[{"titleName":"Nightflite","publisher":"Hewson Consultants Ltd","author":"Mike Male","yearOfRelease":"1982","zxdbId":"0003418","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":"The instrument panel comes into its own in Night Flight, because there's not much else to see out of the windscreen, it's all pitch black.\r\n\r\nIn Hewson Consultants version of flight simulation you are faced with the problem of landing a light aircraft in the night. The screen is divided into two with the bottom half being taken up by instrument readings, while the top half is given over to the view from the cock pit. This remains dark until the landing strip lights come into view.\r\n\r\nA very simplistic map shows the world outside as consisting of a range of hills right across the screen at a height of 1,650 feet with one small valley to the west of the runway which itself runs east-west.\r\n\r\nAbove 2,200 feet the airspace is very congested and there is a high risk of collision.\r\n\r\nApart from the map there are six modes to try out: mode 0 is a demo shown over the last 2.5 miles of a successful approach; mode 1 leaves you nine miles from touchdown heading west; mode 2 is the same heading east; mode 3 leaves you heading north and mode 4 asks you to take off first. The final mode is on autopilot and shows you how it should be done but allows you to take over at any time.\r\n\r\nAs in most simulations there is a wealth of controls and things to consider and it is initially very confusing.\r\n\r\nRaising and lowering the airplane's nose, checking on engine rpm, banking, lowering flaps and landing gear while checking constantly on your heading against the directional beacons, airspeed, altitude and fuel.\r\n\r\nStill it is hardly the most complex of simulations and the night idea does give an excuse to bring the necessary memory down to 16K. It costs £5.95.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"13","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"Charles Davies","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[{"text":"REALISTIC TRAINING\r\n\r\nCommercial flight simulators are used in the training of airline pilots and are now so good that they provide a genuinely realistic simulation of flying in a jet.\r\n\r\nThese simulators use large computer systems and cost anything from a few million pounds upwards, but a more modest range of flight simulation programs for the home computer are now becoming available in the price range £5 to £50!\r\n\r\nAs with all software, paying a higher price will not necessarily buy you a higher quality program. Here are a few features to look for.\r\n\r\nThe most technically difficult component of a flight simulator is the representation of the outside world. This should include at least the horizon and a representation of a runway - any additional features are a bonus.\r\n\r\nLanding a plane on a runway is the most exciting part of flight simulators and it is important that this part is done as well as possible.\r\n\r\nHome computers are not capable of displaying a real instrument panel but it is possible to create an impression of a vast number of gauges and dials which give the feel of a real cockpit. Analog displays like gauges and dials in addition to digital displays are more authentic, interesting and easier to read.\r\n\r\nLanding a plane safety is one of the most difficult tasks the pilot has to perform and this should be accordingly difficult and instructive in a flight simulation.\r\n\r\nCharles Davies"},{"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":"8/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Value","score":"7/10","text":"","overallScore":0},{"header":"Playability","score":"7/10","text":"","overallScore":0}],"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"Sinclair User Issue 9 , Dec 1982","price":"£0.6","releaseDate":"1982-11-18","editor":"Nigel Clark","totalPages":84,"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 Director: Simon Horgan\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 1982\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":"FLYING THE SPECTRUM\r\n\r\nNightflite is one of the first flight simulation programs for the Spectrum. At the beginning of the program a series of options is given, including a demonstration flight, takeoff, final approach, autopilot and a map of the flight area.\r\n\r\nThe screen display is split into two, with the aircraft instruments at the bottom and a view through the cockpit window at the top.\r\n\r\nThe navigational instruments include instrument landing system, artificial horizon, non-directional beacon and VHF omni-directional range.\r\n\r\nThe program is an accurate simulation, since Hewson, the company behind the simulation, employed a qualified pilot to provide the technical details.