[{"TitleName":"H.U.R.G.","Publisher":"Melbourne House","Author":"Russell Comte, William Tang, Con Aslanis","YearOfRelease":"1984","ZxDbId":"0002398","Reviews":[{"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":"6","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[{"Text":"MANIC MAXBURGERS\r\nAlso known as Mortician Max, the second offering from the Tony Samuels school of second-rate software takes the platform game onto a whole new level. Here you have to wander round the Maxburger factory looking for the vital victuals. Scoff the lot but watch out for the heavies - there's Thicko Shake closely followed by Derek Dishcloth and Sid Sausage. So. get eating and get out'a there!\r\n\r\nThis little chap was brought to life using the editor option. By choosing the other options he can be mirrored, animated and so on, which makes it much simpler to create his brothers and sisters if they're all basically the same.\r\n\r\nThese characters have been designed for two-stage animation - our little Willy-clone walks to the left and to the right, but Tony was too laid-back (shouldn't that be lazy? Ed) to animate the up and down movements.\r\n\r\nIf you exit to the next stage, you can set the animation and movement speeds. You'll be shown your animated character running across the screen as you alter the parameters.\r\n\r\nTake a look at the editing window. Here it's 16 By 16 pixels but it can be anything from 8 by 8 up to 16 by 32. HURG's based on character blocks so you can have bigger sprites but don't expect them to move as smoothly."},{"Text":"Scoring lets you define how quickly you'll amass the points when you eat or shoot objects. It'll also allow you to set a bonus once a new sheet's started - a bonus in itself over Games Designer.\r\n\r\nHURG's been cleverly designed to run hand-in-hand with Melbourne Draw. Using the Load Background option, you can load in a previously designed Screen$ - without it the whole game's a bit pointless.\r\n\r\nGame Variations is pretty self-explanatory -it just asks you which of the four possible games stored in memory you want to edit. It'll also takes you into the Player and Object Menus.\r\n\r\nUse the Path Geneator to set the course for your on-screen objects. If you prefer, though, you can get them moving in completely random ways and cut out this option altogether.\r\n\r\nThis is the goods that Games Designer didn't come up with - a title page. Here you can write your instructions using the very crude word processor and then add a bit of life by including some of your whizzo animated objects.\r\n\r\nThe New Frame Conditions option lets you decide how hard a player's got to work before he can move on to the next screen. You can make it tough by having him shoot or eat all the objects or you can just set a fixed time delay or make it when he's reached the exit point.\r\n\r\nScoring lets you define how quickly you'll amass the points when you eat or shoot objects. It'll also allow you to set a bonus once a new sheet's started - a bonus in itself over Games Designer."},{"Text":"Tony created the background for Manic Maxburgers using Melbourne Draw - if you're a dab hand at pixel painting that means you can create some amazing levels to your games.\r\n\r\nNow here's a nice touch. The platform looks as though it continues to the edge of the screen but the last two characters are coloured green on yellow rather than green on white. The Collision table has been set up so that if the man taps on it the whole platform just crumbles away. Nasty, eh?\r\n\r\nThe collision detector has been programmed to make anything that appears blue on yellow paper licensed to kill. So. all the nasties are this colour plus, for good measure, a few extra static objects that've been added with Melbourne Draw.\r\n\r\nMeet Derek Dish Cloth who's on the tail of your silly Willy though there's an element of randomness thrown in to give him a chance to escape. Thicko Shake on the other hand moves completely at random but only in a limited area of the screen."},{"Text":"Your first task in Collision Mode is to pick an Ink colour for your own character. Your only restriction is that you can't colour him in, the same as anything else on the screen.\r\n\r\nHere's the key to understanding the collision table. The 'no go' symbol tells you that when your little man touches a combination of Ink and Paper designated as a 'no go' area, he'll be able to stand on it but not pass through. The 'eat' and 'crash' symbols work in much the same way and the go symbol covers the rest\r\n\r\nYou can chop and change these symbols by choosing a character from the menu and then positioning it on the grid using control keys or joystick.\r\n\r\nThe collison table works by telling the games designer routines what to do when your character hits an object. It's all done with attributes so take care that you don't use the same colour for completely different objects.\r\n\r\nThe idea behind the collision table is quite simple - everything that appears on the playing area can be recognised as soon as your character comes into contact with it."}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Overall","Score":"6/10","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":"8","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":"8/10","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":"91","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Robert Schifreen","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 6, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","Editor":"Chris Anderson","TotalPages":168,"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\nScreenshots: Chris Bell\r\nCover Illustration: Pat Weedon\r\nGroup Editor: Cyndy Miles\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nGroup Publisher: John Cade\r\nPublisher: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\nPublishing Secretary: Jenny Dunne\r\nAdvertising Manager: Herbert Wright\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Jan Martin\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Mike Caroll\r\nAdvertisement Production: Simon Carter\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Coraline Turner\r\nSales Executives: Joey Davies, Marion O'Neill\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]. Typesetting by Spectrum Typesetting, [redacted] Origination by Fourmost Colour [redacted]. Printed and bound by Chase Web Offset [redacted]. © VNU Business Publications 1984."