[{"titleName":"1K ZX Chess","publisher":"Artic Computing Ltd","author":"Artic Computing Ltd","yearOfRelease":"Unknown","zxdbId":"0031502","reviews":[{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 17 Book of Reviews, Mar 1983","price":"","releaseDate":"1970-01-01","editor":"","totalPages":0,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"Artic's 1K Chess is an attempt to get a complex strategy game into the minimum of memory space and as such can only be a compromise.\r\n\r\nTo make this compromise too much has had to be left out. You are not allowed to Castle, capture en-passant or even promote your pawns and to crown it all even a victory is not acknowledged by the computer. You'll have to spot it for yourself.\r\n\r\nThe board is little more than an 8x8 square of spaces and inverse spaces with the pieces represented by their initials either in white or black or in black on white. This is the cause of confusion later in the game, when pieces have been forgotten.\r\n\r\nWorse still it keeps moving its pieces around the board while it makes up its tiny 1K mind what its next move will be.\r\n\r\nStill it does play chess - just - a considerable achievement in 1K.\r\n\r\nThis is not so much a game as a feat of programming which. In itself, ought to make 1K Chess a collector's item. It does just about succeed IN PLAYing chess but don't expect to play too many memorable games on it. Just admire the thought and dedication which made such a thing possible.\r\n\r\nA considerable achievement for only £2.95.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"3","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"Terry Pratt","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[{"text":"TIME AND MOTION\r\n\r\nThe classic board games transfer well to computers who make better than average opponents on all the games dealt with here.\r\n\r\nBut there is more to choosing a chess, backgammon, draughts or reversi program, than picking one which will beat you every time.\r\n\r\nMost important in these programs are a display that is clear and easy on the eye, coupled with pieces which can be easily recognised. Programs which use disturbing colour clashes or badly shaped pieces will hardly help a player trying to give caretul study to a critical position.\r\n\r\nThe program should also draw a player's attention to its move. Both an audio and visual signal should be included to let the player know it's moving and which place it is changing.\r\n\r\nA good response time is crucial. If left to its own devices for long enough most computers can come up with a good move. But long study should be the human player's prerogative - computers are used for their speed.\r\n\r\nFinally an easy-to-understand, and implement, move input system will ensure that the program does not start gathering dust after the first few tries. In chess it is difficult to come up with anything better than E2-E4 but this can easily lead to a mistake which is still a valid move and completely ruin a player's chances.\r\n\r\nFew programs allow the player to take a move back, try and find one that does.\r\n\r\nOther key things to question with regard to chess: does the program always respond to P-Q4 openings the same way? If so you're in for a dull opening repertoire. Does it play forced moves quickly? Does it keep its head when things go wrong? Some programs just give up on bad positions.\r\n\r\nTerry Pratt"},{"text":"GAMES GLOSSARY\r\n\r\nIf you can tell a Pacman from a Defender and a Galaxian from a Space Invader you probably know your way around computer games.\r\n\r\nBut if some of the game terms we have used in this supplement, or in the issue itself, are new to you, then this page should supply the answers. In it we take some of the best known types of computer game and describe how they are played and what features these games normally incorporate.\r\n\r\nSo, if we claim that Penetrator is a \"Scramble-type game\" and that leaves you just as much in the dark about what to expect, then below there is a full description of Scramble to put you in the picture.\r\n\r\nASTEROIDS\r\n\r\nThe Asteroids came into the arcades courtesy of Atari. It features a small dart-shaped craft controlled by the player which can rotate left or right and thrust or fire in the direction it is facing.\r\n\r\nThere is one further control, the panic button (hyperspace) which lets you travel to another part of the screen chosen by the computer.\r\n\r\nThe enemy is mainly made up of large asteroids which sweep across the screen in large deadly groups of rock. When blown up these break into smaller fragments worth extra points.\r\n\r\nThere is extra danger supplied by two UFOs. The first larger creature you'll meet fairly early on. It tends to spray shots in all directions and often crashes into an asteroid.