\r\n\r\nNightflite costs £5.95 and is available from Hewson, [redacted].","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"52","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"John Gilbert","score":"5","scoreSuffix":"/10"}],"screenShotText":[],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":[{"header":"Gilbert Factor","score":"5/10","text":"","overallScore":50}],"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"Personal Computer News Issue 37 , Nov 1983","price":"","releaseDate":"1983-11-18","editor":"Cyndy Miles","totalPages":90,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"CHARACTER SET\r\n\r\nEditorial\r\nEditor: Cyndy Miles\r\nDeputy Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nManaging Editor: Peter Worlock\r\nSub-Editors: Harriet Arnold, Leah Batham\r\nNews Editor: David Guest\r\nNews Writers: Ralph Bancroft, Sandra Grandison\r\nHardware Editor: Ian Scales\r\nFeatures Editor: John Lettice\r\nSoftware Editor: Bryan Skinner\r\nPrograms Editor: Ken Garroch\r\nListings Editor: Wendie Pearson\r\nEditor's Assistant: Nickie Robinson\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nArt Editor: David Robinson\r\nAssistant Art Editor: Floyd Sayers\r\nPublishing Manager: Mark Eisen\r\nAssistant Publishing Manager: Sue Clements\r\n\r\nAdvertising\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: Pat Dolan\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Nic Jones\r\nAssistant Advertisement Manager: Mark Satchell\r\nSales Executives: Christian McCarthy, Marie-Therese Bolger, Julia Dale, Dik Veenman, Alison Hare, Deborah Quinn\r\nProduction Manager: Eva Haggis\r\nMicroshop Production: Nikki Payne\r\nAdvertisement Assistant: Jenny Dunne\r\nSubscription Enquiries: Gill Stevens\r\nSubscription Address: [redacted]\r\nEditorial Address: [redacted]\r\nAdvertising Address: [redacted]\r\n\r\nPublished by VNU Business Publications, [redacted]\r\n© VNU 1983. No material maybe reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\nPhotoset by Quickset, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Chase Web Offset, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Seymour Press, [redacted]\r\nRegistered at the PO as a newspaper\r\n\r\nCover photo by Howard Kingsworth","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"REACH FOR THE SKY\r\n\r\nJohn (Biggles) Lettice dons flying cap and heads off for the wild blue yonder.\r\n\r\nNightflight (£7.95, Dragon) and 737 Flight Simulator (£9.95, BBC B), from Salamander Software, [redacted]\r\n\r\nNightflite (£5.95,Spectrum) and Dragonfly (£6.95, Dragon), from Hewson Consultants, [redacted]\r\n\r\nFlight Simulation (£5.95, Spectrum), from Psion/Sinclair Research, [redacted]\r\n\r\nIf your idea of fun is spending the weekend doing victory rolls over Heathrow's departure lounge, you're surprisingly well catered for nowadays. Most of the popular micros have a flight simulation program or two available for them, and although some of them can be pretty feeble, many are very good indeed.\r\n\r\nThe best flight simulation programs genuinely are simulations. You can operate the various controls of your aircraft and, if the program's good, it will behave in pretty much the same way as a real aeroplane.\r\n\r\nA good simulation therefore lets you' take off, fly, navigate to the airfield of your choice by sight or radio beacon, and land either visually or on instruments.\r\n\r\nSo producing an accurate simulation is a complex programming job, and some of the more basic simulations, although fairly accurate as far as they go, won't actually produce realistic effects if you do something daft or intricate.\r\n\r\nTry opening the throttle, pulling the joystick back hard then banking suddenly. Are you losing height rapidly? Is the ground spinning round and round? If the answer is no, you're either flying something very large and sluggish, or you've just done something the program wasn't designed to deal with.\r\n\r\nLooping the loop is another example - some programs just plain won't do it, and others that will have a bizarre way of doing it. Salamander Software's Nightflight for the Dragon, for example, produced a loop 68 feet in diameter when I tried it...\r\n\r\n'You are the pilot of a small, radio-controlled aircraft...' And looping the loop isn't the only way of getting a program's measure. Hewson Consultants' Dragonfly, which comes from the same stable as the relatively honourable Nightflite, loops the loop quite convincingly, although perhaps a little too easily. So I thought I'd try it in a glide.\r\n\r\nShut off the power and you see speed decrease. You start to lose height. So try dropping the nose a little to get yourself in a shallow dive. The speed continues to decrease, and you continue to lose height. Matter of fact, speed falls to walking, then to zero, at which point you're told you're not flying a helicopter, and asked if you' want another go.\r\n\r\nThis is all very well, but it might be nicer if the programming allowed the plane to behave like a real one, instead of enhancing the meaning of the phrase 'glides like a brick'.