},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum 48K\r\nJOYSTICK: Optional\r\nSUPPLIER: Melbourne House\r\nPRICE: £14.95\r\n\r\nOwn up to it, wouldn't you like to write a superb game for your Spectrum? The type that will keep you in pocket money for the rest of your life? Melbourne House have tried to make this easier for you with their 'High-level User-friendly Real-time Games designer', more lovingly known as HURG.\r\n\r\nHURG is totally menu-driven. Melbourne House describe this as being like a menu in a restaurant with different parts for food and drink. When you ask for food the menu listing the meals is brought. For example if you choose ice-cream then the list giving the different types available is presented.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately this means that HURG isn't as simple to use as Melbourne House would have us believe. Not only do you have to choose the type of ice-cream you want, you must then go on to choose what size it should be and then go on to choose the sauce.\r\n\r\nAs you've probably decided for yourself, all these menus do tend to lead to a bad case of 'Help I'm lost' or 'Which menu do I choose now?'.\r\n\r\nTo be fair to Melbourne House they've tried to make it easy to use: all commands can be entered by using either the up, down, left, right and fire keys or the joystick.\r\n\r\nThree example games are included on the reverse side of the /HMG tape. None of the games will hold your attention for more than a couple of minutes but they may give you an idea of how to go about designing your own games. Incidentally, if you ever wondered what a drunken blue koala looks like, try playing Manic Koala.\r\n\r\nHURG allows you to design characters of a size up to 4 x 2 character squares. This means that you can have quite detailed alien/player graphics. It also allows you to link together a number of these sprites giving you the animation that your character may require.\r\n\r\nFor a program that is supposed to help you to design games there is one very big omission - sound. HURG offers no sound facilities at all to the user, but if you happen to like nice quiet games this won't worry you, will it?\r\n\r\nHURG tries to offer the user too many facilities, making it difficult to use, and the games can be very slow to play. Given a few hours (it took me three) you should be able to get something of your own design working - but don't expect anything too wonderful.\r\n\r\nIt's a shame that HURG doesn't live up to expectations.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"70,71","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Stuart N Cooke","Score":"5","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Graphics","Score":"User-Defined","Text":""},{"Header":"Sound","Score":"None","Text":""},{"Header":"Originality","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Lasting Interest","Score":"6/10","Text":""},{"Header":"Overall","Score":"5/10","Text":""}],"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":"Hurg from Melbourne House"}],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 22, Dec 1985","Price":"£1.95","ReleaseDate":"1985-11-28","Editor":"Ray Elder","TotalPages":124,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Ray Elder\r\nEditorial Assistant: Cliff Joseph\r\nGroup Editor: Wendy J Palmer\r\nSoftware Assistant: John Gerard Donovan\r\nSales Executive: Alice Robertson\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Barry Bingham\r\nDivisional Advertising Manager: Chris Northam\r\nCopy Controller: Sue Couchman\r\nPublishing Director: Peter Welham\r\n\r\nOrigination and design by MM Design & Print, [redacted]\r\nPublished by Argus Specialist Publications Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nZX Computing is published bi-monthly on the fourth Friday of the month. Distributed by: Argus Press Sales & Distribution Ltd. [redacted]. Printed by: Garnett Print, Rotherham and London.\r\n\r\nThe contents of this publication including all articles, designs, plans, drawings and programs and all copyright and other intellectual property rights therein belong to Argus Specialist Publications Limited. All rights conferred by the Law of Copyright and other intellectual property rights and by virtue of international copyright conventions are specifically reserved to Argus Specialist Publications Limited and any reproduction requires the prior written consent of Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Limited 1985"},"MainText":"LIGHTPENS\r\n\r\nI've had most success to date, with the package from Dk'tronics. The pen itself is rather like a biro or felt tip pen. It is attached by a wire to a control interface which of course comes with the package. The interface is plugged into the back of the Spectrum. A program on cassette is included.\r\n\r\nThe glass screen of your monitor is the working area and drawing surface, so some consideration has to be given as to whether this is the way you want to work. Then there are practical aspects such as the distance of your screen from your keyboard, and the fact that you have to work on a perpendicular 'face'. The height of the screen is therefore important if you do not want to suffer from muscle fatigue in your drawing arm.