facilities to Melbourne Draw and Spectrographics.\r\n\r\nPaintbox allows you to define 84 user-definable graphics and is the only package seen that allows you to draw curves easily. All you need to do is specify the two ends of the curve and then enter a positive or negative number depending on the direction and strength of the curve.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately this program was received too late for this review to cover it in depth. First impressions are that it is a very comprehensive drawing/graphic design program offering some of the facilities that other graphics packages are missing.\r\n\r\nSound is a very important feature in any games program. With the Spectrum using the BEEP command in Basic, it's very difficult to get the sound you require. But with packages like Scope and Fifth it's possible to produce excellent arcade-type sounds.\r\n\r\nAuto-Sonics from Buttercraft Software allows you to create the sound effect of your choice and then the program gives you the Basic statement to produce your sound. Auto-Sonics has 26 pre-programmed sound effects, including sounds such as a frog, pig and telephone.\r\n\r\nAn on-screen 'synthesizer' control panel allows you to modify any of the supplied sounds, or you can create your own. You can instantly hear the effect this has on any sound.\r\n\r\nThe control panel allows you to control such settings as pitch - whether the sound rises or falls and the speed at which it does so. All alterations can be made by one key press, and all the necessary keys are shown on the screen.\r\n\r\nIt must be remembered that the sounds produced by this program are all from the Basic BEEP function, and therefore are not as good as a machine code program such as Fifth. Nevertheless, the sounds that Auto-Sonics produces are reasonable, and the Basic statement produced can be put into any program.\r\n\r\nAuto-Sonics is an excellent program that allows you to create the sounds you want very easily.\r\n\r\nThe above programs are only a small sample of the aids that a games programmer can buy. All of them have their good points and their rough edges. Before buying any package, consider the cost, and check that it will perform the functions you're after.\r\n\r\nYou might find you need to use two programs, each offering similar facilities before you end up with the game that you require.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"15,16,17,18","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Stuart N Cooke","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"Buttercrafts' on screen 'sound synthesizer' program gives finger tip control of the Spectrum's BEEP command."},{"Text":"Bridge Software's Spectrographics allows you to define up to eight graphic characters on the screen at the same time."},{"Text":"The sprite table for the game Halloween supplied with Quicksilva's game designer program."},{"Text":"Sprite number 0 from Halloween being designed with the 'alter sprites' option."},{"Text":"The first screen of Games Designer's Halloween."},{"Text":"Just move the sliders to create your own sounds for your latest game created with Games Designer."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer News Issue 42, Jan 1984","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-04","Editor":"Cyndy Miles","TotalPages":98,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nDeputy Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nManaging Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editors: Harriet Arnold, Leah Batham\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nHardware Editor: Ian Scales\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPrograms Editor: Ken Garroch\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Pat Dolan\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Mark Satchell\r\nSales Executives: Christian McCarthy, Marie-Therese Bolger, Julia Dale, Dik Veenman, Alison Hare, Deborah Quinn\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Haggis\r\nMicroshop Production: Nikki Payne\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper\r\n\r\nCover illustration by Kevin Faeber"},"MainText":"NAME: Games Designer\r\nAPPLICATION: Arcade game generator\r\nSYSTEM: Spectrum\r\nPRICE: £14.95\r\nPUBLISHER: Quicksilva, [redacted]\r\nFORMAT: Cassette\r\nLANGUAGE: Machine code\r\nOUTLETS: Mail order, shops\r\n\r\nINTERIOR DESIGN\r\n\r\nA program needing no programming knowledge brings the arcade to Ted Ball's Spectrum.\r\n\r\nSeveral programs produced for the Spectrum make it easier to write games, but with most of them you still have to write the program. The Games Designer, however, allows you to produce arcade-type games at home with no prior programming knowledge.\r\n\r\nFEATURES\r\n\r\nThe games you can set up with Games Designer are restricted to shooting games of the Invaders, Asteroids, Scramble and Berzerk types, but it does allow an enormous variation within these basic types.\r\n\r\nYou can design sprites on a 12 x 12 grid to represent ships, laser bases, aliens, bombs, missiles, and so on and a large part of the novelty in the games comes from the actual form of the sprites you use. For example, in Halloween, one of the eight sample games included in Games Designer, you have to shoot down witches on broomsticks, devils, bats and similar creatures.