[{"TitleName":"Pimania","Publisher":"Automata UK Ltd","Author":"Chris Edwards, Christian Penfold, Mel Croucher","YearOfRelease":"1982","ZxDbId":"0003714","Reviews":[{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 1, Feb 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-01-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Automata, 48K\r\n£10.00\r\n\r\nThere's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"64","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-02-23","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":112,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nDesigner: Oliver Frey\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nStaff Writers: Lloyd Mangram, Rod Bellamy\r\nAdvertisement Manager: John Edwards\r\nProduction Designer: Michael Arienti\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\n\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nMono printing, typesetting & finishing by Feb Edge Litho Ltd. [redacted]\r\nColour printing by Allan-Denver Web Offset Ltd. [redacted].\r\nColour origination by Scan Studios, [redacted]\r\nDistributed by Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post included)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post included).\r\nSingle copy: 75p\r\n\r\nIf you would like to contribute to CRASH please send articles or ideas for projects to the above address. Articles should be typed. We cannot undertake to return them unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope\r\n\r\nCover Illustration:Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Automata, 48K\r\n£10.00\r\n\r\nThere's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"67","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Crash Issue 4, May 1984","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1984-04-19","Editor":"Roger Kean","TotalPages":128,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Roger Kean\r\nConsultant Editor: Franco Frey\r\nProduction Designer: David Western\r\nArt Editor: Oliver Frey\r\nClient Liaison: John Edwards\r\nStaff Writer: Lloyd Mangram\r\nContributing Writers: Matthew Uffindel, Chris Passey\r\nSubscription Manager: Denise Roberts\r\n\r\n©1984 Newsfield Ltd.\r\nCrash Micro is published monthly by Newsfield Ltd. [redacted]\r\n\r\nTelephone numbers\r\nEditorial [redacted]\r\nSubscriptions [redacted]\r\nAdvertising [redacted]\r\nHot Line [redacted]\r\nNo material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holders.\r\n\r\nColour origination by Scan Studio, [redacted]\r\nPrinted in England by Plymouth Web Offset Ltd, [redacted].\r\nDistribution by Comag, [redacted]\r\nAdditional setting and process work by The Tortoise Shell Press, [redacted].\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: 12 issues £9.00 UK Mainland (post free)\r\nEurope: 12 issues £15 (post free).\r\n\r\nWe cannot undertake to return any written or photographic material sent to CRASH MICRO unless accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.\r\n\r\nCover by Oliver Frey"},"MainText":"Producer: Automata, 48K\r\n£10.00\r\n\r\nThere's not much to be said about Pimania, the game that launched over night the insignificant Pi Man to fame and fortune. The game is wacky, daft, weird and infuriating by turns and to date the famous prize worth £6,000 (plus index linking) has not been won. Although it runs on standard adventure game lines it takes lateral thinking into the realms of higher (or perhaps camp) art. Slow responses but that hardly matters, Pimania is a disease which overcomes most things!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"76","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Sinclair User Issue 10, Jan 1983","Price":"£0.6","ReleaseDate":"1982-12-16","Editor":"Nigel Clark","TotalPages":76,"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 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]"},"MainText":"PIMANIA IS GOING FOR GOLD\r\n\r\nPimania is a fascinating adventure game which has the added compulsion of a prize offered by the manufacturer to the first person who reaches the end of it.\r\n\r\nThe idea is to pass through a series of Pi-gates which exist in different places in space and time and eventually to find the place in space and time where the Golden Sundial, the prize, has been hidden.\r\n\r\nTo start the game the players must push the proper key on the keyboard. When first confronted with the task, the problems facing the adventurer seem impassable but the answers are so easy. In fact, it takes a child's mind to determine some of the clues.\r\n\r\nThe graphics are excellent and the Pi-man, a little cartoon character who can help or hinder the player, is an amusing and brilliant creation.