\r\n\r\nIf you fancy something a little hairier, then Psion's Flight Simulation for the Spectrum is the one to fly. This gives you a fairly realistic-looking cockpit display, and also alloWs you to see where you're going. So if you're flying over a lake, you see something that looks a bit like a lake, and so on.\r\n\r\nThe graphics aren't anything like as detailed as the Microsoft flight simulator, which shows you a place I'd swear was Tayport (small town on the south bank of' the Tay estuary), but if you fancy a bit of flying without instruments, it does allow, this.\r\n\r\nPsion puts you in charge of a high-performance twin-engined aircraft and allows you to fly between two airfields of differing sizes with the aid of a number of radio beacons. Inbetween times, you've got enough technology at your command - just - to really throw the plane about the sky or, alternatively, to make a very large crater on the ground.\r\n\r\nOne of the nice things about the Psion simulator is that it's not easy to control. It's supposed to be a small aircraft, so you'd expect the controls, to be a lot more responsive than on a large airliner. Although taking, off is fairly easy - just a matter of getting the necessary speed up and pulling the stick back - you'll quite probably find it difficult to control at lowish speeds with the nose up (ie, climbing away from the runway).\r\n\r\nSimilarly, it passes the loop-the-loop test with flying colours. Some flight simulators will loop-the-loop if you just pull the stick back hard. You see the sky, roll neatly around you, then find yourself back on the same course as you were before.\r\n\r\nPsion's effort needs a lot more thought and skill. You need to go into the loop fast enough to retain stability once you bring the nose up, and if you're lucky you'll execute the manoeuvre Successfully and wind up near where you were before.\r\n\r\nIf you've gone into the loop with a little less care you'll find yourself doing pretty much what you'd expect the real thing to do. Too little speed on the initial climb and you'll stall and spin down to earth. If you manage to get to the top of the loop but still don't have the speed, you'll find yourself slipping to one side upside-down. So don't try it too near the ground.\r\n\r\nWith any flight simulator, if you get into trouble and you're not too near the ground, you'll find yourself in a spin. How you get out of this in a good simulator at least depends on the type of aircraft. I found the Psion simulator allowed you to get out if you increased power, then pulled the nose up, but I couldn't, get out this way on Salamander's 737 simulator.\r\n\r\nPCN's resident veteran of the Molimerx Belfast-to-Gatwick run tells me this is because larger aircraft do not always go into a nose-down spin, but can execute a weird pancaking spin on the level, or even with the nose slightly up. So for larger beasts you pull the nose down, get enough speed to stabilise them, then pull out.\r\n\r\nNot that you're liable to get into a spin too often with Salamander's 737. The top half-dozen or so lines of the screen are devoted to a series of warning messages. These are innocuous enough when you're flying in a straight line at the right speed, but downright painful if you do anything less than take good care of the passengers out the back.\r\n\r\nIf you do find yourself going too fast, stalling, spinning or running out of fuel, lights start flashing and buzzers start sounding. Behind you, you can imagine, passengers are struggling into lifejackets, penning irate letter about your performance to the chief executive of Microflight Airways, or composing themselves for an unscheduled stopover in perdition.\r\n\r\nSo if you fancy a bit of stunt flying on the 737 - leaving aside from the likelihood that you'll be grounded for life if you ever get back to the ground - you also have the option of going deaf or putting an axe through the Beeb's speaker. I also found I tended to crash whenever I tried to do something really wacky - I'd be grateful if any 737 pilots out there could tell me if one can loop the loop in the things.\r\n\r\nMy major objection to 737 Flight Simulator is that it really is too easy to control in flight.\r\n\r\nYou find yourself sighing for the good old days of goggles, flying helmets and silk scarves getting caught in the propeller, and thinking heretical thoughts on the lines of 'it's just like having a computer flying the thing...'\r\n\r\nYou can punch up your speed, rate of climb and descent, and the 737 will stay at these levels through thick and thin, changing only if something really bad happens.\r\n\r\nSo unless you really get off on flying in straight lines and gentle curves, the most use you'd make of this program would be in practicing take-offs and landings.\r\n\r\nThere are a couple of nice touches, though - you can design your own runways and position radio beacons. You may also find yourself being asked to go into a holding pattern before you land - this can be bad news, as you have only enough fuel for about 25 minutes' flying time.