\r\n\r\nThe smaller variety is far more deadly in its own shooting and also more difficult to hit. Each cleared screen means you start again with extra asteroids.\r\n\r\nDEFENDER\r\n\r\nYou can't expect to keep a finger on every control button in Defender or you'd end up in knots.\r\n\r\nThe action, which takes place above an alien landscape, involves some seven control buttons and takes patience to gain proper mastery of your lone craft.\r\n\r\nThat patience can be rewarded though, as Defender is challenging from the word \"Go\". The Defender craft can go: up, down, thrust forward, reverse direction, fire, smart bomb and hyperspace.\r\n\r\nTen humanoids wander on the landscape and these may fall prey to raiding alien creatures known as Landers. Landers pick up the humanoids and take them to the top of the screen. If they succeed in getting there the Landers turn into fearsome mutants hellbent on your destruction.\r\n\r\nIn all there are six alien opponents. On top of Landers and Mutants, these are: Pods are quite harmless but contain the small and persistent Swarmers; Bombers seed space with white bombs and Baiters only appear if you take too long clearing a screen of the rest of the aliens.\r\n\r\nIf all 10 humanoids are captured, the planet explodes and all remaining alien life attacks your craft at once.\r\n\r\nDefender games usually feature a small radar screen which shows what is going on at all parts of the planet surface.\r\n\r\nFROGGER\r\n\r\nFrogger has spawned a whole host of computer games with a similar theme.\r\n\r\nThis game features a frog hero who must jump across a road and make his way across a river torrent to five frog-holes in the bank.\r\n\r\nThe busy road usually features live streams of traffic travelling in both directions at varying speeds, between which the player must hop his frog without wrapping it around any fenders.\r\n\r\nOnce across the road, the river can be crossed by leaping onto floating logs and onto the back of swimming turtles, until our frog can enter a vacant spot in the far bank. Turtles have a habit of diving though so don't let a frog dally too long on one. Being carried off the edge of the screen (by log or turtle) also results in a note in the funeral column of Amphibians' Weekly.\r\n\r\nWhen all five frog-holes have been filled, the game becomes more difficult with extra traffic being added to the road, snakes traversing the bank between road and river and alligators appearing instead of logs in the river.\r\n\r\nA timer running down on each frog also adds to the difficulties. The arcade original also featured a small lady frog who could be \"picked up\" on the logs and offered a lift home for a bonus. Other bonuses can be scored by entering a frog-hole in which a tasty fly meal has come to rest.\r\n\r\nDONKEY KONG\r\n\r\nDonkey Kong is the strange name for a climbing and jumping game which features a starlet-grabbing monster gorilla.\r\n\r\nOften referred to as Crazy Kong or Crazy Climber in the computer circles, it has only just found its way onto the home screen.\r\n\r\nThe game features a gorilla holding a girl captive at the top of the screen and an intrepid hero (Mario the carpenter), who starts at the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nBetween the two is a connecting network of platforms and ladders up which Mario must run to achieve his rescue. Kong hurls barrels down the screen and Mario makes use of his \"jump\" button to leap over them. He can also grab a hammer and smash the barrels as they approach him.\r\n\r\nOnce at the top of the screen a new complex is built with Mario, again starting from the bottom with a view to rescue. This time the screen features a series of conveyor belts and deadly fires which travel around on the ladders and belts.\r\n\r\nGALAXIANS\r\n\r\nThe Galaxians were the sons of Space Invaders. Instead of proceeding down the screen at a leisurely pace, they wavered at the top of the screen before swooping down in batches of two or three (or more often on a solo mission) firing bombs.\r\n\r\nThe player has the usual left, right and fire controls on his laser base and must take care not to get trapped in a corner. He scores double points for a galaxian hit in mid-swoop and there are bonus points for taking out the red fleet commanders, who usually descend flanked by their generals, dispersing bombs at such a rate that the first instinct is to flee for cover.\r\n\r\nThat is the essence of Galaxians but with each destroyed platoon, new waves appear at screen top and their attacks become more frequent, more accurate and, all too often, more deadly!\r\n\r\nPACMAN\r\n\r\nThe ghostly world of Pacman is made up of a dot-filled maze, a hungry dot-eater and four pursuing spectres.