\r\n\r\nSome people may not buy the game because they think that when the competition is over the game will no longer be fun. That is not true, as it has many twists and turns before the final answer is found. Locating most of them will take months.\r\n\r\nIt is the best adventure game we have reviewed for the 48K Spectrum and 16K ZX-81. It is available from Automata Cartography-Ltd, [redacted], and costs £10.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"21","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":[{"Header":"Gilbert Factor","Score":"7/10","Text":""}],"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Personal Computer Games Issue 1, Sep 1983","Price":"£0.85","ReleaseDate":"1983-06-16","Editor":"Deirdre Boyd","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Deirdre Boyd\r\nConsulting Editor: Geof Wheelwright\r\nArt Director: Jim Dansie\r\nAdvertising: Peter Goldstein, Herbert Wright\r\nAd Production: Laura Cade\r\nPublisher: Fiona Collier\r\nPublishing Director: George Littlejohn\r\n\r\nCover and Action Freeze! Illustrations by Mark Watkinson\r\n\r\nPersonal Compiter Games gratefully acknowledges the support of its sister magazines, Personal Computer World and Personal Computer News, and their journalists, who have contributed to this magazine.\r\n\r\nTypesetting by: Spectrum Typesetting [redacted]"},"MainText":"MACHINE: Spectrum (other versions available for Dragon, ZX81 and BBC)\r\nSUPPLIER: Automata Software\r\nPRICE: £10\r\n\r\nI'm not too sure that Christian Penfold and Mel Croucher should be allowed to walk the streets. Both of them are obviously warped...\r\n\r\nWhat we have here is a world where saxophones turn into hang-gliders, where red herrings swim across the bottom of the screen blowing bubbles of derision, and where snatches of music confuse, hinder and occasionally help you. Along the way you'll be greeted by a blatant appeal for cash - they promise to send you a T-shirt, but what makes you think you can trust them? Throughout your adventures you'll be involved with the Pi-Man who will give you presents of useful things like blackboards, then next minute rob you blind.\r\n\r\nIt's a same that encourages all that is noble in the human spirit - namely naked, ravening greed. The prize is a specially designed £6,000 gold and diamond sundial. Whoever wins it will certainly deserve it, but will undoubtedly be a gibbering lunatic by then.\r\n\r\nSeeing as there's so much at stake, I'm not going to tell you too much - why should I help you get rich? Suffice it to say that it's an adventure. But the objects are not your run-of-the-mill swords, magic rings and potions - you pick up TV dinners, cans of worms, handfuls of valium...\r\n\r\nThe object is to get through the Gate of Pi, which will reward you with a place name and date. Turn up at the appointed time and an Automata person will hand over the goodies.\r\n\r\nThere are potential clues in everything, probably even in the horrendous 'disco single' on the other side of the program tape.\r\n\r\nThe Pi-Man does a mean hokey-cokey. The animation makes nonsense of the fact that the Spectrum is a slow computer. And the cassette case should carry a government health warning: this game can damage your brain. It would appear that Automata staff are not expecting an early winner - if no one shows up on the first date set they promise to return at the same time on the same day of every year until the prize is won.","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"104","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Steve Mann","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"Your Computer Issue 1, Jan 1983","Price":"£0.6","ReleaseDate":"1982-12-16","Editor":"Toby Wolpe","TotalPages":148,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Toby Wolpe\r\nAssistant Editor: Meirion Jones\r\nStaff Writer: Simon Beesley\r\nSub-Editor: Paul Bond\r\nEditorial Secretary: Lynn Cowling\r\nEditorial: [redacted]\r\nAdvertisement Manager: Philip Kirby\r\nAdvertisement Executives: Bill Ardley, Peter Rice\r\nMidlands Office: Keith Salt\r\nNorthern Office: Ron Southall\r\nAdvertisement Secretary: Jeanette Mackrell\r\nPublishing Director: Chris Hipwell\r\n\r\nYour Computer, [redacted]\r\nTypesetting: In-Step Ltd, [redacted]\r\nPrinted by Riverside Press Ltd, [redacted]\r\n\r\nSubscriptions: U.K. £8 for 12 issues.\r\n\r\n©IPC Business Press Ltd 1983\r\n\r\nPublished by IPC Electrical-Electronic Press Ltd, [redacted]\r\nISSN 0263-0885"},"MainText":"SPECTRUM SOFTWARE\r\r\n\r\r\nSimon Beesley brave attacks by trolls, bombardment by meteoroids, alien invasions and even English literature to bring you up to date with Spectrum software.