\r\n\r\nIf you crash, taking the option to restart at your previous position puts you back where you were, but with full tanks. Remember to restart the engines, though, or you may find Isaac Newton very much in the driving seat.\r\n\r\nOf the smaller simulators available, Hewson Consultants produces Nightflite for the 16K Spectrum and Dragonfly for the Dragon 32 (not to be confused with Salamander's Nightflight for the Dragon 32).\r\n\r\nNightflite is a nice little program, but the aircraft's tendency to break up if you go too fast leads one to think it owes more to Bleriot than British Airways. I also found I was getting 'collision' explanations when I was trying to climb too steeply, although I'm pretty sure there's nothing else hanging about out there.\r\n\r\nI found landing considerably trickier than on more complex simulators, perhaps because there seems to be only one configuration of speed and attitude that results in a successful landing.\r\n\r\nOn the more elaborate simulators there will be a range of possible ways of achieving a successful - or semi-successful - touchdown. My patent method for landing the Psion simulator, for example, is to get the thing as low as I can, as slow as I can, approximately over the runway, then cut the power and flop down in a heap. That was a bit rough, wasn't it?', says the Spectrum chattily, but it works.\r\n\r\nThe way things are going, more and more complex simulators are becoming available for at least the more popular micros. The Microsoft Flight Simulator already allows you to get involved in dog-fights, and it's only a matter of time before the others follow suit.\r\n\r\nWhat next - a networked re-run of the Battle of Britain? Over to our Micronet correspondent ...","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"26,27","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"John Lettice","score":"","scoreSuffix":""}],"screenShotText":[{"text":"Hewson's Nightflite comes in to land."},{"text":"Salamander's 737 on the runway."},{"text":"Dragonfly takes off."},{"text":"The Psion simulator in flight."}],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":null,"compilationReviewScores":[]},{"issue":{"id":0,"name":"Sinclair User Issue 22 , Jan 1984","price":"£0.75","releaseDate":"1983-12-15","editor":"Nigel Clark","totalPages":172,"hasCoverTape":false,"flannelPanel":"Managing Editor: Nigel Clark\r\nDeputy Editor: Nicole Segre\r\nConsultant Editor: Mike Johnston\r\nManaging Production Editor: Harold Mayes MBE\r\nSoftware Editor: John Gilbert\r\nProgram Reviewer: Rebecca Ferguson\r\nIllustrator/Designer: Brian King\r\nGroup Advertisement Manager: John Ross\r\nSales Executive: Annette Burrows\r\nProduction Assistant: Dezi Epaminondou\r\nEditorial Assistant: Colette McDermott\r\nManaging Director: Terry Cartwright\r\nChairman: Richard Hease\r\n\r\nSinclair User is published monthly by ECC Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\nTelephone\r\nAll departments\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to any of the Sinclair User group of publications please send programs, articles or ideas for hardware projects to:\r\nSinclair User and Programs\r\nECC Publications\r\n[redacted]\r\n\r\nPrograms should be on cassette and articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless a stamped-addressed envelope is included.\r\n\r\nWe will pay £10 for 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]\r\n\r\nCover Photograph: Peter Dawney","numberOfReviews":0,"numberOfAwardedReviews":0},"mainText":"FIRST STEPS TOWARDS PAPERLESS LEARNING\r\n\r\nTheodora Wood considers the current state and the potential of educational software.\r\n\r\nComputers have now found their way into approximately one in 10 British households. Half a million Spectrums alone have been sold and presumably at least twice as many adults and children have unwrapped their cartons and plugged-in their hardware. Some will have caught the programming bug, others are small business users, and a large proportion have been shooting-down the alien hordes.\r\n\r\nSoftware houses were quick to supply the games market and some have provided educational software but it is only recently that the numbers of educational titles have risen, with the large educational publishing houses realising the potential of the market, complete with glossy packaging and nation-wide distribution. At present Britain lags behind the U.S. market, both in the range and number of educational programs available, and is following roughly the same pattern of development.\r\n\r\nThe biggest number of programs available, for both the Spectrum and ZX-81, are of the rule-drill variety. They operate in the same way as the most traditional methods of teaching, by showing examples of the subject to be taught and then testing, sometimes by games. They can be divided into those for the younger age group - three to nine - and those which are aimed at older children as learning packages.