\r\n\r\nPacman variations can be found under a whole range of titles from Vic-men to Gobbleman, Snapper to Super Glooper and many others. Most dot-eating games are related to it.\r\n\r\nThe main character is the dot-eater, which travels around the maze, eating every dot he touches. His objective is to clear the screen of dots. He is hampered in this by the four chasing ghosts whose touch is lethal.\r\n\r\nThe Pacman's main defence against the ghosts, who usually number four, are energiser dots. These pulse in the four corners of the maze and, upon being eaten, reverse the roles for a short while.\r\n\r\nThis means that Pacman can turn the tables on the ghosts and eat them for bonus points. He is allowed only a few seconds of dominance before the usual hunter and hunted rules come back into operation.\r\n\r\nIt is also usual for fruits to appear on the screen occasionally and these too can be consumed by Pacman for bonus points. When Pacman has cleared the screen, it refills with dots and the game restarts except that this time the ghosts are a little livelier and a new fruit, worth extra points, appears at this level.\r\n\r\nSCRAMBLE\r\n\r\nScramble should have a big one-way sign on its cabinet. The screen rolls from right to left, taking the player's craft along it into ever-increasing danger.\r\n\r\nScramble variations often contain the word \"Mission\" or \"Attack\" but there are some weird and wonderful titles about.\r\n\r\nThe player controls a craft heading right across the screen over hilly terrain His craft can never turn around and opt out of its mission but he does have some control over his destiny.\r\n\r\nHis controls are up and down, fast and slow and he can both bomb and fire at his enemies.\r\n\r\nThe Scrambler is not usually equipped with enough fuel to complete his task, but it is normal to obtain more fuel by bombing fuel tanks on the ground and so (mysteriously) replenish his own stocks.\r\n\r\nThe enemies come in all shapes and sizes. Most common are missiles which fire up from the ground as your craft passes overhead and alien invader creatures which frequently inhabit caves and fly at the player's craft.\r\n\r\nThe original Scramble game sent the player through a series of different terrains with new challenges in each section. And most computer Scrambles attempt to duplicate this with a number of different stages.\r\n\r\nScramble requires a cool head which can find the right control in a crisis, but it makes an ideal computer game as success naturally leads to new and more difficult stages.\r\n\r\nINVADERS\r\n\r\nSpace Invaders started the whole computer game craze back in 1977 and most gamers know the format backwards. Still, just a brief resume...\r\n\r\nThe invaders come in waves above the ground and move in rows across the screen one step at a time, firing missiles earthwards.\r\n\r\nWhen one row of the aliens reach an edge of the screen, the whole platoon jump down a line and return back the way they came. When they achieve their slow progression to the bottom of the screen, the game ends.\r\n\r\nThe player controls a laser base which moves left to right and fires directly up from its position. His aim is to blow up the entire fleet before it reaches the bottom of the screen.\r\n\r\nFlying saucers move across the top of the screen in both directions and can be hit for a mystery bonus score. In the arcade original, top saucer scores of 300 were achieved by firing 22 shots before shooting at the first saucer, then firing 14 shots in between each subsequent saucer. Some computer versions have copied this technique."}],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":[{"header":"Getting Started","score":"7/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Value","score":"8/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Playability","score":"4/10","text":"","overallScore":0}],"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 10 , Aug 1982","price":"£0.75","releaseDate":"1982-07-16","editor":"Terry Pratt","totalPages":92,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nAssistant Editor: Elspeth Joiner\r\nEditorial Assistant: Susan Cameron\r\nDesign: Linda Freeman\r\nProduction Editor: Tim Metcalfe\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Rita Lewis\r\nAdvertising Executive: Neil Wood\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 SERVICE SUBSCRIPTION. 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: £10.00, Overseas surface mail: £12.00, Airmail Europe: £20.00. 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\r\nISBN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: Stuart Briers","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"FROM THE COCKPIT\r\n\r\nBank, dive and climb as the Earth travels past beneath your feet - or actually it's on your TV screen which has been transformed into a cockpit window.