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe quality of Spectrum software has improved since our last survey but originality remains in short supply. Most of the programs looked at are games programs and the bulk of these are modelled on the arcade classics, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Defender and Asteroids. Perhaps this is because the games-buying public is only interested in games that fall into a recognisable category.\r\r\n\r\r\nSome of the programs are written entirely in Basic. This need not count against them unless the program displays moving graphics.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe Spectrum's keyboard is not very suitable for fast-moving games although Quicksilva and Softek offer a joystick option on some games.\r\r\n\r\r\nSinclair has released a large range of programs written for them by ICL and Psion. By and large the ICL programs compare badly with those from Psion and have a rather amateurish look to them.\r\r\n\r\r\nEach of the tapes in the ICL games series, Games 1 to 4, contains four short Basic programs with titles such as Galactic Invasion, Skittles and Train Race. These are the sort of programs a reader might like to key in from a listing in a magazine. They are fairly simple and afford a limited entertainment for a short period. In view of their variety each package represents reasonable value although they are perhaps more suitable for young people.\r\r\n\r\r\nICL has also produced five titles in a Fun to Learn series covering Music, History, English Literature, Geography and Inventions. They present a variety of quizzes on their respective subjects. Players can compete against each other in a race in which correct answers send them further along the track.\r\r\n\r\r\nIt is difficult to know who these programs are aimed at. One soon runs through the stock of questions and the same names appear in different types of question. Some of the information presented is too obscure or eccentric to make the programs suitable for schools. In the English Literature quiz, for example, Ian Fleming rubs shoulders with Shakespeare and little-known seventeenth century playwrights.\r\r\n\r\r\nPsion's collection of programs is far more satisfactory. Hungry Horace is loosely related to Pac-Man but has a number of original features. Horace has to eat the flowers in a park while avoiding the park guards. Sinclair gives a fair description of Horace as a subtle and amusing cartoon-style game.\r\r\n\r\r\nPsion's 48K chess program was written in conjunction with Microgen. It plays a remarkably strong game even at the lower levels. As an averagely competent player I found it quite hard to beat at level two, although its play seemed to come adrift under pressure. The program's response time is quick and the pieces are quite easily distinguished.\r\r\n\r\r\nSpace Raiders and Planetoids are Psion's versions of the arcade games Invaders and Asteroids. Anyone who still has an appetite for these games will find the Psion products more than adequate. With Vu-Calc, Psion has scaled down a Visi Calc-type program to the dimensions of the home micro. These programs, which are commonly used on business micros, are usually described as providing a financial spreadsheet.\r\r\n\r\r\nThey enable the user to lay out financial data in rows and columns and enter formulae to run calculations on parts or all of the table. Vu-Calc supplies a range of commands for entering data, text or formulae and performing calculations.\r\r\n\r\r\nBasic programs which have been compiled by Softek's compiler, Super C, run - typically - 10 times faster. The compiler sits at the top of memory above RAMtop and is unaffected by a New command. It leaves room for a Basic program of up to 8K and a further 10K for data. The present version cannot cope with decimals, arrays or string variables. These limitations need not be too constricting. Strings, at least, can be stored in the data areas as ASCII codes and accessed through Peeks.\r\r\n\r\r\nAt £14.95 this is good value; particularly since it enables people to write commercially respectable programs without having to master machine code. However Softek insists that anyone planning to sell programs created with the compiler should negotiate for the rights. Softek claims that trace elements have been included to detect code written with Super C.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe arcade game Asteroids crops up on almost every micro. Softek's version Meteoroids is one of the fastest for the Spectrum with good colour and sound. Softime supplies the Spectrum with a digital clock and alarm at the top of the screen which remains there while other programs are loaded and running. The last program in Softek's list is Zolan Adventure, a standard text adventure game which has the merit of fitting into 16K.