\r\n\r\nFor the younger children the lack of reading skill places a greater emphasis on the use of graphics, animation and sound in the programs used to teach bask skills such as letter recognition, counting, simple mathematics. It is important with programs such as those that there should be a substantial element of interaction with the computer - children love pressing buttons. The testing part of the programs provides for that in most cases and duplicates the worksheets and workbooks used in schools throughout the country in electronic form.\r\n\r\nFirst Numbers - Collins Educational, 16K Spectrum, £5.95 - is a series of five programs on one tape illustrating the concept of the electronic workbook. Instead of the examples remaining inert on the page, they bound round the screen in full colour; hopping frogs, seals bouncing balls on their noses, and elephants moving across the screen, rather too slowly, to the tune Nellie the Elephant, all emphasise the numbers one to 10. A program illustrates how to write the numbers by first drawing them on the screen and then flashing arrows following the direction of the pencil, identical to a workbook, except that there the arrows do not flash.\r\n\r\nIn contrast, there is Alphabet - Widget, 48K Spectrum, £5.95 - a program to teach letter recognition which uses no on-screen movement to illustrate its point. Its use of the Spectrum sound capability is lamentable, as the reward for a correct answer is the same for every letter, and can become extremely tedious even for the youngest child. When attempting to teach letter recognition, which is essentially a sound/shape matching activity, it is important that an adult should be present, as without a voice element the objective cannot be realised.\r\n\r\nFor the younger child who has little or no reading ability, better capability of the Spectrum in the area of colour, graphics and sound make it a superior machine to the ZX-81. Moving up the age range, a considerable number of programs operate on the electronic workbook level, from junior up to 0 level and beyond, and they are widely-available either at department stores or by mail order.\r\n\r\nThe ZX-81 appears more regularly in those titles, where more on-screen text can be used and flashing graphics are not so important. That kind of program would be a valuable aid to learning for the motivated child and for examination revision. Rose Cassettes and University Software specialise in that kind of programs.\r\n\r\nQuiz programs are an extension of the question-and-answer format, such as the ones produced by Psion - 16148K Spectrum, £6.95 - for geography and history. Time Traveller - John Wiley, 48K Spectrum only, £9.95 - extends the scope by using the format of an adventure game, complete with wild animals, soldiers and priests, at the same time testing a child's knowledge of history through having to answer questions on historical fact correctly before passing through the time warps from 2000 BC to the present. This type of quiz would obviously have more attractions than the more straightforward versions, and would be more entertaining for groups.\r\n\r\nAll the programs mentioned so far are an extension of traditional teaching methods and provide a paperless way of learning subjects as diverse as O level French revision and the history of inventions. For the younger age groups they could be a valuable aid to learning basic skills, if used for short periods, and should be compared to other hardware aids such as Speak and Spell, the Talking Computer and little Professor to assess their effectiveness.\r\n\r\nThey also provide an introduction to the use of the computer and its keyboard. In the short term a child's interest would be retained probably by the novelty value of using a computer but that may later prove ephemeral as electronic workbooks become a more familiar feature at home and at school. Older children could use them in conjunction with their studies to clarify and identify areas on which they need to concentrate.\r\n\r\nSimulation programs present a real departure from the electronic workbook and use the ability of the computer to deal with interactive variables to the full. Simulation programs at their best place a child in a real situation, engaging attention in an imaginative way. Again, the superior Spectrum graphics and colour invalidate the use of the ZX-81 and most titles are available for 48K Spectrum only.\r\n\r\nHeinemann has produced a package for the eight-to-12 age group, Ballooning, which is accompanied by a glossy booklet explaining ballooning, with its history, development and suggestions for further activities. The balloon moves over a simulated landscape at the top of the screen while a child interacting with information on the dials placed below - altitude, temperature, fuel, rate of climb or fall - controls the upward or downward drift of the craft.