\r\n\r\nLightpens give you a physical contact and interaction with your drawing surface if that is important. Calibrating the pen each time may prove a chore, but after that it's plainsailing - within the limitations of the power of the program. Again it's a good way of getting started or the very basics of graphics, of getting into the picture as it were. Sensibly introduced in the classroom it could be useful aid and introduction for children in an educational context. It is limited though in its potential for advanced or complex screen designs. Graphics Tablets give you similar physical point of con tact with your drawing-surface. This time it is horizontal and again a 'pen' is used. There's a review of the Saga Graphics Pad in this issue. So when you are ready look it up. They certainly take you further than the lightpen. But then you pay a lot more for the facilities they offer.\r\n\r\nNow for something almost completely different, the Sinclair LOGO pack. Another excellent starter, but as I have hinted, quite different.\r\n\r\nThis pack has very obvious educational applications and for very young children. The founding father of the LOGO language intended it as a language for children which would develop logical thinking, introduce young minds to computer programming and have very definite terms of reference for the teaching and development of mathematical concepts. Drawing is achieved by moving a small graphics 'turtle' - a triangle - around the screen. This is done by sending through the computer commands known as Primitive Procedures (mostly single words and abbreviations of those words). Your sense of direction needs to be accurate and formulated mathematically. Once you have established procedures for drawing, say, a square, this group of procedures can be assigned a single word or name which LOGO will then understand as a command to repeat the whole set of procedures.\r\n\r\nThe emphasis or bias is fundamentally mathematical, arithmetical or geometric. You do not just learn to draw a square, you also learn what makes a square what it is and from there the difference bet ween a square and a rectangle or a parallelogram.\r\n\r\nIt is a language itself, apart from BASIC. Hence learning to use it is learning to program a computer in another language. The graphic aspect being displayed on the screen is part of the incentive and motivation for progressing with the new language.\r\n\r\nTwo fairly weighty and comprehensive books or manuals are part of the pack. The first book deals exclusively with Turtle Graphics and is an absorbing and refreshingly different kind of programming experience. The second book acts as a reference manual for Sinclair LOGO, The growth, use and development of LOGO by Spectrum owners, especially in schools will, I think, be affected by the cost factor.\r\n\r\nWhen DREAM SOFTWARE released Computer Aided Designer, my own children had not had their Spectrum for long. They, like me were exploring the full graphics potential of the machine when C.A.D. turned up and kept us enthralled for days. Now, still an old favourite, I would recommend it as another in the 'Starter' category. With very obvious educational values and as a springboard for more ambitious projects later in Design.\r\n\r\nThe manual is simple and very straightforward - alphabetically leading you through the twenty seven commands available in the program. Some forty custom shaped graphics, UDGs can be designed. By giving precise measurements most geometric shapes can be drawn, filled and so on. It remains impressive after all this time, and the potential for drawing in 3D is considerable.\r\n\r\nSimilarly, another old favourite, VU-3D from PSION. \r\nThis has the added and appeal of enabling the viewer to move around the object in 3D. Graphics and Design, pure and simple. High resolution colour and an incredible understanding of perspectives are real bonuses with this program.\r\n\r\nFuture designers in the Aircraft or for that matter almost any other industry, may have started young with something like C.A.D. or VU-3D.\r\n\r\nI doubt if they would have been able to afford the RD Digital Tracer, from RD Laboratories. This is closer to an instrument than anything else I've come across in graphics and design hardware and software for the Spectrum.\r\n\r\nIt comes in two versions, the Standard and the Professional. Both are fairly highly technical and sophisticated tools. The Tracer consists of a short fixed arm and pivot from which extends a drawing arm hinged at the centre with another floating pivot which moves across your drawing surface area.\r\n\r\nThe arm is connected to the computer by a length of cable via an interface plugged into the rear port of the Spectrum. A cardboard template and transparent grid overlay are included for calibration purposes, the tracer is a precision instrument. The software cassette contains five programs. The usual options are offered in the first, plotting single points, construction of basic geometric figures, filling, hatching, change of ink, border, paper colour, adding text, UDGs and so on.\r\n\r\nThe display image can be moved up, down, and from side to side, scaled up and down, and reversed. Multiple screen images including images at different scales and at different positions can be achieved. By adding other BASIC routines and software, the Tracer's capabilities can be extended into the field of statistical analysis. This immediately puts the Tracer into a specialist Graphics and Display category. Although the Tracer can be used with the ZX81 and 16K Spectrum, its full potential can only really be developed on the 48K and then only by competent programmers. It's a versatile instrument for the specialist.