\r\r\n\r\r\nQuicksilva gave Time Gate considerable advance publicity claiming it would make as great an impact on the computer games' world as had Atari's Star Raiders. As it turns out the game closely resembles Star Raiders. Given that the Atari is a rather more sophisticated computer it is not surprising that the Spectrum version of the game does not match the original.\r\r\n\r\r\nTime Gate presents a view from the cockpit of a spaceship. An instrument panel below contains a long-range scanner and a variety of other indicators giving information on the ship's position and damage incurred. Your mission is to clear 18 galactic sectors of enemy craft.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe business of locating and firing on enemy ships is not as interesting as attending to all the other procedures. The controls are not as responsive as on the Atari. Nonetheless this is an elaborate game with excellent graphics - certainly one of the best so far for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn an impressive piece of synthesised speech Quicksilva's chess program announces itself at the beginning with 'this is the Chess Player'. Rather startlingly the packaging relates how the Chess Player, an Evil Being, has called for a challenger from Earth. The planet's survival hangs on your game - and you thought you were just going to have a quiet game of chess.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn the event the program plays quite a strong game with the option of six levels of play. The board is clearly displayed and the pieces are well designed. Psion's chess program, however, is probably the better player.\r\r\n\r\r\nMeteor Storm, another version of Asteroids, also announces itself but rather indistinctly. There is not much to choose between this and Planetoids or Meteoroids. The major problem for software companies writing an Asteroids-type game must be in finding an alternative title.\r\r\n\r\r\nSpectres from Bug-Bvte gives a novel twist to the Pac-Man concept. Eddie the electrician has to rewire a haunted house. Instead of eating or picking up objects in his path he lays down light bulbs. Reaching one of the four power generators enables him to illuminate the house and drive off ghosts.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe game has a highly individual flavour. The characters which glide around at a fairly leisurely pace, are engagingly different from the standard Pac-Man figures. This is one of the more original games yet to appear for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nGulpman from Campbell Systems is also based on Pac-Man but refreshingly breaks away from the standard format. It offers a choice of 15 different mazes and allows the speed of play to be set. At the highest levels your little man dashes around the maze at quite a pace.\r\r\n\r\r\nBy contrast Jega's Specman, written in Basic, is dismally slow. Sometimes the ghosts seem to be stricken with paralysis and unwilling to take up the chase.\r\r\n\r\r\nEscape from New Generation Software is a variation on the maze theme which involves escaping from dinosaurs. The dinosaurs - brontosauri, pterodactyls and such like - pursue the player's character with considerable animation through the maze which is shown in bird's-eye view.\r\r\n\r\r\nSilversoft's games Orbiter and Ground Attack are probably the best Spectrum versions of the arcade games Defender and Scramble. Ground Attack requires the player to fly a plane through a series of caverns and avoid or destroy missile attacks from the ground. Scramble from Work Force is similar but marginally slower. Likewise Avenger - Abacus' version of Defender - is competent but not quite as accomplished as Silversoft's.\r\r\n\r\r\nMYSTERY MEETING\r\r\n\r\r\nA gold sundial worth £6,000 is the prize for the first person to solve all the clues in the adventure game Pimania. As in Kit Williams' book Masquerade, deciphering all the clues will lead the winner to a meeting at a specific time and place with representatives from the authors of the game, Automata Ltd.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe other side of the program tape contains a disco single. Automata say that the clues are scattered in the music, the program and the graphics. Although we did not proceed very far with the quest the music and opening graphics seemed to bear out Automata's claim that the world of the Pi Man is totally bizarre.\r\r\n\r\r\nMelbourne House has based The Hobbit, on the novel by Tolkien. It helps to have read the book in finding your way about.\r\r\n\r\r\nThe Hobbit is claimed to be an advance on other adventure games because it introduces other characters from the book who react to the player in the role of Bilbo with an independent life of their own. It also allows you - in a limited fashion to enter sentences rather than single words as commands.