\r\n\r\nThe child can stop the action to make a decision more coolly or mark position on a graph relating to altitude and distance, thus simulating a barograph. By practising at the controls of the balloon, a novice balloonist can execute various missions set by the program, some of which are extremely complicated, and in so doing become aware of the interaction between the temperature of the air inside the balloon, its rise and fall and its limitations as a flying machine.\r\n\r\nThe variety of other activities suggested in the accompanying booklet ensures that the program is open-ended and the concepts introduced in the package explored in different ways. Meanwhile, arguments rage as to who has achieved the most number of safe landings. Flight Simulation - 48K Spectrum, Psion, £7.95 - and to a lesser extent Nightflite - 16K Spectrum, Hewson - together with a 16K ZX-81 version, are similar programs suitable for nine-year-olds upwards and continue the theme of flying a machine but with greater difficulty level. Realtime means precisely that and there is no stopping the action to assimilate the information on the dials.\r\n\r\nMap reading and basic navigational skills are also needed to move the aircraft round the landscape in the case of the 48K version, and the impression of reality is enhanced by being in the cockpit, seeing the landmarks below, and experiencing the tilt of the aeroplane in relation to the horizon, as well as the dizzying effect of rushing towards the ground at an increasingly frightening rate.\r\n\r\nSimulation programs prove an imaginative vehicle for the introduction of the terminology used and the concepts involved in a particular activity and accomplish it in a different way from the rule and drill programs; instead of learning by example a child learns by the consequences of actions, albeit within the limitations of a simulated micro-world.\r\n\r\nLearning by direct experience is more valuable than learning by rote and one would expect that more programs of this kind would be available in 1984, to introduce children to a wide variety of concepts and situations.\r\n\r\nThere are also programs for both the Spectrum and ZX-81 which operate in specialist areas not covered by the rule-and-drill format. Programs such as Firework Music and Tuner - 16/48K Spectrum range for 16K ZX-81, Software Cottage, £5 each - introduce children of almost any age to the basics of musical notation, pitch and keyboard use, and are ideal for use where a household has a computer but no musical instruments as, sad to say, only a minority of children retain an interest in playing music beyond a certain age.\r\n\r\nBridge Software produces a program, Night Sky - 16K Spectrum, £8.90 - which shows the stars visible at any time of the day or night from the Midlands - 0°, 52°N - on any day of the year. The second program in the pack shows the stars appearing in order of magnitude, with the 20 brightest stars named. Although operating within a specialist field, this type of program is of note as it adds an extra dimension to the star maps in books; moving the time on hour by hour shows the viewer how the stars rise and fall throughout the night and their positions throughout the year.\r\n\r\nIt also gives city dwellers a chance to look at the stars which are rarely seen through the orange glare of street lights and seen even more rarely at 3 o'clock in the morning.\r\n\r\nThe state of the art of educational software for the Spectrum and the ZX-81 introduces children to the keyboard of the computer - just watch a three-year-old press ENTER - and the notion of paperless work while reinforcing the learning processes involved in gaining skills which are basic to any educational curriculum. They can also introduce new concepts in an exciting way through the use of simulation techniques. None of them however, deals with the use of the computer in the programming field.\r\n\r\nThe Microelectronics Education Programme was designed initially for use in schools and contains some programs which teach skills which are the stepping stones to logic and programming techniques, as well as the more usual rule-and-drill programs. At £24.95 per pack of seven to eight programs, it seems rather expensive for home use but its use in schools is a selling point for distributors such as W H Smith.\r\n\r\nFarmer introduces problem-solving and reasoning to the seven-to-11 group, while Watchperson does a similar task for the eight-to-11 group and includes route planning. Mazes are a graphic way to introduce logical processes and many of them are available in the games section of the software departments of stores.\r\n\r\nTo learn programming as a technique, the most innovative and child- centred way is to use Logo, a high-level language developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, under the guidance of Seymour Papert. Instead of using the computer to help a child or young adult to learn certain skills, the user programs the computer to execute commands. Logo enables children from about nine upwards to achieve results which would be much more difficult to achieve using the Basic language common to the Spectrum and ZX-81.