\r\n\r\nGames Designer allows eight attack waves with different sprites, and for each wave you define the number of aliens that appear and their attributes, such as colour, animation, speed, movement pattern, whether they drop bombs or fire missiles, the score for each alien you destroy - and you can define an animated explosion sequence.\r\n\r\nOnce you have defined the features of the game, Games Designer handles the running of it. The animation and movement of the aliens, movement of your laser base, missiles hitting aliens or the laser base and the resulting explosion, and sound effects are dealt with automatically.\r\n\r\nWhile playing the games you use keys 6, 7, 8 and 9 for movement and 0 to fire, which I found rather awkward because the Spectrum's keys are small and close together. However, Games Designer includes software to allow you to use a joystick instead of the keyboard.\r\n\r\nAfter you have designed your game and entered the details you can save it on tape and load it back later, but you do need to load Games Designer before you can reload a game you have saved.\r\n\r\nAlthough Games Designer allows you to put in a lot of variation within the basic format of a game, there are a lot of features of arcade games that you can't put in with Games Designer. For instance, you can have a moving background of stars but no other fixed or moving background; you can have only one kind of alien on the screen at once; only one alien at a time can drop bombs and the same alien will keep on with the bomb dropping until it is destroyed, when another will take up the fight.\r\n\r\nThe kind of scoring you can have is also severely limited. You can only score for destroying individual aliens, and there is no way to get bonus scores for completing a screen or series of screens, and no way to get bonus lives for working through enough screens.\r\n\r\nPRESENTATION\r\n\r\nThe cassette is clearly labelled and has the Games Designer program recorded on both sides, it is packaged together with a small printed instruction booklet in a strong plastic book-style box with a wrap-around label.\r\n\r\nIN USE\r\n\r\nThe concise instructions include all the information you need and tables tell you how to set up various types of aliens. The program works through a menu with numbered options for defining the sprites, the game configuration, the attack waves, and so on, and within each option it is easy to enter the details for your game.\r\n\r\nSome of the menu options give you a visual display to work with. For defining the shapes for the sprites you start with a large 12 by 12 grid, select the row by moving the cursor and alter the blocks within the row by typing a series of numbers. You also get a normal size display of the sprite so you can see what it looks like.\r\n\r\nWhen you are setting up the sound effects, for missiles, bombs, ship explosions and alien explosions, you get a display of five slider knobs which you move by pressing keys, and which control the frequency, pitch changes and length of the sound.\r\n\r\nFor the movement patterns of the aliens you have to enter a string of digits, 0 to 7, for horizontal, vertical and diagonal directions of each step in the movement, and a display shows the overall movement pattern.\r\n\r\nOther details are entered as numbers listed in the tables in the instruction booklet, but when entering these the screen is clearly laid out so you can see what you should be doing.\r\n\r\nWhen playing the games the movement is smooth and the speed is very good. The slowest speed is a bit sluggish although still better than you can get from Basic with 20 or more objects moving at the same time. The highest speeds are certainly high enough to present a real challenge.\r\n\r\nRELIABILITY\r\n\r\nI found no faults in the program, either in the data entry or while playing the games. During the data entry you only need to use a few keys and the program ignores any keys you are not supposed to use.\r\n\r\nVERDICT\r\n\r\nGames Designer is an impressive piece of software, very reliable and easy to use. Unfortunately the resulting games look rather primitive compared with current arcade machines and commercial games programs.\r\n\r\nGames Designer is worth getting, provided you don't expect too much from it. You can get a lot of enjoyment from designing the games, and although you will probably find that individual games don't hold your interest for very long, you can use Games Designer to produce hundreds of different games.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"64","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Ted Ball","Score":"3","ScoreSuffix":"/5"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Features","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Documentation","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Performance","Score":"3/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Useability","Score":"4/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Reliability","Score":"5/5","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall Value","Score":"3/5","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]