\r\r\n\r\r\nIn practice these extra features do not amount to much and give the program greater scope for the sort of inconsistencies adventure programs are prone to. Thorin, for example, repeatedly enters the scene and tells you to hurry up. This is irritating because you were unaware that he had left and he seems to be totally devoid of constructive ideas. It is not a good idea, however, to kill him off since he sometimes proves too strong for your attack. Furthermore the manual suggests that you should stay on good terms with the other members of your party if you are to succeed in your quest.\r\r\n\r\r\nMany of the locations in the adventure are illustrated by some excellent graphics. We only managed to complete 7.5 percent of the game during which the text was accompanied by six different pictures. The graphics coupled with a more varied plot than usual make The Hobbit superior to any other adventure games available for the Spectrum.\r\r\n\r\r\nBoth the assemblers tested, from ACS and PI software, require Z-80 mnemonics to be entered in Rem statements and both allow addresses to be replaced by labels. The ACS assembler, Ultraviolet, costs twice as much at £7.50 but offers several extra features. It allows multiple statement lines and provides five pseudo-instructions such as DEFS, which inserts a string of ASCII characters at the current assembly position.\r\r\n\r\r\nACS also supplies a disassembler, infrared. Like the assembler this has two different versions for 16K or 48K machines. The program is easy to use and docs all you might expect from it.\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Games 1-4\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Hungry Horace\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Fun to Learn\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Chess\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £7.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Vu-Calc\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £8.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Space Raiders\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SN\r\r\nProgram Name: Planetoids\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: The Chess Player\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: Time Gate\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £6.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: QS\r\r\nProgram Name: Meteor Storm\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Super C\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £14.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Meteoroids\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Softime\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £3.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SF\r\r\nProgram Name: Zolan Adventure\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SS\r\r\nProgram Name: Orbiter\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: SS\r\r\nProgram Name: Ground Attack\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: MH\r\r\nProgram Name: The Hobbit\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £14.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AU\r\r\nProgram Name: Pimania\r\r\nMemory Required: 48K\r\r\nPrice: £10\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: WF\r\r\nProgram Name: Scramble\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AB\r\r\nProgram Name: Avenger\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: CS\r\r\nProgram Name: Gulpman\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: JS\r\r\nProgram Name: Specman\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £5.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AC\r\r\nProgram Name: Ultraviolet\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £7.50\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: AC\r\r\nProgram Name: Infrared\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £6.75\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: PI\r\r\nProgram Name: Assembler\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £3.75\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: NG\r\r\nProgram Name: Escape\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £4.95\r\r\n\r\r\nCompany: BB\r\r\nProgram Name: Spectres\r\r\nMemory Required: 16K\r\r\nPrice: £8","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"50,51,52","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Simon Beesley","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"ZX Computing Issue 5, Feb 1983","Price":"£1.85","ReleaseDate":"1983-01-28","Editor":"Roger Munford","TotalPages":132,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"ZX Computing\r\nVol. One\r\nNumber Five\r\nFeb/March 1983\r\n\r\nDeputy Editor: Roger Munford\r\nAdvertising Manager: Jeff Raggett\r\nDivisional Advertising Manager: Beverley McNeill\r\nManaging Editor: Ron Harris\r\nManaging Director: T J Connell\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: Henry Garnett Ltd., Rotherham.