\r\n\r\nIt's the season of Good will and all that, so why not give a last mention for all whose speciality is Games Designing. It's been around for a while, but standing the test of time in lots of ways. I'm referring of course to the High level User Friendly Realtime Games Designer from Melbourne House. Or as it is more commonly known, HURG.\r\n\r\nStill a powerful program and a very good manual. How did they do it in those all time greats like Pacman, Donkey Kong and Space invaders? H.U.R.G. will tell you how.\r\n\r\nIt's a pretty good list of graphics goodies and that other seasonal expression comes to mind. 'There's something here for everyone.' You have no excuse for not knowing how and from whom in Spectrum Graphics, just how to enjoy the graphics power behind those buttons.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"41","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Colin Christmas","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"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":"HELP UNEXPERIENCED RARING TO GO GAMES DESIGNERS\r\n\r\nEver thought you were born to become the million-making, hyped and idolised games author of all times, but unfortunately lacking in the small detail of not comprehending black machine code magic, well, what the hex, here's your chance to join the small elite world of binary and mnemonic whiz-kids who light up the vast Spectrum of our games universe.\r\n\r\nThe magic potion doesn't come in a six pack, but consists of a single cassette and extensive manual. As the doctor would say, 'take in small dosages and the medicine will remedy your handicap and change your lifestyle as a side effect.'\r\n\r\nTHE DAWN OF A NEW ERA\r\n\r\nAll stars have humble beginnings and you will be no exception to the rule. After loading HURG your best option will be to load via HURG main menu one of the three sample games programs supplied with the cassette. MANICKOALA is a scaled down version of Manic you know who and demonstrates the abilities of HURG to the hilt.\r\n\r\nIf you can unhook yourself from this addictive game, you will be able to explore the edit menu, which at first glance may resemble your regular adventure game. Have no fear, intrepid explorer, as absolutely every single facility is menu driven and your intelligence is only tested with simple yes/no and quantity questions. In fact HURG can be manipulated by Kempston joystick if so desired.\r\n\r\nAs you change each individual feature of the game, you may return to main menu and select to play game to inspect immediately the effect of the particular modification. Eventually you will not recognise the original MANICKOALA for all the radical and devastating changes and this will mean that you are very near to knowing HURG as intimately as your pocket. In fact you will already have transformed yourself into Prince Charming and are ready to kiss to life the most lovely creatures and creations of software land.\r\n\r\nTHE CREATIVE PERIOD\r\n\r\nDevelop in your mind the scenario of your first masterpiece taking into account the player, the objects, the screen and background details and special effects. In effect you should end up with a script for your new creation.\r\n\r\nNext prepare the background screen to the game using one of the many screen drawings utilities such as the Trojan Lightpen (reviewed this month), Paintbox (reviewed last month) or Melbourne Draw with its excellent detail magnification facility. Whatever way you develop your background, it should end up as a screen dump on tape for later use.\r\n\r\nLoad HURG and enter edit mode. Select load background and load the earlier prepared screen file from tape. The action can now be programmed.\r\n\r\nHURG allows up to four games variations or stages, where the background remains the same, but the movement and actions of player and objects may vary. Select normal game. The size, shape and animation of the player will have to be designed and to this purpose you select the player menu. Up to eight frames (or sprites) are available and can be used for one movement direction only or split up into up to four directions.\r\n\r\nThe shape generator is excellent and displays the player magnified and in original size, caters for mirror image and animation sequencing of the frames. The animation to displacement ratio may easily be adjusted visually during the movement display and can thus be optimised. There is even the option of continuous movement of the player (runaway robot).\r\n\r\nNext the collision table has to be programmed: No go, go, eat and crash are programmed according to the ink and paper values of the character to be occupied by the player. This sets the relation of the player to the surroundings and the moving objects.\r\n\r\nNext game start and stop conditions have to be programmed: Decide on initial position and moving direction of the player during regeneration delay time, existence of objects amount of lives and limited duration are further variables. The movement of the player may be restricted in any of the four directions and the player may be subjected to gravity in any of four directions.\r\n\r\nBoundaries may be set up for restricting the movement of the play er within a specified area of the screen and wrap around movement may be selected within these restricted areas. The selection is facilitated by the display of the movement grid over the existing background screen.\r\n\r\nUp to three different sized explosions and their colour and relative positions to the players can be selected for when a crash or collision occurs.