\r\n\r\nFlight Simulation is the name of the game which is one of a series of five being produced for Sinclair b y software house, Psion.\r\n\r\nThe simulation places you in a cockpit of an aircraft.\r\n\r\nThe sky and the ground move through this window, and although it hardly bears comparison with the multi-million pound flight simulators which real pilots train on, it does offer some of the excitement and a very real challenge.\r\n\r\nThe tapes are marketed under the Sinclair label and will be available from the company or your local W. H. Smith for ZX81s with a 16K Rampack. Flight Simulation costs £5.95 and the other programs are:\r\n\r\nFantasy Games which retails at £4.35 and offers two adventures in a Perilous Swamp and on the Sorceror's Island.\r\n\r\nChess costs £6.95 and has six levels of play with a chess clock on which to time yourself.\r\n\r\nBackgammon, the gamblers' favourite dice game has a graphics board, rolling dice, and doubling dice for £5.95.\r\n\r\nThe Space Invaders look-alike, Space Raiders shares a cassette with the familiar City Bomb type game, Bomber and retails at £3.95.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"15","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"Sinclair User Issue 12 , Mar 1983","price":"£0.75","releaseDate":"1983-02-17","editor":"Nigel Clark","totalPages":100,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"Editorial Director: Nigel Clark\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nProduction Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nStaff Writer: John Gilbert\r\nDesign: William Scolding\r\nEditorial Director: John Sterlicchi\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nStates Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nEditorial/Production Assistant: Margaret Hawkins\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd. it is not in anyway connected with Sinclair Research 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\r\nECC Publications.\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for each program published and £50 per 1,000 words for each article used.\r\n\r\n©Copyright 1983\r\nSinclair User\r\nISSN NO. 0262-5458\r\n\r\nOrigination by Outline Graphics.\r\nPrinted Eden Fisher (Southend) Ltd\r\n\r\nDistributed by Spotlight Magazine Distribution Ltd, [redacted]","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"SINCLAIR ACTS TO IMPROVE THE STANDARD OF ITS NAMED SOFTWARE\r\n\r\nJohn Gilbert looks at the latest group of cassettes issued by Sinclair and finds that it is now setting the standards.\r\n\r\nA new batch of Sinclair Research software for the ZX-81 and Spectrum shows a marked improvement in the quality of programs and a continuation of fine artwork on the cassette inserts.\r\n\r\nThe reason is that the company is selling programs from other independent companies, such as Melbourne House and Artic, instead of continuing to rely on Psion, Mikro-Gen and ICL.\r\n\r\nThe Hobbit which takes first place in the new releases for quality and value for money. This adventure game, which the makers claim uses artificial intelligence, is discussed in Mind Games on page 93.\r\n\r\nVU-3D, for the 48K Spectrum, is another good offering from Psion. It allows the user to create a three-dimensional representation of an object on the television screen. The object can then be rotated and viewed from any angle. The objects can be displayed as wirework figures or can be shaded. They can also be magnified and reduced.\r\n\r\nIt is possible to store the figure on tape in a data file and re-load it to view again. The program costs £9.95 but even though it has some good features it still seems over-priced.\r\n\r\nGames feature strongly in the new tapes. Sinclair is selling the Artic range of adventures, A, C and D. Adventure A works on the 16K or 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81 and is called Planet of Death.\r\n\r\nYou are stranded on a planet and must return to your spaceship. There is no guide to the keywords but with a little thought you can discover the help command. At times the suggestions can be very unhelpful and it is a good idea to construct a map, as some of the help suggestions may make you retrace your footsteps.\r\n\r\nThe next adventure so far released is C, called Ship of Doom. It can be run on the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81.\r\n\r\nYour ship is captured by aliens who are searching for humanoids to replace their brains with microchips. The object of the game is to escape from the alien craft by breaking the gravitational field. To do so you must find the control room of the alien ship.\r\n\r\nThe help command is a little more useful in this game and it is easier to get further when playing the game.