\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 the Argus Specialist Publications Ltd.\r\n\r\n©Argus Specialist Publications Limited 1983"},"MainText":"I thought Pimania was the reason I'm two stone overweight until I received Automata's new adventure program for the 48K Spectrum. Advertised as 'The Adventure Game that's for Real', there is more than just satisfaction awaiting the person who cracks this puzzle. If you interpret the clues correctly you can work out the time, date and place where someone will be waiting to hand over the 'Golden Sundial of Pi'. The Sundial is £6,000 worth of gold, diamond, lapis lazuli and obsidian, crafted by the award-winning designer, Barbara Tipple. The prize is on show at Southsea, and will also be displayed at computer fairs and exhibitions (accompanied by Securicor, I hope, in case anyone thinks of a less subtle method of winning it!).\r\n\r\nThe program starts in a none-too-friendly way with dire threats against anyone attempting to pirate Pimania. Then you have to work out the 'key' which unlocks the First Gate of Pi, and you get to meet the Pi Man for the first time. This all-singing, all-dancing little creature appears from time to time in the adventure, and may help or hinder your progress.\r\n\r\nBAKED BEANS\r\n\r\nThe adventure itself is not a particularly large one, around 20-30 locations, with only short descriptions. The locations are logically connected, and you move between them by entering a number, which may or may not have been suggested in the description. Objects are randomly scattered around, and a pretty odd bunch of objects they are - a cross between the 'Generation Game' conveyor belt and the adverts that come after. A cuddly toy, hula hoop, pork pie, baked beans and quite a few others are to be found, although I didn't have time to do anything very useful with them afterwards!\r\n\r\nThe program's vocabulary is described as 'absolutely vast', but if you exclude the objects and words which have no useful effect, the actual vocabulary is pretty small. The processing of words entered is reasonably quick, but if the phrase is not understood or a number is entered which is not a valid exit, the command is rejected and the location re-displayed on the screen. This makes the game rather slow to play.\r\n\r\nAutomata are (in)famous for their ZX81 'cans of worms' programs, and despite the attempt to go more up-market with Pimania, some of the program is distinctly seedy. Rancid sewage pipes flow into clogged canals, watch out for the scab-infested odorous pit and you can guess what the sound effects are when you collect the baked beans! If frustration causes you to use language more suitable for the 'can of worms', you will be harshly punished by the Pi Man.\r\n\r\nALL SINGING, ALL DANCING\r\n\r\nWhere the program does score is in the large number of tunes and the clever use of moving user-defined graphics. The tunes range from the 'Hokey Cokey' complete with dancing Pi Man, to a gratingly not-quite right rendering of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' when you collect the Valium!\r\n\r\nI didn't have sufficient time to work out how the objects relate to each other or to the locations, so I haven't any idea what the solution is or what form it might take. But with so many objects, tunes, locations and graphics, some or all of which may provide clues to the treasure, there's certainly many hours of detective work to put in.\r\n\r\n'Pimania' is £10 and is available from Automata Ltd., [redacted].","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"32","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Phil Garratt","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]},{"Issue":{"Name":"C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 13, Nov 1982","Price":"£0.75","ReleaseDate":"1982-10-21","Editor":"Terry Pratt","TotalPages":116,"HasCoverTape":false,"FlannelPanel":"Editor: Terry Pratt\r\nStaff Writer: Eugene Lacey\r\nEditorial Assistant: Susan Cameron\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 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: £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 ISSN 0261 3697.\r\n\r\nCover: Stephen Gulbis\r\nNext Issue: November 16th"},"MainText":"A specially commissioned £6,000 prize provides the best evidence that computer gaming has come of age. The Golden Sundial of Pi is the prize destined to grace the mantlepiece of the first person to solve an elaborate computer adventure, Pimania. Terry Pratt tried his hand at Pimania - and from his report his mantlepiece is likely to remain bare.