\r\n\r\nSpecial events may be considered by indicating the collision condition, what the effect of the event is (eat, crash, special score) and whether the change is permanent or of limited duration. The player's way of life is now established. But the player may well find life boring in the set surroundings. To prevent him or her from dozing off to sleep up to eight different objects (friends or foes) will have to be created. The objects are treated similar to the player: the object menu follows the same pattern as the player menu, but has in addition a movement pattern selection, as the objects are not under the control of the games player. The objects may be programmed to mimmick the player or one of the other objects, move randomly, in a straight line (four directions) move towards or away from the player or other objects or along a user defined path. There are eight possible paths which may be accessed and programmed directly from the edit menu and can be made very complex. Up to four paths may be linked up in sequence to create extremely complicated routes.\r\n\r\nSo far the background, the player and objects and all their movements have been programmed. To help with the odds and to make the game attractive obviously our player must be given a special weapon, which is under the control of the games player's fire button: The fire button action menu caters for three different options: No fire action, player shoot and player jump action. Selection of the shoot action calls up the player bullet generation program, which is an exact copy of the object generator.\r\n\r\nThe player jump facility consists of a jump path generator which works similar to the user defined path of the objects. A maximum character fall height may be specified.\r\n\r\nOnce happy with the normal game stage you should proceed to the other three variations or stages of the game, which require the same programming procedure. The main body of the game will then be completed.\r\n\r\nReturning to the edit menu there are still three unused facilities for completing the games design:\r\n\r\nThe new frame conditions: A new frame may occur if either all objects are non existent (after a shoot out) or after a definable delay (Countdown).\r\n\r\nScoring: A game without a point system is like a fruit machine without a pay out. Points for eating, object deaths and new frames start bonuses should cater for the most mathematical of games players.\r\n\r\nTitle page: Probably the most restrictive feature of HURG is the title page, which will only allow for text display. It would have been a nice feature to be able to load a screen title picture in a similar manner as with the background. As a bonus though the animated player and objects may be positioned selectively on the title page and will give a hint of things to come.\r\n\r\nTHE AFTERMATH\r\n\r\nIt is difficult to find fault with such a complete games generation program. Nonetheless two major handicaps become apparent: No provision has been made for music lovers and noise addicts. This is obviously a move back to the classic silent era. A set of standard noises and tunes could have filled the apparent audio gap.\r\n\r\nThe other handicap became apparent when trying to load one of the sample games programs without having loaded HURG first. The games produced by HURG cannot be run independently without HURG. This destroys any idea of making fame and fortune with the resulting masterpiece. Big commercial software successes are best left to the professional machine coder...","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"58,59","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[{"Text":"HURG SPECIFICATIONS\r\n\r\nPLAYER:\r\nQty.:1\r\nSize up to 9 char. square, eg 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 2x4 etc\r\nframes: 8 for 4 dir, eg 2 dir 4 seq, 4 dir 2 seq, 1 dir 8 seq\r\ncont. movement option\r\ncollision option: go, no go, eat, crash\r\nRegeneration\r\ninitial position (rel or abs)\r\ninitial moving direction (rel or abs)\r\nRegeneration delay time\r\nExistence of object\r\nAmount of lives\r\nLife duration\r\nMovement restriction in any of 4 dir.\r\nGravity in any of 4 dir.\r\nMovement boundaries: hor. and vert. wrap around within confined areas option\r\nExplosions: 3 size, colour and position (rel player) selectable.\r\nSpecial events: collision condition, effect or event (eat, crash, special score)\r\nDuration (o to permanent)\r\n\r\nOBJECT\r\nsame as player, but with addition:\r\nMovement pattern: Mimmicking player or other object\r\nRandom\r\nStraight line (4 dir)\r\nmoving towards\r\nmoving away from player/other object user defined path (up to eight)\r\n\r\nFIRE ACTION BUTTON\r\nNo action\r\nPlayer shoots: Player bullet options same as object#\r\nPlayer jumps: Jump path left, right and up programmable\r\nmax. char. falls\r\n\r\nNEW FRAME CONDITIONS\r\nAll objects non existent\r\nFixed delay\r\nPlayer exit definable plus selection of border colour\r\n\r\nSCORING\r\nPlayer eating\r\nPlayer bullet eating\r\nObject death\r\nNew frame start score\r\n\r\nTITLE PAGE\r\nText input plus animated player and objects positioning\r\n\r\nSAVE FACIUTY\r\nSave game\r\nSave variation logic\r\nSave player shape data\r\nSave object shape data\r\nSave bullet shape data\r\n\r\nLOAD FACILITY\r\nLoad game\r\nLoad background\r\nLoad variation logic\r\nLoad player shape data\r\nLoad object shape data\r\nLoad bullet shape data\r\n\r\nSAMPLE PROGRAMS:\r\nMANICKOALA\r\nEGGPACK\r\nMS HORTENS"}],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue Annual 1985,  1985","Price":"£2.25","ReleaseDate":"1984-12-01","Editor":"Bill Scolding","TotalPages":140,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Bill Scolding\r\nDeputy Editor: John Gilbert\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nStaff Writer: Chris Bourne\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Craig