\r\n\r\nBy the use of simple commands, a child can instruct a robot/turtle to move round the screen or on the floor, drawing as it proceeds. Imagine telling someone to walk round a square shape; walk 10 steps, then turn right; at that point it would be absolutely essential to know how many degrees to turn through, otherwise the shape would have no chance of being a square. Similarly with Logo and it is in that way that the value of such a program can be seen, as geometric functions are learned not by looking at a text book but by practical use of them in an activity which has been chosen by the child.\r\n\r\nLogo does much more than introduce children to geometric function, however, because by choosing a problem, like drawing a house, the child has to split the activity into its component parts - roof, windows, chimneys - and find the best way of achieving the desired result. That type of problem-solving can be applied to any number and variety of activities and the adult version is well-known as critical path analysis, involving the exploration of logistics to determine the order in which activities are executed.\r\n\r\nLogo also introduces children to the basic concepts of programming in a simplified form - to loops, nested loops et at - and for those who have no immediate knowledge of, or affinity with, those concepts, its simplicity is an easy introduction to them. In future years robots and artificial intelligence will enter many areas of life and a knowledge of the logical way in which a programmable machine works will undoubtedly be a skill which many will need to learn.\r\n\r\nSnail Logo - Spectrum 48K, CP Software, £9.95 - is an example of this type of program which can be used either with the Zeaker turtle on the floor or displays, if desired, a snail moving on the screen.\r\n\r\nThe documentation with the program is excellent, describing the concepts behind it and giving examples of programs to try. They lead the novice from simple routines to more complex ones involving the use of named procedures - subroutines - and variables. Although there are ample facilities to copy the program being worked on, there is no means of saving them, which is very irritating, as obviously children might wish to evolve a program in the space of days or weeks. It would be better also if the snail could be seen on the screen at the same time. No doubt other versions of Logo will be introduced in the coming year.\r\n\r\nLooking back on the development of educational software at the start of 1984, the main impression is that the field has scarcely been explored. Two obvious areas where development is necessary for the Spectrum and the ZX-81 is a simple word processor allowing children to type-in a piece of writing and then correct it, and the interactive database program similar to that of the Tree of Life which runs on the BBC micro.\r\n\r\nPotential exists in the simulation/adventure format and the use of Logo to stimulate children into areas of activity which would be impossible without the use of the computer. While rule-and-drill programs can be a pleasant way of learning basic skills and an introduction to the computer and its keyboard, their over-use could have the opposite effect to that desired by deterring children using computers for life.\r\n\r\nSo what developments can we expect in the next few years? Interactive video must surely be an area to be explored. Based on a combination of personal computers and video tapes or disc players, interactive video will expand the use of the computer as an educational tool by introducing real speech into the learning process and enabling children to interact with the pictures.\r\n\r\nAfter that, perhaps children will learn to program holograms to dance round the room or a myriad of small independent robots will be whizzing round when fed their programs. Educational software? We have only just begun.\r\n\r\nBridge Software, [redacted]\r\n\r\nCP Software, [redacted].\r\n\r\nRose Software, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSoftware Cottage, [redacted].\r\n\r\nUniversity Software, [redacted].\r\n\r\nJohn Wiley & Sons (Sulius Software), [redacted].\r\n\r\nCollins, Widget, Heinemann and Psionare widely available at leading department stores.","reviewerComments":[],"overallSummary":"","page":"110,111,112","denied":false,"award":"Not Awarded","reviewers":[{"name":"Theodora Wood","score":"5","scoreSuffix":"/10"}],"screenShotText":[{"text":"'While rule-and-drill programs can be a pleasant way of learning basic skills and an introduction to the computer and its keyboard, their over-use could have the opposite effect to that desired.'"}],"blurbText":[],"transcriptBy":"Chris Bourne","reviewScores":[{"header":"Gilbert Factor","score":"5/10","text":"","overallScore":50}],"compilationReviewScores":[]}],"reviewsCount":4}]