\r\n\r\nAdventure D, called Espionage island, can be used on the 48K Spectrum or 16K ZX-81. You must escape from an aircraft which is about to crash into the Atlantic. You must the reach the island safely, avoid capture, and try to discover the secret of the island. The game is more difficult than the others and many people have not managed to get out of the aircraft, even though there is a parachute. All the adventures cost £6.95.\r\n\r\nLeaving adventure games, Reversi, or Othello as it is sometimes called, can be played on the 16K Spectrum or 16K ZX-81. The game has nine levels, from novice to expert, and the computer is difficult to beat. The makers claim that Reversi reflects the strict contemporary morality of Victorian society but we believe that it can traced to Arabic origins. Reversi costs £7.95.\r\n\r\nAn interesting addition to the range of software is the Artic 1K Chess. It takes some technical wizardry to squeeze this kind of game into the unexpanded ZX-81.\r\n\r\nThe game can be played using one of two opening moves. Because of the lack of memory, castling, pawn promotion and capturing en passant are not allowed. The game loads in approximately 40 seconds and that is ideal for someone who wants a quick game of chess without having to load from a tape which takes several minutes.\r\n\r\nThe computer also makes its moves very fast for the amount of memory available to it. 1K Chess costs £4.95.\r\n\r\nSuper Glooper is an amusing game of Pac-man on the 16K ZX-81. Glooper must paint the maze before the aliens kill him. Unfortunately it is difficult to evade those aliens using the standard ZX-81 keyboard but it is not impossible. Glooper can also pick up one of the shields at the corners of the maze to protect himself and chase the aliens.\r\n\r\nOn the other side of the tape is Frogs, a game of Frogger. You must get the frogs over the river via the moving boats to the jetties on the other bank. If froggie falls into the river, it drowns.\r\n\r\nYou score points for each frog you get across the river and you can have eight frogs to send to their deaths. Super Glooper and Frogs cost £4.95.\r\n\r\nAnother game with a familiar-sounding theme is Through the Wall. It is based on Breakout and is available for the 16K ZX-81. On the other side of the cassette is Scramble, also a familiar theme. Both games on one cassette represent good value at £4.95.\r\n\r\nA package for the 1K ZX-81, called 1K Games, has also been released. The games include Jackpot, in which you must try to win the 25 pence jackpot from a one-armed bandit; Etch and Sketch, where you can draw pictures on the screen; and Maze Game, where you must find your way out of the conventional maze.\r\n\r\nThe release of this cassette, costing £4.95, is a good idea at a time when so many people are buying ZX-81s.\r\n\r\nA basic Toolkit is available for the 16K ZX-81. It provides a series of machine code routines to make the job of programming easier. It includes a re-number routine, a search and replace routine, a merge routine to put together two separate Basic programs, and a routine to put a Basic program above RAMTOP and out of the way of the NEW command. The Toolkit costs £5.95.\r\n\r\nTwo database programs are available in the range for the 48K Spectrum. They are called Collector's Pack and Club Record Controller.\r\n\r\nCollector's Pack can be used to store information about coins, stamps or even records. The Club Record Controller will store information about people such as addresses and telephone numbers. It would be useful to schools or even someone who runs a private club. Both packages are easy to use and cost £9.95.\r\n\r\nAdventure B, Inca Curse, for the 48K Spectrum is an upgrade of an adventure which Artic wrote for the 16K ZX-81. The adventurer is exploring in the jungle when he finds an Incan Temple. The aim is to go in and drag out all the treasure, or as much a you can carry. It all seems so easy until you enter the game and step into the temple.\r\n\r\nThe authors have managed to cram a good deal into this adventure and the Artic top score of 3,200 points will take some beating. We must admit that it is not one of the adventures in which we have made much progress. Adventure B costs £6.95.\r\n\r\nThe latest release of tapes is certainly better than the previous one. The games, utility, and business areas have been covered well but there is still a lack of good educational software. The only tapes available tend to be multi-choice and question-and-answer sessions.\r\n\r\nThe Psion tapes seem to be the best for quality at the moment and the ones with the most interesting concepts. None of the cassettes reviewed was bad but The Hobbit, Vu-3D, 1K Chess, and Super Glooper seem best.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"62,63","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"John Gilbert","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]}],"reviewsCount":3}]