Kennedy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Martin Derx\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Claudia Viertel\r\nProduction Assistant: James McClure\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nSubscriptions Manager: Carl Dunne\r\nAssistant Publisher: Neil Wood\r\nPublisher: Gerry Murray\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by EMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n\r\n96,271 Jan-June 1984\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nEditorial and advertising departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to Sinclair User please send programs or articles:\r\nSinclair User\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nOriginal programs 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 pay £10 for the copyright of each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\nAll subscription enquiries to\r\nMagazine Services,\r\nEMAP Business & Computer Publications\r\n[redacted]\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 EMAP National Publications Ltd."},"MainText":"HURG\r\n£14.95\r\nMelbourne House\r\n\r\nA new concept in software, the arcade games designer package, was also launched last year. The first onto the market was the Quicksilva Games Designer, released in 1983, and Melbourne House followed with HURG in the spring of 1984.\r\n\r\nHURG is a competent program to help you design arcade games but it necessarily limits the scope you have. You will not be able to create a new version of Manic Miner or Atic Atac. You will not even be able to emulate the Melbourne House Penetrator. You will, however, after many hours of practice, be able to create your own version of Donkey Kong or Galaxians without too much difficulty.\r\n\r\nThere are several impressive features to the program. First, it is menu-driven, like the Quicksilva Games Designer. On loading, you are presented with a series of choices on the screen. Choosing 'Play Game' allows you to test whatever game on which you are working. Choosing 'Edit Game' will take you to a new menu with more choices, like writing a title page or specifying conditions for proceeding to a new stage of the game - e.g., when all the space invaders are destroyed.\r\n\r\nWhat HURG does is eliminate much of the tedium of programming - it still takes a long time to create a game but nowhere as long as it would starting from scratch - but what it will never do by itself is give you the originality and inspiration of top games designers.\r\n\r\nAlthough the software market has tended to stay with arcade games in 1984 the standard of those programs and the new ideas which have been generated prove there is life after Space invaders. Looking through the games, however, one wonders whether the 16K Spectrum is worth buying any more as few software companies are producing anything for it.\r\n\r\nSoftware houses did well in 1984 but there is room for improvement in all areas. Lets hope 1985 will see it.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"51","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"John Gilbert","Score":"8","ScoreSuffix":"/10"}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"8/10","Text":""}],"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 News Issue 81, Oct 1984","Price":"","ReleaseDate":"1984-09-28","Editor":"Peter Worlock","TotalPages":58,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editorial\r\nEditor: Peter Worlock\r\nProduction Editor: Lauraine Turner\r\nDeputy Production Editor: Leah Batham\r\nSub-Editor: Harriet Arnold\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writer: Ralph Bancroft\r\nNews Writer/Sub Editor: Sandra Grandison\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPeripherals Editor: Kenn Garroch\r\nHardware Editor: Stuart Cooke\r\nPrograms Editor: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Alexander\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Tim Brown\r\nLayout Artist: Bruce Preston\r\nPublisher: Cyndy Miles\r\nPublishing Assistant: Tobe Bendeth\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertising Manager: Peter Goldstein\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Bettina Williams\r\nAssistant Advertisement Managers: Sarah Barron, Phil Pratt\r\nSenior Sales Executives: Laura Cade, Claire Rowbottom\r\nSales Executives: Claire Barnes, Phil Benson, Mike Blackman, Paul Evans, Tony Keefe, Christian McCarthy, Amanda Moore, Sarah Musgrave, Tony O'Reilly\r\nProduction: Richard Gaffrey\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Karen Isaac\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"},"MainText":"GAME GENERATORS\r\n\r\nDavid Lester scans four pieces of software that claim to allow users to create games of a relatively good commercial quality.\r\n\r\nCommercial software becomes more sophisticated all the time, or so the adverts would have us believe. Not only can you buy games which use ultra-smooth, high resolution graphics to enhance your playing, but you can also buy programs that let you create games of commercial quality without any programming knowledge. At least that's what some software houses claim. But can their programs back this up?\r\n\r\nAll four pieces of software dealt with here have the same objective, but go about achieving it in slightly different ways. Hurg, from Melbourne House, employs a series of menus from which you can select the options you want to build up your game. Fifth on the other hand adds new commands to the standard Spectrum Basic. These let you program fast-moving, smooth graphics from Basic, as each command is the equivalent of calling a machine code routine. The other two Scope 2 from ISP and White Lightning from Oasis Software, are actually completely new languages.