\r\n\r\nPimania is an aptly named computer adventure game. It sends players around in circles and quite probably turns them manic.\r\n\r\nBut with a specially commissioned gold and diamond sculpture - valued at £6,000 on offer as a prize, it is well worth the risk of trying to discover its secrets.\r\n\r\nThe adventure comes in cassette form for the 48K Sinclair Spectrum - although there are plans to put it into other computers in the new year - - and is the brainchild of Porstmouth-based software house, Automata Cartography.\r\n\r\nThe idea follows the formula of the successful Kit Williams' book, Masquerade, which challenged readers to use clues in the book's illustrations, to discover the whereabouts of a jewelled hare which the author had buried at a secret location.\r\n\r\nAutomata's prize is the Golden Sundial of Pi and although it is still in the designer's studio, we will bring you a photograph of it in our next issue.\r\n\r\nThe sundial will not be hidden away but would-be solvers will have to sift through the numerous clues in Pimania to discover the \"time and place\" where it is metaphorically hidden.\r\n\r\nThe first person to get in touch with Automata and give the correct solution, wins the Golden Sundial. But the company's managing director, Mel Croucher is confident that it will be several months before anybody cracks it.\r\n\r\nHe told us: \"You go through a series of Gates of Pi and the last one reveals exactly what we want by way of a solution. We are not encouraging people to start digging things up but hope they will meet us at the correct time and place.\"\r\n\r\nPurchasers of the £10.00 cassette face their first puzzle almost as soon as the game has loaded - how to get started? The computer screen explains that one key will activate the game but then it's up to the player to press the right combination on the keyboard. I ended up going through the keys systematically before the obvious struck me.\r\n\r\nBut after that hints and clues are liberally scattered in an Adventure enthusiast's dream of frustrating mazes, unlikely treasures and abrupt dead-ends.\r\n\r\nEvery time you stop and start again the treasures will be redistributed around the maze - but you can save the game during a successful run.\r\n\r\nThere is also an entertaining array of responses to the sort of desperate drivel which adventure games usually reduce me to, the: \"Help! I can't take any more! Let me out!\", variety. The sense of humour is strong throughout and belongs to programmer Christian Penfold.\r\n\r\nHe is also responsible for some ingenious graphics routines and sound effects which chart the player's progress through the Pimania realm. Acting as the guide is a cartoon character called the Piman. I couldn't work out whether he was a friend or foe. He has a good line in merry quips, a penchant for collecting some bizarre items and the ability to double up as a very able chorus girl.\r\n\r\nThe program is written mostly in Basic and there are no elaborate precautions to prevent people listing it. But Mel Croucher is convinced that there are no short-cuts to the solution in doing this. He says: \"If people want to work out the puzzle by wading through masses of code, they are welcome to try.\"\r\n\r\nPart of the charm of Masquerade was Williams' insistence that the clues were just as accessible to a child's mind as an adult's. Croucher claims that this holds true for Pimania and another important criteria is that even after the competition has been solved, the owner still has a playable and well-presented game for his money.\r\n\r\nAutomata launches the game in mid-October and will be displaying the Golden Sundial at computer exhibitions.\r\n\r\nDespite my own failure to discover the solution, I am keen that Computer and Video Games should share in the glory of winning the Sundial.\r\n\r\nTo this end we will be referring readers' Pimania letters to Automata and hopefully printing any tips or helpful hints in our Mailbag section. So please write in if you think you can pass on something useful and perhaps the combined might of the C&VG readership can resolve the puzzle of Pimania.\r\n\r\nThe only tips I can offer are:\r\n\r\n- Look for clues even in the instructions.\r\n\r\n- Take a pencil and paper around the maze with you and map it out.\r\n\r\n- Dismiss nothing in the program - even the music should be noted down - it could be significant.\r\n\r\nGood luck and watch out for red herrings!","ReviewerComments":[],"OverallSummary":"","Page":"85","Denied":false,"Award":"Not Awarded","Reviewers":[{"Name":"Terry Pratt","Score":"","ScoreSuffix":""}],"ScreenshotText":[],"BlurbText":[],"TranscriptBy":"Chris Bourne","ReviewScores":null,"CompilationReviewScores":[]}]}]