\r\n\r\nHURG\r\n\r\nProbably Hurg's greatest asset is that it's easy to use. In fact, you can operate most of it using just a joystick. Unfortunately, it also produces the least appealing results as far as games are concerned.\r\n\r\nIts sprite designer/editor is good and you also get an animation routine. This switches the computer between a number of sprites, for example to show the different leg positions of somebody walking. You can set the movement pattern quite easily, but that is about as far as it goes. You need to create any background graphics yourself, and then load them in as a SCREEN. There are no sound facilities whatsoever.\r\n\r\nI found it difficult to do any more than get a sprite moving around the screen. Although provision is made for setting the conditions for explosions and deaths, the manual is poor and the menus almost impossible to decipher. Melbourne House claims that you can 'design your own computer games in minutes', and that 'the hardest thing you will have to do is to think of a game title and design the characters.' Not a chance - it will take you a long time to get to grips with the package.\r\n\r\nA good hint as to the potential of each of these four games designers is the demonstration provided by the software houses. Hurg comes complete with 3 'ready to play, fast action arcade games'. I suppose each one is better than the so-ocalled 'full arcade game' in another Melbourne House release. Mugsy, but even so, they are terrible. And if that is the best Melbourne House can do, what chance has anyone else got?\r\n\r\nFIFTH\r\n\r\nFifth is probably the easiest of the four programs to get decent results out of, provided you can program in Basic, as all you need to do is learn a few new commands. Once you have loaded the program in, you simply put the new commands in REM statements in the same way as you do with some assemblers.\r\n\r\nYou can still use REMarks in the normal way by putting an asterisk at the start of any real REM statement.\r\n\r\nTwo of the more useful commands are GET and PUT - these will be familiar to anyone with any experience of a Dragon. With these you can store sections of the screen in a string variable, or array, and then recall it using the PUT command anywhere on the screen.\r\n\r\nFifth also uses interrupts for such things as collision routines, which enables the main body of the program to run much faster than it would otherwise. Although the manual is poorly printed, and a touch confusing in places, the commands are well-named and I soon found myself quite happy with them.\r\n\r\nAnother advantage with Fifth, as opposed to Hurg, is that it includes some new sound commands - and the sound effects you can achieve from machine code (yes, even on a Spectrum) are infinitely better than those obtainable from Basic.\r\n\r\nThe demo program included is probably the best of any of the pieces of software reviewed here, and shows that speed and smooth motion can be achieved with very little effort. It only uses small graphics, however, and this limits it.\r\n\r\nFifth is a good extension to Basic, but the results will not be as good as the best arcade games. They will almost certainly be better than the average game listing you might find in a magazine - this worthy publication excepted, of course.\r\n\r\nSCOPE 2\r\n\r\nScope 2 is, believe it or not, an improved version of the award winning Scope, and actually provides you with a new language specifically designed for writing arcade games. It includes commands for colour, sound and graphics, as well as more normal things like variables. When you have written a program in Scope 2 (in REM statements) you compile it into machine code, which is why the result is faster than Basic. You can then use your Scope program either as a machine code routine in your Basic program or as a complete program (depending, obviously, on what you write in Scope 2).\r\n\r\nThe commands are fairly similar to machine code, as is the structure of the whole language. This could be either an advantage or a disadvantage. If you wanted to learn machine code but found it too hard, this program might be a good stepping stone to it, or you might find that it's alternatively also too hard to learn.\r\n\r\nDespite a reasonable manual, some of the commands are quite difficult to grasp if you don't know anything about machine code. You could be forgiven for thinking that a program written in Scope 2 was an assembly language listing.\r\n\r\nThat said, the program goes further toward offering a completely versatile games-designing package than either of the two previously mentioned offerings. The results can be every bit as good as most commercial arcade games, although to get equivalent results you need to put in a lot of effort.\r\n\r\nThe demo routines are notably bad, and ISP would seem to have misjudged things a bit. When I saw the demo I thought that the package was a waste of money, but once I started to get to grips with the language a little bit, I found it had great potential. There is even a Sprite facility, including collision detection - just what you want for arcade games.\r\n\r\nWHITE LIGHTNING\r\n\r\nThis is similar to Scope 2 in that it is a complete language, but it is much, much more. In fact, it is a fully-fledged games development system.\r\n\r\nThe system has several distinct sections: the White Lightning language itself (really two languages: a version of Forth and an additional graphics language called Ideal) and a sprite development package for use within programs that have been written with White Lightning.\r\n\r\nThe main section, the White Lightning language, is complicated. Unless you already know Forth you will need to spend a long time trying to learn it. Ideal on its own has over 100 commands. But once you've mastered it, I'm sure it will be an extremely versatile tool for developing games. I say 'I'm sure' because after a week's trying I am by no means proficient in it.\r\n\r\nThe sprite designer maintains the high standard set by the language itself. It enables you to define up to 255 sprites, some of which can even be larger than the screen display. You design your sprite either in sections one character square large or as hexadecimal numbers.\r\n\r\nYou can do all the usual things to your design too, such as inverting and rotating it. When you have finished your sprites, you can save them to tape for use in your White Lightning programs. If you feel you have had enough trouble becoming a Matthew Smith, and do not want to emulate Leonardo da Vinci as well, don't worry - there's a whole set of ready-to-use sprites on the tape. These cover most games (PacMan, Defender, and all the usual ones). But for me, half the fun of designing a game is creating the graphics, so I can't see these being used very much.\r\n\r\nOasis provides a detailed manual, and you'll get a shock when you see it as it's a substantial-sized book.\r\n\r\nThe best way to get started with the package is probably to write a few routines with it first. You can call these as machine code routines from within a Basic program until you feel confident enough to write an entire program using White Lightning language.\r\n\r\nOnce you have got the hang of it, White Lightning provides some incredible features: interrupt-driven routines, good sprite handling and more besides. My only doubt is that, if you are going to the trouble of learningWhite Lightning, why not go that little bit further and learn machine code? However, White Lightning is slightly more user-friendly.\r\n\r\nCONCLUSIONS\r\n\r\nAs you can probably tell, the packages are similar in concept but different enough to be able to survive in the same market together. There seems to be, inevitably I suppose, a trade-off between how powerful a package is and how easy it is to use.\r\n\r\nForget the adverts - none of the packages here will give you an easy way to create the next number one game. But Fifth will let you write very playable games very quickly. Scope 2 gives you better quality graphics but takes more effort, and at the top of the scale is White Lightning, which is capable of creating something almost as good as Jet Set Willy - just don't make me write it.\r\n\r\nAs for Hurg, it is basically a waste of money.\r\n\r\nWith no sound and making you define your own backgrounds separately, it is a dead loss as a games designer package.\r\n\r\nWHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COPYRIGHT\r\n\r\nShould you write a good game with one of these packages and want to sell it, it would help if you know the views of various software houses about copyright.\r\n\r\nSince one aim of each of these pieces of software is to enable anyone, programmer or not, to produce games of a commercial standard, it is quite likely that you will be interested in whether, and if so how easily, you can sell games you write using these products.\r\n\r\nThe easiest of the products to answer this for is Hurg. To start with, it is most unlikely that you will produce good enough programs with it, but more importantly, the host program Hurg must be in memory for your game to work. This means that a substantial part of the package you would try to sell would belong to Melbourne House - so you would be breaking the law to try and sell it.\r\n\r\nFortunately, all is not lost, as Melbourne House offers to market such games if they're good.\r\n\r\nCRL makes no mention of the problem in the Fifth manual, except to provide a copyright notice. Because of the way it works,however, Fifth must be present in memory, so that you would probably be breaking the law if you tried marketing a program which uses it.\r\n\r\nScope 2 is much better in this respect, since it compiles your Scope programs into machine code, and you don't need to have Scope 2 in memory to be able to run your own games. For this reason Scope 2 performs much the same task as an assembler, and so I see no reason why you should not be free to sell anything you write with it to a software house, if you can find one that wants to buy it.\r\n\r\nWhite Lightning is the same as Scope 2 in this respect, but it also has several notices regarding the subject of you marketing games written using it. Unfortunately, these contradict one another.\r\n\r\nFor example, on the back of the plastic cassette wallet is a notice saying: 'Programs written using White Lightning can be marketed only by arrangement with Oasis Software'. But the manual it says: 'Software produced using White Lightning can be marketed without restriction'. It then goes on to say that a mention on the cassette sleeve would be appreciated - more that fair, it seems to me.\r\n\r\nI am inclined to take this latter as being the true case, but if in doubt, ask the software house you intend to sell your game to.\r\n\r\nWhichever package you have, if you have written a piece of good software with it, the people likely to be most interested are the software house which sells the original program. After all, if it is good it helps advertise their product, at the same time as making them (and hopefully you) some money. Do remember that there have been almost no test cases as far as computer copyright goes, and that a Portuguese company is openly selling other companies' games without paying a penny in royalties and is unlikely to be prosecuted. The fog will no doubt clear eventually, but it could take sometime.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"18,19,20","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"David Lester","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]